The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year, 1861-1865, vols. 1-5. New York: Appleton & Co., 1868.

Union States in 1864, Part 1: Connecticut through Maine

NORTHERN STATES - UNION – 1864

CONNECTICUT. The Republican and Democratic conventions of Connecticut met in February, 1864, to nominate candidates for State officers in the ensuing election. The Republicans renominated for Governor, William A Buckingham; for Lieutenant-Governor, Roger Averill; for Secretary of State, J. Hammond Trumbull; for Treasurer, Gabriel W. Coite, and for Comptroller, Leman W. Cutler. The Democratic candidates for the same were Origen S. Seymour, Thomas H. Bond, James H. Hoyt, Andrew L. Kidston, and Lloyd E. Baldwin. The election took place on April 4th, and resulted in the election of the Republican candidates, by majorities ranging from 5,658 to 5,810. The vote for Governor was: Buckingham, 39,820; Seymour, 34,162; total vote, 73,982, being 5,949 less than at the election in the previous year. The following was the result of the election for members of the Legislature:

Republicans.. Democrats...

Republican majority on joint ballot, 109. There was no election in 1864 for members of Congress.

The Legislature convened at New Haven on May 4th, when Governor Buckingham and the other State officers elect were inaugurated. The Governor's annual message to the Legislature was delivered at the same time. The receipts and disbursements of the State for the year ending March 31st, 1864, were as follows:  […]

Page 353 leaving a balance in the treasury, on April 1st, 1864, of $49,714.04.

The funded debt of the State, in July, 1864, as stated by the finance committee of the Senate, was $6,000,000, and the unfunded debt $2,400,000. The sinking fund for the reduction of the public debt amounted, in May, 1864, to $1,016,846.68. The estimates for the civil and military expenses of the State for the year ending March 31, 1865, were $2,750,000, of which $2,000,000 was to be raised by the issue of State Bonds, at 6 per cent. interest, redeemable at the pleasure of the State after ten years, and the remainder by taxation.

The school fund on May 1, 1864, amounted to $2,049,426.77, the same as in the previous year, and the income, including the balance on hand in April 1, 1863, was $164,559. The number of children entitled to the benefit of the income was 112,098, an increase of 1,607 over the previous year, and a dividend of one dollar and twenty cents for each child was paid therefrom, leaving a balance of $28,270.87, to be carried to the next year's account. From the report of the Superintendent of Common Schools, it appears that during the year ending March 31, 1864, 76,207 scholars attended 1,819 schools, taught by 2,037 teachers, at an expense of more than $400,000, nine-tenths of which is derived from the income of the school and town deposit funds, and from the direct taxation of property. As a result of the war now in progress, the number of young men and older boys in the higher classes was greatly diminished, while the number of female teachers materially increased. The State Reform School was reported in a flourishing condition with 203 inmates, whose earnings in the mechanical department amounted to about $7,000 during the year. During the ten years that the school has been in operation it has received 694 boys, some of whom have been rendered useful members of society. The number of convicts in the State Prison was 139, being 20 less than in the previous year; and of State Beneficiaries in the Retreat for the Insane, 126. Sixty-one of this class of patients were admitted during the year, and 49 discharged, 38 of whom had recovered or improved. The railroad interest during the year was benefited by a large increase in the number of passengers and in the quantity of freight transported. The transportation of troops, government freight, &c., caused an increase in the gross earnings of the several roads over the previous year, of $1,112,959.00; the total of gross earnings being $4,786,250.70 against $3,673,291.70 for the year ending March 31, 1863. The net earnings on a capital of $19,042,379.31, amounted to $1,694,730.18, being a gain of $548,168.55 over the previous year, or nearly 48 per cent. Nearly a million more of passengers were carried, and 19 per cent. more of tons of freight. The total expenditure for running the roads, exclusive of interest, was $2,648,941.83; the total number of miles run 2,660,969, and of passengers carried, 3,789,583. Thirty-eight passengers were killed, and seven injured, by accidents during the year. The number of banks of discount and deposit amounts to 72, of which three were organized during the year under the National Banking Act. The total amount of capital is $20,606,962; circulation, $11,869,701; total liabilities, $47,368,197.53; specie, $1,198,372.46; loans and discounts, $28,569,876.48; total resources, $47,368,197.53: deposits, $9,996,643.13; loans to persons out of the State, $10,497,474,13. There were, on January 1, 1864, forty-eight Savings Banks in the State, which, the commissioners say, “are managed with great prudence and wisdom.” The united deposits in these institutions amount to $26,954,802.73, being an increase during the year of $3,807,865.78; number of depositors, 116,681 against 103,728 the year previous; average amount of deposit for each person, $231. The investments are as follows: Loans on real estate, $12,850,258.83; on stocks and bonds, $1,994,657.11; on personal security, $1,306,026.13; on bank stock, $1,598,014; on railroad stocks and bonds, $868,715; on United States securities, $6,481,530; on real estate and other securities, $1,666,500.64. The quota of troops assigned to Connecticut under every requisition made by the President down to May 1, 1864, was 89,214, and the number of men actually furnished to that date was 42,789, including 1,474 drafted men who paid commutation, and did not enter the service. In his annual message, Governor Buckingham announced that the State then had a credit of 3,172 men to apply toward any future call for a service of three years; also, that the number of veteran volunteers who had reënlisted amounted to 3,347. Two colored regiments, the 29th and 30th, were organized during the year. The disbursements by the Paymaster-General of the State during the year ending March 31, 1864, were as follows: To officers in the nine months' regiments, post commanders, assistant surgeons and chap making a total of 

For the purpose of providing State bounties for troops who might be called for in future requisitions, the Legislature passed a law similar in its provisions to that enacted at the extra Session of November 1863.

At the extra Session of the Legislature in 1863, a resolution, embodying the ; amendment to the Constitution, was adopted by the House of Representatives:

Every elector of this State who shall be in the military service of the United States, either as a drafted person or volunteer during the present rebellion, shall, when absent from this State because of such service, have the same right to vote in any election of State officers, representatives in Congress, and electors of President and Vice-President of the United States, as he would have if present, at the time appointed for such election, in the town in which he resided at the time of his enlistment into such service Page 354 This provision shall in no case extend to persons in the regular army of the United States, and shall cease and become inoperative and void upon the termination of the present war. The General Assembly shall prescribe by law, in what manner, and at what time, the votes of electors absent from this State, in the military service of the United States, shall be received, counted, returned, and canvassed. In accordance with the constitutional provision this resolution was published with the general laws and continued to the next Session of the Legislature, by which it was again passed by a two-thirds vote, and submitted to the people for ratification. At a special election held on August 15th, the amendment was adopted by the following vote:

For the amendment.......................24,286

Against the amendment................14,287

Majority........................................10,043

By a proclamation of the Governor, dated September 2, the amendment was declared to be a part of the Constitution of the State. At the Session of 1864, another resolution was adopted by the House of Representatives, with reference to the elective franchise, embodying the following amendment to the Constitution: Every male citizen of the United States who shall have attained the age of twenty-one years, who shall have resided in this State for a term of one year next F.; and in the town in which he may offer himself to be admitted to the privileges of an elector, at least six months next preceding the time at which he may so offer himself, and shall be able to read any article of the Constitution, or any section of the statutes of this State, and shall sustain a good moral character, shall on taking such oath as may be prescribed by law, become an elector. This was ordered to be continued to the Session of 1865, when it will come up for final action, and if readopted, be submitted to the people. After an exciting political canvass the following Presidential electors were chosen by an average majority of 2,398, in a total vote of 86,974; John T. Wait, John P. Elton, James G. Batterson, Samuel C. Hubbard, Sabin L. Sayles, Frederic A. Benjamin. Mr. Elton having died previous to the meeting of the State Electoral College, Oliver F. Winchester was chosen by the College in his place. The vote of the State was cast for Abraham Lincoln, and Andrew Johnson, Vice-President.

DELAWARE. The vote of the State at the Presidential election in November was, Lincoln 8,155; McClellan 8,767. Majority for the McClellan electors, 612. The vote for member of Congress was Smithers, Republican, 8,253; Nicholson, Democrat, 8,762; majority for Nicholson, 509. The Legislature of the State was divided as follows: Senate. House.

Republican. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

7 Democrats ........................6 14

                                             9. 21

There were two sessions of the Legislature during 1864. One in January and a special one in August. The seat of Mr. Bayard as a Senator in Congress which was vacant by his resignation, see CONGRESS, UNITED STATES, was filled by the election of Geo. R. Riddle. The Legislature adopted a resolution complimentary to Mr. Bayard for the course he had pursued during his Senatorial career, and especially for his speech in the Senate, setting forth the reasons which induced him to resign his seat.

The Governor urged the Legislature, in his message, to adopt measures for the emancipation of slaves held in the State. As arguments he stated, that Delaware is connected with the free States by geographical position and commercial necessity; that her products find their markets in the North, and that from thence come the immigrants who give increased value to real estate; that the result of constant intercourse with the North is gradually to assimilate the institutions of the State to those of the free States as it had already identified their interests; that slavery in Delaware, being merely nominal, was worthless as an element of labor; that emancipation in Maryland had surrounded Delaware with free soil, inviting the escape of slaves on all sides, as there was now no law requiring their rendition.

