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 1865, Part 3: Minnesota through Pennsylvania

MINNESOTA. The Republicans of Minnesota met in convention at St. Paul, on September 6th, and nominated for Governor General W. R. Marshall, and a full ticket of State officers. Their resolutions declared that the "measure of a man's political rights should bo neither his religion, his birthplace, his race, his color, nor any merely physical characteristics;" that it would be "subversive both of the form and spirit of our institutions, to permit any portion of our population to remain in a degraded and abject caste, taxed to support and compelled to obey a Government in which they have no voice;" that the administration of the General Government by President Johnson meets their "hearty approval and concurrence;" that, as soon as the reestablished credit of the nation will permit, the indebtedness of the United States ought to be made to bear a less rate of interest than at present; that the United States will not permit an Imperial Government to rule in Mexico, and ought to compel the withdrawal of the invaders of that country. It was also resolved that the Senators and Representatives of Minnesota in Congress should be requested to use their influence to secure an amendment to the Constitution of the United States "whereby the basis of representation be established upon the aggregate number of legal voters, instead of upon the number of population."

The Democratic Convention met at the same place in August, and adopted a long series of resolutions, the most important of which were those recognizing "with the highest satisfaction" President Johnson's policy of reorganization, and pledging to his administration the hearty support of the Democracy of Minnesota, "so long and so far as he adheres to the fundamental and historic dogmas of the Government, which in the past have been cardinal doctrines of the Democratic faith;" accepting "with unfeigned satisfaction the extinction of slavery as an accomplished result of the war, and as an acknowledged condition of peace;" protesting against the continued suppression of the writ of habeas corpus in certain parts of the country; recommending the absorption of outstanding national bonds by new issues, bearing a less rate of interest, and subject to taxation; opposing a protective tariff; recommending the application and enforcement of the Monroe doctrine to the present condition of the Mexican Republic; opposing the project to confer the elective franchise upon the negroes of the State; and favoring, in the absence of Congressional action upon the subject, some measure of State aid to Minnesota soldiers disabled in the war. The convention reassembled at St. Paul on September 7th, and nominated for Governor Hon. Henry M. Rice, and a full ticket for State officers. The election took place on November 7th, with the following result for Governor:

W. R. Marshall, Republican……………… 17,885 

Henry M. Bice, Democrat…………………18,864

Majority for Marshall 3,471

The other candidates on the Republican ticket were elected by majorities differing little from the above. The result of the election of members of the Legislature was as follows:

                                    Senate.    House.   Joint Ballot

Republicans                   14            29              48

Democrats.                      7            18              20

Republican majority       7             16              23

In accordance with a resolution adopted by the Legislature of 1865, the people were called upon at this election to vote upon an amendment to the Constitution, striking out the word "white" from the qualifications of voters. In a total vote of 27,010, there was a majority of 2,670 against the amendment.

The receipts into the State Treasury for the year-ending December 1,1865, were $489,120.46, and the disbursements during the same period amounted to $416,318.60, leaving a balance of $72,801.86 on hand. The estimated disbursements for 1866 are $268,474.81, and the receipts $269,442.91. At the close of the year, the floating debt, for the first time in the history of the State, was announced to be substantially cancelled; and a claim of $108,000 against the United States for expenditures in suppressing Indian hostilities was put forward. The land offices in the State disposed, during 1865, of 804,982 acres, and the railroad companies of about 200,000. Of school lands, 156,048 acres were sold, at an average price of about $6.30 per acre, realizing $983,528. If the remainder of these lands should sell for the same price, the school fund will amount to $16,000,000. The land registry shows entries during the year of 139,232 acres.

Minnesota contributed to the national forces during the late civil war, 24,263 men of all arms, a number equivalent to three-fourths of those who voted in 1860, or to about one-seventh of her entire population in that year. Notwithstanding this large number of men taken from the State, the population, according to the census of 1865, was 250,099, comprising 181,323 males and 118,776 females, showing a gain of 78,077, equivalent to about 45 per cent., over the census of 1860. The return of volunteers at the close of military operations, and the annual emigration, brought the population, it was estimated, up to 275,000 by the close of 1865.

The railroad interest of Minnesota is witnessing a great development, and when the lines now in progress shall be completed, the State is destined to become rich and populous. During 1865 upwards of two hundred and ten miles of track was completed, and one hundred and thirty-two graded, and it is estimated that four hundred and seventy-four additional miles will be completed by the close of 1866. Of the railroad communications with the Eastern and Western States, Governor Miller, in his message to the Legislature of 1866, upon the occasion of retiring from office, says: "The Chicago and Northwestern Company have given assurances that their road shall bo completed to Winona Page 578 an early day; thus, by means of the St. Paul and Pacific and Winona and St Peter's lines, a continuous railroad communication will be formed from almost every populous district of the State to Chicago and other Eastern markets. The city of St. Louis will be reached by the Minnesota Central Railroad and its connections, while our wealthy tier of counties bordering on the Iowa line, will be equally well cared for by the completion of the Southern Minnesota road."

In the latter part of 1865 Professor Eames, the State geologist for Minnesota, returned from an exploring expedition from the region around Vermilion Lake, which lies in the northeast corner of the State, about eighty miles north of Lake Superior, and two hundred and thirty from St. Paul. He reported in the vicinity of this lake, and, in fact, throughout nearly the entire country between the lake and Lake Superior, extensive formations of gold and silver-bearing quartz, and immense bodies of iron ore of a superior quality. The field accurately examined in the vicinity of the lake exhibited a formation of talcose and silicious slate, which the ore-bearing quartz veins traverse, upward of six miles in width and ten in length. All the indications went to show that this mineral range is very extensive. Both the talcose and silicious slates are very rich in veins of gold and silver. Within a distance of half a mile eight veins were examined, varying from one inch to ten feet in width, and all of them are auriferous or silver-bearing. Some of these veins were traced to the distance of seven miles. Numerous specimens of this quartz have been assayed at the United States mint and elsewhere, and, though they were taken from the surface, have yielded $30 of gold and silver to the ton.

An immense iron range was also discovered in the same vicinity, its first exposure being about two miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide, extending northeast. It was examined to the thickness of fifty feet, and it is supposed that it extends much below this depth.

The effect of these announcements was to greatly excite the speculative spirit of the people, and the spring of 1866 will doubtless witness a considerable emigration to Vermilion Lake, where a plentiful supply of timber and unlimited water-power offer facilities for the prosecution of quartz crushing and solid mining. The locality is in the neighborhood of the Chippewa reserves, and trouble is anticipated from the Indians, who have been led to believe by traders and others that the auriferous regions were not included in the territory ceded by them by the treaty of 1854. No steps have yet been taken to remove this tribe beyond the limits of the State, but the popular feeling in favor of such removal grows every year stronger, and it will doubtless soon take place.

The fur trade continues to form an important item of industry, and employs several thousand persons, white men and Indians. The value of the furs obtained in 1865 was between $400,000 and $500,000, which is somewhat under the yield of former years. Three fourths of the whole number are taken to New York to be disposed of. The chief kinds taken are mink, muskrat, otter, and beaver skins. Deer skins have become comparatively scarce in consequence of the great destruction of deer caused by the Sioux Indians previous to their expulsion from the State.

Ten million bushels of wheat were raised in Minnesota in 1865, the average yield being twenty-five bushels per acre. Seven hundred thousand bushels are reported to have been exported, at remunerative prices.

MISSOURI. On January 6th the State Constitutional Convention assembled at St. Louis, and the State Legislature at Jefferson City. The first important action of the convention, after its organization, was the passage of an ordinance abolishing slavery in the State. The ordinance, and the proceedings relative thereto, are reported in the Annual Cyclopaedia for 1864. Governor Fletcher, on the 11th, issued a proclamation, stating the action of the convention, and declaring "that henceforth and forever no person within the jurisdiction of the State shall be subject to any abridgment of liberty, except such as the law shall prescribe for the common good, or know any master but God." The occasion was celebrated in St. Louis by the suspension of business during the day, and the decoration of the houses with flags, and at night by an illumination.

The next measure considered by the convention was the Bill of Rights.

The first and second sections of the bill were such as are usually inserted. The third section reported was as follows:

That no person can, on account of color, be disqualified as a witness, or be disabled to contract, or be prevented from acquiring, holding, and transmitting property, or be liable to any other punishment for any offence than that imposed upon others for a like offence, or be restricted' in the exercise of religious worship, or be hindered in acquiring education, or be subjected in law to any other restraints or disqualifications, in regard to any personal rights, than such as are laid upon others under like circumstances.

It was moved to amend by inserting after the word "contract" the words "except contracts of marriage between persons of African descent and white persons." For this amendment the following substitute was adopted: "otherwise than as others are disabled, and the section was passed. The fourth section recognized the people as the source of all political power. An amendment was offered that "civil government is ordained of God, and is essential to the peace and welfare of human society;" but the people have the right to determine the form of government they will adopt, etc. After much discussion, the amendment Page 587 was rejected. Section fifth recognized the exclusive right of the people to regulate, alter, or abolish their form of government, etc., "but every such right should be exercised in pursuance of law and consistently with the Constitution of the United States." It was moved to strike out the words "in pursuance of law and," which, after debate, was withdrawn. The sixth and seventh sections were adopted as follows, without debate:

That this State shall ever remain a member of the American Union, that the people thereof are a part of the American nation, and that all attempts, from whatever source or upon whatever pretext, to dissolve said Union or to sever said nation, ought to be resisted with the whole power of the State. That every citizen of this State owes paramount allegiance to the Constitution and Government of the United States, and that no law or ordinance of this State in contravention thereof can have any binding force.

The eighth section recognized the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition for a redress of grievances, and was adopted without debate. The first part of the ninth section was as follows:

That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences; that no person can, on account of his religious opinions, be rendered ineligible to any office of trust or profit in this State.

After the word " State" the followings words were added as an amendment, "nor be disqualified from testifying," and the section was adopted. The other sections of the Bill of Rights are generally similar to the Constitutions of other States. The third section of the second article relating to the Elective Franchise, provides that at any subsequent State or local election no person shall be deemed a qualified voter who has ever been in armed hostility to the United States or to the lawful authorities thereof; or to the Government of the State; or has ever given aid, comfort, countenance, or support to any persons engaged in such hostility; or has ever, in any manner, adhered to the enemies, foreign or domestic, of the United States, either by contributing to them or by unlawfully sending within their lines money, goods, letters, or information; or has ever disloyally held communication with such enemies; or has ever advised or aided any person to enter the service of such enemies; or has ever, by act or word, manifested his adherence to the cause of such enemies, or his desire for their triumph over the arms of the United States; or his sympathy with those engaged in exciting or carrying on rebellion against the United States; or has ever, except under overpowering compulsion, submitted to the authority, or been in the service of the so-called "Confederate States of America;" or has ever left this State and gone within the lines of the armies of the so called "Confederate States of America," with the purpose of adhering to said States or armies; or has ever been a member of, or connected with, any order, society, or organization inimical to the Government of the United States, or to the Government of this State; or has ever been engaged in guerrilla warfare against loyal inhabitants of the United States, or in that description of marauding commonly known as "bushwhacking;" or has ever knowingly and willingly harbored, aided, or countenanced any person so engaged; or has ever come into or left this State for the purpose of avoiding enrolment for or drafted into the military service of the United States; or has ever with a view to avoid enrolment in the militia of this State, or to escape the performance of duty therein, or for any other purpose, enrolled himself, or authorized himself to be enrolled, by or before any officer, as disloyal or as a Southern sympathizer; or in any other terms indicating his disaffection to the Government of the United States in its contest with rebellion, or his sympathy with those engaged in such rebellion; or having ever voted at any election by the people in this State, or in any other of the United States, or in any of their Territories, or held office in this State, or in any other of the United States, or in any of their Territories, or under the United States, shall thereafter have sought or received under claim of alienage the protection of any foreign Government, through any consul or other officer thereof, in order to secure exemption from military duty in the militia of this State, or in the army of the United States; nor shall any such person be capable of holding in this State any office of honor, trust, or profit under its authority; or of being an officer, councilman, director, trustee, or other manager of any corporation, public or private, now existing or hereafter established by its authority; or of acting as a professor or teacher in any educational institution, or in any common or other school; or of holding any real estate or other property in trust for the use of any church, religious society, or congregation. But the foregoing provisions in relation to acts done against the United States shall not apply to any person not a citizen thereof, who shall have committed such acts while in the service of some foreign country at war with the United States, and who has, since such acts, been naturalized, or may hereafter bo naturalized under the laws of the United States; and the oath of loyalty hereinafter prescribed, when taken by any such person, shall be considered as taken in such sense.

A system of registration was required in every county of the State to be prescribed by the Legislature. Previous to the adoption of such a system, every voter was required to take an oath. After its adoption he was required to take the same oath upon the registry of his name; and no one unregistered could vote at an election; nor one registered, unless his name had been entered ten days previous. Mere registry does not confer the right to vote. The oath prescribed is designated in the Constitution as the Oath of Loyalty, and is in th« following form: Page 588

I, A B, do solemnly swear, that I am well acquainted with the terms of the third section of the second article of the Constitution of the State of Missouri, adopted in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and have carefully considered the same; that I have never, directly or indirectly, done any of the acts in said section specified j that I have always been truly and loyally on the side of the United States, against all enemies thereof, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States, and will support the Constitution and laws thereof, as the supreme law of the land, any law or ordinance of any State to the contrary notwithstanding; that I will, to the best of my ability, protect and defend the Union of the United States, and not allow the same to be broken up and dissolved, or the Government thereof to be destroyed or overthrown, under any circumstances, if in my power to prevent it; that I will support the Constitution of the State of Missouri; and that I make this oath without any mental reservation or evasion, and hold it to be binding on me.

The sections seventh, etc., to the fourteenth, prescribing the application of the oath, were adopted by the Convention, in the following words:

7. Within sixty days after this Constitution takes effect, every person in this State holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the Constitution or laws thereof, under any municipal corporation, or any of the other offices, positions, or trusts mentioned in the third section of this article, shall take and subscribe the said oath. If any officer or person referred to in this section shall fail to comply with the requirements thereof, his office, position, or trust shall ipso facto become vacant, and the vacancy shall be filled according to the law governing the case.

8. No vote in any election by the people shall be cast up for, nor shall any certificate of election be granted to any person who shall not, within fifteen days next preceding such election, have taken, subscribed, and filed said oath.

