tions, the Governor raised and equipped a guard of forty men to patrol the southwestern border from Barbour County west about a hundred miles, and furnished independent companies of cavalry and infantry, which he caused to be organized along the western frontier, and provided them with arms, and also organized two regiments of infantry in the interior of the State, and kept scouts in the Indian territory to give warning of hostile movements. During the two years no instance has occurred of any of the exposed settlements being molested, but, on the contrary, the settlers have reposed in perfect security and had no reason to apprehend such danger. The Governor suggests that the State should strengthen its military organization in order to suppress internal disorders, mobs, and uprisings, which may be expected to result from the growth of large manufacturing interests, the extension of railways, and the development of coal-fields and mining interests.

The exodus of colored people into Kansas from Mississippi, Texas, and other parts of the South continued unabated through the early part of the year. After the national elections there were some signs of a renewal of the migration; but this was only a slight movement. In March from 250 to 300 poured into Topeka every week, and there had already immigrated into the State, it was stated by the Freedmen's Relief Association, between 20,000 and 25,000. Toward the end of the year there were 40,000. Many of these hung about Topeka and other towns, and showed themselves incapable and unwilling to try to provide for themselves. Mrs. Elizabeth L. Comstock, Mrs. Laura S. Haviland and other white people, and John M. Brown and other intelligent colored persons, labored energetically to obtain the means of relieving their privations and to aid and stimulate them to become self-supporting. The Freedmen's Relief Association was founded with the coöperation of the Governor soon after the landing of the first band of immigrants at Wyandotte in the spring of 1879. About $22,000 were distributed among them in clothing, provisions, medicine, freight, and transportation, etc. During the following winter and spring about $25,000 more were expended by the association in relieving the colored people and aiding them to find employment. Altogether about $150,000 were contributed to the support of the colored immigrants during the first year of their residence in Kansas. They were sent to different parts of the State, and many were given employment. Still, there was much suffering and want, and without benevolent assistance a large proportion of those who had come in 1879 were in 1880 not yet in possession of the means of subsistence. Henry King calculated that their total surplus earnings at the end of the first year of the exodus amounted to about $40,000, or $2.25 per capita. They bought and entered about 20,000 acres. Of the first 20,000, about 30 per cent. came VOL. XX.-27 A

from Mississippi, 20 per cent. from Texas, 15 per cent. from Tennessee, 10 per cent. from Louisiana, and 5 per cent. each from Georgia and Alabama. They were nearly all fieldhands, and exceedingly ignorant. The influx during the winter and the early part of 1880 was mainly from Texas. About 4,000 had been forwarded on request into Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, and other States. The moneys contributed for the benefit of the freedmen came from all parts of the Union, and a small sum from England.

There were distress and destitution in western Kansas, owing to the drought. About 20,000 people were stated to be in a suffering condition, and considerable amounts were contributed in the East for their relief.

In February President Hayes issued a proclamation warning intended raiders from entering the Indian Territory. (See ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES.) A meeting in favor of opening the Territory to colonization took place in Kansas City, Missouri, on the 4th of May, on which occasion the President's proclamation was read by a United States Marshal. An organization was formed, and a memorial to Congress drawn up, which advocated the allotment of land to Indians in severalty, the bestowal of citizenship upon them, the opening of the Indian Territory to settlers, and protested against moving any more wild, hunting Indians to the Territory. Bands of raiders moved upon the Territory in the latter part of the year. The principal body was called the Oklahoma Colony, and had a military organization. They encamped near Caldwell, on the border of the Territory, when winter set in, while a detachment of United States troops watched them. Many crossed the frontier secretly and entered claims. Numbers of these were expelled by the Indian scouts and police. The settlers came from different parts of the Union. A large proportion of them were old frontiersmen. The citizens along the border became more and inore friendly to the movement, and aided the settlers with considerable contributions of provisions. The colonists claim that the territory to which they are moving is not legally a portion of the Indian reservation, and that they have the right to occupy it under the homestead laws. They expect that Congress will, in recognition of their spirited action, be more prompt to amend the laws relating to the Indians, and throw open the whole of the reservations, except claims which shall be allotted to Indians in severalty, to free settlement.

