Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

Balance in State Treasury, December 20, 1874, 8328,704 55
Receipts into the Treasury from December 20,
1874, to December 20, 1876..

Total...

Amount of disbursements from December 20,
1874, to December 20, 1876.....

Treasury balance, December 20, 1876
1, 1877.....

Disbursements from December 20, 1876, to
January 1, 1877...

yond the reach of legal coercion in the fulfillment of
its obligations, is for that very reason under stronger
bonds to maintain its credit inviolate. Nor have
they been unmindful of the honorable character and
unblemished credit which the great State of Tennes-
see has always enjoyed in the markets of the world,
of her reputation for the possession of large re-
sources, nor of the humiliation she must consequent-
ly endure by any compromise whatever of her legal Receipts from December 20, 1876, to January
All these considerations have been
obligations.
duly weighed, and they have induced this commit-
tee to carefully inquire whether it was not expedient
for them to recommend, instead of so large a reduc-
tion of the principal of the debt, a concession for a
few years in the rate of interest, as proposed in a
plan submitted to the Governor by holders of a large
amount of bonds, in the belief, which is generally en-
tertained among the creditors, that a gradual recov-
ery of wealth would accrue to the State, and enable
her at an early day to resume payment in full. This
mode of adjustment would be obviously more grati-
fying to State pride, and would also afford greater
present relief, and it would certainly be more ac-
ceptable to the majority of bondholders.

[ocr errors]

Balance in the Treasury, January 1, 1877..

4,526,422 76

$4,855,127 81

4,715,795 12

$139,832 19

23,488 88

$162,766 02

129,701 91

$38,064 11

The retiring Treasurer, Mr. Morrow, made the following statement of the receipts and disbursements during his administration of more than six years:

1871....

Received from June 1, 1870, to October 1,
Received from October 1, 1871, to January 1,
1873...

$1,984,027 90

2,420,091 17

Received from January 1, 1878, to December
20, 1874..

8,618,703 52

[blocks in formation]

But, after attentively considering the statements of your delegation respecting the sad results of the war, the social derangement and general impoverishment it has entailed, and the wide-spread disorganization existing in all the industries of the people Received from December 20, 1876, to January throughout the State, we have been constrained to the decision that a summary reduction of the debt, even to the large extent indicated, is the best course for all parties concerned, and that, unless the Legislature shall now see its way clear for a settlement more favorable to the bondholders, it is both its duty and its policy to adopt the award which this committee most respectfully and conscientiously tender to them and to their creditors, as the result of their best judgment.

The new bonds proposed were to bear six per cent. interest from July 1, 1877, payable semi-annually in New York, the principal to

[blocks in formation]

28,433 83 $12,572,679 23

129,701 91-$12,589,615 12 $88,064 11

Balance in the Treasury, January 1, 1877,

The estimated "amount necessary to be raised for the purpose of carrying on the State government for two years," ending December, 1878, as submitted to the Governor by the Controller, Treasurer, and Secretary of State, is $1,032,532 for current expenses, and $301,500 for interest on the school-fund, amounting together to $1,334,032.

On the 8th of May the Railroad Commissioners of the State sold the Tennessee Pacific Railroad at public auction, to meet an unpaid balance due the State, amounting to $150,000, with interest from July 1, 1870. It was purchased by the company, and the sum of $178,000 in bonds of the State has been paid, leaving $3,500 in bonds and $10,650 in cash unpaid. The Knoxville & Charleston Railroad was sold by the commissioners for $75,000, one-half having been paid in bonds of the State. The Mississippi Central Railroad, having failed to pay interest on bonds loaned to it by the State, was placed in the hands of a receiver on the 25th of February, and has since been operated by him on behalf of the State. During the year it was kept in repair, the running expenses were paid, and $60,000 was paid into the Treasury of the State on account of taxes and interest.

The State Normal School has been located at Nashville, the trustees of the University of Nashville giving the use of its buildings. The

[graphic]

Normal School, which is now in successful operation, has been supported thus far by the Board of Trust of the Peabody Education fund, but its support is to be withdrawn at the close of the scholastic year of 1876-'77.

The penitentiary of the State and its inmates are still under lease. An act of the Legislature of 1875 provided for a new lease for five years, if the highest bid received was satisfactory to the Governor and inspectors. Only three bids were received, and all these were rejected. The old lease has been extended for a period of eight months, at a rental of $10,181.75 quarterly for 800 convicts.