9. No person shall assume the duties of any State, county, city, town, or other office, to which he may be appointed, otherwise than by a vote of the people; nor shall any person after the expiration of sixty days after this Constitution takes effect, be permitted to practise as an attorney or counsellor at law; nor, after that time, shall any person be competent as a bishop, priest, deacon, minister, elder, or other clergyman of any religious persuasion, sect, or denomination, to teach or preach or solemnize marriages, unless such persons shall have first taken, subscribed, and filed said oath.

10. Oaths taken in pursuance of the seventh, eighth, and ninth sections of this article, shall be filed as follows: by a State civil officer, or a candidate for a State civil office, and by members and officers of the present General Assembly, in the office of the Secretary of State; by a military officer in the office of the Adjutant-General; by a candidate for either house of the General Assembly in the clerk's office of the county court of the county of his residence, or in that of the county where the vote of the district is required by law to be cast up, and the certificate of election granted; by a city or town officer in the office where the archives of such city or town are kept; and in all other cases, in the office of the clerk of the county court of the county of the person's residence.

11. Every court in which any person shall be summoned to serve as a grand or petit juror, shall require him, before he is sworn as a juror, to take said oath, in open court; and no person refusing to take the same shall serve as a juror.

12. If any person shall declare that he had conscientious scruples against taking an oath, or swearing in any form, the said oath may be changed into a solemn affirmation, and be made by him in that form.

13. In addition to the oath of loyalty aforesaid, every person who may be elected or appointed to any office, shall, before entering upon its duties, take and subscribe an oath or by affirmation that he will, to the best of his skill and ability, diligently and faithfully, without partiality or prejudice, discharge the duties of such office according to the Constitution and laws of this State.

14. Whoever shall, after the times limited in the seventh and ninth sections of this article, hold or exercise any of the offices, positions, trusts, professions, or functions therein specified, without having taken, subscribed, and filed said oath of loyalty, shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by fine not less than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not less than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment; and whoever shall take said oath falsely, by swearing or by affirmation, shall, on conviction thereof, De adjudged guilty of perjury, and be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than two years.

Non-residents, whether Americans or foreigners, not otherwise disqualified, can vote after a residence of one year, or one year after having declared an intention to become naturalized. After January 1, 1876, no person unqualified can become a qualified voter, unless, in addition to the previous requisites, he shall be able to read and write; cases of physical disability are excepted. The disqualifications of the third section can be removed from persons who subsequently entered the military service of the United States and were honorably discharged. A majority of both houses of the Legislature, after the year 1871, can suspend or repeal any part of the third section relating to the qualifications of voters merely, and after 1875 all parts of the 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th sections may be repealed. But no such suspension or repeal shall dispense with the taking, by every person elected or appointed to office, so much of the oath of loyalty as follows the word " domestic;" subsequently, at the pleasure of the Legislature, the sections so suspended or repealed may be reinstated in the Constitution with full force and effect.

On February 15th the State Convention adopted a resolution, declaring that in their election the people intended "not only that slavery should be abolished and disloyalty disfranchised, but that the Constitution should bo carefully revised and amended, to adapt it to the growth of the State." Under this view the Convention proceeded to make an entirely new Constitution. The previous Constitution had been in operation nearly forty-five years, during which great improvements had been made in the local institutions of various States. The efforts of the Convention were, therefore, directed to introduce or extend these beneficial changes to the institutions of Missouri. It is unnecessary to repeat the plan for the organization of the judiciary; the system of free schools under which gratuitous instruction is afforded to all between the ages of five and twenty years; the creation of corporations, which were to be authorized on general principles, and Page 589 other changes similar to those generally adopted in the Northern States. It was made a section of the Constitution that the Legislature should have "no power to make compensation for emancipated slaves." It was further provided that the Constitution should he submitted to the approval or rejection of the people on June 6th ensuing, and if approved by them it should take effect on the 4th of July. The voters in the military service of the United States were authorized to vote, whether within or without the State, after choosing two of their officers to act as officers of the election. No person was to he allowed to vote unless he was a qualified voter under the terms of the second article of the Constitution, as above mentioned, the same as if this article had been previously adopted, and was in full force and effect, including the oath above mentioned. The Convention also passed an ordinance, declaring vacant on the May 1st ensuing, the offices of the judges of the Supreme Court, of all circuit courts, and of all courts of records, established by any act of the General Assembly, and those of the justices of all county courts, of all circuit attorneys and their assistants, and of all sheriffs and county recorders. The vacancies so created, and all others which might occur, were, to be filled for the remainder of the term of each by appointment by the Governor. Every person so appointed was required to make affidavit, as prescribed in the ordinance adopted June 10, 1862, which disfranchised all persons engaged in rebellion subsequent to December 17, 1861. The ordinance further provided as follows:

No person shall be prosecuted in any civil action, or criminal proceeding, for or on account of any act by him done, performed, or executed, after the 1st day of January, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, by virtue of military authority vested in him by the United States, or that of this State, to do such act, or in pursuance of orders received by him or them from any person vested with such authority; and if any action or proceeding be brought or instituted against any person for the doing of any such act, the defendant may plead in bar thereof, and give this ordinance in evidence. The provisions of this section shall apply in all cases where suits are now pending, in the same manner and with like effect as in suits or actions hereafter brought.

On the motion to strike out the word "white" as a qualification for voters, senators, and representatives, the Convention was so evenly divided, that the question was lost by ono vote. One of the Senators in Congress from the State (Mr. Brown), in a letter on the Constitution, thus refers to the qualification of color:

Other and subsequent efforts to abolish the phraseology in the Constitution recognizing distinctions, founded on color and race alone, in the matter of electors, were made and with the same result, showing about an equally divided sentiment in the Convention.

Still, failure as the attempt was to open up the franchise to the attainment of all, it left in the minds of nearly all the Radical members of the Convention a keen appreciation of the need of so doing at an early day, and without doubt this was one of the moving considerations for empowering the Legislature to initiate constitutional amendments by a majority vote, ratified by the people. Let it be borne in mind that this power to alter embraces the subject matter of suffrage and elections as well as every other part of the Constitution. Authorizing the Legislature, therefore, to liberalize and extend the franchise was in effect a reference back to the people of the question of universal suffrage, leaving the approximations to be regulated by the popular demand. Certainly this is no limitation on the power of the people, and they who are most strenuous for universal suffrage nave no cause to complain that the right of appeal to the people is forever reserved to them by the Constitution itself. They do and will always deplore that a Convention of Radical men commissioned to build up the foundations of a great commonwealth anew should have foregone so providential an opportunity to link their names with immortality and set the example of true and noble reconstruction, by establishing an equal freedom as the ground-work of their structure. They believe, furthermore, that it will hereafter be a source of equal mortification to many who are responsible for this omission, and that they too will derive their chief consolation from the fact that the facility of amendment guarantees a speedy success to that agitation which can only end when here in Missouri, as all over this Union of States, all men stand equal before the law.

On March 7th, Governor Fletcher issued a proclamation, stating that no organized force of the enemies of the Federal Government existed in the State, and culling upon the civil officers to resume their duties in all parts of the State, under the laws thereof, and to arrest and bind over all offenders against the criminal laws of the United States, as they were authorized to do. On March 17th, Major-General Pope, in command of the Military Department, issued his orders to aid in carrying out the proclamation of the Governor. All provost marshals were relieved from all duties except those of a military character, whenever notified that the civil courts were in operation, and required to turn over all matters, not military, to the civil authorities, and render their assistance when desired.

The total vote on the new Constitution, on June 6th, was 85,578, of which 48,670 were in favor, and 41,808 against it. It was therefore adopted by a majority of 1,862 votes. In 1860 the vote of the State for President was 131,462, and in 1864 it was 104,428.

Some exciting scenes ensued upon the adoption of measures to enforce the ordinances of the Convention and the provisions of the Constitution. The first arose under the ordinance above mentioned, vacating the public offices. The judges of the higher courts declined to vacate. The Circuit Court of St. Louis County decided that there was no legal validity in the ordinance. New judges, David Wagner and "Walter E. Lovelace, were appointed by Governor Fletcher to the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, in place of Judges Bay and Dryden. An order from the new judges was served on the clerk of the court on June 12th, demanding the delivery of the records. In consequence, the old court in session issued the following order, which was attached to the doors of the clerk's office and of the court-room:

                                    In the Supreme Court of Missouri, 

                                Held at St. Louis, Monday. June 12,1869.

It is ordered by the Supreme Court of Missouri: That no person or persons shall touch, handle, or remove from the court-room or office of the clerk of this court any of the books or records of the same without the consent of A. W. Mead, the clerk thereof; and any person or persons disobeying this order shall be deemed guilty of contempt of this court, and shall be punished accordingly.

A true copy from the record.

     Attest:                                               A. W. MEAD, Clerk.

On the 13th an injunction was issued by the Circuit Court of St. Louis, restraining the new judges and all others from meddling in any manner with the records, without the consent of the old clerk. On the next day the Supreme Court of the State being in session, the commander of the enrolled militia, General D. O. Coleman, appeared and presented to the judges on the bench the following order from Governor Fletcher:

                         EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, June 18,1865.

Sir: By the ordinance of the State Convention vacating certain offices, the offices of the judges of the Supreme Court became vacant on the first day of May last. By virtue of the authority conferred on me by that ordinance, as Governor of the State of Missouri, I have caused commissions to be issued in legal form to Hon. David Wagner, Hon. Walter E. Lovelace, and Hon. Nathaniel Holmes, as judges of the Supreme Court, and who have qualified as such judges.

The ordinance referred to is the supreme law on that subject, and it is my imperative duty to enforce it, which duty I shall pursue the most summary course in performing, and will treat as they deserve any acts on your part done in furtherance of a design to introduce yourselves into and usurp the powers of the office of a judge of the Supreme Court. Respectfully yours,

                 THOS. C. FLETCHER, Governor of Missouri.

The Judges Bay and Dryden informed the General that they declined to yield compliance to the threat, adding that the Governor had no warrant or authority for interrupting them in the discharge of their duties. The General then withdrew, and in a half hour returned with the following order from the Governor:

                        Special Order.

Headquarters State of Missouri, June 14,1865.

1. The usurping judges of the Supreme Court will be compelled to submit to the ordinance of the Slate Convention vacating certain offices. 2. David Wagner, Walter E. Lovelace, and Nathaniel Holmes will be put in possession of the Supreme Court room, in the court-house, at St. Louis, with all the records, seals, furniture, books, and papers of the office of the clerk of the Supreme Court.

3. Brigadier-General D. C. Coleman is charged with the execution of this order, and will employ such force for that purpose as he may deem necessary, and arrest all persons who may oppose him.

                                THOMAS C. FLETCHER,

                       Governor and Commander-in-Chief.

Headquarters State of Missouri. June 14,1865.

General: Herewith please find special order directing you to enforce the ordinance of the State Convention, vacating certain offices by putting the recently appointed judges of the Supreme Court into the possession of the court-room, records, etc., of that court.

You will proceed to the court-house, and, on the arrival of Messrs. Dryden and Bay, deliver to each of them the scaled note addressed to them respectively. An officer of the city police will accompany you, and will have a force of the city police at hand.

If, after delivering the notes, the said Bay and Dryden do any action disturb Messrs. Lovelace and Wagner in entering on said discharge of their duties as judges, you will direct the policemen to arrest them, and take them before the City Recorder, and at once inform me of that fact.

In case Messrs. Bay and Dryden do not come to the court-house at 9 o'clock or soon thereafter, you will cause the note referred to be delivered to them at their rooms.

In putting the judges into possession of the courtroom and clerk's office, you will, as far as is convenient in your judgment, avoid the use of violent means; but if in your judgment necessary, do not hesitate to employ all the force it may require.

                                          THOMAS C. FLETCHER.

To General David C. Coleman.

The subsequent proceedings in the court were thus reported: "Judges Bay and Dryden refused also to recognize the authority of this order, and again protested against any interruption of themselves or their business at the hands of General Coleman. This gentleman informed the Judges that, as an officer, he must obey the orders of his superiors. At first, he desired the Judges should consider themselves removed by force. This they declined acceding to. He then proposed to lay his hands upon them, and that they should consider that as an arrest. This also was declined, and he was informed that they would only yield to the presence and command of a force which they could not successfully resist. The General then informed them that a force of police was waiting in the hall of the court-house. The police were then introduced, the Judges taken from their seats by the police, by whom they were escorted as prisoners to the office of Recorder Wolff.

"When there, they found the following complaint on file against them:

To the Judge of the Recorder's Court of St. Louis County:

I do complain of Wm. V. N. Bay and John S. Dryden for disturbing the peace by interference with the Supreme Court. Please summon as witnesses.

                          Very respectfully,

                                     THOMAS C. FLETCHER.

David Wagner,

Walter E. Lovelace,

Thomas C. Fletcher,

D. C. Coleman,

---Bomen.

"On this charge these gentlemen gave bond to appear before the recorder on the next morning.

'' Directly after this ejectment, Messrs. Wagner and Lovelace entered the Supreme Court room, and seated themselves upon the judges' bench. They attempted to transact no business, and after a short time adjourned their court until 3 o'clock p. m. During this time General Coleman and his posse comitatus were in and in the vicinity of the Supreme Court room.

"At 3 o'clock Messrs. Wagner and Lovelace again took their seats on the judges' bench and opened their court.

"After a suspense of some minutes, an attorney arose and inquired in what order ' the Page 59 Court' would proceed to hear cases? To this Mr. Wagner responded that 'the Court' had not yet considered that matter, but would do so in a few days.

"Immediately after the eviction of Judges Bay and Dryden, General Coleman demanded possession from Mr. A. W. Mead, Clerk of the Supreme Court, of the books, records, seal, etc., belonging to the court, with which order he necessarily complied, and thus had his official career as 'summarily' interrupted as was that of the Judges themselves."

On the next day the complainants did not appear before the Recorder's Court, and the persons arrested were discharged.

It was objected to these proceedings that the vacating ordinance was not within the scope of the act calling the Convention, and therefore beyond the power of the Convention to adopt; that it had never been submitted to the people, nor incorporated in or made a part of the Constitution which had been submitted; that it was the business of the courts to pass on the constitutionality of laws, and not that of the Governor; that it belonged to the old court and not to the new one to decide the question, or the whole theory of liberty, based on a constitutional judiciary, passes away, etc. There was also an interference of the military with courts in other parts of the State. Subsequently a civil suit was commenced in the Circuit Court by Judge Dryden against the Governor and General and others for unlawful interference while in the discharge of their duties, and asking as damages $50,000. It had not reached a decision at the close of the year.