A contest between the American Union Telegraph Company and the Western Union took place in the beginning of the year, regarding the right to the telegraph communications along some of the principal Western railroads controlled by Jay Gould, the principal promoter of the American Union Company. Telegraphic connections were considerably disturbed during the progress of the quarrel, es

pecially in Kansas. The Kansas Pacific Railroad Company took forcible possession of the telegraph wires along the line in February. Injunctions and counter-injunctions were taken out, and in July the matter came up for adjudication before the United States Circuit Court for the Kansas district, at Topeka, in the case of the Western Union Telegraph Company vs. the Union Pacific Railway Company, in equity, the Kansas Pacific Railway Company, and the American Union Telegraph Company. The legal contest had been going on for six months ΟΙ so before the act of seizing the wires in Kansas. The Western Union Company had first attempted to enjoin the other company from carrying wires along railroads east of the Mississippi with which it had contracted for the exclusive privilege. It claimed also the exclusive right of way on the Kansas Pacific under a contract. The lines along the Kansas Pacific and Union Pacific railroads, it was claimed, were built by the railroad companies, and operated by employees of the roads for the Western Union Company, which had contracted with the first road for the monopoly of the commercial business for twenty-five years, and with the second was the assignee of a perpetual lease of the telegraph rights. The American Union made first a formal demand upon the railroads to accept its business on the same terms on which it performed that of the other company, as required by its charter, to comply with which demand the railroads took possession of the wires. In the case of the Kansas Pacific it was shown that the wires were erected by the telegraph company, and that two of them were still its property. The Supreme Court ordered the restoration of the lines to the Western Union in a mandamus and injunction issued by Chief Justice Waite in April. The Kansas Pacific Railroad Company then proceeded to string separate wires for the use of the American Union Company. When the matter came before the Court upon its merits, the contract upon which the Western Union Company claimed the exclusive right of way, was decided to be void on account of the immorality of one of the considerations, to wit, that private messages of the officers of the railroad should be transmitted by the telegraph company free of charge. An amended bill was brought, in which the Western Union Company claimed the right of way by virtue of an act of Congress, notwithstanding the vicious clause in the contract. The act confers the right to build and operate a line of telegraph along the railroad route to the United States Telegraph Company. The Court held that this act gave the telegraph company the equitable right claimed, which held good for its assignee and was exclusive of the contract. On this ground the injunction against the Pacific Railroad Company was continued in force.

Four drive-well defense associations have been formed to contest the validity of the Green drive-well patent, issued in 1868, and

reissued in 1871. These wells are in general use in southern and southwestern Kansas, as also in some other parts of the country; and the owners of the patent have been endeavoring to collect five and ten dollar royalties on them, having brought many hundred suits in Kansas alone for this object. Congressman Ryan presented to Congress a petition requesting that the Attorney-General be instructed to bring a suit against the patentees, on the grounds that the invention is not a patentable novelty, and that if it were, the patent could be voided because the patentee had waived his rights by allowing more than two years to elapse between the date of the invention and the application for a patent. The defense associations expect to prove that the principle of the drive well was known and described in public prints seventy-five years ago, and that these wells have been extensively used all over the United States since 1840.

The Attorney-General, Willard Davis, delivered an opinion that the registry law passed in 1879, requiring registration as an indispensable condition of the right to vote, was in conflict with the Constitution, since the constitutional qualifications for voting can not be abridged by law, which would be the case if a voter possessing the constitutional requirements were deprived of his vote through failure to register, when prevented from so doing through sickness, absence, nonage, or other cause. law, he thinks, would hold if an amendatory clause were inserted, excepting electors who were prevented involuntarily from voting; and a qualified elector would then work his own disfranchisement if through negligence he failed to comply with the statutory requirement. The question has been brought before the Supreme Court for adjudication.

The

The County Commissioners, acting as a board of canvassers, refused to declare the result of the county election held in Harper County, in November, 1879, on the ground that it was fraudulent, 2,957 votes having been cast, when there are not over 800 voters in the county. The question of removing the county-seat from Anthony to Harper was voted upon in this election. An action was brought by the State, at the instance of the county attorney, in the interests of persons claiming to have been elected officers, and of the town of Harper to have the Commissioners canvass the returns and declare the result. The Court refused the application for a mandamus on the ground that the election was manifestly fraudulent. Another litigated county-seat dispute was the case of Pratt County, where some of the township clerks failed to sign the returns, and the Commissioners refused to count them, leaving Iuka the county-seat instead of Saratoga, and a mandamus was applied for to compel the canvassing

of the vote.

An important constitutional point is to be tested in the Supreme Court in a case brought to determine the validity of the appropriation

lives of employees in the mines of Kansas and to secure miners their wages.