Some efforts were made to enlist negroes in the State under orders of the President of the United States and the Governor, but the Legislature having refused to pay such recruits a bounty, the number of them was quite small. A commission was also appointed to estimate the value of such as were slaves. Upon a claim being made and title proved, those who were considered or known to be loyal, received full compensation.

An association which had been formed in the previous year to promote immigration in the State met with considerable success. Several thrifty colonies were formed, and the number of settlers from the North increased. The cheapness of the lands and the profits from its cultivation were regarded as inducements. Cultivated lands were sold from fifteen to thirty dollars per acre within one to three miles of a railroad depot. The most profitable crop is the peach, yielding annually a hundred dollars per acre for many years. For the institutions of the State see previous volumes of this work.

INDIANA. The contribution of men from the State of Indiana to the military service of the United States from the beginning of the war to the 1st of January, 1865, was as follows: Page 437

VOLUNTEERS TO JANUARY 1, 1862.

Infantry, 6 Regiments 3 months...........

2 Regiments 1 year men....

48 Regiments 8 years' men 4,698 1,698

Cavalry, 8 Regiments 3 years' men 8,238

Artillery, 17 Batteries 29: 

53,035

Under calls for 1862.

Infantry, 1 Regiment, 54th, 1 year......... 1,023 -30 Regiments 3 years' men. 28,27 Cavalry, 2 Regiments 3 years' men 2,437 Artillery, 7 Batteries.............. 978 —

81,637

Recruits 1861 and 1862, and to September 5th, 1863. Infantry 4,810 cavalry 537

Artillery 5,846 97.987

Under calls of 1863 and 1864.

Infantry, 4 Regiments 6 months' men...... 8,778

6 Regiments 8 years' men......... 1 -2 Regiments 1 year men (140th ... 142d)..................... 188ſ)

Cavalry, 7th Regiment --5 Regiments . . . . . . . . . . .

Artillery, 1 Battery, 25th

Recruits from September 5th, 1863, to date.

Infantry 9,707

Cavalry ... 1,347

Artillery 1,298 —

12,352

Additional number, shown by rolls in the Adjutant General's office, say... . . . . . . . . . 900

Additional for 28th United States Colored Volunteers ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

One hundred days' volunteers, 8 regiments.. 7,129

Reënlisted Veterans....................... 11,494 148,850

Drafted men and substitutes, forwarded and in camp, as reported by General Carrington. Superintendent. 14,580

Enlisted in Regular Arm Enlisted in the Navy  — 16,464

Total number of men Furnished............... 165,314

There is a Sanitary Commission belonging to the State, not, however, established by law, to which the contributions have been, in mopey, $155,796, and in supplies $313,650. Its aid is devoted to the sick and wounded soldiers of the State. The contributions in the form of bounties and for the aid of soldiers' families in sixty-eight counties of the State was nearly three and a half millions of dollars.

The debt of the State is about $7,000,000, on which the interest is paid at the rate of five per cent. The interest on the debt was aid by Messrs. Winslow, Lanier & Co. of New York, and the Governor in his message to the Legislature said: “I am glad to be able to say that the credit of the State has been fully preserved; and that her stocks now command a higher price relatively in the market, when compared with the stocks of other States, bearing like interest, than at any former period in her history.” The State tax for 1864 was forty cents on each hundred dollars, and a poll tax of one and one-fourth dollars. These rates were subsequently increased. The average county tax through the State was thirty-eight cents on each hundred dollars, and a poll-tax of forty-nine cents. To these are to be added city or township taxes.

There are three classes of banks in the State, known as National, Free, and State Banks. The number of National banks in June 1864 was thirty-one, with a capital of $3,450,500, and a circulation of $1,438,700. The system of Free banks is based on the credit of the State, in the same manner as the National banks are based on the credit of the United States. The number of these is eleven, with a capital of $719,935, and a circulation of $1,047,352, for the security of which there is deposited with the State Treasurer State stock to the amount of $1,284,848. The State Bank and branches is a chartered institution. The parent institution transacts no business but regulates the branches. The number of these is twenty, with a capital of $2,775.000. There are, also, private banks of discount and deposit, with a capital of about $2,000,000.

[…]

The number of public schools in the State is 8,175, and the number of children between 5 and 21 years of age in April, 1864, was 546,959. The revenue from the school fund and from a tax of one-tenth of one per cent. on property furnishes $1.35 toward the expense of each scholar. There are in addition 1,932 private schools.

The circulation of the newspaper and periodical press of the State in 1864 was estimated at not less than 15,000,000, or more than ever to every living person in the State.

The mineral products of the State are coal oil, salt, iron, fire clay, building and other stones, lead, zinc, cobalt, antimony, and nitre.

The election for State officers took place on the second Tuesday in October. The Governor, O. P. Morton, was reëlected for the term of four years. The opposing candidate was Joseph E. McDonald, and the convention by Page 438 which he was nominated passed resolutions denouncing arbitrary arrests, the suspension of the habeas corpus, suppression of newspapers, and the general policy of the national and State governments, favoring speedy peace and prompt payment of soldiers, and complimenting the troops. The vote of the people was as follows: Morton, 152,084; McDonald, 131,210; Majority for Morton 20,883. The result of the election dissatisfied the opposition so much that they declared it to have been accomplished by frauds extending “to almost every point where railroad facilities enabled the guilty parties to transfer voters from point to point.”

At the Presidential election on the 8th of November ensuing, President Lincoln received 150,422 votes, and General McClellan 130,233. Lincoln's majority 20,199.

The Governor in his Message to the Legislature in June, 1865, says:

Some misguided persons who mistook the bitterness of party for patriotism, and ceased to feel the obligations of allegiance to our country and Government, conspired against the State and National Governments, and sought by military force to plunge us into the horrors of revolution. A secret organization had been formed, which by its lectures and rituals, inculcated doctrines subversive of the Government, and which, carried to their consequences, would evidently result in the disruption and destruction of the nation. The members of this organization were united by solemn oaths, which, if observed, bound them to execute the orders of their Grand Commanders without delay or question, however treasonable or criminal might be their character. I am glad to believe that the great majority of its members regarded it merely as a political machine, and did not suspect the ulterior treasonable action contemplated by its leaders, and upon the discovery of its true character, hastened to abjure all connection with it. Some of the chief conspirators have been arrested and tried by the Government, and others have fled; their schemes have been exposed and baffled.

The arrest of the above-mentioned parties commenced in the latter part of September, and their subsequent trials before a military commission occupied several weeks at Indianapolis, causing much excitement in the State. Subsequent to the message of the Governor the Judge Advocate General of the United States, Holt, decided that the military commission at Indianapolis for the trial of these cases had no jurisdiction, and that they should be turned over to the U. S. District Court of Indiana for trial.

On September 3d Major-General Hovey caused the following order to be issued:

HEADQUARTERS District of INDIANA,  INDIANAPOLLS, September 8, 1864.

1. Large numbers of men of suspected loyalty to the United States have heretofore, and still are, immigrating to the State of Indiana, and in some localities their open and avowed hatred to the Government and treasonable designs are freely expressed. Men who seek asylum have no right to abuse the power that shelters and protects them. To guard, therefore, against the mischievous consequences arising from such a state of affairs, the following rules will be rigidly enforced by the military authorities of this District:

2. Provost Marshals will cause a registry to be made of all persons known as refugees within their respective jurisdictions, stating where and from what place they arrived, their intention as to their future residence, and whether they are guilty of any violation of the laws of the United States, or the orders of the War Department.

3. It is made the duty of every officer in the military service of the United States in this district, to arrest and send to these headquarters every refugee who is guilty of disloyal practices or uttering seditious words. Every person so sent will be accompanied by written charges and specifications, with the names of witnesses to prove the same.

4. General Order No. 16, of August the 13th, Current Series, from these headquarters, will be strictly enforced.

By order of Brevet Major-General ALVIN P. HOWEY. [Official.] AND. C. CEMPER, A. A. G.

An order had previously been issued by General Heintzelman, commander of the Department, prohibiting the transport of arms into the department by railroads.

Later in the year, about the date of the attempts to set on fire some hotels in New York city, the Mayor of Indianapolis issued the following address to the citizens:

To the People of Indianapolis.

MAYOR's OFFICE, December 5, 1864.

Reasons exist for warning our citizens that an attempt to burn the city will be made. Let every precaution be taken. See that pumps and wells are in order, and every appliance for the extinguishment of fire be ready for instant use. Proprietors of large establishments, depots, and valuable stores should have a trusty guard at night. Hotel keepers, look well to rooms occupied by strangers, and those vacated during the night should be inspected at once. Let citizens be vigilant and watchful. Watch not strangers alone, for if the attempt is made residents will aid. The fire department will be on the alert and ready for emergency. The different wards might do well to organize volunteer patrols. The fact that we are thoroughly prepared will be most likely to deter them from the attempt.