The oath required of professional men, also created much excitement. The Missouri Baptists, at their thirteenth annual meeting, held on August 19th and 20th, agreed to decline taking the oath required of ministers and teachers by the new Constitution. About fifty members were present. The reasons for this action were briefly that the oath was in conflict with the Constitution of the United States; interfered with the freedom of, worshipping God; was ex post facto in its operations, and made every minister who refused to take it become a witness against himself; that the oath was unjust and unequal in its operations; that its purpose was to punish ministers for what was really no crime against any human law; that to take it was to acknowledge an authority in the State that does not belong to it, and that human authority was above divine. The Catholic Archbishop of St. Louis addressed the following letter to his clergy:

St. Louis, 28th July, 1865.

REVEREND SIR: Since under the new Constitution a certain oath is to be exacted of priests, that they may have leave to announce God's word, and officiate at marriages, which oath they can in nowise take without a sacrifice of ecclesiastical liberty, I have judged it expedient to indicate to you my opinion in the matter, that you may have before your eyes a rule to be followed in a case of this delicacy. I hope that the civil power will abstain from exacting such an oath. But should it happen otherwise, I wish you to inform me of the particular circumstances of your position, that I maybe able to give you counsel and assistance.

I am, Reverend Sir, your obedient servant in the Lord,

                       PETER RICHARD, Archbishop St. Louis.

The Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church thus expressed his views:

St. Louis, August 29, 1505.

Editors Missouri Democrat.

A friend has called my attention to the following in your paper of Monday, the 28th:

We learn that Bishop Hawks, of the Episcopal Church In the State, has advised the clergy of his diocese to take the constitutional oath, or if they cannot conscientiously do so, to abandon preaching in this State.

I do not know who authorized you to say so much. My real position is this:

I am opposed to the oath pressed upon the clergy, not because by it the State infringes upon my divine commission. In my judgment it does not. If I thought that it did, I would never take the oath— and I have taken it. My opposition is that it is retrospective in its action, and that it also singles out particular classes for its application.

My advice to all clergymen who have asked it (and there are many of various Christian denominations who have done so) has been always—If you can take the oath conscientiously, do so; if not, then do not take it.

Of the wisdom of the Convention in framing and ordering such an oath I say nothing—my view is manifest. I hope that it may soon be repealed, and that in the mean time the civil authority will not attempt to enforce it.

                                          Yours respectfully,

                                                              C. O. HAWKS.

A number of prosecutions were commenced against non-juring clergymen, who were in the meanwhile confined in the cells of prisons.

Members of the legal profession were also required to take the oath. At the September term of the criminal court in St. Louis, Judge Prim, after opening the court, informed the attorneys present, that he considered it to be his duty to declare, that no person would be permitted to practise as an attorney or counsellor-at-law in the court, without having taken and filed the oath of loyalty prescribed by the Constitution. In his opinion the courts had always been the judges of the qualifications of attorneys, that is, whether they had complied with the requirements of the law before engaging in practice, and it was the duty of the courts now, as heretofore, to permit no person to practice who was not a legally constituted attorney. Robert McDonald then addressed the court, expressing the opinion, that this action amounted to a prejudgment of the rights of parties who might bo arraigned for trial before it, for a refusal to take, subscribe, and file the oath. The cases set for trial were postponed one or two days, but the court proceeded to swear the panel of grand jurors, when three of the jurors objected to being sworn. One objected, that in 1861 he was loyal to the United States, but sought to sub vert the State Government under Governor Jackson. Another was opposed to the provisions of the Constitution, believed the instrument was contradictory and in contravention to the Page 592 Constitution of the United States. A third stated that his conscience would not permit him to indict a minister who had failed to take the oath for preaching the gospel, and therefore was not competent to sit as a grand juror, especially as this question would probably be before the jury. The court refused to excuse them, stating that the reasons assigned by them were not valid, and that they were not judges of their disqualifications. The court then charged the grand jury, and upon a review of the sections of the Constitution arrived at the following conclusions:

1st. That the office of any officer or person referred to in the third section becomes vacant at once, by a failure on the part of such officer or person to take, subscribe, and file the oath of loyalty in the proper archive, within sixty days from the 4th day of July, 1865.

2d. That any such officer or person, who, after the expiration of the said sixty days, shall hold or exercise his office without having taken, subscribed, and filed the oath of loyalty, is liable to fine or imprisonment, or both.

3d. That after the expiration of said sixty days, no person shall assume the duties of any State, county, city, town, or other office to which he may be appointed, otherwise than by a vote of the people; and no person shall be permitted to practise as an attorney or counsellor-at-law; and no person shall be competent as a bishop, priest, deacon, minister, elder, or other clergyman of any religious persuasion, sect, or denomination, to teach or preach, or solemnize marriages, without having first taken, subscribed, and filed the oath of loyalty, under the penalty of fine and imprisonment as before stated; and,

4th. That persons taking the oath of loyalty falsely, by swearing or affirmation, are liable to be adjudged guilty of perjury, and to be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of not less than two years.

The Judge further added:

But I charge you that it is your sworn duty to enforce this law, by presenting all offenders against its provisions, no matter what their estate or condition.

Some or you, too, may possibly entertain similar opinions; but such opinions must yield to the mandates of a law which your oath requires you to enforce, and which it is not within your competency to repeal or invalidate.

Before the adjournment of the court a motion was made to set aside the rule. This motion, after argument on a subsequent day, was overruled by the court.

The operation of the law was very unequal. In some cases grand juries adjourned without finding indictments against a minister, teacher, corporation officer, trustee, deacon, or elder. In other cases individuals made complaints before justices of the peace against teachers, male and female, who had not taken the oath. Many of the clergy, especially Catholic, were cast into prison.

Major-General Pope, who was in command of the Department, adopted the policy of withdrawing the military force as fast as the people gave a sign of their willingness to return to the protection of the courts, and to enforce and obey the laws. In August, the number of military posts had been reduced to less than a dozen, which were kept up chiefly for the protection of Government property. Martial law was nowhere applied to any but strictly military offences, and practically was, at this early day, at an end.

On November 1st, the total receipts into the treasury for the fiscal year ending September 80, 1865, were $2,463,909.03, and total expenditures $1,854,661.77, leaving a balance in the treasury of $609,247.26, of which balance $105,535.28 was in currency, and $508,711.98 in Union military bonds and other issues of the State. The total bonded debt of the State, exclusive of bonds loaned the several railroads, was $602,000, of which amount $402,000 matured in 1802 and 1863. For these matured bonds, in pursuance of an act of January 2, 1864, new bonds, having twenty years to run, to the amount of $260,000, had been exchanged. The total amount of bonds of the State loaned to the railroads, including the bonds guaranteed by the State, was $23,701,000, on which the accrued and unpaid interest up to January, 1866, was $1,307,780. The amount of the war debt of the State reached $7,546,575. This debt was incurred by the State for the payment of the six months' militia, the enrolled militia, and the different organizations called out by the order of the Federal commanders. Of the gross amount, the sum of $3,016,657 had been paid or cancelled. It was in progress of payment by the increased taxation upon persons immediately benefited by the objects for which the debt was incurred. It was believed that within two years the entire debt would be extinguished.

The railroads of the State continued to progress. The one from St. Louis to the western State line, known as the Pacific Railroad, was completed during the year. The Southwest Branch and Iron Mountain became by the operation of law the property of the State; and the Governor, in a message to the Legislature, recommended its sale on such terms as would insure its completion. The liability of the State on account of the road was $4,000,000, with overdue interest amounting to $1,350,000. The construction of 550 miles of road, in addition to that built on this route, would connect St. Louis with Galveston.

The Governor urged upon the Legislature the creation of a Department of Agriculture in connection with the State University. This measure is required by the new Constitution. The grant of Congress to the State, for the endowment of an Agricultural College, amounts to 330,000 acres of land.

By the new Constitution, it is provided that the right of suffrage of every male now ten years of age, shall depend upon his ability to read and write when he becomes twenty-one. The Governor urge's the Legislature to avail themselves of the power granted by the Constitution to compel parents to send their children to school. The Constitution also directs the establishment and maintenance of a State University, with departments for instruction in Page 593 agriculture and the natural sciences, and a normal professorship. The State University at Columbia is situated in the central and a fertile portion of the State. The buildings are large, substantial, and elegant, and were erected without cost to the State. This institution is endowed with the fund arising from the sale of the land granted by the act of Congress of March 6, 1820, to the State, for the use of a seminary of learning. Of this fund $1,000,000 is invested in the stock of the State Bank of Missouri, and 20,000 in the stock of the Branch Bank of Chillicothe. The sixth section of the ninth article of the Constitution requires that this stock should be sold or invested in United States or other securities.

The University, notwithstanding the small amount derived for its support from the dividend of three per cent, per annum declared by the State Bank, is in a healthy and flourishing condition, maintaining a high rank among the institutions of learning in the West.

The State holds in trust for the Common School Fund $678,967.96, which is invested in stock of the State Bank of Missouri. The Constitution requires that this stock shall be sold.

The Missouri Military Institute, provided by the act of May 18, 1861, has not been organized. The Governor has not been able to find the deed contemplated by the eleventh section of that act, the delivery of which to the Governor is a condition precedent to the taking effect of the law. The buildings which were erected by the Masonic Order at a large cost have been almost entirely destroyed by the acts of the public enemy.

A board of emigration, created by an act of the Legislature of the previous year, has been engaged for six months in disseminating in the other States and in Europe information concerning the peculiarities and capabilities of the soil of the State, the numerous localities of the minerals, extent of timber, availability of watercourses, nature of the climate, and opportunities for education. The peaceful attitude which publio affairs, soon after the war, assumed, greatly aided the people in recovering from their disasters.

NEVADA. The Legislature was convened for its second session at Carson City, on January 1, 1865, and was organized by the choice of Republican officers in both houses. It continued in session about two months, and among its proceedings was the passage, on February 16th, of a joint resolution ratifying the antislavery amendment to the Constitution. There was but one vote in each house in the negative, both being thrown by Democrats.

An election was held in November for a member of Congress and members of the Legislature. The resolutions of the Democratic Convention endorsed the policy of the administration, and urged a speedy admission of the reconstructed States into the Union. Those of the Republicans were as follows:

Resolved, That we endorse our national and State administrations, conducted as they have been with patriotism, wisdom, and economy: and will, in the future as in the past, give to both that support which they have so well deserved at the hands of the Union organization. ;

Resolved, That there must be no imprudent haste in admitting representatives from the conquered rebel States into the national Congress; and we are inflexibly opposed to according these communities a position of equality in power and dignity, and participation in the administration of the Federal Government with the loyal States, until most conclusive and unmistakable proof has been furnished of profound contrition for the past and devoted patriotism in the future.

Resolved, That the Government of the United States, alike by virtue of the Constitution and under the laws of nations, as a victorious belligerent, may, in consideration of the withdrawal of its military power and the restoration to their ancient status in the Federal Union of the so-called Confederate States, subject such States to such conditions as may place the peace, integrity, and existence of the nation beyond the hazard of future disturbance; and, in all its intelligent, earnest efforts to secure this great end, the Union men of Nevada will support the administration of Andrew Johnson.

Resolved, That, inasmuch as the right of suffrage is limited by the Constitution and laws of the State of Nevada to the loyal white man, we are, therefore, opposed to changing our organic and statutory law in this respect, and are in favor of the Federal Government, in the reorganization of the State governments of the so-called seceded States, limiting this right to the loyal white man, until time and experience shall demonstrate that it is impracticable to re. organize said State governments on such basis.

The following is the result of the vote for member of Congress:

Delos R. Ashley, Republican ………..8,691

H. K. Mitchell, Democrat …………...2,115

Majority for Ashley………………… 1,576

The Legislature elected is reported to be unanimously Republican in both branches.

The public debt of Nevada amounted, on January 1, 1866, to $436,500, of which $60,000 were due on January 10th; $49,000 on February 1st; $5,775 on July 1st; and $11,250 on August 1, 1866, which would leave the debt on the last named date $310,475. The third section of the ninth article of the Constitution provides that,

Page 606 "for the purpose of enabling the State to transact business on a cash basis from its organization, the State may contract public debts; but such debts shall never in the aggregate, exclusive of interest, exceed the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, except for the purpose of defraying extraordinary expenses, such as would be necessary in time of war or insurrection." Under this provision it is contended that, as the State debt already exceeds the limit allowed, no more money can be raised Dy loan until the present indebtedness is reduced, and that the expenses of the next fiscal year will have to be met by taxation.

Her silver mines still continue to be the great source of wealth to Nevada; and notwithstanding several districts have enjoyed an ephemeral notoriety, the "Washoe" region still maintains its preeminence, and will, in all probability, do so for many years to come. The following table shows the average monthly production of the four principal mining centres of Nevada, during the first nine months of 1865:

Washoe (Virginia and Gold Hill Districts) $1,286,275

Austin (Reese River District) …………………78,000

Aurora (Esmeralda District) …………………..19,000

Unionville (Humboldt District)………………... 1,282

Total monthly average…………………… $1,881,587

Of this amount by far the greater part comes from the celebrated. Comstock lode, near the town of Virginia, in Western Nevada, which may be described as a ledge of ore running along the mountain side for three miles, and having a width of from fifty to one hundred feet, and a depth at present incalculable. Over thirty companies, formed principally by Eastern capital, were at work on this ledge in 18C5, but so variable is the soil in mineral richness that probably not half of them have paid dividends. One company has spent already a million of dollars, without striking a bed of " pay ore," that is, ore rich enough to pay for mining. The success of other companies, again, has been of the most remarkable character. The Gould & Curry, which is the largest and most famous enterprise on the Comstock ledge, has mined to the depth of eight hundred feet, excavated five millions of cubic feet of earth, and produced twelve millions of bullion, of which four millions were clear profit. It is said that, but for extravagance in the management and the necessity of expensive experiments, the net profits would have reached six millions. This company has now more than two miles of underground passages, and has consumed more lumber to brace up the walls of its tunnels than the entire town of Virginia, containing from ten to twelve thousand inhabitants, has used for all its buildings. In May, 1865, for the first time since the discovery of the Comstock lode in 1859, its annual production began to diminish, and so materially to diminish, that fears are entertained lest the mines may be giving out and fail to pay expenses. That these fears are not without some foundation will appear from the following table, showing the approximate yield of these mines during the first nine months of 1865:

Pounds Avoirdupois. Value.