The Democratic Convention for the nomination of State officers met at Topeka, August 31st. The following candidates were chosen: for Governor, ex-Senator E. G. Ross; for Lieutenant-Governor, Thomas George; for Secretary of State, John M. Giffin; for Auditor, J. G. Neumueller; for Treasurer, Theodore Wichselbaum; for Attorney-General, A. L. Hereford; for Superintendent of Public Instruction, Miss Sarah A. Brown. A resolution was adopted which approved the Presidential nominations at Cincinnati, also the following on State

matters:

Resolved, That the proposition made and submitted by the last Republican Legislature to the people to amend the Constitution of the State, affecting the repeal of the constitutional exemption of $200, is not in the best interests of the State, and is an outrage upon the poor people of the Commonwealth, and we pledge every honorable effort to defeat said proposition.

In the Republican State Convention, which met at Topeka, September 1st, Governor John P. St. John was renominated; D. W. Finney was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor, after several ballots; James Smith was nominated for Secretary of State; P. J. Bonebrake for Auditor; John Francis for Treasurer; William A. Johnston for Attorney-General'; H. C. Speer for Superintendent of Public Instruction. With the exception of the AttorneyGeneral and the Superintendent of Instruction, the nominees were all of them the incumbents of the offices for which they were nominated. The following platform was adopted:

The Republicans of Kansas, in Delegate Convention assembled, heartily endorse the declaration of principles embodied in the National Republican platform, and pledge their united and zealous support to the nominees of the Chicago Convention, General James A. Garfield and General Chester A. Arthur.

We point with satisfaction to the rapid and substantial growth of Kansas under the unbroken Republican Administration, extending through two decades. We congratulate the people of the State that general education has gone hand in hand with material develop ment. We take especial pride in the fact that the revenues of the State have been honestly collected and wisely and securely invested. We affirm that the United States is a nation, and that it is alike the right and duty of the General Government to secure to all of its citizens full and complete liberty and exact equality in the exercise of their civil and political rights. A free ballot, uninfluenced by force or intimidation, and fair count of such ballots are necessary for the preservation of free institutions. The republic can not endure if shot-guns or tissue ballots, intimidation or false counting, control the choice of officers and the policy of legislation or administration. The change most needed in this country is one which will abolish the system by which a vast section of the country has been made and is kept solid for the Democratic party.

We congratulate the people upon the fact that the resumption of specie payments has brought in its train general prosperity and universal confidence, and that our currency, coin, and paper has a fixed value, and is convertible, secure, and equivalent.

We declare that, inasmuch as the Republican party of this State is justly held responsible for the officers whom it or its representatives elect, and inasmuch as experience has shown the grave evils resulting from

purely personal canvasses, it is the duty of the Republican members of the Legislature, in the election of the various officers within their choice, to act in concert, and in accordance with the determination of a fairly expressed majority of the Republican members in caucus or convention assembled.

The important question of the adoption of the prohibitory temperance amendment to the Constitution was to be decided at the November State election. A heated controversy between the friends and opponents of the proposed amendment went on throughout the summer. The main strength of the Republican gubernatorial candidate, in the Convention and before the people, consisted in his ardent prohibition sympathies and his decided approval of the plan embodied in the amendment. The proposed amendment was to incorporate the following additional section into the Constitution:

shall be for ever prohibited in this State, except for The manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors medical, scientific, and mechanical purposes.

After the election there was still a question as to whether the amendment had been adopted, and it remained for the Supreme Court to decide whether a plurality vote was sufficient been decided in the negative in the matter of to carry the amendment. (This question has the Indiana amendments by the Supreme Court of that State. See INDIANA.)

The returns of the vote for Governor gave St. John 115,204 votes; Ross, 63,557; Vrooman, 19,477; scattering votes, 692; making 50,955. The other Republican candidates for the Republican plurality 51,647, and majority State officers were elected by pluralities some 10,000 or more greater. John A. Anderson was elected member of Congress from the First District by 48,599 votes, and a majority of 18,534; J. C. Haskell, from the Second District, by 30,758 votes, and 7,001 majority; Thomas Ryan, from the Third, by 41,094 votes, and 14,721 majority.

The vote for the Legislature returned 36 Republican, 1 Independent Republican, 1 Fusionist, and 2 Democratic Senators; and 118 Republican, 3 Independent Republican, 5 Fusion, and 11 Democratic Representatives.

There were 92,302 votes cast for the proposition to amend the Constitution by adding the clause prohibiting the manufacture and sale of liquors, and 84,304 votes against the proposition.

For the proposition to amend the Constitution by striking out the clause exempting $200 personal property from taxation," there were 38,442 votes cast, and 140,020 against the proposed amendment.

The vote upon holding a Constitutional Convention was 22,870 for and 146,279 against.