J. CAVEN, Mayor.

Whether the law making United States notes a legal tender for debts contracted to be paid in coin, was constitutional, became a question in Indiana. In November a case was decided in the Supreme Court involving the constitutionality of the act. It was the case of Thayer cs. Hedges, from the Boone Circuit Court. Hedges and another gave a note to Thayer for $500 in gold. The payees, when the note was due, tendered $500 in greenbacks. Thayer refused to accept them, and sued on the note. The court below held the tender sufficient, and gave judgment for the plaintiff for $500, the defendants recovering costs. Thayer appealed. Judge Perkins, in delivering the opinion in the Supreme Court, says the principal question in the case is whether the section of the act of Congress of February 25, 1862, making Treasury notes lawful money and a legal tender, is constitutional. He thinks it is not. The act operates as follows:

1. It makes an article other than coin, and an article as thus used of no intrinsic value, legal tender money.

2. It impairs the obligations of contracts by compelling creditors to receive, in discharge of them, less than half their value according to stipulation.

3. It operates as a fraud on the public creditors Page 439 and a fraud upon the honest public servants, by depreciating and debasing the currency.

4. It enables the Government to make, by indirection, forced loans, as actual, if not as oppressive, as those of Charles the First, as they are made without interest against his will, without repayment of but a part of the principal.

5. It takes from the citizen his property against his consent, and without just compensation.

After an elaborate discussion of some twenty-two pages, he concludes that the section of the act alluded to is unconstitutional, and, therefore, void. He then proceeds to another view of the case, as follows: It is contended that we might decide this cause on the ground that the suit is on a note payable in a specific article. Such the contract sued on must be taken to be. Gold is used as an article of merchandise, of manufacture, etc., as well as for currency, and a standard of value, and if the defendants can by virtue of the legal tender paper law discharge their promise to pay gold, by paying paper at its face, which is less in value by more than half than the gold, then the obligation of the contract has been impaired, and the plaintiff deprived of more than half his property without compensation. Is it possible that courts are powerless to redress such wrongs? He cites Story to show that courts of equity may, upon principles of natural justice, insist upon decreeing a specific performance of all bona fide contracts; that the court below might have done so in this case, as law and equity are both administered under the Indiana code in one form of proceeding. While holding the views above expressed, the Court, however, as a matter of form, affirms the judgment below, on the ground that the question is now pending in the Supreme Court of the United States, and that the latter tribunal is the proper place for the decision of the question involved.

IOWA. At the Presidential election in November, the vote of this State was as follows:

Lincoln. McClellan.

Home vote....... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71,765 47,675

Soldiers' vote.................... 17,310 1,921

Total...................... 89,075 49,596

Majority ..............  39,861

A Secretary of State and Members of Congress were chosen at the same time. The vote for Secretary of State was as follows: Fº Democrat.

Home vote...................... 72,517 48,056

Soldiers' vote.................... 17,254 1,860

Total  89,771 49,910

Majority........ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89,861

The entire list of members of Congress on the Republican tickets were elected.

To the Legislature the Democrats elected less than fifteen members, although the whole number is nearly one hundred and forty. The quota of the State under the two calls of the President for 700,000 men at the close of 1863 and beginning of 1864 was, 22,535 men. At the same time there was a credit due of 7,881 men. The balance was filled up by April 1st by new recruits and the reënlistment of veterans, and a surplus obtained. Indeed, so ready were the people to enter the army, that when the call for 300,000 men was made in December 1864, the Governor found upon a settlement with the War Department that all previous demands had not only been filled, but the State was placed beyond the liability of a draft under that last call. Probably Iowa is the only State which has always been ready with her quota, and every one of her soldiers a volunteer. The number of men which the State has contributed exceeds seventy thousand.

The sessions of the Legislature are biennial. At the one held at the beginning of the year, a bill was passed requiring the several counties to levy a two mill tax for the benefit of the families of persons in the military service. A general bill was also passed enabling the inhabitants of any county to change its name. The object of the bill was to give the people of Buchanan County an opportunity to change the name of their county. It was urged as an objection to the bill, that only one county in the State could take the name of “Lincoln,” and hence the danger that every county in the State would vote at the same time, and all select the same name, and that “Lincoln.” The Senatorial and Representative districts were so changed as to make the number of members of the Senate forty-nine, and that of the House ninety-eight.

The population of the State in 1863 was 702,374; the number of acres of land assessed 28,336,345. Value of the land, with improvements, $111,036,569; value of town lots and improvements $23,613,964; value of personal property, $32,463,106 ; Total, $167,113,639. The valuation of the U.S. census for 1860 is higher than this State valuation for 1863.

Within the limits of Iowa is in part located ...the most important lead region of the country, excepting the Missouri lead mines. This region embraces a district of country about . sixty miles in diameter, of which about one-half is in Wisconsin, and the remainder is equally distributed in Iowa and Illinois. The Mississippi River cuts through the southwestern portion of the region. The Dubuque district in Iowa is about sixty miles in length, by seven to ten miles in width. The richest deposits are within the corporate limits of Dubuque, and they decrease in value toward the borders of the district. In 1833, the Indian title in Iowa was extinguished and mining subsequently began. From the surface of the river to the top of the bluffs there are four distinct strata. On the surface a clay soil varying in depth from eight to twenty feet; below the clay, shale, of which the thickness is five to twenty feet; next galena limestone—the lead bearing rock, and the blue or Trenton limestone. An obstacle to success has been the water which appears to be equally diffused over the mining regions. The pumps driven by machinery have produced only a temporary Page 440 effect in its diminution. Beyond this they have Estimated Receipts. been found to be not only costly but useless. large number of instances some of the lodes  Land tax................ ........ which has been run about twelve hundred feet, tºº... iii. tº: and is to be extended about one mile. It is made in solid rock, with an average height of ten feet, and a width of about four feet. It -15,000,000 #. is expected to drain off the water of a section us. of country of an average of between one and —— two miles. More than sixty millions of pounds Total ordinary receipts...... 522,011,728 564,065,107 have been taken from the clay diggings by some of the parties at work in the region expected to be thus drained.

The amount of lead produced from the entire region in the three States in 1860, was in value as follows: Illinois, $72,953; Iowa, $160,500; Wisconsin, $325,368. The annual yield of these mines of the Dubuque region ranges from five to ten millions of pounds.

KANSAS. The entire vote of this State at the presidential election was 20,132, of which Mr. Lincoln received 16,441, and General McClellan 3,691. The only division in the election of State officers was between those who were friendly and those who were opposed to U. S. Senator Lane. On the vote for Governor the Lane ticket (Crawford) received 11,577 votes, and the anti-Lane ticket (Thatcher) 7,794. In the Legislature, the Senate and House were unanimously Republican. Senator Lane was reelected by this body to Congress by a vote of 82 to 17 scattering. The military department of Kansas was placed under the command of Major-General Curtis, who entered upon his duties January 17th. Some disturbances, arising from the appearance of small parties of guerrillas, were created on the southern and eastern border. In other parts nothing of importance took place to disturb the peaceful pursuits of the citizens. The approach of General Price toward Kansas, in his retreat from Missouri, caused the small force under General Blunt to be concentrated to oppose him. At the commencement of the year the State had contributed 14,000 men to the Federal service. This number was still further increased in answer to the various calls for troops made during the year. The improvement in the finances of the State, arising from the increased ability of the citizens to pay taxes by the aid of Federal currency, has been quite favorable. The State debt scarcely exceeds two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The institutions of the State comprise a system of public schools, a State university and normal school, and an agricultural college. These, however, are in their infancy, and the latter are as yet hardly organized. Arrangements have been made also for the establishment of institutions for the insane, blind, and deaf mutes.

KENTUCKY. The manifest purpose of the Federal Government to bring the able-bodied negroes of Kentucky into the army, produced much excitement in the State early in 1864. On the 10th of December, 1863, the Governor was notified by Captain Edward Cahill, that he had been ordered to Kentucky to recruit free colored men for the army, and the assent of the Governor to the necessary proceedings was requested.

In reply, on December 14th, the Governor said: You do not inform me by what authority you come to Kentucky to recruit “free colored men.” I know of no act of Congress requiring such service, nor have I seen any order from the war department directing it. On the contrary, I am well assured, that in deference to our peculiar position, and to avoid unnecessarily aggravating the troubles of the loyal men of Kentucky, the authorities at Washington do not contemplate recruiting “colored men” in Kentucky... We are ready to fill our quota from the “free” white citizens of Kentucky. We will unhesitatingly comply with the requisition for men to defend our Government. We claim the right to furnish from citizens whose duty it is to make that defence, and who are ready to comply with the requirements of duty. The duty of defence devolves upon those who enjoy the benefits of our Government. From such we will fill the call upon us. We presume that white men, who owe the duties of allegiance to the Government, will be accepted for its defence. We will furnish them. If, therefore, you came to recruit “colored men” for the benefit of Kentucky, we decline your services. If you came to recruit for the benefit of another State, we deny your right to do so, and forbid it. No State has the right under any law or order to enter Kentucky to recruit either white or “colored” men. We do not intermeddle with any State that chooses to recruit “colored” men within its own limits. But no State that is not willing to meet the measure of duty by contributing its quota from its own population shall be permitted to shelter from duty behind the free negro population of Kentucky.

We shall meet the call upon us without enlisting colored men, and your State must meet its call from its own white or “colored” men, as may best suit its people, and not assume to recruit either white or lack in Kentucky.

Yours, &c. THOMAS E. BRAMLETTE,

Governor of Kentucky.