January 54,128

February 69,106….……$4,434,009

March 64,787

April 61,179

May 58,458……………..4,261,811

June 49,979

July 41,526

August 44,927

September. 40,273 ........$8,221,951

In nearly every mine on the ridge the lower workings now show ore which is of inferior quality and much less in quantity to what the upper levels have produced; and it becomes interesting to ascertain the practicability of continuing the excavations already commenced, with a view of finding new and valuable deposits of ore at a much lower depth. On this point the opinion of William Ashburner, Mineralogist of the California State Geological Survey, is worth quoting. "It is now," he says, "an accepted conclusion by all those persons who have examined the matter carefully, and have had the most experience in geological as well as in general, mining matters, that the Comstock is a fissure vein of extraordinary width and productiveness, and, consequently, reasoning from analogy, we have great right to assume that ore exists and will ultimately be found at as great a depth as it is possible to extend underground workings. In fact, there is no instance where a well-defined fissure vein has been found terminating entirely in depth; and although nothing is more frequent in the progress of working than to meet with barren zones of unproductive matter, their metalliferous contents have never been exhausted at any depth which has yet been obtained by mining. The limit to the successful working of one of these veins appears to be fixed entirely by the increased cost of extraction of the ore, and pumping the water from the lower levels., and consequent reduction of the profits. There is a point, of course, where, in the absence of new discoveries of increased value, the receipts will exactly counterbalance the expenses of working, and then soon these latter will exceed the former." * * * "As a general thing, these mines have been worked heretofore, not so much with reference to the permanent interests of the stockholders, as for the purpose of raising the market value of the stock. With this view, it has frequently happened that circumstances deeply affecting the interests of the mines have been concealed from the public, and the policy has hitherto been to increase the production as largely as possible, in order to enable certain persons to realize immediately great profits from the sale of their stock, rather than await the slower and perhaps more hazardous returns which it was expected would be. afforded by the dividends. This is the only excuse, or rather reason, why, in the midst of mines yielding so enormously, no proportion of the gain in their more prosperous days was  Page 607 ever devoted to the purposes of exploration; and the necessity of keeping these works in advance of those of extraction seems never to have entered the minds of those persons who were called upon to fill the positions of trustees to the various companies, until the receipts began to be inferior to the expenses."

Conscious that their existence depends upon the discovery of new deposits of ore at a lower depth, most of the companies on the Comstock ledge are now engaged in sinking their shafts deeper. Their average depth is now about five hundred feet only, while that of some of the most celebrated silver mines of Mexico and Europe is from fifteen to twenty-five hundred. The Gould & Curry Company are tunneling the mountain on which their mine is situated, some distance below their previous excavations, and in connection with it propose to sink a shaft of enormous depth, with a strong probability of finding valuable deposits of ore. There is also a project for draining these mines by means of an additional some three and a half miles in length, known as the Sutro Tunnel, which will strike the vein at a depth of nearly two thousand feet below the outcrops. A careful estimate shows that within the last five years upward of thirty-five millions have been taken from the Comstock ledge and put upon the market, and that enough has been wasted in the working of the ore to make the products of the district reach sixty millions.

NEW HAMPSHIRE. The political canvass in this State commenced early in the year with the nomination by the Republican and Democratic parties of candidates for Governor and other State officers, and for members of Congress. The former nominated for Governor Frederic Smyth, and passed resolutions expressing confidence in the administration of President Lincoln and in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war. The Democrats nominated Edward W. Harrington, and adopted as a platform of principles, "the Constitution and the Union." Amendments sustaining the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798-'99, recommending a convention of States, and denouncing the anti-slavery amendment and the war, were rejected. The election took place on March 14th, with the following result:

Governor.                          Number of Votes.

Frederic Smyth, Republican…………84,145

Edward W. Harrington, Democrat…. 28,017

Majority for Smyth 6,071

The Legislature elected at the same time stood as follows:

                                   Senate.    House.    Joint ballot.

Republicans                   9            214              228

Democrats                     3            114               117

Republican majority.    6            100              106

Three Republicans were also elected members of the Thirty-ninth Congress.

The Legislature convened at Concord on June 7th, and was organized by the election of E. A. Straw as President of the Senate, and A. F. Pike as Speaker of the House of Representatives. On the succeeding day Governor Smyth was inaugurated, and a Secretary of State, Treasurer, and other State officers were elected by a convention of both houses. The Legislature adjourned on July 1st, having passed 153 acts and resolutions. One of the most important acts in relation to the State finances authorized the Treasurer, with advice of the Governor and Council, to issue bonds, not exceeding one million of dollars, in such sums and for such time, not less than one nor more than five years, and at such rate of interest, payable semi-annually, as the Governor, with the advice of the Council, should determine upon. It also provided for the raising of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars by taxation, to be assessed, collected, and paid into the State Treasury on or before December, 1866; also, that on the first day of January, 1867, there shall be set apart the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and annually, for four years afterwards, such sums as will be needed to pay up the one million of bonds authorized above. An act in relation to a temporary loan empowered the Treasurer to borrow for the immediate use of the State the sum of one million and five hundred thousand dollars for a period not exceeding one year. Another act levied a tax of twenty-five per cent, upon the income of all bonds, notes, or other securities not taxed by the State; the intent being to levy a duty upon the income of Government bonds, and thus indirectly tax the bonds themselves. This act was advocated by the Democratic members of the Legislature, and passed mainly through their votes, the great body of the Republicans opposing it.

By a vote of the people in the November election of 1864, it devolved upon the Legislature of 1865 to appoint a time for the meeting of a Constitutional Convention, and to order the election of delegates to the same. The action of the convention was to be limited to the following questions: to enable our qualified voters in the military or naval service to exercise the right of suffrage while absent from the State; to abolish all religious tests as qualifications for office; to diminish the number of members of the House of Representatives; to increase the number of members of the Senate; and to make provisions for future amendments of the Constitution. A Legislative committee, to whom the subject was referred, recommended that it be referred to the Legislature of 1866, which was done. Among the last proceedings of the Legislature, were the passage of a resolution ratifying the antislavery amendment to the Constitution, and also of the following resolutions on national affairs:

1. Resolved, etc.. That we welcome with profound gratitude to the Almighty Giver, the return of peace and the restoration of the national authority.

2. Resolved, That we give our hearty thanks to our soldiers, who left the comforts and security of home to suppress the rebellion and restore the Union; that we will cherish, with perpetual honor, the memory of those who have given their lives a sacrifice for  Page 608 their country, and that we receive as a priceless treasure those who are permitted to return to us bringing with them the prestige of victory and the example of their heroic deeds.

3. Resolved, That we take a just pride in the patriotism, perseverance, and wise counsels of the statesmen who have administered our national Government amidst the difficulties and dangers of the rebellion, and confidently refer them for their reward to the gratitude of the nation and the records of history.

4. Resolved, That we have full confidence in the ability, integrity, and patriotism of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States; and while under the peculiar situation of the country no one can anticipate the exigencies which may arise, believing that he will be fully equal to every emergency, we pledge to him and to the Government our united action and earnest support. I

5. Resolved, "That with proper safeguards to the V purity of the ballot-box, the elective franchise should Debased upon loyalty to the Constitution and Union, recognizing and affirming the equality of all men before the law," and that in the reorganization of the rebellious States, both justice and safety require that ample provision be made for the protection of the freedmen.

6. Resolved, That we ask the attention of our Senators and the Representatives in Congress, to these resolutions, as expressing the sentiments of the people of New Hampshire.

An additional resolution endorsing the declaration of President Johnson, "that the States that have been in rebellion are still States, or in other words that the Governments of those States are not destroyed but were only in abeyance, and that whom the rebellion was suppressed, and the laws and the Constitution revived, neither the President nor Congress has any authority to prescribe the qualification of electors of those States," was rejected by a large majority.

The financial condition of the State was thus exhibited in the message of Governor Smyth to the Legislature:

Funded debts and trust funds $1,623,878 44

Notes due the current year 2,855,000 00

Total debt, represented by loans $8,978,878 44

Interest due the current year 258,000 00

Total debt as represented by loans, with current interest $4,280,873 44 Outstanding obligations estimated by the Auditor 700,000 00

He estimates the demands upon the treasury the current year, including floating debt, interest, outstanding claims, and expenditures, 8,075,050 00

Deduct estimated receipts 982,100 00

Leaves to be provided for the current year.... $2,642,950 00

The Finance Committee of the House of Representatives reported toward the close of the session that, on July 1, 1865, the actual debt of New Hampshire would be $3,793,625.82. The amount of deposits in savings banks at the date of the last commissioners' report was $7,831,335.72, being an increase of $167,577.26 over the previous year. The banks of discount were stated to be fast surrendering their State charters and passing into national associations. The public institutions and schools of the State were reported to be in a prosperous condition. From the printed report of the condition of the common schools in 1864, the following statistics are obtained: Number of districts reported, 2,328; number of scholars four years of age and upward, attending school, 83,401; average attendance, 52,826; number between four and fourteen not attending anywhere, 8,440; number of male teachers, 759; female teachers, 8,262; volumes reported in school, district, and town libraries, 71,411; school houses unfit for their purposes, 509; unsuccessful teachers, 163; money strictly used for schools, $244,263.62; amount for each scholar, $2.90; visits of citizens, not including strangers, 82,665; number of academies and permanent schools reported, 61.

During the recent civil war New Hampshire furnished 33,427 troops to the national armies.

Of these 11,039 have been disabled, and 5,518 fell in battle. Of the resources and products of the State the following account is given by Governor Smyth:

In some branches of agriculture we have already reached a comparative degree of excellence. In wheat-growing our average yield per acre is 124 bushels, and is larger than that of Maine, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, or West Virginia. In corn crops our average yield per acre is 204 bushels, and is larger than that of Maine, New York, Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, or Nebraska. In potatoes our average yield is 164 bushels per acre, and is larger than that of any other State this side the Rocky Mountains. In rye crops our average yield per acre is 14t bushels, and is larger than that of Maine, New Jersey, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, or West Virginia. In the hay crop the average yield is one ton to the acre, being larger than that of Maine and equal to each of the other New England States. Of beef and mutton we produce all that is required for home consumption, with a surplus for other markets.

The heavy growth of timber in the northern part of the State, must be a source of revenue to the owners for many years to come. Our minerals are also attracting more attention. The variety of ores existing in our soil is not surpassed by that of any Atlantic State, embracing iron, zinc, copper, lead, silver, and tin. It is quite probable that most if not all these ores may at no distant day be mined at a large profit. The slate quarries of Littleton, apparently inexhaustible, and the rich lime-beds in that vicinity, suitable for mechanical and agricultural purposes, only call for enterprise to develop sources of wealth and employment.

NEW JERSEY. This State had its full share of the general prosperity, as is evident from its increasing revenue and the condition of its finances. During the fiscal year ending November 80,1865, the receipts of the treasury, including the cash balance of $139,273 on hand at the close of the previous year, were $595,811, the disbursements for ordinary and extraordinary expenses having been $430,850, leaving a balance in the hands of the treasurer of $164,461. Available assets, the property of the "State fund," consisting of shares of various railroad, canal, and other stock, etc., were also in the treasury, amounting to $575,486. The receipts of the "School fund " during the fiscal year, including the balance of $47,992 on hand at the end of the previous year, amounted to $170,214. The disbursements from the fund Page 609 during the same time were $82,017, leaving a balance on hand of $88,198. The whole amount of the "School fund," securely invested and drawing interest, was, on the 30th of November, including the cash balance on that day, $538,205.

The receipts and expenditures of the "War fund" during the fiscal year were $984,933. The entire debt of the State on account of the war, nearly all incurred for the payment of the monthly bounty to discharged men and the families of volunteers, was $2,818,119. Claims of the State against the United States for money advanced during the war, amounting to about $800,000, when paid will reduce the entire indebtedness of the State, all of which was incurred for war purposes, to about $2,000,000.

The number of men mustered into the United States service from this State during the war, exclusive of the militia sent to aid in the defence of Maryland and Pennsylvania in 1864, was 79,348—a total greater than that of all the able-bodied men in the State between the ages of eighteen and forty-five at the commencement of the war— all of whom, with the exception of one regiment, have been mustered out and discharged. The amount paid by the State during the year to soldiers honorably discharged, was $126,472, and to families and dependent mothers $416,205, the total for these purposes from the beginning of the war being $2,317,375. Besides these amounts, an aggregate of more than $2,300,000 was transmitted during the war by soldiers in the field for the benefit of their families in the State. The, remains of seventy-seven New Jersey soldiers were entombed at the Gettysburg cemetery, the graves being all regularly graded, headstones erected, the avenues macadamized, and trees and shrubbery planted. Measures having been taken for the establishment of a similar cemetery at Antietam, an agent was sent by the Governor of New Jersey to visit all the battle-fields in Maryland, and mark the graves of the New Jersey dead, so that their remains might be identified, with the view of reinternment at Antietam.

On the 23d of March the Legislature passed an act incorporating the "Soldiers' Children's Home" at Trenton, and on the 6th of April an appropriation of $5,000 was made in aid of the institution. To this was added a further sum of $8,000, donated by the "Delaware and Raritan Canal" and the "Camden and Amboy Railroad" Companies. "The Home" is under the management of an association of ladies, who have now under their care forty-one homeless orphan children, all of whom are clothed and instructed at the expense of the institution. From statistics of orphanage returned to the Secretary of State, it appeared that there were recently in the State 1,865 orphan or half-orphan children of soldiers or sailors, and that of this number 1,589 were under twelve years of age. An act was also approved on the 23d of March to authorize the establishment of a home for disabled soldiers.

The law passed at the session of the Legislature in 1865, for the more effectual organization of the militia of the State, has had the effect of reducing it to a better state of discipline and placing it in a more effective condition than at any former period. Several new companies were added to the rifle corps during the year, so that that organization now includes nearly 2,000 rank and file, well armed and equipped, and ready to be concentrated for active service at any point within the State at a few hours' notice.

The interest of the people in the cause of education is steadily increasing, and the amount of money raised and appropriated for the maintenance of publio schools was larger than in any previous year, being $704,694, an increase of $67,614 over the expenditures for 1864. The number of children attending the publio schools during the year was larger than in 1864. In compliance with an act passed by the Legislature on the 2d of February, the Governor purchased for the State the Model and Normal School buildings at Trenton, as well as the land, library, and other property connected with them, and the Normal School became one of the permanent, institutions of the State. The number of pupils under instruction during the year, in these schools and in the Farnum Preparatory School at Beverly, was as follows:

Male   Females.