A Republican Convention was held at Nashville on the 17th of May, for the purpose of choosing 24 delegates to the National Convention of the party at Cincinnati. There were about 200 delegates present, one-fifth of whom were colored. A letter from ex-Governor William G. Brownlow was read, urging the

maintenance of the credit of the State by the full payment of every obligation. Resolutions were adopted advocating the preservation of the national credit and the restoration of an honest currency; expressing entire confidence in the ability of the Republican party to correct the abuses and errors that may have found entrance among those to whom it had confided its governing policy; favoring the punishment of corrupt officials; opposing interference with public schools by any sect or denomination; denouncing repudiation in every form; expressing full confidence in the delegates to Cincinnati, and declining to instruct, and referring the matter of a convention to nominate a Governor and other State officials to the Executive Committee for their action.

The Democratic Convention for the selection of delegates to the National Convention at St. Louis was held at Nashville on the 31st of May. The following declarations were made:

[graphic][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

7. We insist that only honest and capable men be appointed to office.

8. We demand the vigilant investigation and the condign punishment of official corruption and crime, according to the methods and measures of the law, and thank the popular branch of Congress for its unfaltering efforts to uncover and punish official peculation.

9. No bounty to any one class engaged in special industry, to the prejudice of other and more numerous classes pursuing occupations equally important, and opposing protection for protection's sake.

10. We declare hostility to all legislation designed or calculated to foster and favor the few to the detriment of the many.

11. We insist on the subordination of the military to the civil authorities.

12. We declare unfaltering fealty to the Constitution, and oppose any attempt to enlarge its powers beyond its true spirit and meaning.

13. That delegates to the St. Louis Convention be, and they are hereby, instructed to vote as a unit on all propositions, and that the majority shall control the vote; and while we will yield an unfaltering and zealous support to any sound and capable Democrat who may be nominated for President, and while we do not instruct our delegates in regard to their votes, yet we express our preference for the Hou. Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, as honest and capable, favorably located, and, in our judgment, combining more elements of success than any other named aspirant.

During the month of August, party conventions were held, at which the action of the National Convention was fully approved and their platforms reaffirmed. Candidates were nominated for presidential electors and for Governor of the State. James D. Porter was nominated by the Democrats for Governor. The Republicans made no regular nomination, but Thomas was put forward as an independent candidate. George Maury was supported by a portion of the Republican party, William T. Yardley (colored) by others, and A. M. Hughes by a small number.

At the election on the 7th of November the total vote for presidential electors was 222,732, of which the Democratic candidates received 133,166, and the Republican candidates 89,566, making the majority of the former 43,600. For Governor there were 210,632 votes cast. Of these, Porter received 123,740, Thomas 73,695, Maury 10,436, Yardley 2,165, and Hughes 596. Porter's plurality over Thomas was 50,045; majority over all, 36,848. The Legislature chosen at the same time, to hold its session in January, 1877, consists of 20 Democrats and 5 Republicans in the Senate, and 57 Democrats, 16 Republicans, and 2 Independents in the House. This makes the Democratic majority 15 in the Senate and 39 in the House, or 54 on joint ballot. The Secretary of State, Controller, and Treasurer, are elected by the Legislature. In January, 1877, Colonel C. W. Gibbs and Colonel J. L. Gaines were reëlected to the offices of Secretary of State and Controller, and Colonel Marshall T. Polk was chosen Treasurer. Colonel Polk is the youngest son of a brother of James K. Polk, a former President of the United States. He was educated at the West Point Military Academy, and served in the Confederate army, a part of the time on the staff of General Leonidas Polk.

James E. Bailey has been chosen United States Senator, to complete the term begun by Andrew Johnson and continued by D. M. Key, who was appointed by the Governor, but failed of election when the Legislature met. Judge Bailey is a lawyer of high standing, a native of Clarksville, and before the civil war was a prominent Whig. He served as a colonel in the Confederate army.

TEXAS. The Constitutional Convention which met at Austin on September 1, 1875, to revise and amend the organic law of the State, closed its session by final adjournment on the 24th of November. Among other changes made in the old constitution, the or

ganization of the three departments of the State government is more or less altered; as, in the executive, some of the officers are made elective; in the legislative, the number of Senators is fixed at thirty-one, and of Representatives at ninety-three; and it establishes one Supreme Court, consisting of a Chief-Justice and two Associate Justices; one Court of Appeals, composed also of three judges; and twenty-six District Courts, held by one judge each. By ordinances appended to the new constitution, the convention divides the State into twenty-six judicial, thirty-one senatorial, and seventy-nine representative districts.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

The new constitution makes the State elections biennial, and limits the duration of the legislative session to sixty days, except the first session, which may be extended to ninety days, with a still further extension of thirty days, if the Legislature deems it necessary.