In a letter to General Boyle on the same subject, dated January 13th, the Governor says: “No such recruiting will be tolerated here. Summary justice will be inflicted upon any who attempts such unlawful purpose.”

On the 18th of February, the Legislature being in session, adopted the following resolutions; the vote of the House was, yeas 79, nays 5; of the Senate, on the first resolution, yeas 21, nays 1; on the second, unanimous; on the third, yeas 21; on the fourth, yeas 18, nays 3.

Resolved by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

1. That this State need make no further declaration, by legislative resolutions, of her intense loyalty or of her sincere and unalterable devotion to the National Union and the Constitution. Her stand has been taken after the maturest deliberation, and is known to the world. She will not now prove recreant by taking any backward step, but will go forward with all her resources of men, money, and credit, to the ... of our gallant armies in the field, until the rebellion is subdued and treason disarmed; and she will, through the Pº. mode prescribed by the fundamental law of the land, use her efforts to correct any errors that have been committed, either by the Executive or the Legislative Department of the Government.

2. That we regard as impolitic the enlistment of negroes as soldiers into the armies of the United States, and we earnestly protest against their enlistment within the State of Kentucky; and we respectfully request the President of the United states to remove from our limits and borders all camps for negro soldiers, by which our slaves are enticed to leave the services of their owners.

3. That, in the opinion of this General Assembly, the constitutional relation of the States in rebellion, as regards the Union, was not changed by the criminal action of their people in attempting to secede, thus forcing a civil war upon the country; and when the people of any or all those States shall, in good faith, return to their allegiance, their States are, as Page 448 before the war, members of the great American Union, and the people thereof are citizens—all subject to the Constitution and laws of the United States.

4. That the inaugural address and message of Governor Bramlette (see ANNUAL Cyclopædia, 1863) to the present General Assembly, so far as the same treat of our Federal relations, reflect truly the sentiments of the Union people of Kentucky, are approved by the present General Assembly, and are recommended to the patriotic consideration of the American people.

On February 24th Congress passed an act directing that all able-bodied male colored persons between twenty and forty-five, resident in the United States, should be enrolled and form a part of the national forces. When a slave of a loyal master should be drafted, his master should have a certificate and the bounty of one hundred dollars, and the slave should be free. Under this act of Congress the enrolment was commenced in the State, and the Governor, on March 16th, issued the following proclamation:

                                              FRANKFORT, March 15th, 1864.

To the People of Kentucky :

Fellow-Citizens: In view of the disturbance of the mind, produced by the enrolment of slaves or the army in Kentucky, it is deemed prudent to make the following suggestions for the benefit and guidance of the loyal people of Kentucky: Your indignation should not move you to commit acts of violence, nor to unlawful resistance. Standing as we have stood, and will ever stand, “for the Constitution, the Union, and the enforcement of the laws,” we must repel the efforts of rebellion to overthrow our Government, by our gallant soldiers in the field, and meet and correct unjust or unconstitutional legislation by legitimate appeals to the constituted tribunals of the Government; and through the ballot box displace, in the constituted modes, those who pervert or abuse the trusts committed to them. This is the only true mode of maintaining “the Constitution, the Union, and the enforcement of the laws.”

The mere act of enrolling the names of slaves does not affect any right of the citizen. No draft has been ordered, nor do we know that a draft will be ordered. It may or it may not. We should abide by and maintain the law, and pursue in the modes provided the remedy it affords. If any violence or wrong to the person or property of the citizen be committed by any officer or soldier, against the known laws of the land, make your “accusation” in the mode prescribed by law; and, if the commanding officer refuses or neglects to use his utmost endeavors to arrest the officer or soldier under his command so accused, and hand him or them over to the civil magistrate for trial, when officially advised of the facts, the Executive of the State will prefer charges and demand a court-martial. In the Union under the Constitution, and in accordance with law, assert and urge your rights. It is our duty to obey the law until it is declared, by judicial decision, to be unconstitutional. The citizen, whose property may be taken under it for public use, will be entitled, under the imperative mandate of the Constitution, to a just compensation for his private property so taken for public use. Although the present Congress may not do us justice, yet it is safe to rely upon the justice of the American people; and an appeal to them will not be unheeded or unanswered. Peace restored, and the unity of our Government preserved, will drive to ignominious disgrace those who, in the agony of our conflict, perverted their sacred trusts to the base uses of partisan ends and fanatical purposes. Uphold and maintain your Government as constituted, and obey and enforce its just demands as the only hope of perpetuating free institutions.

                                     THOMAS E. BRAMLETTE.

At the same time the Union State Central Committee issued a call for a State Convention, to meet at Louisville on May 25th, to nominate an electoral ticket, and appoint delegates to the Chicago Convention.

On the 22d of March the Governor proceeded to Washington. The object of his mission he thus states, in a letter dated April 22d, addressed to Colonel Hodges:

The object of my mission to Washington was to have the quota of militia called into service from Kentucky assigned upon the basis of enrolment, and not of population; and to obtain relief to the citizens of Kentucky against the unauthorized and offensive interference of officers, soldiers, and recruiting brokers, with the slaves in Kentucky; and to have the enlistment and draft of slaves confined within the purview of the act of Congress for enrolment and draft, &c.

He was quite successful in the objects of his visit, and further says:

It is a source of gratification to me to add, that the President and Secretary of War manifested the most cordial readiness to bestow upon the people of Kentucky every favor which, under the existing laws, could reasonably be demanded; and expressed the most earnest sympathy for them, and a desire to avert, so far as may be, the recurrence of those calamities to which, as a Border State, they have been subjected.

In the interviews between the authorities at Washington and the Governor, it was agreed that, when any county filled its quota, in any way, no further recruiting of negroes should be permitted in such county, except in such cases as where the master and slave both concurred in the application for enlistment. When the draft was necessary to fill the quota, all subject to draft had to take their chances of such involuntary service. It was agreed that all recruiting should be strictly limited to the regularly appointed officers for that service; and that those engaged without authority, or in the offensive and unlawful modes of sending out bodies of troops to gather up negroes by force and otherwise, and put them in camps, should be arrested and summarily punished. It was further agreed, that all negroes recruited by enlistment or draft should be removed to camps outside of the State, for organization and instruction. This was to prevent the entire demoralization and destruction of what might be left of that class of labor. Major-General Burbridge, then in command in Kentucky, was selected, and charged with carrying out these points.

While at Washington, Governor Bramlette, Senator Dixon, and Mr. A. G. Hodges, had an interview with President Lincoln, at the close of which the President remarked “that he was apprehensive that Kentuckians felt unkindly toward him in consequence of not  understanding the difficulties by which he was surrounded,” &c. It was subsequently suggested to the President, by Mr. Hodges, to write out his remarks at this interview for publication, as likely to remove much of the prejudice which was attempted to be created against him in Kentucky. The following is his letter:

Page 449

                  Executive Mansion, Washington, April 4.

A. G. Hodges, Esq., Frankfort, Ky.

MY DEAR SIR: You ask me to put in writing the substance of what I verbally said, the other day, in your presence to Governor Bramlette and Senator Dixon. It was about as follows:

I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took, that I would to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that in ordinary civil administration, this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my primary abstract on the moral question of slavery, I had but declared this many times and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery.

I did understand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that Government—that Nation, of which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the Nation, and yet preserve the Constitution ?

By general law life and limb must be protected; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; as a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I feel that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution, through the preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could not feel that to the best of my ability I had even tried to preserve the Constitution, if to save slavery, or any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of Government, country, and Constitution, all together...When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted military emancipation, I forbade it because I did not then think it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, General Hunter attempted military emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come.

When, in March, and May, and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the border States to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come, unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition, and I was in my best judgment driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss; but of this I was not entirely confident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it in our foreign relations; none in our home popular sentiment; none in our white military force; no loss by it anyhow, anywhere. On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there can be no cavilling. We have the men, and we could not have had them without the measure.

And now, let any Union man who complains of the measure, test himself, by writing down in one line, that he is for subduing the rebellion by force of arms, and in the next that he is for taking these hundred and thirty thousand men from the Union side, and placing them where they would be, but for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his cause so stated, it is only because he cannot face the truth.

I add a word, which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling this tale, I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition, is not what either party or any man devised or expected. God alone can claim it... Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great, wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God.

Yours truly,

A. LINCOLN.

The Governor stated in his message to the Legislature, in January, 1865, relative to the agreements made with the authorities at Washington, and which General Burbridge was appointed to carry out, as follows:

It was not contemplated by me that this was to save slavery in Kentucky, nor did any such idea occur to the President. It was not sought thereby either to perpetuate , slavery or to exterminate it, but solely with the view of protecting the interests of a loyal people, by securing them exemption from unlawful and offensive courses; from insults and unnecessary injuries; the State from the loss of its proper credits, and the country from the unnecessary destruction of a large amount of productive labor.

Having, uniformly held and continuously announced the conviction, from the commencement of rebellion, that secession was the worst form of abolition, that it would abolish slavery in blood, it never entered my mind that anything I might do to relieve my people from suffering on account of it, could either prevent or stay the hand of rebellion from working its destruction. The object of this arrangement was to benefit and protect the loyal white man, and prevent him being subjected to wanton and uncalled-for injury and unprovoked insult and outrage, by lawless acts, on account of the negro.