Total. 114 162 MS 125 287 401 727

The "College for the Benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts," organized in conformity with the act of Congress of July 2, 1862, donating public lands to provide colleges of this class in the several States, went into operation in September, by the opening of a Scientific School in connection with Rutgers College at New Brunswick. The course of instruction includes civil engineering, mechanics, chemistry, the theory and practice of agriculture, modern languages, and military tactics. Governor Parker, in his third annual message, says:

The farm attached to the institution has, during the past year, been greatly improved by underdraining, fencing, and the use of fertilizers. All the cleared land not in meadow, has been ploughed and prepared for cropping. The price originally paid for the tract, containing one hundred acres, was fifteen thousand dollars, and the improvements since made hare cost more than three thousand dollars. The President of the Board of Trustees has given assurance that this farm shall be made all that the warmest friends of scientific agriculture can desire. Special attention will be paid to market gardening and the cultivation of fruits. The best implements of husbandry will be used, the most approved methods of culture adopted, and each pupil instructed to keep a full account of all experiments, with expenses and income.

Under the provisions of an "act to establish Page 610 and organize a State Reform School for Juvenile Offenders," passed at the last session of the Legislature, the Board of Control appointed six persons as trustees, whose first duty was to purchase land and erect buildings; but the sum of $15,000, the amount appropriated for the purpose, having been found insufficient for the purchase of a suitable site, a further appropriation was recommended by Governor Parker, under the conviction, after visiting the State prison and county jails, that such an institution could not fail to work incalculable good to the community by the reformation of criminal and vagrant youths.

The number of patients in the State Lunatic Asylum at the beginning of the year was 333. In the course of the year 192 were received and 158 were discharged or died, leaving in the Institution at the end of the year 867 patients. The receipts for the year, including $10,000 appropriated by the State, were $86,236; the payments for the same period were $86,155, leaving a balance in the hands of the Treasurer of $81.

Owing to the high prices of provisions and the difficulty of procuring work for the convicts, the expenditures of the State Prison largely exceeded the income, the receipts having been only $30,154, while the expenditures amounted to $43,878, involving a loss of $13,724.

The survey of the marl region of the State, comprising nearly a thousand square miles, is now complete, with the maps and sections, by the aid of which the position of the marl can be readily ascertained by the use of compass and level, thus making all the varieties of this valuable fertilizer easily accessible. The iron ore region of Morris County, embracing eighty square miles, and including some of the richest iron mines in the United States, has also been minutely surveyed and mapped upon a large scale.

During the year efforts were renewed to have the New York Quarantine established on the soil of New Jersey. On this subject Governor Parker, in his third annual message, says:

On the 6th of November last, application was made to the Federal authorities at Washington to permit the health officers of New York to locate hospitals on Sandy Hook. Having received information of the contemplated application, on the 4th of November last I telegraphed to the New Jersey State Agent to visit the President at once, and notify him that on behalf of the State of New Jersey, I protested against any action of the General Government looking to the establishment of a quarantine hospital at Sandy Hook. On the 6th of November I forwarded a telegram to the President, renewing the protest against granting the application, and claiming for the State of New Jersey jurisdiction over the designated locality. On the following day I received a despatch from the Secretary of War, stating that the question had been referred to him, and that the health officers of New York were then at Washington urging the Government to grant authority to locate quarantine hospitals, on Government property at Sandy Hook. Accompanied by the Attorney-General of this State (Whose views on the subject entirely coincided with mine), I immediately visited Washington, and hod full and satisfactory interviews with the President and Secretary of War. Written objections denying the right of the United States to make the proposed grant were filed with the Secretary, by whom they were referred to the Attorney-General of the United States. I have recently received information that the Attorney-General has decided that the General Government has not the right to grant the application. This decision, it is hoped, will settle the question of jurisdiction over Sandy Hook, and put an end to the efforts of the New York authorities to induce the General Government to aid in establishing their quarantine on the soil of New Jersey. With regard to the controversy between the State and the General Government as to the power of the latter to make a post road of the railroad from Raritan Bay to the Delaware, Governor Parker remarks:

The General Government has no right to build a foot of railroad or to charter a corporation to construct the same, in any of the States, for the purpose of carrying passengers or freight for compensation. Neither can Congress authorize any railroad company chartered by a State to do any act that is forbidden or that is not authorized by the law of its incorporation as passed by the Legislature. No power can make the creature superior to or independent of its creator.

The proposition to amend the Federal Constitution by adding an article abolishing slavery .throughout the United States, was transmitted to the Legislature of New Jersey, at its last session, for ratification or rejection, and was rejected by the Senate and House of Assembly

The Republican State Convention assembled at Trenton on the 20th of July, and nominated Marcus L. Ward for Governor, to fill the place of Joel Parker. A series of resolutions were adopted, pronouncing the war not a "failure," and rejoicing in the advent of peace, endorsing President Johnson's reorganization policy, strongly denouncing the conduct of the Democratic party during the war, pledging the support of the party to the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery, expressing gratitude to the heroic men of the army and navy, in favor df exempting discharged soldiers from the poll tax, pledging the party to the most rigid economy in the State administration, and reaffirming the resolutions of the Baltimore Convention in reference to the Monroe doctrine. A resolution in favor of negro suffrage was voted down by an overwhelming majority.

The Democratic Convention assembled also at Trenton on the 30th of August, and General Theodore Runyon was unanimously nominated for Governor. A series of resolutions were reported, charging the consequences of the war on the election of a sectional President and the fanaticism of a sectional party, favoring a return of the Government to its original purposes and objects, declaring and insisting on the rights of the States, opposing negro suffrage, and agreeing with President Johnson that the question should be left with the States, favoring a return to the specie currency, opposing the exemption of Government bonds from taxation. Page 611 expressing sympathy with and gratitude to the soldiers, insisting on the full payment of the promised Government bounty, opposing military arrests, favoring freedom of elections and the restoration of the habeas corpus, and severely criticising the management of the national debt.

The election took place on November 6th with the following results:

Governor. ……………………….Number of Voter.

Marcus L. Ward, Republican………… 67,632

General Theodore Runyon, Democrat.. 64,781

Majority for Ward………………… 2,791

The Legislature chosen at this election stood:

                             Senate.      House.        Joint Ballot.

Republicans            11              86                    47

Democrats              10              24                    84

Republican majority   1            12                    18

NEW YORK. The great wealth and resources of the Empire State were strikingly manifested in its uninterrupted and increasing prosperity, notwithstanding the heavy burdens entailed upon it by the late war. The soldiers furnished to the General Government by this State alone were sufficiently numerous for military operations on a great scale. The total number whose term of service varied from three months to three years was 457,456; to which must be added 15,987 militiamen mustered for a less term of service than three months, making a grand total of 473,443 men. The total number of years' service supplied by the State since the commencement of the war was 1,148,604 years, equal to 382,868 three years' men. Of these there remained in the service of the United States at the end of the year, only seven regiments of infantry and two of cavalry. The total sum disbursed by the State for bounties from July 17, 1862, to January 1, 1866, was $35,088,999.

The organizations of the National Guard as they existed at the close of the year, including officers and men of all arms, were of an aggregate strength of 49,906 men, of whom 31,170 were fully armed, equipped, and uniformed. The amount expended out of the sum appropriated by the last Legislature for the purchase of arms, accoutrements, and uniforms, for the National Guard, was $216,651, the total payments having been, according to the Comptroller's report, $643,359, or one-half as much as the entire amount of the other ordinary expenses of the State Government.

The number of men furnished by the city of New York during the war was, according to the report of the chairman of the Board of Supervisors, 116,882, for terms of one, two, three, and four years, the total number of years' service being 267,551. The average cost per man under each call was—for bounties, $80.06; for bounties and hand-money, $84.81; for bounties and hand-money and expenses connected and not connected with bounties, including expenses for the family relief fund, $150.47.

The Legislature at its session in 1865 authorized the erection of a fire-proof edifice, to be called the "Hall of Military Record," as a repository for the records of the war, and for the collections of the Bureau of Military Statistics, provided the sum of $75,000 should be voluntarily contributed for the purpose. The authorities of the city of Albany offered an appropriate site, and contributions were made by the people of various sections of the State for the erection of the building. This institution it is hoped will secure the careful preservation of the records of the military services of individuals and of regiments, and of the part taken by the counties, cities, and towns, in raising troops, and at the same time afford a safe place for the deposit and display of flags, trophies, and other objects of military interest, belonging to the collection of the State, as well as for the preservation and convenient use of newspapers, books, pamphlets, and other papers belonging to the Bureau of Military Record, which already has in its custody eight hundred battle flags of regiments, batteries, and ships, besides numerous relics from all the great battle-fields of the late war.

The receipts into the treasury during the fiscal year ending September 30, 1865, on account of all funds except the canal fund, were $16,273,666; the payments on account of all the funds except the canal fund were $16,183,096, leaving a balance in the treasury at the end of the fiscal year, of $90,570. The receipts on account of the general fund revenue from all sources, were $11,912,936; the payments, including the deficiency from the previous year, were $13,092,330, leaving a deficiency on the 30th of September, 1865, of $1,179,394. This was owing to the fact that the sum of $2,667,437, taxes due from the city of New York, was not collected till the fall, which, if it had been paid before the end of the fiscal year, would have made the balance in the treasury $2,758,007; and instead of a deficiency in the general fund, there would have been a surplus of $1,448,043.

The funded debt of the State on the 30th of September, 1860, including the canal and general fund debts, was $33,612,976; on the 30th of September, 1865, it was, not including the county debt, $25,475,540, showing a diminution of the debt as it existed before the war, of $8,137,436. The State would within a very few years have been entirely free from debt, but for the large bounty loan made during 1865; the certificates on account of which issued up to the 10th of December, amounted to the sum of $25,566,000, the canal and general fund debts added to which made the total debt of the State on the 10th of December, 1865, $51,041,540. The direct tax levied during the year was ¾  mills: f of a mill for schools, 2 ½  mills for general purposes, and 1 5/8  of a mill for canals.

During the fiscal year the receipts on account of the canals from tolls and other sources were $3,577,465, and the payments $1,927,374, leaving a surplus revenue of $1,650,091 to be paid into the sinking fund. A comparison of the Page 612 receipts with those of the preceding year, which were $4,346,266, shows a diminution of $763,800. Comptroller Robinson in his report of December 30, 1865, says:

The receipts and expenditures upon the canals, should attract the attention of taxpayers. Whilst the receipts are rapidly diminishing, the expenses are still more rapidly increasing. In 1863 the receipts were $5,118,501.845, and the payments for collection and ordinary repairs, $770,882.52. In 1865 the receipts were $3,577,465.45, and the payments for collection and ordinary repairs, $1,927,373,59. In 1863 the surplus to meet the requirements of the Constitution was $4,347,618.83, leaving a "remainder" of $981,376.17. In 1865 the amount was but $1,650,091.86, leaving a deficiency of $1,716,150.80, to be provided for the taxation. In 1863 the percentage which the cost of maintenance of the canals bore to the amount of tolls was but $15.33; in 1865 it rose to the enormous rate of $54.73, being far greater than it ever was before, in any year since the canals went into full operation. And this statement does not include the heavy payments for "extraordinary repairs," which would make it much higher. The payments of $350,000 to the General Fund Debt Sinking Fund, and $200,000 for the support of Government, cannot of course be made.

These facts and figures are instructive, and are worthy of the attention of those who think that a State can manage the business of transportation better than private individuals, and who are proposing to build new canals, and to commence another enlargement of some of the old ones.

The stock and debts of the railroads in the State on September 30, 1865, were as follows:

Roads operated Roads

Capital stock by charter and acts

Total funded and floating debt. $84,816,200 96,486,662 96,040,187 68,804.976 5,860,634 74,165,610 $18,781,000 18,653,850 18,105,105 6,974,605 576,845 6,551,450

During the same year ending September 30th, the earnings of the railroads operated by steam were $48,642,966, and the payments, other than for construction, including $155,000 carried to the surplus fund, $48,742,428; the earnings of the roads operated by horse-power were $5,948,657, and the payments, including $226,283 to the surplus fund, $5,853,440.

On the 9th of March the Legislature passed an act called the "enabling act," the object of which was to afford to the banks of the State a means of transferring their organization and business to the national system without the tedious process of a formal dissolution, with the attendant inconvenience of a dispersion of their capital and surplus earnings. Between that time and the end of the fiscal year one hundred and seventy-three banks closed business as State institutions, and were converted into national banks. Besides these, twenty banks had received authority and were doing business under the national system prior to the passage of the act, ten of them having effected the change prior to the 1st of October, 1864. Thus one hundred and eighty-three banks were during the fiscal year transferred with all their wealth and influence to the national guardianship. The magnitude of the change may be seen from the following statement of the Superintendent of the Bank Department: The capital invested In banking, under our State laws, on the 24th day of September, 1864, was, $107,806,918 On the 30th day of September, 1865 20,436,970 Decrease during the fiscal year $86,869,978 The greatest decrease In any previous year during the last ten years 1,951,199

The circulation returned and destroyed during the year ending September, 1865, was $16,728,179, which exceeds by about $2,000,000 the amount returned during the panic year of 1857, and by about $9,000,000 the average yearly amount for the last ten years.

The circulation issued and outstanding on the 30th September, 1864, was $40,118,685 00

The circulation issued and outstanding on the 30th September, 1865, was 27,009,449 00

Decrease during the fiscal year $18,109,136 00

Securities, including cash, held under general laws, to redeem circulation, September 30, 1864 $87,308,521 05

Securities held, under general laws, to redeem circulation, September 30,1865 25,469,157 44

Decrease daring the fiscal year $11,834,366 61 The decrease of the different classes of securities has been as follows:

Of United States stocks $8,528,600 05

"  New York Slate stocks 2,225,706 00

"  Illinois State stocks 238.400 Of

"  Bonds and mortgages 986,976 00 $11,924,6S2 00

Increase of cash deposits to redeem circulation, 90,215 89

Total decrease as stated above $11,834,866.

Notwithstanding the large withdrawal of labor to maintain the military strength of the nation, the State has continued to make steady progress in agriculture and manufactures—improvements in the implements of husbandry and the discoveries of science having contributed largely to increase the productiveness of industry, and thus compensated in a measure for the scarcity of laborers and artisans.

The school system of the State continued to increase in efficiency and importance. The following is a brief summary from the returns of the commissioners for the year ending September 30, 1865, showing the condition of the common schools:

Number of school districts 11,780

Teachers for twenty-eight weeks or more 15,478

Children in the State between the ages of five and twenty-one 1,898,759 Male teachers employed 4,452

Female teachers employed 22,017

Children attending school 916,617

Average dally attendance of children 895,617

Volumes in school district libraries 1,278,128

Number of school houses 11,618

The receipts and expenditures on account of common schools were:

Receipts.

Amount on hand October 1,1864 $474,447 83

Apportionment of public moneys 1,879,262 78

Proceeds of school lands, etc. 18.S31 H

Raised by tax 8,501,070 20

Raised by rate bill 655,158 78

From all other sources 223,471 79

Total $6,252,242 54

Page 613

For teachers" wages $3,97C.093 43

For libraries 26,818 08

For school apparatus 170,756 70

For colored schools 86,522 26

For school houses, sites, etc. 799.160 70

For all other expenses 720,259 09

Forfeited In hands or Supervisors 751 98

Amount on hand October 1,1865 516,7S2 80

Total $6,252,242 54

The total number of pupils receiving instruction in the State, including colleges, academies, private schools, and common schools, but excluding professional schools, was 1,007,737. The number of pupils who received instruction in the State Normal School during the year was 278; in teachers' classes in academies, 1,598; in the Oswego Normal and Training School since its organization, 185, of whom 108 graduated. The number of teachers instructed in teachers' institutes during the year was 8,887.

In the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb on Washington Heights, the whole number of pupils was 402, of whom 234 were males and 168 females. Of these 267 were supported by the State and 81 by the counties, the remainder being beneficiaries of the institution and of the State of New Jersey, or supported by their friends. In the New York Institution for the Blind the number of pupils on the 30th of September was 121, of whom 108 were beneficiaries of the State. In the twenty-five schools on the Indian reservations the aggregate attendance of pupils was 971.

The number of convicts in the several State prisons on the 30th of September was 1,873, of whom 159 were females and 73 insane. The earnings for the .fiscal year amounted to $205,219, to which must he added $78,477, the estimated value of a large stock of iron and nails manufactured by the inmates of the Clinton prison remaining unsold, making the total earnings $283,696. The expenses during the same period were $474,040, an excess over the receipts of $190,344. Governor Fenton, in his message of January 2, 1866, says:

The large excess of expenditure over the earnings of the year compares unfavorable with the results of previous years, and is caused, in part, by the fact that during the first nine months of this period there was a large decrease in the number of inmates, while the volume of expenses could not be ratably diminished. The report of the inspectors shows gradual improvement in the discipline and internal management of the persons under their charge, and for their efforts in this behalf I cannot speak too warmly. Perhaps, however, to accomplish the highest success, our prison system should be wholly absolved from party influence, and the changes incident to the varying fortunes of political organizations. To attain this independence, and to engraft on our penal code valuable improvements, appears to be the purpose of the Prison Association of this State. This association is charged by law with the function of "visiting, inspecting, and examining " all the prisons of the State, and of reporting annually to the Legislature the results of this inquiry. These duties seem to have been discharged with intelligence and fidelity, and their recommendations, based upon extended observation and research, are worthy of the attention of the Legislature. The measures of this board to furnish more thorough information, and to acquire familiarity with the working of prisons throughout the Union, will doubtless aid in the diffusion of practical knowledge and lead to salutary legislation.

On the 2d of November a vessel arrived from Europe at the port of New York, having on board a large number of passengers, several of whom were sick with Asiatic cholera. The commissioners of quarantine found themselves wholly unprovided with a place for their reception, except upon the floating hospital which had been used during the summer for yellow-fever patients. But this vessel was ill adapted for the purpose, and only partially met the requirements of the commissioners. There was still no place in which might be detained those persons who, from having been exposed to the disease, could not with safety be permitted to enter the city until they had undergone the usual precautionary treatment. Besides this difficulty, the commissioners were without funds to procure the necessary supplies and accommodations, the last appropriation having been exhausted in making the improvements and disbursements authorized by the Legislature. Under these circumstances, Governor Fenton advised the commissioners to assume the responsibility of incurring such liabilities as might be necessary to meet the emergency, and to rely upon the Legislature to ratify their action. In accordance with his suggestions, every thing possible was done on the part of the commissioners and the health officer to provide what the occasion seemed to demand. But they were unable to procure any accommodations on land either for the care of the sick, or for the temporary detention of those who had been exposed to the disease. In view of this unfortunate condition of the quarantine, and the fact that the epidemic of eastern Asia, following the highways of commerce, had already made its way from Arabia and Syria to the basin of the Mediterranean and the shores of western Europe, and might be expected to commence its ravages in the seaboard cities of the American continent in the ensuing spring or summer, the Governor recommended prompt legislative action with regard to such measures as should meet the views of the commissioners and health officer, and suggested that if it should be found impossible to procure a suitable location on land, attention should at once be given to the erection of proper structures on the water. The Democratic State Convention was held at Albany on the 6th and 7th of September. A Secretary of State was the highest officer to be elected.

The Convention nominated Major-General H. W. Slocum, and adopted the following platform:

Resolved, That the past history of the Democratic party is to be found in the proudest records of the country, and its creed in the Constitution; and that it is ready to meet the great questions of the future with the patriotism, fidelity to principle, and practical wisdom that have characterized its long and Auspicious identification with the history of the nation.

Resolved, That we congratulate the people of this Page 614 State and of the nation, upon the termination of civil war and upon the return of peace, and especially that this blessing is attained with a preserved Union, an undivided country, and the reassertion of constitutional liberty throughout the land.

Resolved, 'That as the first fruits of this triumph, the people demand the subordination of military to civil rule, the restitution of the authority of the courts, and the recognition of the equality of the States; that we regard all efforts, either by prolonged military rule or by denying the right of representation to States, in order to compel them to adopt negro equality or negro suffrage as an element of their constitutions, as tending to delay and prevent the pacification of the country, and to subvert the principles of the Government, and endanger the liberties of the people.

Resolved, That in the plan of President Johnson for the speedy restoration of the States lately in rebellion to their old positions in the Union, by commencing the work of reorganization at the point of secession, and confiding it to those then recognized as electors by the laws of the respective States, leaving the question of suffrage, where the Constitution places it, to the future action of the several States, we recognize enlightened statesmanship, sound political theory, and an old-fashioned, time-honored regard for the relations and rights of the States and the Federal Government, as established by the Constitution; and that we pledge to the President, in this great work, our cordial and energetic support.

Resolved, That while we stigmatize as alike fatal to national prosperity and the rights of labor, the doctrine that "a national debt is a national blessing," we recognize the obligation by which the whole resources of the country are pledged to the payment of the public debt, and we believe the interests and honor of the people are involved in its faithful fulfilment, and that all constitutional and legal means should be taken to compel the whole property of the country, real and personal, to share in the public burdens, believing that equality of taxation is not only equity, but also the soundest possible basis of public credit.

Resolved, That the thanks and gratitude of the people are due to the soldiers and sailors of the nation and to their brave commanders, who have illustrated the pages of our history with deeds of valor that elevate the fame of the people, and vindicate the character of republican government.

Resolved, That the position originally taken by our Government in reference to the interference of European powers with the people of this continent, called the "Monroe doctrine, is a policy which has preserved peace and avoided foreign entanglements, and cannot be abandoned without dishonor to us as a Power among nations, nor without danger to democratic institutions.

Resolved, That the frank and generous acceptance by the Southern people of the condition in which they have been left by the recent war, including the abandonment of slavery, removes the main difficulties in the way of the restoration of amicable feeling among the States: and that it should be met on the part of the Federal Government in a spirit of conciliation and kindness.

Resolved, That, banishing all minor party considerations, and acting in the spirit of an enlarged and generous patriotism, we cordially support President Johnson in the policy which he has avowed, to enable the States lately in revolt to put their governments in practical operation, and in all such constitutional measures as he may inaugurate to harmonize the country and restore and commit the union of the States. A resolution was also adopted, charging the Secretary of State and the enumerators under him with the perpetration of frauds in connection with the census. The Republican Convention met at Syracuse, on the 20th of September. Major-General Barlow was nominated Secretary of State, and the following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, That we congratulate the people of this State upon the overthrow of the rebellion and the return of peace to all sections of our common country; and that we find in the preservation of the Union, the reestablishment of the national authority, and the extirpation of slavery, ample recompense for the suffering and sacrifices by which these results have been achieved.

Resolved, That to the soldiers and sailors of all ranks and in all departments, by whose valor, under divine Providence, this great result has been accomplished, and who have by their heroism shed new and undying lustre on the American name, we return the heartfelt thanks of a grateful people; that we renew the demand made by the Union National Convention at Baltimore that adequate provision be made by the national authorities for the support and comfort of such of their survivors as have received honorable and disabling wounds in the service of their country.

Resolved, That while we deplore the death by assassination of Abraham Lincoln as closing a career of transcendent usefulness and honor, and as a great national calamity, we recognize in Andrew Johnson, his successor, a statesman of ability, experience, and high-toned patriotism and the most unsullied integrity, and one who has rendered invaluable services to the Union cause during the rebellion, and whose single-hearted devotion to the permanent prosperity and glory of our common country commands the respect and confidence of the American people; and that we renew to him in his administration those assurances of cordial and effective support which were tendered by us in his nomination and election.

Resolved, That we approve as eminently wise and just the sentiments of kindness and confidence which President Johnson has evinced toward those of the communities and individuals lately in rebellion who accept the perpetuation of the Union and the perpetual prohibition of slavery as the legitimate and irrevocable results of the war; that we approve the initial steps which he has taken toward relaxing the bonds of military authority in the Southern States and in restoring to their people full and complete control over their local affairs just as soon as may be found compatible with the preservation of order, the maintenance of peace, the exclusion of slavery, and the fulfilment of the constitutional obligations of the national authority to guarantee to every State a republican form of government; and that we confidently look forward, under his wise and patriotic administration, to the establishment of more cordial relations, of greater mutual respect, and of a stronger interest in each other's welfare between the Northern and Southern sections of the Union than have hitherto prevailed, and that in all the measures he may adopt tending to the attainment of these just and beneficent ends we pledge him our cordial and hearty support. Resolved, That while we regard the national sovereignty over all the subjects committed to it by the Constitution of the United States, as having been confirmed and established by the recent war, we regard the several States in the Union as having jurisdiction over all local and domestic affairs expressly reserved to them by the same constitutional authority, and that whenever it shall be deemed compatible with the public safety to restore to the States lately in rebellion the renewed exercise of those rights, we trust it will be done in the faith and on the basis that they will be exercised in a spirit of equal and impartial justice, and with a view to the elevation and perpetuation of the full rights of citizenship of all their people, inasmuch as these are Page 615 principles which constitute the basis of our republican institutions.

Resolved, That the restoration of peace will enable the Government to restore the civil tribunals of the country to their just and natural supremacy, and that we have full and entire confidence that this will be done as soon as the safety of the nation will permit, and no sooner. Resolved, That the debt incurred by the nation in defence of its own existence is a sacred and inviolable obligation, resting upon all the property and all the resources of all sections of the country for its fulfilment; that while we demand at the hands of Congress such measures as shall impose the burden of taxation equally and impartially upon all classes, we have full reliance upon the people for the maintenance of the national honor and the ultimate extinction of the national debt; and that we approve and endorse the determination of the Government under no circumstances to assume, directly or indirectly, any portion of the debts incurred by the rebel authorities in the prosecution of the war against the United States. Resolved, That we expect at the hands of the Government as prompt and as large a reduction of the national expenditures as the national safety will permit; an abolition of all sinecures, and a wise and economical administration of public affairs.

Resolved, That we have entire confidence in the direction, under President Johnson, of our intercourse with foreign nations, in his prompt enforcement against them of all just demands, in securing redress for national insults and wrongs, and . in maintaining the fixed policy of our Government, by which the interference of foreign Powers with the institutions of this continent, is regarded as hostile to our peace and menacing to our independence. Resolved, That we tender our congratulations to William II. Seward upon his providential escape from the knife of the assassin, and we rejoice that his distinguished services may still be continued to the nation and the cause of liberty.

Resolved, That the administration of Governor Fenton deserves and commands the respect and confidence of the people of this State, and that we hereby pledge to it our cordial and hearty support.

Resolved, That we call upon the loyal constituencies of the several districts in this State, in selecting candidates for the Legislature and other offices, to nominate none but men of known integrity of character, as the only means of avoiding corruption, and securing an honest administration of public affairs.

Resolved, That, as the Union party has steadily sustained the Government in its contest with the rebellion, not only against its open enemies in the field, but against those who gave it the aid of organized sympathy and encouragement in this and other loyal States, so will it now maintain its authority and second its efforts to restore all the blessings of union, freedom, and peace to all sections of our common country; and we confidently appeal to its past history, its present, and the character of its candidates, as its title to public confidence and support.

Resolved, That we repel as false and calumnious the imputation cast by the Democratic Convention upon the official integrity and personal honesty of Chauncey M. Depew, Secretary of State, and that we endorse his official conduct in the enumeration of the census, and in all respects, as worthy of the approval and commendation of the people.

Resolved, That we tender to the able men who have sustained the cause of American nationality in England our grateful thanks, and mingle our mourning with that of his countless friends in this country for the loss of Richard Cobden, one of the truest of their number.

The election took place on the 7th of November, and resulted in the success of the Republican ticket.

The vote for Secretary of State was, for Major-General Slocum (Democrat), 272,793, and 300,254 for Major-General Barlow (Republican), giving the latter a majority of 27,491. The Legislature chosen at this election stood:

                               Senate.      House.     Joint Ballot

Republicans              27             89                116

Democrats.             6                 89                44

Republican majority.... 22        80                 72

The whole number of votes cast in the State on the 14th of March on the proposition to amend the Constitution, so as to provide for the appointment of five Commissioners of Appeals, was 138,260, of which 50,486 were for, and 81,532 against the amendment, causing its rejection by a majority of 25,046 votes.

A State convention of colored men, representing quite a number of counties, met at Poughkeepsie, on the 9th of November. The following resolution was unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That this Convention is of the opinion that there should be a representation of colored men in the city of Washington from the different sections, to be there during the session of Congress, supported by the people, whose duty it should be to urge upon the members of Congress the importance of having the status of the colored American so fixed in the land that his color shall not be a bar to his occupying any position or to the enjoyment of all the rights that appertain to citizenship.

In accordance with the requirements of the Constitution, the State census was taken during the summer; the inquiries made by the enumerators referring to the status of the population on the first Monday in June. The aggregates according to the census were much less than had been anticipated; and instead of the population of the State having increased, it was found to be 48,958 less than in 1860, and only 363,282 greater than in 1855. The population of New York city was less by 87,283 than in 1860, and only 96,482 greater than in 1855. Secretary Depew, alluding in his "Preliminary Report" to this diminution, said: "The extraordinary efforts made by New York, in common with the loyal States, for the maintenance of the Union, could not fail of being shown in the results of the census. In every State where a census has been taken within the last year, this influence is shown; and if the aggregates are less than were anticipated, it is only because we have under-estimated the effect of this cause."

To the towns that showed an unusual loss or gain from the census of 1860 circulars wore sent, requesting opinions as to what had occasioned the change. The decrease, in sixty-five towns, was ascribed to emigration, chiefly to the West; in thirty-seven towns to consolidation of farms; in thirty-two directly to the war, but in what manner was not specified; in twenty-five to imperfection of returns in 1860; in twenty-three to discontinuance of manufactories; in eighteen to increased mortality, especially from diphtheria; in eighteen to removals to Canada to avoid the draft; in fifteen to the decrease or discontinuance of the lumbering Page 616 business; in twelve to deaths in the military service; in eleven to the completion of railroads; and in eleven others to removals to the oil regions of Pennsylvania. The increase in twenty-eight towns was ascribed to the growth of manufactures; in twenty-two to the growth of villages; in fourteen to an increase of railroad business; in ten to emigration; and in nine to suburban growth.

The following table shows the population of the State in 1865 by counties, with the increase and decrease, and the number of aliens and colored persons not taxed: Population of New York State. Population of New York City.

Counties. Albany .. Allegany Broorao . Cattaraugus. Cayuga Chautauqua. Chemung.... Chenango... Clinton Columbia... Cortland Delaware ... Dutchess, Erie Essex Franklin.... Fulton Genesee .... Greene Hamilton... Herkimer... Jefferson ... Kings Lewis Livingston.. Madison .... Monroe Montgomery New York.. Niagara Onclola Onondaga... Ontario Orange Orleans Oswego Otsego. .... Putnam .... Queens..... Rensselaer. Richmond .. Rockland ... 8t. Lawrence Saratoga Schenectady, Schoharie... Schuyler.... Seneca Steuben Suffolk Sullivan Tioga Tompkins... Ulster "Warren Washington. "Wayne Westchester. Wyoming... Total 115.501 40,285 In the Senate the ratio of representation according to this census is 1 to 106,045. […].

In the Assembly the Constitution secures to every county at least one member, with the exception of Hamilton, which is placed with Fulton County. Deducting aliens and colored persons not taxed, the total population divided by 128 gives a ratio of 1 to 26,511. By the first of the two methods of distribution which exist in assigning ratios; the counties having a representative population les3 than this are first deducted, and the remaining population divided by the remaining number of members (Fulton and Hamilton having one), gives a ratio by which the larger counties receive their allowance. In the present census the counties of Cortland, Essex, Franklin, Fulton and Hamilton, Lewis, Putnam, Richmond, Rockland, Schenectady, Schuyler, Seneca, "Warren, and Yates, having each less than the ratio of 1 to 20,511}, and together a representative number of 287,513, would bo deducted. The remaining 3,105,026, divided by 115, gives the ratio of 1 to 27,008, by which the other counties would be equalized.

By the second method, as each county (excepting Hamilton) has a fraction that would entitle it to at least ono member, the ratio of 1 to 26,511 ¼  is used without previous deduction of the smaller counties.

OHIO. The progress of this State in wealth and population, uninterrupted during the war, would seem, judging from the greatly increased receipts into the treasury, to have received a new impetus with the advent of peace. The total receipts from all sources during the fiscal year amounted to the sum of $13,190,000, while the receipts during 1864 were only $8,080,000, showing an increase of $4,510,000. The total disbursements were $12,400,000, or $5,721,000 more than in the previous year, when they wore only $6,079,006, leaving a balance to the credit of all funds of $790,000 against $2,000,900, the balance of 1864. The total funded debt of the State was $12,912,014, showing a diminution of $588,736 since 1864, when it was $13,500,750. The following table, from the Auditor's report, showing the debt and population of the State at different periods and the proportion of the debtor capital, affords evidence of a remarkable development of mater" resources and accumulation of wealth:

                       Debt.            Population.   Per Capita.

1844 ……..$18,004,526    1,702,714   110.57—(02

1854……… 15,218.980    2,124,000   7.16—524

1860………. 14.250,2.18  2,839,511   6.09—111

1865……… 12,912,014    2,614,974   5.18—405

The Auditor says: "With a rigid adherence to economy, the proper amendments of the tax laws, and the steady and intelligent enforcement of a just and equal taxation, the public debt will disappear in seven years, and the State levy sink down to one mill on the dollar. Then, with the rate of interest properly adjusted, capital will flow into the State, manufactories spring up, and population and wealth augment in a ratio hitherto scarcely dreamed of." It appears, from the table of the public debt in the Auditor's report, that there remains due:

Of the loan of 1860 $562.268 56

Of the loan of 1865 1,009,500 00

And that there will be due in 1863 659,079 18

Making $2,280,847 09

From the report of the Commissioner of Statistics it appears that there were 3,340 miles of railroad in the State, with a paid-up capital of $77,694,737, and an indebtedness of $58,931,686. The estimated crop of oats was 18,000,000 bushels; of corn, 90,000,000 bushels; and of hay, 2,000,000 tons. The average production of crops was equal to that of a series of preceding years. The fruit crop was an almost entire failure, owing to wintry storms and the extraordinary humidity of the atmosphere in April, May, and June. Of maple and sorghum sugar the production was 5,239,729 pounds; of molasses, 2,933,697 gallons.

During the year there were 23,198 marriages and 837 divorces; 2,811 indictments for crime, and 1,025 convictions; 11,477 civil suits brought and 8,773 judgments rendered. The number of violent deaths was 1,014. There were erected during the year, at an aggregate cost of $4,889,912, 4,850 houses, 1,158 barns, 78 mills, and 311 furnaces, factories, etc.

The State furnished to the Federal Government, between the 15th of April, 1861, and the l0th of April, 1865, for different terms of service, varying from three months to three years, one hundred and ninety-eight regiments of infantry, raised and organized within the State, besides considerable numbers of men for the cavalry and artillery arms of the service. The aggregate number of troops furnished by the State was 317,133 for various terms of service, equal to 239,976 three years' men. Of these all had been discharged, with the exception of six regiments, mainly serving on the Rio Grande. Speaking of the retention of these Ohio volunteers in the field after the conclusion of the war, Governor Anderson said in his message of the lst of January, 1865, that it was never Page 685 intended or expected that the noble patriots sent forth to fight in the -war for the Union, were to be detained as a police guard to oversee political reforms in the South, whether as to whites or blacks, still less to be marched to the Rio Grande to menace or assault Maximilian or any other despot. In this connection, speaking of the Monroe doctrine, he said:

What the Monroe doctrine exactly is we have never agreed among ourselves. Its origin is doubtful, its purposes uncertain, its means to this day are unspecified. Mexico has never been and can never bo a republic, unless her people will accommodate us to be born again, and of entirely different parentage. She, with all her sister republics of South America, has been from the beginning uninterruptedly a most violent, bloody, incendiary, disgraceful anarchy. She has continually inspired all nations with hate; has ruthlessly ruined and oppressed her own people. And her Government has brought disgrace alike upon the sacred name of republican liberty, and of human nature.

The Union State Convention met at Columbus on the 23d of June, and adopted nine resolutions, among which were the following:

Resolved, That the name and fame of Abraham Lincoln stand out from the history of the epoch unrivalled and alone, and while we deplore his untimely and cruel death and venerate his memory, it becomes us to imitate his wisdom, firmness, and moderation in the treatment of vexed questions, and especially to imitate bis example in waiting for the solution of difficulties, to be furnished by the progress of time and the logic of events.

Resolved, That President Andrew Johnson, by his unwavering devotion to the Union through years of severest trial, has now our highest confidence, that we cheerfully endorse the policy of his administration, looking to the restoration of peace and civil order in the so-called seceded States, and that, as Union men of Ohio, we will give him our hearty and undivided support.

Resolved, That four years of sanguinary war, with its fearful sacrifice of life and treasure, forced upon us by the slaveholders' rebellion, have demonstrated to us and to the world that slavery and its institutions arc irreconcilably opposed to freedom and free institutions; and all the teachings of history, the dealings of Providence, and our own bitter experience, point unerringly to their overthrow and eradication as our only safeguard against the recurrence of like evils in the future.

Resolved, That while we are anxious for an early reconstruction of fraternal relations with the insurgent States, we demand that such reconstruction shall be at such time and upon such terms as will give unquestioned assurance of the peace and security, not only of the loyal people of the rebel States, but also of the peace and prosperity of the Federal Union.

Resolved, That the experience of the last four years shows the absolute necessity in all our political action of keeping steadily in view the great principles of our Government as set forth in the Declaration of Independence. The Chair decided that a motion to add the following resolutions, presented by Mr. Piatt, would bo out of order:

Resolved, That it is the belief of this Convention that the reconstruction of the revolted States constitutionally belongs to the Legislative department, and that the Executive can only promise provisional military government until such time as Congress may act.

Resolved, That time can alone heal the wounds inflicted by this war, and therefore there is no cause for haste in the reconstruction of the revolted States; and when the time comes for such reconstruction, our indemnity for the past and security for the future demand that the revolted States shall be given to loyal men only. The Democratic Convention met also at Columbus, on the 24th of August, and adopted nineteen resolutions, of which the following were the most important:

Resolved, That the Democracy of Ohio will maintain and defend, as they have always heretofore done, as essential to the existence of our federal system of Government, the true doctrine of State rights, not nullification, nor secession, but the theory of that system as laid down in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798, as interpreted by then authors, the one by Madison in his report of 1799, and the other by Jefferson in his solemn official inaugural of 1801.

Resolved, That their ordinances of secession being void, the so-called seceded States are in the Union as States, and are therefore entitled to all the reserved rights of the States, and to their due representation in Congress, and to vote at future elections of President and Vice-President; and any attempt of the General Government, or any department thereof, to deprive them of these rights, would be an assault upon the rights of every State in the Union, and an effort to overthrow the Government ordained by the Constitution.

Resolved, That to each State belongs the right to determine for itself the qualifications of its electors, and the General Government cannot, nor can any department thereof, interfere directly or indirectly with the exercise of this right without a palpable violation of the Constitution and of the reserved rights of the States.

Resolved, That the effort now being made to confer the right of suffrage upon negroes, is an insidious attempt to overthrow popular institutions by bringing the right to vote into disgrace; that the negroes are not competent to the exercise of that right, nor is it necessary to their safety or protection; on the contrary, its exercise by them, if attempted, would be fraught with terrible calamities to both them and the whites, and we are, therefore, unequivocally opposed to negro suffrage.

Resolved, That under the rule of abolitionism, and especially under the recent military orders in Kentucky, the emigration of negroes into Ohio is a growing evil; and in order that white labor should bo protected against negro labor, and the people against negro pauperism, it is the duty of the Legislature to discourage negro emigration into our State.

Resolved, That we most explicitly condemn the policy of the party in power, in creating thousands of millions of Government debt, and attempting to exonerate the holders thereof from all obligations to pay their just proportion of taxes for the support of the State in which they reside, and thereby creating an odious and privileged moneyed aristocracy; and we declare it to be the immediate duty of Congress and the State Legislature to use all the legal and constitutional power they possess, to subject money so invested to a burden of taxation equal to that imposed upon other property for Federal, State, and municipal purposes.

Resolved, That freedom of speech, of the press, and of elections, habeas corpus, and trial by jury, are the birthright of all American citizens, guaranteed by both Federal and State Constitutions; that we will maintain and defend them as such in every extremity, and that we denounce especially the arrest of citizens by military authority in States or places where civil tribunals are established, and their execution, imprisonment, or trial bv military commissions as palpable infractions of the Constitution and outrages upon public liberty and private rights.

Resolved, That the continued suspension of the writ Page 686 of habeas corpus since the termination of the war, and when all pretence of necessity is passed, the denial of the right of trial by jury, and the trial of citizens not in the military service by military commissions, and the open interference with elections by military power, as in the recent instances in Kentucky and Tennessee, are revolutionary violations of the Constitution, threatening the very existence of our most ancient and sacred rights; that they portend a danger to the liberties of the country greater than has ever before menaced them, and which it is the duty of all good citizens to meet with the most determined opposition and most sleepless vigilance.

Resolved, That while we will resolutely and persistently condemn all infractions of the Constitution, by whomsoever committed, while we regret that the terms of pacification agreed to by Major-General Sherman, in April last, were not at once ratified by the Federal Executive, we will nevertheless stand by President Johnson in all constitutional efforts to restore the States to the exercise of their rights and power within the Union.

The election took place on the 10th of October, and resulted in the success of the Republican ticket. The number of votes received by General Cox, Republican, was 223,633, which gave him a majority of 29,936 over his opponent, George W. Morgan.

General Cox, in a letter published in July, after his nomination, had expressed himself as strongly opposed to negro suffrage. In his inaugural address to the Legislature on the 8th of January, 1866, speaking on the subject of reconstruction, he said:

It is in the excitement of a great struggle that the institutions of a country are in the most danger of change, and perhaps no nation has ever passed through such a convulsion as ours and then returned to the principles of government and exact form of constitution which it had before. The maxim that revolutions do not go backward, has seemed to have even a wider and deeper significance than has been popularly given to it. The same law of progression which has made the convulsions of monarchical governments tend toward the development of popular liberty, has in republics too often led to a despotism of classes or of factions, and thence by easy stages to anarchy and utter disruption. A victorious majority, flushed with its triumph, finds it easy to forget the rights of minorities; and it remains for us to prove whether, in our day, the old cry of "Woe to the conquered" may be silenced by a truly republican determination to administer the Government for the real advantage of all—of the defeated rebels as well as of the loyal victors.

OREGON. An extra session of the Legislature was held at Salem in December, 1865, principally for the purpose of ratifying the antislavery amendment to the Constitution. The Republicans having a majority in both branches, this was done on the 11th of the month, and the Legislature soon after adjourned. As State officers and members of the Legislature and of Congress are chosen biennially and quadrennially in the even years, no election of any kind took place in Oregon in 1865. The next session of the Legislature will be held in September, 1866, and the next general election will take place in June of the same year.