The convention submitted its work to the people at an election held on the second Tuesday of April, 1876, when they should ratify or reject the new constitution, and vote also for the State and local officers specified in it.

In preparation for this election, the Democratic party of Texas met in State Convention at Galveston, at the end of the first week of January, 1876, to nominate candidates for State offices, for Judges of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, and for presidential electors; also to choose delegates to the Democratic Convention at St. Louis. The nominations resulted as follows:

For Governor, Richard Coke; for Lieutenant-Governor, Richard B. Hubbard; for State Treasurer, A. J. Dorr; for Controller of Public Accounts, Stephen H. Darbin; for Commissioner of the General Land-Office, J. J. Gross; for Attorney-General, Hamilton H. Boone.

For Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court, O. M. Roberts. For Associate Justices, Messrs. Moore and Gould.

For Judges of the Court of Appeals, John P. White, M. D. Ector, and C. M. Winkler. For presidential electors at large and their

alternates, the following were declared nominated: D. C. Giddings, of Washington County, and S. H. Epperson, of Marion County, electors; Columbus Upson, of Bexar County, and Samuel J. Adams, of Dallas County, alternates. The following platform was adopted by the convention:

We, the Democracy, in convention assembled, hereby declare our principles and policy, and ask for them the popular approval:

1. We reaffirm our faith in the principles of the Democratic party, as heretofore enunciated by our State Conventions, and congratulate the people upon the faithful redemption of all the pledges upon which the Democratic party was recently placed in power in Texas; and point to the honesty and efficiency of our present State administration, as a guarantee of our continued fidelity to the interests of the State and people.

2. The Democratic party, now as in the past adhering to its policy of maintaining an efficient system of general education, declares it to be the duty of the Legislature of the State to speedily establish and make provision for the support and maintenance of public free schools, and to this end to exercise the whole power with which it is invested.

3. The sufferings and losses of our people on the frontier from the forays of savages, and upon the Mexican border from invasions, murder, and rapine by the Mexican banditti, enlist our deep and sincere sympathy; and while we hereby pledge our most

energetic efforts to afford them adequate protection. in person and property by the State, we also earnest ly appeal to the General Government to give that protection and security to our people and their property thus exposed, to which they are entitled under the Constitution of the United States.

4. That the Democratic party, firmly upholding the Constitution of the United States as the foundation and limitation of the powers of the General Government, and the safe shield of the liberties of the people, demands for the citizen the largest freedom consistent with public order, and for every State the right of self-government and home rule; that, to uphold the former and protect the latter, the Democracy of Texas plants itself for the great leading principles enunciated in the inaugural of President Jefferson and the farewell address of the immortal Jackson, and enters the contest of 1876 with the firm conviction that the elements of opposition to the national Administration should be consolidated in the approaching presidential campaign, without prejudice to the unity and perpetuity of the Democratic organization.

5. We pledge to the nominees of this convention our earnest and active support.

For the same election of February 15, 1876, the Republicans nominated a State ticket, headed by William Chambers as their candidate for Governor, and adopted a platform which censured Governor Coke's administration of the State government; denounced the proposed

[graphic][subsumed][merged small]

new constitution; indorsed the present administration of the Federal Government; and asked that Mr. Pinchback be allowed to sit in the Federal Legislature as Senator from Louisiana. The election resulted generally in favor of the Democratic nominees, by greater majorities over their Republican competitors than in 1875. The majority of the Democratic candidate for Governor in that year was 47,631; the whole number of votes then cast on Governor having been 152,337, out of which Mr. Coke received 99,984, Mr. Davis 52,353.

The state of parties in the Legislature was as follows: Of the 31 Senators-Republicans 3, one of them colored, and 28 Democrats, two of these being characterized as Independent Democrats. Of the 85 Representatives-Democrats, 69; Independent Democrats, 4: Republicans, 4, of whom two are colored; Granger, 1; Independents, 2; with no party designation, 5. Of the 21 district judges elected, there were-Democrats, 16; Independent Democrat, 1; Republican, 1; Independent, 1; with no party designation, 2.

FLOATING DEBT.

Warrants on general revenue unpaid August

31, 1876...