Had these agreements been carried out, a very different state of feeling would have existed in Kentucky. But, instead of carrying them out, the most offensive and injurious modes were adopted to violate them, by him who was selected and charged with their fulfilment.

The Governor then proceeds in the same message to lay before the Legislature his views as to the manner in which military affairs were conducted in the State:

In Western Kentucky, Brigadier-General E. A. Paine, confederated with other officers and some citizens, ran , a career of shameful criminality. Though brief it was terrible. Hearing that wrongs were being perpetrated in that section, but that the citizens were afraid to speak out and make them known, I sent, Lieut.-Colonel J., J. Craddock, of the “Capital Guards,” to Paducah, to inquire into and report to me the facts. Upon getting his report, I preferred charges against General Paine and others to the President of the United States. By order of Lieut.-General Grant, General Paine was promptly relieved by General Meredith, whose soldierly bearing and just administration have given peace and confidence in that section.

A commission, composed of Brigadier-General S. S. Fry and Colonel John M. Brown, 45th Kentucky mounted infantry, was appointed to investigate the conduct of General Paine, etc. I send with this communication a copy of their report, with my letter to the President, and also letter of the 3d of September, touching other subjects.

The commandant of the District of Kentucky established a system of trade permits in violation of law and to the detriment of the public interests. The Secretary of the Treasury, under the law, had fixed regulations; the military, without law, and in violation of law, assumed to organize Boards of Trade, who, for certain fees, were to pass upon and Page 450 determine who should buy and sell, not only in the ordinary course of trade, but for family supplies. As administered in Kentucky, it was a most shameful and corrupt system of partisan political corruption and oppression. This machinery of fraud and corrupt oppression is still retained, and the facts showing its corrupt use, should be collected and presented, by the authority of the Legislature of Kentucky, to the national authorities, in such form as to secure the abolishment and future prohibition of all such interferences with the lawful and necessary trade of the country.

An attempt was also made, under cover of these military trade regulations, through the Commissary Department, to perpetuate a most extensive swindle upon the farmers of Kentucky in the purchase of their hog crop. Under the trade orders none could ship or drive to market without a permit; and all were prohibited from shipping across the Ohio River, thus closing the Cincinnati and other markets to our farmers. The buyers and packers of Louisville and elsewhere were warned off under threats of arrest and confiscation, etc. Agents, who were assigned to this wholesale swindle, went actively to : notifying the farmers that the Government had determined to take their hogs, and had fixed the price which they must take—a price greatly below the market value. To have a stop put to this swindle, which was being carried on through the Commissar Department, under the patronage of the commandant of the District of Kentucky, I sent a communication to the President, borne by reliable messengers, to explain the details of the matters of my letter.

The hog swindle was promptly ended, but not until the farmers had sustained losses to at least $300,000, yet in time to save them the loss of over one million dollars. I suggest that it is due to the honest farmers of the State that you collate, or provide for so doing, the facts bearing upon this attempted and partially-executed fraud, and present them also in connection with the “military trade regulations.”

The gravest matter of military outrage has been, and yet is, the arrest, imprisonment, and banishment of loyal citizens without a hearing, and without even a knowledge of the charges against them. There have been a number of this class of arrests, merely for partisan political and to force them to pay heavy sums to purchase their liberation. How the spoils, so infamously extorted, are divided, has not transpired to the public information. For partisan political ends General John B. Huston was arrested at midnight, preceding the election, and hurried off under circumstances of shameful aggravation. He was, however, released in a few days; but that does not atone for the criminality of his malicious arrest and false imprisonment. The battle-scarred veteran, Colonel Frank Wolford, whose name and loyal fame is part of his country's jeweled memories, and whose arrest, for political vengeance, should put a nation's cheek to the blush, is yet held in durance vile, without a hearing and without an accusation, so far as he or his friends can ascertain.

Lieut.-Governor Jacobs, whose yet unclosed wounds, received in battle for his country, was victimized to partisan and personal vengeance, and hurried, without a hearing, and without any known accusation, through the rebel lines into Virginia. The indecent and guilty haste with which he was hurried off, and through the lines stamps the personal malignity of the deed with the infamy of conscious criminality. Other cases might be mentioned, but these are selected because they are known to the whole country; their acts are part of the glorious history of loyal heroism, and their accusers shrink from the light of investigation, but cannot escape the scourging judgment of an outraged people.

The military authorities are as much bound to observe the laws as the civil. Though the law governing the action of the military may and does often and materially differ from that which controls the action of the civil, yet the law applicable to each is alike binding on each. Although the facts which constitute reasonable and probable cause for the arrest and imprisonment of a citizen by the military are different from and far more extensive than civil arrests, yet the rules of law are the same in the application of the facts.

By the act of Congress, approved March 8, 1863, entitled “An act relating to habeas corpus and regulating judicial proceedings in certain cases,” the mode of proceeding, when non-combatants and others have been arrested, is fixed. This law, which was intended to limit the action of military commandants in the various localities and give some assurance of ultimate justice to the citizen, has been wholly and utterly set at defiance by Brevet Major-General S. G. Burbridge in the instances of Colonel Wolford and Lieut.-Governor Jacobs and others. Nay, further, the action in the case of Lieut.-Governor Jacobs is in defiance of Federal, and State Constitutions and laws; in defiance of the laws of humanity and liberty; dishonors the cause of our country, and degrades the military rank to the infamous uses of partisan and personal vengeance.

The contributions of the State to the army of the United States to December 31st, 1864, were as follows: Three-years men, 39,645; one-year men, 18,085; nine-months men, 3,057—total, 61,317. This is exclusive of the colored troops, of whom there were 14,918, three-years men. The total of white and colored troops is 76,335. The returns of the enrolment presented the following results: 113,410 whites, 20,083 negroes; total, 133,493. About 5,000 should be added to the colored, as no returns were made from two districts. The receipts into the Treasury during the fiscal year were greatly decreased, and the Governor recommended an increased rate of taxation.

Near the end of the year 1863 a call was issued by some citizens of Missouri for a convention of the friends of freedom in slave States, to assemble at Louisville on June 8th, “for the promotion of a more cordial understanding between those who concurred in the necessity of adopting freedom policies; for the more effective initiation of local State organizations to accomplish the work of emancipation; and for such mutual interchange of opinions and experiences as may make the teachings of the past profit in the guidance of the present.” The convention thus called was postponed to February 22d, at which time it assembled. About one hundred delegates from Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arkansas were present. Wm. P. Thomason was chosen President, and the following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, 1st. That the unity of this country, with the present republican form of government, State and National, must be preserved, and rebellion suppressed.

2d. That slavery was the cause and now constitutes the strength of the rebellion; that we see no hope of permanent peace until the principles of freedom announced in the Declaration of Independence and the Federal Constitution are carried into practice. The question whether slavery is to be perpetuated or not is no longer exclusively a State but a national one. It is, therefore, proper that the Constitution of the United States should be so amended as to secure freedom to every human being within its jurisdiction. Such a guarantee of individual freedom is as necessary Page 451 in the Constitution of the United States as that of a republican form of government to each State.

3d. The Government has the constitutional right to command the services of every man, no matter what his color or condition, whether bond or free. The master cannot interpose his right between the man and the Government; and we are in favor of enlisting and enrolling all alike.

4th. That during a rebellion the President, in the exercise of the war power, has full and ample authority to free all slaves in the rebellious districts, and they are hereby invested irrevocably with all the rights of freemen; , and in the present rebellion he ought to exercise this power to its full extent.

5th. That with the effect of the President’s Amnesty Proclamation before us we declare that in our opinion the same has been injurious to the Union cause and its operations within the district to which it especially applies, humiliating and unjust to loyal men, by placing them upon the same footing with rebels, and we would urge its recall or suspension until armed rebellion is wholly crushed.

6th. That the Slave-State Freedom Convention be made a permanent organization by the formation of an executive committee of one member and one alternate from each of the slave States for the purpose of carrying out its principles, and that the delegation for each State represented in the convention appoint the members on the committee.

7th. That we declare ourselves favorable to such an amendment of the Constitution of the United States as shall make the President elective for one term only.

A State executive committee was appointed by the Kentucky delegates to the convention, and a call issued for a State convention to assemble at Louisville on May 9th, and appoint delegates to the Baltimore Presidential Convention. The following persons were appointed the State executive committee: James Speed, afterwards U. S. Attorney-General, John Tompkins and L. N. Dembitz, Louisville; C. A. Preston, Covington; C. F. Beyland; Ham Cummings, Newport; Dr. Perry S. Leyton, Lewis County; George D. Blakey, Russellville; Thomas B. Calvert, Bowling Green.

A Republican, or a Republican Union convention, assembled at Lexington on April 11th, at which Mr. Goodloe was appointed chairman. Speeches were made, and delegates appointed to the Baltimore Presidential Convention.

On May 25th a Union Democratic convention assembled at Louisville, at which James Guthrie was chosen chairman. Delegates were appointed to the Chicago Presidential Convention, and an electoral ticket appointed. Resolutions were also unanimously adopted, affirming the principles expressed by the previous convention of March 17th, 1863, condemning the doctrine that the insurrectionary States have ceased to be States of the Union, that the object of the war should be to subjugate armed insurrection, condemning the enlistment of negroes, &c., &c.