The vote for the Presidential electors averaged 121,529 for the Garfield electors, 59,729 for the Hancock electors, 19,715 for the Weaver electors, and 35 votes for other tickets; making Garfield's plurality 61,800, the largest gained in any State.

KENTUCKY. The session of the Legislature was a notable one on account of the measures which were taken to extricate the State from financial difficulties, and to arrest and remedy numerous administrative abuses. The Legislature acted upon every one of the recommendations contained in the Governor's message. The most important measures were the addition of five cents on the one hundred dollars in the tax levy, making the general revenue tax four and a half mills, as formerly; stringent laws for the assessment and collection of the taxes, and for the detection of fraudulent witness claims and others, and the reduction of fees; the substitution of the warden system for the lessee system in the Penitentiary, and provisions for enlarging the accommodations and reforming the management; the submission of the proposition of calling a Constitutional Convention to the vote of the people; the creation of a commission for the regulation of railroads; the reduction of appropriations, and provisions for the better management of the State charitable institutions; the endowment of the Agricultural and Me chanical College; the transfer of the State's improvements in the Kentucky River to the General Government, and provisions for the acquisition of property by the Government for river improvement and for the protection of the Government works; certain amendinents in the civil code, and the redistricting of the State into judicial circuits, and the abolition of a number of lesser courts.

The Legislature began its session on December 31st, and adjourned on the 6th of May, sitting 127 days, a longer session than that of any previous Legislature. Lieutenant-Governor James E. Cantrill presided over the Senate, and J. M. Bigger was elected Speaker of the House. In addition to the important general laws which were enacted, a large number of local and private acts were also passed. Many of the members sat in the Legislature for the first time in the lower house, and the regularity of the proceedings was broken several times by stormy scenes, and excited, unparliamentary language. The session of the Senate was not marked by any similar unpleasantness, and the debates of this body were uniformly good-natured and courteous.

The act to take the sense of the people upon calling a convention to revise the Constitution of the State, provides that the vote on this question shall be polled at the next ensuing election of representatives; that the proposition shall be duly advertised, and polls opened by the sheriffs and other election officers, who shall propound the question, "Do you vote for calling a convention or not?" to every elector entitled to vote for Representatives, and record the answers and make returns of those voting in favor of a convention to the Secretary of

State.

Among the revenue and taxation acts was one permitting the owners of property sold

for taxes due in or before 1878, and bought in by the State, to redeem it by paying the purchase money and interest at thirty per cent. per annum. This act was afterward amended by making the rate of interest six per cent. per annum, and subsequently to the effect that the lands are redeemable upon payment of back taxes and interest. An act to prevent the payment of fraudulent claims against the Comnonwealth, provided that the order of a court allowing a bill or credit against the State should be regarded as prima facie evidence of the correctness of the claim, but should not be treated as a judgment. In case the Auditor suspects the fraudulence or illegality of such claims, he may, with the advice of the Attorney-General, contest their payment in the Circuit Court of Franklin County, which is given jurisdiction of all suits against the Treasury. The Attorney-General was authorized to sue for the recovery of moneys suspected to have been paid out of the Treasury heretofore upon fraudulent or irregular claims. Another act authorized the Attorney-General to investigate the condition and value of judgments obtained by the State upon which executions have been issued, and the return of no property found made by the officers. An act to prevent the payment of fraudulent claims out of the Treasury makes it a felony for a justice of the peace, sheriff, constable, or other peace officer, to present a false clain for services connected with the arrest, trial, or transportation of prisoners. The Auditor was authorized to appoint agents to attend to revenue matters in the counties, who shall see that persons who have failed to return their taxable property shall be summoned into court to give in their lists, that sheriffs and collectors who have collected delinquent taxes and not accounted for them shall be prosecuted, and to investigate the accounts of officers, and see if there have been any overcharges or defalcations. Another act makes it punishable for a magistrate to issue warrants for arrest in felony cases without filing in his office an affidavit specifying the charge and showing reasonable grounds for suspecting the person arrested. These acts were the result of the discovery of extensive and systematic frauds practiced by county officials upon the Treasury, especially in the eastern part of the State.

The sheriffs or collectors of the State or county taxes are required to return the tax receipts of insolvent and delinquent taxpayers, and are barred from collecting the taxes returned as delinquent unless they are relisted. The time for the collection of fees and taxes, except such as were already outlawed, was extended two years. The law regarding the service of tax-notices amended so as to require the sheriff to tender a receipt specifying the assessment and tax due from any person upon demand, and to notify personally or leave a written notice at the house of every tax-payer, resi

was