The progress of Oregon, though comparatively less rapid than that of some of the neighboring States and Territories, to which rich discoveries of the precious metals have attracted a large mining population, has perhaps been more steady and sure. Her population has risen from 52,465 in 1860, to somewhat over 70,000 in 1865, and the agricultural resources of the State are being developed in a very satisfactory manner. The Oregon Navigation Company, organized in 1861 to open the navigation of the Columbia River and its branches, which drain a country of enormous extent, have now over twenty steamboats running, and by means of short railroads built around the Cascades and the Dulles, and upon roads from the Dalles, from Umatilla, and from Wallula, have established the cheapest and quickest route for travel or freight from all parts of the coast to the rich mines of Boise and Owyhee in Idaho. Between 1861 and 1865 their boats carried to the upper Columbia upwards of 65,000 tons of freight and 100,000 passengers. Measures are now in progress to push their communications, by means of the navigation of the Snake River, into the heart of the Idaho gold region, and on beyond toward Utah. These improvements, when perfected, will open a much more ready means of access to the State from the Mississippi valley than is now available, and will greatly promote emigration. In the southern and eastern parts of the State deposits of gold of considerable richness have of late years been worked with success, but its chief source of wealth for the present will probably be found in its forests and fields. The former produce a red fir of great Page 687 size, which yields large amounts of turpentine, and is available for building purposes or fuel; and the latter, besides abundant crops of cereals, are not less adapted to the production of fruits than those of the adjoining State of California. The crops of apples, pears, plums, and cherries, are described as almost exceeding belief in quantity, and of admirable quality.

PENNSYLVANIA. The number of troops furnished by this State to the Federal Government during the war, exclusive of militia and seamen and marines for the navy, was, in 1861, 130,594; in 1862, 71,100; in 1863, 43,046; in 1864, 91,704; in 1865, 25,840—a total of 362,284. Of these very few remained in the service at the end of the year. Over 43,000 military commissions also were issued from this State during the continuance of hostilities. Arrangements were in progress, in accordance with an act of the Assembly, to collect materials for a complete history of the various State regiments. From the report of the Hon. T. H. Burrowes, under whose management was placed the system adopted by the State for the maintenance and education of soldiers' orphans, it appears" that 1,846 applications for admission to the schools had been allowed, and that 1,242 orphans had been actually admitted. Governor Curtin, in his message of January 31, 1866, speaking of these schools, says: "I have heretofore commended this charity to you, and I deem it unnecessary to add another word in asking a continuance of an appropriation which is to provide for and educate the best blood of the State."

Notwithstanding the large expenditures for military purposes since the outbreak of the war, the State debt was, on the 1st of December, 1865, less by $402,039 than on the first of January, 1861, and the condition of the Treasury was $2,555,579 better than at that time.

The balance In the Treasury November 30,1864, was $l,942,203 63 Receipts during fiscal year ending November 30 1865 $6,219,089 67

Total in Treasury for fiscal year ending November 30,1865 $8,162,193 30 

The payments for the same period were 5,788,625 16

Balance in Treasury November 80,1363.... $2,373,063 14

The operations of the sinking fund during the year ending on the first Monday of September, which reduced the State debt by $745,811, were as follows:

Five per cent $486,824 62

Coupon loan 230,000 00

War loan 70,400 00

Interest certificates 2,008 64

Domestic creditors 6T8 00

The total debt on December 1, 1864, was $39,379,003.94. The amount redeemed during the fiscal year ending November 30th was as follows:

Five per cent, stocks $1,708,517 88

Four and a half per cent, stocks 20,060 00

Domestic creditor certificates 678 00

Military loan, act of May 15,1861 179,250 00

Total $1,903,345 83

Making the total public debt on the 1st of December, 1865, $37,476,258.06.

The assets and liabilities of the State Treasury were as follows:

Bonds Pennsylvania Railroad Company $6,700,000 00

Bonds Philadelphia and Erie Railroad Co 8,000,000 00

Interest on bonds Philadelphia and Erie Railroad Co 1.050.000 00

Cash in Treasury 2.878,668 14

Total $18,623,608 14

Liabilities in excess of assets $23,852,589 92

Liabilities in excess of assets,

November 80,1865.$26,408,163 94

Liabilities in excess of assets, November 30,1865... 28.852.6S9 92

Improvement in condition of Treasury since November 30,1860 $2,555,579 02

The extraordinary State expenditures growing out of the war, not refunded by the General Government, amounted to the sum of $4,028,627.21. This included the direct tax not reimbursable, and the sum of $671,476.43 paid to the militia called out on the 27th of June, lefts', which Governor Curtin claimed as clearly due to the State from the General Government. The Governor gives the following history of this claim in his message of January 81,1866:

At the time of the invasion of the North, in 1883, by the rebel army, the President made a requisition on me for militia to serve during the emergency. The men came forward promptly, to the number of'36,588, of whom upward of 25,000 refused to be mustered into the service of the United States, in consequence of circumstances of prior occurrence not necessary to be here stated.

In this embarrassment, the emergency being very pressing, after consultation with the President, he authorized and requested me to call them on behalf of the State, and for the defence of the State, the United States paying all the expenses of their clothing, equipment, subsistence, etc. It was, however, alleged that there was no appropriation for their pay. To remove this difficulty the General Government applied to banks and other moneyed corporations in Philadelphia, to advance the amount of the pay, on a pledge that, when Congress met, the passage of a bill to reimburse them should be recommended. These institutions declined this proposition, but expressed their willingness to make the advance if I would pledge myself to recommend to the Legislature the passage of such an act in case Congress should not provide for reimbursing them. Under these circumstances, I received from the Executive of the United States the pledge which he had proposed to give to the bunks, etc., and upon that I gave the necessary pledge to them, and they advanced the required funds accordingly.

When Congress met, the Executive of the United States did not recommend the passage of the necessary act. I have understood that the subject was called to the attention of the proper committee by the Secretary of War, but, as the President did not send a message explaining the circumstances of the case, the appropriation failed, as the members of Congress had thus no means of explaining to their constituents the difference between this case (which was in substance a loan to the United States, upon the pledge of the Executive for its repayment), and the case of the voluntary expenditure of money for military purposes by Pennsylvania and most of the other States.

I will add, that the men came into the service for the emergency only, and on the faith that they should be discharged as soon as, in my judgment, the emergency should have ceased. The emergency ceased immediately after the battle of Gettysburg, which commenced on the 1st of July, 1863; yet the men, against my urgent and repeated remonstrances, were kept in the service long afterwards, and used by the United States for various purposes. The last of them were not discharged till in September.

I recommend that the Legislature adopt measures to bring the subject again before Congress, and obtain repayment of this sum, amounting to $671,476.43, with interest on the same, which the General Government has thus far so unwarrantably withheld.

The total number of common schools in the State was 12,960. The whole number of teachers was 15,593, and of pupils of 703,930, at an average cost for each pupil per month of 68 cents. The total cost of the common school system in the State, including taxes levied, the amount paid by the city of Philadelphia, and the State appropriation, was $3,614,239. In Philadelphia there were 376 free schools, 74,343 pupils, with an average attendance of 86J per cent., 84 male teachers and 1,194 female teachers. The State Superintendent, in his annual report, expresses the opinion that it would promote the cause of general education to have all the educational interests in the State, including colleges, seminaries, and academies, brought within the scope of legislative authority, and to have all the chartered institutions placed "to a certain extent" under the control of the School Department. He also urged the propriety of lessening the number of the higher institutions, and thereby increasing the endowments and income of those that remains. He says that by their multiplicity they are crippled in their operations, many of them being in want of adequate apparatus, furniture, libraries, and cabinets, while some of them sutler for lack of patronage. He recommends also that more ground should be allotted to schools, so as to afford abundant room for exercise and play, and that the location of schools should, if possible, be where the scenery would attract the eye and favor the cultivation of a taste for the beautiful. The Union State Convention assembled at Harrisburg on the 17th of August, and adopted a series of resolutions—recognizing the services of the soldiers and sailors who had shown that the war for the restoration of the Union was not a " failure;" expressive of reverence for the memory of Abraham Lincoln, and of a determination to support "his fellow-patriot and successor" Andrew Johnson; asserting "that the mild and generous method of reconstruction offered by the President to the people lately in rebellion, in the judgment of this convention, has not been accepted in the spirit of Page 693 honest loyalty and gratitude, but with such evidence of defiance and hostility as to impel us to the conviction that they cannot safely be intrusted with the political rights which they forfeited by their treason, until they have proven their acceptance of the results of the war by incorporating them in constitutional provisions, and securing to all men within their borders their inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; " urging that the rebellious States, having been conquered, should be held in subjection, and that the treatment they should receive, as well as the laws which should govern them, "should be referred to the law-making power of the nation, to which it legitimately belongs; " recommending that the property-holders of the South should be compelled to pay the expenses of the war, and "that Congress should declare as forfeited and vested in the Government, the property of all ; rebels whose estates exceed the sum of ten thousand dollars, and that the proceeds of the 1 property so confiscated should be applied to increase the pensions of those entitled thereto by the casualties of the war, to pay the damages done by the enemy to loyal citizens, and to reduce the burden of the national debt;" advising such a revision of the revenue laws as would insure increased protection to American industry; asserting any attempt by foreign nations to establish monarchical government on the American continent to be evidence of a design to destroy republican institutions; in favor of the payment of the full Federal bounty to all honorably discharged soldiers; commending and thanking Edwin M. Stanton and his colleagues in the cabinet for their "services in the cause of liberty and law ;" thanking Governor Curtin for his devotion " to the best interests of the State and nation during the last four years;" recognizing the claims of the citizen soldiers to confidence and gratitude, and recommending that especial regard be paid to their deserts in nominations for offices. The twelfth and last resolution accused the Democratic party of having constantly obstructed the efforts of the constituted authorities to maintain the life of the Republic—

By inflaming the passions of their ignorant followers against the legally elected officers of the Federal Government, and refraining from all reproach against treason or armed traitors:

By procuring a decision from the Democratic judges of our Supreme Court, denying the right of the Government to the services of the citizens of this State for the defence of their imperilled country:

By discouraging men from volunteering into the armies of the Union; thus rendering it necessary to succumb to treason, or to pay large bounties, and so burdening every ward, township, and borough in the State with debt to fill the ranks of our armies:

By opposing the enlistment of negroes for our defence, although one white man less was required for every black one who could be enlisted, and this at the very moment when the battle of Gettysburg was raging on the soil of Pennsylvania, and the result of that decisive battle was uncertain: By denying to our soldiers the right to vote while fighting for the flag of our fathers, on the plea that such rights were not allowed by our Constitution, and by opposing an amendment which removed their objections, and relieved our brave soldiers from disability:

By exaggerating the public indebtedness, denying the public credit, and teaching that the financial resources of the North were unequal to the suppression of the rebellion:

By a shameful opposition to measures for extending relief to the families of Union soldiers, and by a malignant effort by these means to secure the success of the rebels in the field, or such a protraction of the war as would exhaust the nation in its effort to subdue their friends:

By now heaping abuse upon the Goverment for punishing assassins and their accomplices: by demanding the release of leading traitors, by frowning down all attempts to bring to punishment the fiends who starved our soldiers, and bv assuring rebels that neither in person nor property shall they be punished for their crimes:

And if any thing were wanting to complete their infamy, we have it in their determined opposition to free labor, and to a tariff which, while it would make labor profitable by protecting the workingmen of  Pennsylvania from British competition, would largely increase the revenue essential to the maintenance of the public faith and credit.

The Democratic State Convention assembled also at Harrisburg on the 24th of August. The preamble to the resolutions asserted that the men and the party who had administered the Government since 1861, had " betrayed their trust, violated their sacred obligations, disregarded the commands of the fundamental law, corruptly squandered the public money, denied justice to the people, perverted the whole Government from its original purpose, and thereby brought untold calamities upon the country. Twelve resolutions were adopted, asserting that the Democratic party was, and always bad been, faithful to the Union of the States, and while , opposing secession with all its influence, had been without sympathy with that party in the North which pronounced the Constitution a "covenant with death and an agreement with hell;" asserting that if the counsels of the Democratic party had prevailed, "the Union would have been saved in all its honor and integrity, without the slaughter, debt, and disgrace of a civil war;" asserting that the Constitution is entitled to unqualified respect and obedience, and that " the oath to support it is binding, religiously, morally, and legally, at all times, under all circumstances, and in every part of the country," and that it is "only by a strict enforcement of its obligations in all the States, that we can hope for union, liberty, or peace;" claiming that among the rights guaranteed by the Constitution are, "a free press, freedom' from arbitrary arrest and illegal imprisonment, trial by jury, the writ of habeas corpus, the perfect immunity of all persons not in the army or navy from any species of punishment for crime or pretended crime which is not the legal consequence of a legal conviction by an impartial jury, the absolute subordination of all military power to the civil authority, and the privilege of white citizens to vote at the State elections according to the laws of the State;" concurring with President Johnson in the conviction Page 694 that, "the Federal Government is sovereign within its proper sphere—that it acts not through or upon the States, but directly upon individuals—that the States could not absolve the people from their Federal obligations —that the State ordinances of secession were nullities, and therefore, when the attempted revolution came to an end by the submission of the insurgents, the States were as much a part of the Union as they had been before;" asserting that the effort making by certain persons "to use the power of the General Government with a view to force negro suffrage on the States against the will of the people, and contrary to existing laws, is not only a high crime against the Constitution, but a deliberate and wicked attempt to put the States of this Union I —all of them more or less and some of them I entirely—under the domination of negroes, to | Africanize a large portion of the country, and 1 degrade the white race, morally and socially, as well as politically, to the low level of the black ;" pledging the party to support President Johnson's reconstruction policy, "in the belief that he will execute the law, the whole law, and nothing but the law, in all parts of the country—that he will not allow the military to interfere with State elections—that he will punish kidnapping and robbery through the legal authorities, whether committed by Federal officers or private citizens, and that he will suffer no person to be murdered by military commission;" urging—in view of the enormous national debt, and the great weight of State and local taxes—retrenchment and economy, the disbanding of the army, and the reduction of the navy; recommending such a revision of the revenue laws as to make taxation equal and just; expressing gratitude to the soldiers of the republic, but repelling the assertion "that they fought and bled and died mainly for the freedom of the negro" as a" gross insult on their patriotism ;" recognizing "the noble manner in which the Democratic press of this Commonwealth have contended for the liberties of the nation;" and reaffirming adherence to the Monroe doctrine.

The election took place on the 10th of October, and resulted in the success of the Union nominees, General Hartranft, the candidate for Auditor-General, receiving 238,400 votes, which gave him a majority of 22,660 over his opponent, Colonel W. W. H. Davis.

At a meeting of colored men, held in Philadelphia, on the 17th of July, to take into consideration the question of negro suffrage, the following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, That the apparent anxiety to preserve the ballot-box from the influence of the ignorance of the colored man is proved, by the class of men invited and urged to the polls at every election, to be but a hypocritical and malignant subterfuge.

Resolved, That the objection that, if enfranchised, the freedmen of the South will permit themselves to b-3 used by their former oppressors, can only bo founded on the fallacious presumption that he can bo made to do, now that he is free, what he could not be forced to do when a slave.


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