A convention was also called by some of the most prominent members of the Democratic party of the State, to meet at Louisville on May 15th for the purpose of appointing delegates to the Chicago Presidential Convention. It had been previously proposed by the senators and some of the representatives from the State at Washington that the Union Democrats and Democrats should meet in joint convention on June 18th. The former, however, declined the proposition. Both, however, acted in union at the Chicago Convention and at the subsequent election. The Democratic convention assembled June 15th, and Chas. A. Wickliffe was chosen chairman. The resolutions express the sovereignty of the people, that the declarations of the authors of the Constitution, the deliberations of the Federal conventions, the resolutions of 1798 and 1799, and the decisions of the Supreme Court, were the guides for its interpretation, that the coercion of eleven States is an act of suicidal folly; that the administration has attempted to strike down State sovereignty, interfered with the right of suffrage, &c., &c., and that they are uncompromisingly opposed to the elevation of the African race to citizenship and their formation into standing armies to control white men, &c. committee to address President Lincoln for the purpose which they thus state:

To Abraham Lincoln, President, &c.:

Sir : The Kentucky Democratic State Convention meeting in Louisville on the 28th of June respectfully requests, through the undersigned committee, your immediate attention to a grievance under which Kentucky is now suffering, of an extraordinary, if not anomalous, character in a republic.

For more than a week Democratic newspapers from other States have been excluded from the city of Louisville, by the order, we are informed, of the provost marshal, under the authority of General wing; and for nearly the same time the Cincinnati Inquirer and Chicago Times have been excluded from the whole State of Kentucky under the order, as reported, of General Burbridge.

Early in June an invasion of the eastern and central part of the State was made by Colonel John Morgan from East Tennessee. For the object and details of the invasion see ARMY OPERATIONS. Guerrillas acting as thieves, were infesting the southern borders, greatly to the injury of the peaceable inhabitants. On June 21st General Sherman issued the following instructions to the commander of the division of Kentucky:

HEADQUARTERS MIL. Div. of THE MISS., IN THE FIELD,

BIG SHANTY, GA., June 21, 1864.

General Burbridge, Commanding Div. of Ky. :

GENERAL,----The recent raid of Morgan, and the current acts of men styling themselves Confederate partisans or guerrillas, calls for determined action on your part.

Even on the Southern “State Rights” theory Kentucky has not seceded. Her people by their vote and their actions have add to their allegiance to the National Government, and the South would now coerce her out of our Union, and into theirs, by the very dogma of coercion upon which so much stress was laid at the outset of the war, and which carried into rebellion the people of the middle or border slave States.

But politics aside, these acts of the so-called partisans or guerrillas, are nothing but, simple murder, horse stealing, arson, and other well-defined crimes, which do not sound as well under their true name as more agreeable ones of warlike meaning.

Now before starting on this campaign I foresaw it as you remember, that this very case would arise, and I asked Governor Bramlette to at once organize in each county a small trustworthy band under the sheriffs. The convention also appointed a Page 452 and at one dash arrest every man in the community who was dangerous to it; and also every fellow hanging about the towns, villages, and cross-roads who had no honest calling, the materials out of which guerrillas are made up; but this sweeping exhibition of power doubtless seemed to the Governor rather arbitrary.

The fact is, in our country personal liberty has been so well secured that public safety is lost sight of in our laws and institutions, and the fact is we are thrown back one hundred years in civilization, law, and every thing else, and will go right straight to anarchy and the devil, if somebody don't arrest our downward progress.

We, the military, must do it, and we have right and law on our side. All governments and communities have a right to guard against real and even supposed danger. The whole people of Kentucky must not be kept in a state of suspense and real danger, lest a few innocent men should be wrongfully accused.

1st. You may order all your post and district commanders that guerrillas are not soldiers, but wild beasts, unknown to the usages of war. To be recognized as soldiers they must be enlisted, enrolled, officered, uniformed, armed, and equipped, by a recognized belligerent power, and must, if detailed from a main army, be of sufficient strength with written orders from some army commander to some military º: Of course we have recognized the Confederate Government as a belligerent power, but deny their right to our lands, territories, rivers, coasts, and nationality—admitting the right to rebel and move to some other country, where laws and customs are more in accordance with their own ideas and prejudices.

2. The civil power being insufficient to protect life and property ex necessitate rei to prevent anarchy, “ which nature abhors,” the military steps in and is rightful, constitutional, and lawful. Under this law everybody can be made to “stay at home and mind his or her own business,” and if they won't do that, can be sent away where they cannot keep their honest neighbors in fear of danger, robbery, and insult.

3d Your military commanders, provost marshals, and other agents, may arrest all males and females who have encouraged or harbored guerrillas and robbers, and you may cause them to be collected in Louisville; and when you have enough—say three or four hundred—I will cause them to be sent down the Mississippi, through their guerrilla gauntlet, and by a sailing ship send them to a land where they may take their negroes and make a colony, with laws and a future of their own. If they won't live in peace in such a garden as Kentucky, why we will send them to another if not a better land; and surely this would be a kindness to them and a God's blessing to Kentucky.

I wish you to be careful that no personalities are mixed up in this, nor does a full and generous “love of country,” “of the South,” of their State or country, form a cause of banishment, but that devilish spirit which will not be satisfied, and that makes war the pretext of murder, arson, theft, in all its grades, perjury and all the crimes of human nature. My own preference was, and is, that the civil authorities in Kentucky would and could do this in that State; but if they will not, or cannot, then we must, for it must be done. There must be an “end to strife,” and the honest, industrious people of Kentucky and the whole world will be benefited and rejoiced at the conclusion, however arrived at.

I use no concealment in saying that I do not object to men or women having what they call “Southern feeling,” if confined to love of country, and of peace, honor, and security, and even a little family pride; but these become “crimes” when enlarged to mean love of murder, of war, desolation, famine, and all the horrid attendants of anarchy.

                   I am, with respect your friend,

(Signed)                                 W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General

On July 5th the President issued the following proclamation, establishing martial law in Kentucky:

Whereas, by a proclamation which was issued or the 15th day of April, 1861, the President of the United States announced and declared that the laws of the United States had been for some time past, and then were, opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in certain States therein mentioned, by combinations too powerful, to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals of law;

And whereas, immediately after the issuing of the said proclamation, the land and naval forces of the United States were !". into activity to suppress the said insurrection and rebellion;

And whereas the Congress of the United States, by an act approved on the 3d day of March, 1863, did enact that during the said rebellion the President of the United States, whenever in his judgment the public safety may require it, is authorized to suspend he privilege of the writ of habeus corpus in any case throughout the United States, or in any part thereof;

And whereas the said insurrection and rebellion still continue, endangering the existence of the Constitution and Government of the United States:

And whereas the military forces of the United States are now actively engaged in suppressing the said insurrection and rebellion in various parts of the States where the said rebellion has been successful in obstructing the laws and public authorities, especially in the States of Virginia and Georgia;

And whereas on the 15th day of September last, the President of the United States duly issued his proclamation, wherein he declared that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus should be suspended throughout the United States in the cases where, by the authority of the President of the United States, military, naval, and civil officers of the United States, or any of them, hold persons under their command or in their custody, either as prisoners of war, spies, or aiders or abettors of the enemy, or officers, soldiers, or seamen enrolled, or drafted, or mustered, or enlisted in or belonging to the land or naval forces of the United States, or as deserters therefrom, or otherwise amenable to military law or the rules and articles of war, or the rules or regulations prescribed for the military or naval service by authority of the President of the United States, or for resisting a draft, or for any other offence against the military or naval service;

And whereas many citizens of the State of Kentucky have joined the forces of the insurgents, and such insurgents have on several occasions entered the said State of Kentucky in large force, and, not without the aid and comfort furnished by disaffected and disloyal citizens of the United States residing therein, have not only greatly disturbed the public peace, but have overborne the civil authorities and made flagrant civil war, destroying property and life in various parts of that State;

And whereas it has been made known to the President of the United States by the officers commanding the national armies that combinations have been formed in the said State of Kentucky, with a purpose of inciting rebel forces to renew the said operations of civil war within the said State, and thereby to embarrass the United States armies now operating in the said States of Virginia and Georgia, and even to endanger their safety;

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws, do hereby declare that, in my judgment, the public safety especially requires that the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, so proclaimed in the said proclamation of the 15th of September, 1863, be made effectual and be duly enforced in and throughout the said State of Kentucky, and that martial law be for the present Page 453 established therein. I do, therefore, hereby require of the military officers in the said State that the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus be effectually suspended within the said State, according to the aforesaid proclamation, and that martial law be established therein, to take effect from the date of this proclamation, the said suspension and establishment of martial law to continue until the proclamation shall be revoked or modified, but not beyond the period when the said rebellion shall have been suppressed or come to an end. And I do hereby require and command, as well all military officers as all civil officers and authorities existing or found within the said State of Kentucky, to take notice of this proclamation and to give full effect to the same.

The martial law herein proclaimed, and the things in that respect herein ordered, will not be deemed or taken to interfere with the holding of lawful elections, or with the proceedings of the constitutional Legislature of Kentucky, or with the administration of justice in the courts of law existing therein between citizens of the United States in suits or proceedings which do not affect the military operations or the constituted authorities of the Government of the United States.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington this fifth day of July, in the [L. s.] year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

                                                                Abraham LINCOLN.

By the President:

        WILLIAM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

Arrests of individuals by a military force soon commenced, and a large number of persons were thus seized. A correspondent of the N. Y. Times, writing from Louisville, August 5th, says:

What will be done with all the numerous arrested has not transpired. They were arrested under General Sherman's instructions to General Burbridge, and upon General Carrington's information to Governor Morton. The policy is to arrest the prominent guilty, and make a wholesome example of them. Those proved to be leading “Sons of Liberty,” “American Knights,” “Knights of the Bush,” or leading sympathizers and aiders and abettors of such, will doubtless be at least banished for the war. No convicted conspirators and traitors can be tolerated upon Kentucky soil, any more than their knightly friends, the guerrillas. J. R. Buchanan, J. S Leathers, and other Peace Democratic delegates, and not a few prominent Kentuckians of all professions and callings, are in

The following persons were among those arrested previous to August 11th, at Louisville and in Jefferson County, on a charge of being “Sons of Liberty”: Joshua E. Bullitt, Chief Justice of Kentucky, residence, county; G. W. G. Payne, residence, city; Dr. H. F. Kalfus, ex-Colonel Fifteenth Kentucky, residence, city; John Colgan, city; W. K. Thomas, jailer, Jefferson County, residence, city; Alfred Harris, President Louisville Water Company, residence, city; Thomas Jeffries, city; J. R. Buchanan, president Democratic Central Committee, city; J. Paul, chief of fire department, city; John Hines, Henry Stickrod, Michael Carroll, Wm. Fitzhenry, Erwin Bell, A. J. Brannon, Thomas Miller, county; A. J. Mitchell, John Rudd, R. S. Tharin, Charles J. Clarke, B. C. Redford, John H. Talbott, W. G. Gray, R. S. P. Vaughn, Dr. A. B. Chambers.

The Lieut.-Governor of the State, Jacobs, was also arrested on November 13th, and banished to Richmond. In December he was allowed to return.

On August 11th a party of nearly forty persons, citizens of Columbus, Paducah, and the vicinity, arrived at Detroit under the charge of Captain B. H. Norton, 8th U. S. colored artillery, and about twenty artillerists, on their way to Canada, whither they had been banished by orders of General Paine. The party consisted of men, women, and children, all of whom belonged to the prominent families of the State. They consisted of judges, magistrates, wealthy merchants, young women, &c. They had not been allowed a hearing, nor trial, nor any opportunity to vindicate themselves.

The State election is held on the first Monday in August. It was confined to local officers and to a judge of the court of appeals from one district at this time, and took place on August 1st. The candidates were Chief Justice Duvall and M. M. Benton.

On Friday, July 20th, General Burbridge issued the following order:

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT of KENTUCKY,

First Division, Twenty-seventh ARMY

Corps, Lexington, Ky; July 29, 1864.

To the Sheriff of Kenton Co., Ky.

You will not allow the name of Alvin Duvall to appear upon the poll books as a candidate for office at the coming election.

By order of                     Major-General BURBRIDGE.

J. BATES Dickson, Captain and A. A. G.

Duvall was the nominee of the Union Democrats, and Benton of the Republican Unionists. Duvall now declined, and his friends immediately substituted the name of Judge Robertson, and by means of activity, secured a vote for him in fourteen of the twenty-three counties of which the district is composed. The result was as follows: Benton, 1,830; Robertson, 3,511; Duvall, 1,200.

The vote at the Presidential election in November was as follows:

                                  Lincoln.            McClellan.

Home vote, . . . . . . . 26,592               61,478

Soldiers' vote, . . . . . 1,194                    2,823

Total, . . . . . . . .        27,786               64,301

McClellan's majority, 36,515.

On October 17th the Governor issued a proclamation, of which the following are extracts:

If military force is brought to menace the officers of election or voters, your duty is clearly marked out by law. The law is as binding upon the soldier as upon any other citizen. He has no more right to violate it, and is as amenable to its penalties. As no officer of any rank, from the President down, has any right or authority to interfere with elections, no order to do so can legalize the act. If there be sufficient power in the citizens present at any place where such interference may be attempted to arrest the offenders, and hold them over to answer to the violated laws, it will be the duty of the sheriff to make the arrest in such case. H. has authority to require the aid of every citizen, and it should be readily and promptly given, in defence of a common right—of a 3.; t franchise. If the force employed to interfere with the election be too great, at any place of voting, to be arrested, the officers of Page 454 election, in such case, should adjourn, and not proceed with the election. If you are unable to hold a free election, your duty is to hold none at all; but adjourn, and report the offenders to the grand jury of your county for indictment and punishment. This is the lawful mode of meeting unlawful attempts to disturb the freedom of elections. The laws regulating elections prescribe all the duties of the officers, and all the qualifications and tests of the voters. Observe those rules and none other. None other are of authority or binding.

While Governor Bramlette visited Washington in April, the duties of his office were performed by Lieut.-Governor Jacobs. During that time he granted a pardon to Rev. Calvin Fairbanks, who being implicated with Delia Webster in enticing slaves from the State some twelve years previous, had been sentenced to the State penitentiary for fifteen years.

The effect of these unsettled affairs in Kentucky during the year was utterly to “demoralize” the system of labor. The uncertainty of the tenure of slave labor destroyed its value. Some farmers who held slaves had lost a part or all of them. Others have had the wives and small children of their men left on their hands, a present and prospective burden, and, what adds to the perplexity of their position, the active men of every age and many of the younger and middle-aged women, have been going away and will continue to go until apparently the institution of slavery will remove itself, and with it goes nearly all the labor of the State. The Government wants the active black men for soldiers; , the policy of their enlistment has become settled by legal enactment, and by the same power it is decided that the wives and children of colored soldiers obtain with the enlisted negro the status of freedom. Thus the question of labor to produce the crop began to create much anxiety.

Under the Provisional or Confederate Government of Kentucky an election was held for members of the Congress at Richmond, at which the following vote was cast on a general ticket throughout the State:

1. Machen......998: Noble......... 5: 2. Morris.......445; Triplett.......890; Dennis........ 76 3. .782; Cofer... 27; 4. E 722; Barrick. 262; 5. 71; Napier.... : 6. 17; Thompson S; Hardin........ 81 T. H. W. Bruce. S73; Cocke........ 149; 8. H. Marshall. 888; Pickett....... 240: 9. E. M. Bruce.734; All others....861; 10. Moore... 964; Johnson...... 142; May........... 113 11. Bradley......775; Breckinridge.211: 12. Elliott.......908;

Willis B. Machen, Henry E. Read, Geo. W. Ewing, James G. Crisman, H. W. Bruce, E. M. Bruce, and John M. Elliott were reëlected members.

MAINE. The Legislature of Maine convened at Augusta on January 6th, 1864, and was organized by the choice of George B. Barrows as President of the Senate, and of N. Dingley, Jr., as Speaker of the House of Representatives, both being members of the Republican party, which had a large majority. On the succeeding day Samuel Cony was inaugurated Governor of the State, and delivered the annual message to the Legislature. Among the measures recommended by him were an increased State tax; an effectual militia law; the appointment of a commissioner to classify public lands; a law *; it imperative upon the Executive to issue death warrants upon the expiration of the year of grace allowed prisoners sentenced to be hung; the extension of the right of suffrage to soldiers in the field; a railroad to the northeastern frontier as a means of defense; Page 493  and further legislation relative to the Reciprocity Treaty with the British Provinces, the benefits of which, he contended, were wholly on the side of the provincials. The Legislature adjourned on March 25th, after a session of seventy-nine days. The amount of appropriations made for the fiscal year ending January 1st, 1864, was $4,707,911.55.

The expenditures of the State for 1864 were,

For all ordinary civil purposes including payment of public debt and interest there on.

For refunding cities and towns money and in 1863 for relief of soldiers' families $515,010 46 532,108 14 2,9ss,183 78 73,179 63 $4,108,482 01

The receipts in the same period were:

From State taxes assessed prior to 1864....$545,197 59

State tax of 1864............................. 384.221 15

From loans permanent and temporary........ 2,965,000 00

From all other sources....................... 809,513 48

$4,203,932 22

Balance in the treasury, December 31st, 1864, $95,450.21. By a resolve approved March 19th, 1864, the Treasurer of the State was authorized to borrow $3,000,000 by the issue of six per cent. bonds payable in twenty-five years. }. disposed of bonds to the amount of $2,765,000, which increased the funded debt of the State to $5,137,000 on January 1st, 1865. At the same date the total ascertained funded and floating debt amounted to $5,714,625.31. Owing to the surrender of their charters by many of the State banks, in order to recommence business as National banks, a considerable reduction was experienced in the receipts on account of the bank tax, which is by law granted as a permanent fund for common schools. During 1862 the sum of $79,455 was received from this source, and in 1864 only $34,432.78, with the prospect of still further reduction in 1865.

During 1864 the State contributed to the military and naval service of the country an aggregate of 18,904 men, of whom 8,380 were enlisted under the call of October, 1863, and 3,525 were veteran soldiers belonging to organizations formed at the beginning of the war, who reënlisted. The enlistments for the navy numbered 1,846. Allowances of credits for naval enlistments anterior to 1864 were made to the number of 3,675. During the year the 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 12th, 13th, and 14th regiments were mustered out of the service, by reason of the expiration of the term of their original enlistment. About 2,000 men were thus lost to the army. e residue of these organizations who had reënlisted, or whose original terms of enlistment had not expired, were transferred to other regiments. In view of the practice which had grown up since the commencement of the war, of large cities and towns, in their anxiety to avoid the draft, outbidding each other in the amount of bounties, thus depriving the poorer towns of the ability to fill their quotas, the legislature of 1864 enacted a law for the payment by the State of a uniform bounty of $300 to any person enlisting under any calls except those made prior to February 1st, 1864. Until the call of July 18th for 500,000 men, under which recruits were taken for one year, the law operated as was intended. But as the bounty of $100 paid by the State for this class of recruits was found to be insufficient, the old mode of paying bounties by cities, towns, or associations was again resorted to. Authentic returns establish the fact that at the close of 1864 the State had sent more than 61,000 men into the military and naval service, a number nearly equal to one-tenth of her whole population. During the year claims to the amount of $553,790.81 were presented to the State Treasurer by a number of towns, under the law reimbursing them for aid afforded to families of soldiers. Of this sum $523,899.58 was allowed. During the legislative session of 1864 an act was passed authorizing Maine soldiers in the field to vote for electors of President and Vice-president; also a resolve by a two-thirds vote providing for an amendment to the constitution of the State, so as to allow soldiers absent from the State, except those in the regular army of the United States, to vote for Governor and other State and county officers. The latter, in accordance with the constitutional provision, was submitted to the people for ratification, with the following result:

For the amendment........................... 64,430

Against the amendment..........           19,127

Majority for amendment.................   45,808

The whole number of votes cast by soldiers was reported to be 4,915. .

The number of beneficiaries supported by the State during the year at the Institute for the Blind was seven, and at the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, thirty-three. The Asylum for the Insane was filled to its utmost capacity, and unable to receive all the applicants for admission. The whole number of patients at the beginning of the year, ending April 1st, was 231 ; the number of admissions 143; and of discharges the same, leaving 231 under treatment, and making the whole number of patients during the year 374. Of the latter, 172 were males and 202 females. The expenses were $51,096.02, and the receipts $48,690.89. Since the opening of the institution, in 1824, 4,223 patients have been admitted, and 3,992 discharged. Of the latter, 2,003, or over fifty per cent., have recovered. The Reform School was reported in a flourishing condition, and in 1864, for the first time in the annals of the State, the wardens and inspectors of the State Prison were enabled to report that institution a self-sustaining one. During the year the State Normal School commenced operations at Farmington with every prospect of beneficial results.

The annual report of the Land Agent presents an encouraging view of the settlements on the public lands of the State, and of the Page 49 condition of the settlers. The latter, as a general rule, were prompt in performing the obligations imposed upon them, to open roads and make other improvements in payment for their lands, and there was an increased demand for settling lots in Aroostook. This result was attributable to a better knowledge of the richness of the soil and the healthfulness of the climate, and also to the anticipation that the projected European and North American railroad would soon be commenced through the region. This enterprise, however, depending for its immediate success upon the connection it might make with lines of railway in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, made little progress during the year. The crops during the i. were good; that of hay being unusually large, and the State was well supplied with live stock of all descriptions. The high prices realized for every species of farm products rendered the agricultural interests of the State prosperous beyond precedent.

The political canvass commenced early in the summer, and was conducted with unusual earnestness until the presidential election in November. The Republican State Convention assembled at Portland on June 29th, and renominated Samuel Cony for Governor by acclamation. John B. Brown and Abner Stetson were at the same time nominated for presidential electors at large. The following resolutions were adopted: Resolved, That the Convention, representing the Union men of Maine emphatically indorse the avowed policy and determination of the national Government to make no compromise with traitors in arms, but to prosecute the war until full submission is yielded to the Constitution and the legal authorities of the nation.

Resolved, That Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, as patriots and statesmen, tested in years of greatest public peril, deserve the entire confidence of the Union men of the country, and should be enthusiastically supported at the polls for the offices to which they were nominated by the Union National Convention at Baltimore. Resolved, That the Union men of this State cordially approve the principles enunciated in the resolutions of the recent National Convention, which laced in nomination Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson for President and Vice-President of the United States.

Resolved, That no country ever had a more heroic body of soldiers and sailors to defend its integrity than ours, that are deserving the gratitude and care of all true friends of liberty and the Union.

Resolved, That this Convention heartily sympathizes with the friends of the wounded and deceased soldiers, and pledges itself to the support of the bereaved and needy. Resolved, That Hon. Samuel Cony, for the eminent ability and fidelity with which he has performed his official duties of Governor of the State, has the confidence and approbation of the Union citizens of Maine, and that we hereby pledge ourselves to give him a triumphant election in September. The Democrats met at Bangor on August 16th, and unanimously nominated for Governor Joseph Howard, of Portland. Their candidates for electors at large were W. P. Haines and Adams Treat. The following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, That the Democratic party is and ever has been the true Union party of the country. Under its conservative principles and enlightened policy the United States have hitherto been preserved in concord and in strength, our territory has been extended, our resources developed, our wealth increased, the rights of the United States and people maintained, public peace and domestic tranquillity secured, and the respect of the world for our free Government established, and God helping us, this Union we will maintain intact and hand it down as a priceless heritage to our posterity.

Resolved, That the enticing fratricidal and calamitous war is the result of the political ascendency in power of fanatical and factious extremists; that the deliberate invasion by the National Administration of the rights of the States, the freedom of the press and the personal security of the citizens, and its avowed purpose to prosecute this war for the abolition of slavery, or until that institution shall be abandoned, § a policy at once unconstitutional and revolutionary and in direct violation of the most solemn pledges of the President when he entered on the duties of his office, and of the unanimous voice of Congress when it resolved that this war was not waged in any spirit of oppression, or for the purpose of conquest or subjugation, or for overthrowing or interfering with the rights and established institutions of the States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired, and when these objects are attained the war ought to cease.

Resolved, That the only º of hope for the preservation of the Union under the Constitution, and of maintaining the rights of the people and of the States, and of securing an honorable peace, is by expelling from power the present corrupt, imbecile, and revolutionary administration, and substituting in its place an administration which will conduct the Government according to the requirements of the Constitution, and protect all parties in the full enjoyment of their constitutional rights, privileges, and immunities.

Resolved, That the administration, by its corruption and imbecility, has shown itself incapable of a successful prosecution of the war, and from its levity, tergiversations, and its bad faith, is manifestly insº of negotiating an honorable peace.

Resolved, That we stand where the Democracy always have stood, in favor of the Constitution and of the rights of the States and the people, and of the entire Union in all its integrity, and an honorable peace at the earliest possible moment.

The State election took place on September 12th, with the following result:

Governor. No. of votes.

Cony, Republican.... 62-3-9

Howard, Democrat. 46,476

Majority for Cony......................... 15,913

The Legislature chosen at this election stood: Republicans. Democrats. Rep. Major

Senate ............ 28 3. 25

House of Representatives... 122 29 93

Giving a Republican majority of 118 on joint ballot.

The vote for presidential electors in November was:

Republican... .................. 61,803

Democratic............................. 44,211

Republican majority............... ....... 17,592

The electors chosen cast the vote of the State for Abraham Lincoln, President, and Andrew Johnson, Vice-President. William P. Fessenden, one of the Senators from Maine, having Page 495 resigned his seat to accept the office of Secretary of the Treasury, Governor Cony appointed Nathan A. Farwell in his place.

As one of the northern border States of the Union, Maine was exposed during the year to petty depredations by rebel refugees from the adjoining British provinces. At mid-day, on July 18th, a bold attempt was made to rob the Calais Bank, in that town, by a small party of rebel raiders from St. John, N. B., led by one Collins, a captain in a Mississippi regiment. But the town authorities having been previously put upon their guard by the American consul at St. John, three of the party were arrested and committed, and the remainder prudently kept out of the way. This attempt, though frustrated, caused an uneasy feeling along the eastern frontier, and in Eastport, Calais, Belfast, and other border towns, volunteer organizations were formed for the purpose of patrolling the streets at night, and the ordinary police force was increased and armed. The Governor, in view of the possibility of future attacks of this nature, ordered the several companies of State guards to be in readiness to move to any part of the State at a moment's warning.

An important change was made by the Legislature of 1864, in the rules regulating criminal proceedings, by the passage of an act providing that in the trial of all indictments, complaints, and other proceedings against persons charged with the commission of crimes or offences, the person so charged may, at his own request, but not otherwise, be deemed a competent witness; the credit to be given to his testimony to be left wholly to the jury, under the instructions of the court. An act was also passed incorporating the “Foreign Emigrant Association of Maine,” to which the State agreed to give $25 for every able bodied foreign emigrant from the north of Europe, between the ages of fifteen and fifty, whom the association might, within the next five years, introduce into Maine, and cause to remain one year.

Page 496


Source: The American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year, 1861-1865, vols. 1-5. New York: Appleton & Co., 1868.