The new Constitution was adopted at the election of February 15th. The whole number of votes cast in the State was about the same as on the State ticket, and its adoption secured by about the same majority, though somewhat Approved certificates of debt.. less.

The new constitution, being ratified by the people, went into operation on the third Tuesday in April, 1876. The benefits expected to accrue to the people of Texas from it have been stated as follows:

The adoption of the constitution has saved the people from an appalling disaster. It is a rebuke to railroad peculators; it has condemned the enemies of the Texas & Pacific Railroad, by preventing entry to the lands guaranteed to the road by the State; it has secured the payment of taxes on 30,000,000 acres of land, on which at present not a cent of taxes is paid; it has secured to every county its fair proportion of the proceeds from taxation; it prevents unjust usury; it preserves the credit of the State in her bonded securities; it fixes the capital of the State permanently at Austin, and gives her 3,000,000 acres of the public domain which is worth, at the least calculation, as many dollars; this same to be expended in the construction of a new Capitol and other public buildings. Add to the other blessings which the constitution confers, that it is so framed as to remove the objections of the fastidious in the future by its provisions for easy amendments. A two-thirds vote of the Legislature is required to propose amendments; and the acceptance by a majority of the votes cast, at either a special or general election, secures its adoption. . Under the provisions of the new constitution, the Legislature will be convened on the third Tuesday in April. The session will consist of three months' duration, and after that the people will be called upon to pay for biennial sessions only, and these confined to a distinct period. The general election will be held on the first Monday in November, commencing with November, 1878. The officers elected under the new constitution will hold their offices as if they had been elected in November. This prolongs their terms of office six months and some days. They will be installed in office on the third Tuesday in April, the same day that is fixed for the assembling of the Legislature.

The members of the Legislature met at Austin on April 18, 1876, when both Houses were soon organized. T. R. Bonner was elected Speaker of the House, he having received 45 votes, against 43 cast for D. U. Barziga, his competitor, also a Democrat.

The aggregate amount of the State debt, bonded and floating, on August 31, 1876, consisted of the following items:

[blocks in formation]

Pension certificates and approved claims un-
bonded...

Interest due Agricultural and Mechanical Col-
lege fund....

Total.

DEBT OF DOUBTFUL VALIDITY.
State bonds issued to State University fund,
under act of November 12, 1866, as indemni-
ty for United States bonds belonging to that
fund, and transferred to general revenue ac-
count in February, 1860..

Interest to August 31. 1876, on above bonds is-
sued to University fund.

State bonds of act of November 12, 1866, issued
to school-fund in lieu of United States bonds
belonging to that fund used during the late

war..

Interest to August 31, 1876, on above bonds
issued to school-fund.

State bonds, act of November 15, 1564, issued
to school-fund in lieu of warrants belenging
to that fund destroyed during the war...
Interest on above bonds issued to school-fund,
to August 31, 1876...

Total.

$212,084 57

59,287 00 15,978 88

53,400 00 $384,699 95

$184,472 26

63,874 80

82,168 82

89,030 20

820,867 18

217,849 50 $857,762 21

The business transacted at the General LandOffice, in regard to the disposal of lands belonging to the vast public domain of Texas, has been much larger during the last fiscal year than at any previous one. The number of patents issued within that period, and covering 2,421,989 acres of land, was 4,555; and new files have been made covering 9,870,687 acres. The amount of fees and dues received at the said office during the year was $54,530.91.

The whole number of acres comprised within the area of Texas is estimated at 175,594,which no claim exists, 67,580,129. 560; number of acres of public domain against

The Legislature continued its session for ninety days, comprising the full time of a regular session, and nearly the two additional months allowed by the new constitution, until August 22d.

On May 2d, the second Tuesday from the opening of the session, the Legislature proceeded to the election of a United States Senator, for the term of six years, to begin with March 4, 1877. The joint votes having stood, for Richard Coke 68, for John Ireland 49, Richard Coke was declared to be duly elected.

The legislation of the session was strictly local in its nature.

The total vote for presidential electors on November 7th was 149,555, of which the Democratic electors received 104,755, and the Republican electors 44,800. The Democratic candidates for Congress were elected by a combined majority of 60,476.

TIDEMAND, ADOLF, one of the most celebrated painters of Norway, born August 14, 1814 (not 1815, as erroneously stated in some works); died August 25, 1876. He studied in the Academies of Copenhagen and Düsseldorf, and in 1841 brought out his first large painting, representing a scene from the life of Gustavus Vasa. Having returned to Düsseldorf

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »