This university receives the endowment of the liberal grant of land made by Congress for the encouragement of systematic education in agriculture and the mechanic arts. Among the enactments of the last Legislature was one making eight hours' labor, between sunrise and sunset, a legal day's work, which was so restricted in its action, however, as not to affect farm-labor, or service by the year, month, or week, or prevent any person from entering into special contract for working any length of time within the twenty-four hours. An act was also passed amending the game laws, so as to make it a misdemeanor for any person to carry a gun or fishing-rod on Sunday, except upon his own premises. Registration is to be required in all cases to secure the right of voting. The provision of the old constitution against the exaction of any test oath from persons accepting office is not retained. The committee on the powers and duties of the Legislature endeavored to provide for the relief of that body from the great mass of legislation for special and local purposes which has frequently embarrassed its action, by forbidding the passage of special and local laws in numerous cases, such as laying out roads, granting the right of laying down street railroads, changing county seats, etc., and authorizing general laws in these and all other cases where they are applicable. Another class of troublesome acts is done away by providing for the establishment of a Court of Claims, to consist of three judges nominated by the Governor, and appointed by him with the consent of the Senate, to adjudicate such claims upon the State as the Legislature, by general laws, shall direct. The sessions of the Legislature are to be biennial only, if this article is adopted unchanged. In March last an act passed the Legislative body of the State, providing for a convention to revise the constitution. The election for delegates was to be held on the 23d of April, and the delegates then chosen to assemble at Albany on the first Tuesday in June. Four delegates were allowed to each senate district, while thirty-two delegates at large were to be chosen by the voters of the entire State, no one elector voting for more than sixteen of The article on the judiciary, as reported by them. The aggregate number of members was the committee to whom that subject was inthus fixed at 160. The political parties held trusted, provides for the establishment of a State conventions to nominate delegates at Court of Appeals, a Supreme Court, and infelarge, and as each nominated sixteen candi- rior courts, upon much the same plan as that dates, the manner of election secured the entire now existing. The State is to be divided into ticket to each party at the election. The whole four departments, and each department into body, as chosen on the 23d of April, consisted two districts, to facilitate the exercise of the of 97 Republicans and 63 Democrats. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court; and twentymembers met on the 4th of June, in the Assem- four justices are to preside in three of these bly Chamber of the capitol, and organized for departments, while the city and county of New their labors by placing Wm. A. Wheeler in the York is to form a separate district, with ten chair. This convention is still in session, and justices. The judges of the State courts are as no official publication of any of the results to be elected as heretofore, but are to hold of its work has yet appeared, no attempt will their position during good behavior, or until be made in the present article to give more they reach the age of seventy years. than a faint outline of a few prominent features county judges are to hold office seven years. of the constitution which it is framing, as va- Provision is made for submitting to a vote of rious portions have come up from time to time the people in 1870 the question of appointing for adoption or modification. the judges and justices of the Court of Appeals, Supreme and Superior Courts, and Court of Common Pleas, instead of having them elected, as is done at present. A large part of the debate which was carried on in the convention during the summer months was devoted to the question of qualifications for exercising the right of suffrage. The original report on this subject proposed to take this right from paupers, to require two months of complete citizenship of naturalized foreigners before granting it to them, and to do away with the disabilities founded on a distinction of color. Subsequent amendments removed the first two of these propositions, and a protracted discussion followed on the last. An attempt was inade to have it separately submitted to a vote of the people at the election of 1867, but this proposition was defeated, and the discussion cut off by an adjournment over the election, from September 24th to November 12th. Petitions were received praying for an extension of suffrage to women; the subject found some earnest advocates, and was supported by the votes of twenty delegates. The There has been much complaint of official corruption in the management of the canals, and it was proposed by Mr. Greeley of New York that the canals be sold; but this project received very little favor, and one of the provisions of the legislative article prohibits their sale, lease, or other disposal of them, declaring that they shall remain under the management of the State forever. The same declaration is made with regard to the salt springs. The Comptroller Treasurer, and Attorney-General, are made commissioners of the canal fund, with the power of appointing all officers intrusted with the collection and safe-keeping of the revenues derived from that source, and an auditor of the canal department is to be appointed by the Governor, who, with the Superintendent of Public Works and the commissioners above mentioned, shall determine the rates of toll on the canals. Another material change in the canal policy is the application of the surplus revenues until October, 1878, to the payment of the canal and general fund debts, and after that period to the general purposes of the State, until the sum of $18,007,287.68, advanced to the canals since 1846, and interest thereon, shall have been paid. This scheme was opposed by Mr. Hatch, in a minority report of the Committee on Finance, in which he set forth the importance of applying the surplus revenues of these works to their extension. An article was reported to the convention by the Committee on Prisons, providing for a State police, under the control of a superintendent, appointed by the Governor, to hold office seven years. This system was designed to supersede all other police regulations throughout the State. The Committee on Charities reported an article, enjoining upon the Legislature the duty of establishing a Board of Commissioners of Charities, who should be required to report to the Legislature, at each session, upon the condition of charitable institutions in the State, and who should exercise a general supervision over these important interests, the members of such board to be appointed for eight years by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate. In adverting to the great moral evils which spring from the wretched condition of those whom charitable institutions are mainly intended to relieve, the committee say: The infants whose lives are daily taken in this State by their wretched parents, is placing the moral character of the commonwealth beneath some of the most despotic and debased governments of the Old World; and the appalling facts of murder and other crimes of distress and poverty, recorded in the reports and journals of the day, prove that this is not the time to arrest the power and means of the State in its mission either of preventing or punishing crime. There are also crimes which shall be nameless here, and which are largely upon the increase in New Eng land, New York, and all over the country. It is enough to say that they affect the morals of the State, the future of its population, and the general welfare. How far the various projects which have been before the Constitutional Convention will appear essentially unchanged in the organic law of the State when submitted to the people, it is impossible now to say, as the results of revision and amendment have not yet been put forth in any authentic form. The Republican State Convention assembled at Syracuse on the 25th of September. The Hon. Roscoe Conkling was elected to the chair as the presiding officer, and on taking that position addressed the convention in a speech of some length, condemning the course of the President on the great national question of admitting the Southern States to a participation in the general government of the country. The nominations made by the convention were as follows: for Secretary of State, General McKean, of Saratoga; for Comptroller, Thos. Hillhouse, of Ontario; for Treasurer, General T. B. Gates, of Ulster; for Attorney-General, Joshua M. Van Cott, of Brooklyn; for State Engineer and Surveyor, A. C. Powell, of Onondaga; for Canal Commissioner, Jno. M. Hammond, of Allegany; for State Prison Inspector, Gilbert De La Matyr, of Genesee; for Judge of Court of Appeals, Chas. Mason, of Madison. After the nominations had been made, the following resolutions were adopted as embodying the principles represented in the convention: Resolved, That the Republican Union party of the State of New York reassert its declarations of the rights and liberties of men in all their fulness, and that it renews its pledges to protect and defend those rights and liberties and the franchises which secure them. Resolved, That, as Republicans of the State of New York, recognizing the obligation of consistency and straightforwardness in support of the great principles should be impartial, that it is a right not to be limited we profess, we unhesitatingly declare that suffrage by property or color. Resolved, That as the Republican party has not hesitated fearlessly to search out corruption and misgovernment, and frankly to expose them, so it now declares its purpose to continue the work of administrative reform it has inaugurated; that it will steadily fight corruptionists and ever hold them its enemies; that it will urge war against them until corruption and maladministration are rooted out and destroyed, and that we will see to it at all hazards that the interests of the State are committed to public servants of integrity untainted by any of the fraudulent usages and practices of that party whose fear to grapple with corruption first brought upon it the contempt of the people. Resolved, That while all measures for the amelioration of society are entitled to and should receive the earnest consideration of thinking Republicans, and while all the history of the party shows it the only true friend of such measures, we do inscribe upon our banners simply and solely these watchwords: National Reconstruction, through Liberty and Justice -State Reform through Integrity and Economy. Resolved, That our efforts shall be directed to promote thorough economy in administration, State and national, to establish fairness and equality in bearing the public burdens; that under no circumstances shall the credit of the nation or State be infringed by wrongfully tampering with public obligations, and that the fame of the Republic shall never be dishonored by the slightest deviation from the path of financial integrity. Resolved, That the course of the Congress of the United States, in carrying out measures of reconstruction on the basis of freedom, regardless of the seductions of the Executive patronage, or the terrors of Executive power, meets our earnest approval, and that unreservedly we do hereby assure them of our determination to stand by them through this struggle, and in all measures necessary to place liberty and peace on lasting foundations, even to the severest remedies known to the Constitution. Resolved, That our thanks are due and are given to all now struggling in the States lately in rebellion for voting reconstruction based on the principle of equal justice; that to them we tender our sympathy and support, and that we will never relinquish them to the mercies of baffled traitors or a faithless Execu tive. Resolved, That this convention recognizes in the Hon. Edwin M. Stanton a public officer of tried fidelity, unselfish patriotism, indomitable energy, and distinguished ability, whose firmness and integrity in war and peace have entitled him to the highest confidence of the nation, and we call upon the Senate of the United States, in the name of our loyal people, to scrutinize well the reasons which shall be assigned to them by the Executive for suspending him from the duties of his high office-an act which has shocked the sense of justice of the people, and justly excited in all loyal men alarm for the public safety. And we do most emphatically condemn, as an insult to the nation, the removal of General Philip H. Sheridan, and General Daniel E. Sickles, for the faithful discharge of duties imposed upon them by the laws of the land. Resolved, That we renew our thanks to all those who, in the conflict now so gloriously ended, stood in arms for the Union, the Constitution, and the laws, and that our thanks are specially due to those tried and true soldiers who have stood up against the arbitrary policy of a single individual, and have nobly supported and carried forward the clearly indicated policy of the people of these United States. Resolved, That our naturalized fellow-citizens are entitled to the same protection in foreign lands as our citizens of native birth, and that it is the duty of our Government to secure their protection in all cases, and at all hazards. The Democratic Convention met at Albany on the 3d of October, and elected Hon. Horatio Seymour president, who addressed the assembly, on taking the chair, in a speech deprecating the exclusion from the practical benefits of the Union of the Southern States. The platform adopted by the convention was set forth in these declarations: First. That we pledge ourselves to redeem New York from corruption and misrule as the first great step to the restoration of the Union and constitutional government. Second. That regarding the national debt as a sacred obligation, we demand economy of administration, honesty in the collection and application of revenues, simplification of and equality in taxation, and a currency for the benefit of the people instead of corporations, to the end that the public faith may be preserved and the burdens of taxation lessened. Third. That we denounce the effort of the Radical party to retain the power it has usurped by establishing negro supremacy in the South by military force, coupled with the disfranchisement of the mass of the white population, as an outrage upon democratic principles, and an attempt to undermine and destroy the Republic; and that we stigmatize the refusal of that party in this State to submit the question of negro suffrage to the people as a cowardly evasion of a paramount issue in the pending struggle. Fourth. That the revelations of corruption in the management of the canals, the confessed degradation of the Legislature, the resort to extraordinary commissions to control municipalities, the demoralization of the revenue service, and the fact that a party holding power over Congress, the Judiciary, the Executive, and the Army, has failed to bring peace and solidity and credit to the country, demonstrate its utter incapacity to administer government, and the necessity of wresting power from such hands. Fifth. That while we approve of an excise law which shall be applicable to the whole State and secure public order, we are, as we have ever been, hostile to legislation which, under the pretext of moral reform, invades private rights, subjects citizens to vexatious searches and seizures, and interferes with social and religious customs, and that the excise law passed in April, 1866 (passed by the Republican Legislature), should be repealed. Sixth, That we reaffirm the doctrine of William L. Marey, in the Kostza case, that adopted and native citizens are alike entitled to the protection of the American flag, and we call upon the Federal Government to enforce it. Seventh. The profound gratitude of the nation is due to the gallant soldiers and sailors who won imperishable honor in the ranks of the Army and Navy VOL. VII.-35 of the Republic. Impelled by a deep and patriotic desire to maintain the Union and the laws, they cannot be seduced into sustaining any policy that proposes to subvert, by military despotism, the civil and constitutional liberties for the security and perpetuation of which they imperilled their lives. The convention nominated for Secretary of State, Homer A. Nelson; for Comptroller, Wm. F. Allen, of Oswego; for Treasurer, Wheeler H. Bristol, of Tioga; for Attorney-General, Marshal B. Champlain, of Allegany; for Canal Commissioner, John D. Fay, of Monroe; for State Engineer, Van Rensselaer Richmond, of Wayne; for State Prison Inspector, Solomon Schen, of Erie; for Judge of Court of Appeals, Martin Grover. The election took place on the first Tuesday in November, and resulted in the choice of the entire Democratic ticket. The whole vote for Secretary of State was 698,128, of which Nelson received 373,029 and McKean 325,099, thus giving a majority of 47,930 to the Democratic candidate. Several cases were decided in the Court of Appeals in the early part of the year, involving the constitutionality of the Excise Law. The law was sustained in the court, and has been very efficiently executed throughout the year. Work has been begun at Albany on a magnificent new building, for the purposes of a State capitol. It is estimated that this structure will cost nearly five millions of dollars, and require six years for its completion. The Legislature of 1868 assembled on the 7th of January. Among the important measures which have come before that body, is one for regulating the sale of intoxicating drinks, and one providing for the punishment of official corruption. The following financial resolution has been introduced in the House of Representatives by a Republican member: Resolved (if the Senate concur), That all the bonds of the United States hereafter issued should be subject to taxation for State and municipal purposes; that all bonds of the United States not expressly payable in gold, heretofore issued, should be paid in legal-tender notes of the United States as soon as the Government has the right to pay such bonds, unless the holders thereof will exchange them at par for new six per cent. bonds payable in gold twenty or thirty years from date, subject to taxation for State and municipal purposes; that buyers shall declare all bonds of the United States, heretofore issued, subject to taxation for State and municipal purposes, as soon as the Government has the right to buy them, if the holders thereof shall choose to retain them, instead of exchanging them for new six per cent. bonds of the United States, payable in gold twenty or thirty years from date, subject to taxation for State and municipal purposes; the object being to make all bonds of the United States subject to State and municipal taxation as soon as it can be done consistently with the Constitution of the United States, to the same extent that bonds of the several States and of counties, towns, cities, and villages are now subject to taxation under the laws of the different States. And our Senators and Representatives in Congress are requested to favor the passage of laws for carrying the foregoing views into effect. The members of this Legislature stand divided between the political parties in the propor tions of 15 Democrats in the Senate to 16 Republicans and 1 Independent; and in the House, 73 Democrats and 55 Republicans. NONPAREIL, THE AMERICAN LIFE-RAFT. A daring adventure was performed by the crew of an American life-raft in 1867. These gallant fellows, three in number, brought over a raft from New York to Southampton in forty-three days. No better evidence could be afforded of the utility of this invention for purposes of saving life at sea. The raft is only 24 feet long and 12 feet broad, has two masts, and con sists of three cylinders, pointed at each end, united together by canvas connections, having no real deck, and is strengthened by boards, slipped under strong iron neck-pieces, the whole kept together by lashing. A waterproof cloth, hung over a boom, closed at each end, affords sleeping accommodation, two at a time, and the third keeping watch. This is fixed on a strong locken in which the provisions are kept. The raft lay-to seven times from stress of weather, and the last vessel spoken was the John Chapman, from which they were given a fowl, which was still alive and well on the arrival. They arrived with thirty gallons of water to spare. They had no chronometer on board, and sailed by deadreckoning, and corrected their position by vessels they spoke. There is a smaller raft on deck for use as a boat. The raft was perfectly water-tight all the way, not a leak of any sort having occurred. She is fitted with an apparatus for filling the tubes with air. The adventure has been conducted by John Mikes, captain, and a crew of two, named George Miller and Jerry Mallene. NORTH CAROLINA. The Legislature of North Carolina, which assembled in November, 1866, continued in session until March following. Two hundred and twenty-nine acts and forty-eight resolutions passed both branches during this time, mostly of a local character, and, in view of the subsequent military jurisdiction of the United States in that quarter, of temporary interest. While the reconstruction plan of Congress was yet under discussion, a resolution was introduced into the Lower House of the North Carolina Assembly, and referred to the Committee on Federal Relations, after a spirited debate, declaring the willingness of the State to accept in good faith the proposed congressional plan. This resolution did not, however, obtain favor with a majority of the members. A series of resolutions was adopted, inviting all the States to meet in a national convention for the purpose of "proposing, in exact conformity with the Constitution of the United States, such amendments to the Constitution that the result will be such mutual concession as will lead to a restoration of our former happy relations." Previous to this, a plan had been on foot for the restoration of the Southern States by certain amendments to the national and State Constitutions, and had been submitted to the North Carolina Legislature for adoption. (For the substance of the proposed amendments, see ALABAMA, p. 16, of this vol ume.) All interest in these schemes was superseded, however, by the adoption of the Military Reconstruction Acts in March, according to which North and South Carolina were to form the Second Military District, under command of Major-General Daniel E. Sickles, with his headquarters at Columbia, S. C. (For General Sickles's order assuming command of the Second District, as well as for other orders having no special application in North Carolina, and under which no special action was taken in that State, see SOUTH CAROLINA.) A Republican convention met at Raleigh on the 27th of March, composed of ninety-seven white and forty-nine colored delegates. The platform adopted denounces secession and recognizes the supremacy of the central Government and its paramount claim to the allegiance of the citizens of every State; it indorses the "great measures of civil rights and enfranchisement, without any property qualification, conferred without distinction of color;" demands the right of free discussion upon all topics of public interest; declares that the most efficient means of restoring prosperity in the South is by spreading education among the people; deprecates repudiation of the public faith, and indorses the "recent action of Congress as a solution of our present political difficulties." Republican meetings in several of the counties, made up of whites and blacks, also expressed their readiness to cooperate with the General Government in its plan of restoration for the Southern States. Since the commencement of the civil war no United States court had been held in the late insurgent States, at which a justice of the Supreme Court had been present, until the opening of the Circuit Court at Raleigh on the first Monday of June, 1867. From 1861 to 1865 the United States courts had been excluded from that section by the war; and after the return of peace, the paramount authority of the military, and subsequent changes in the Southern circuits and districts, prevented their complete reorganization until the act of Congress of the 2d of March last made an allotinent of the justices upon the new plan. On reopening the Circuit Court in North Carolina, Chief Justice Chase said that, although the military authority was still exercised in the Southern circuits, it was not, as formerly, in its power to control all judicial process whether of State or national courts, but "only to prevent illegal violence to persons and property, and facilitate the restoration of every State to equal rights and benefits in the Union." "This military authority," he said, "does not extend in any respect to the courts of the United States." An important decision was pronounced by the Chief Justice, early in the term, on a case arising under an act of Congress of the Southern Confederacy, entitled "An act for the sequestration of the estates of alien enemies," and an act amendatory thereto. Under the operation of these acts of the Confederate Congress, a debtor in the State of North Carolina had been compelled to pay a debt due to parties resident in Pennsylvania to a receiver appointed by the Confederate government to collect such debts; and was now sued by the original creditor for payment of the obligation. It was urged as a defence, that the Confederacy, while it existed, was a de facto government, that the citizens of the States which did not recognize its authority were aliens, and therefore its acts of sequestration were valid as to its own subjects. Hence, it was argued that payment to the government of debts due to such aliens, when compelled by proceedings under those acts, relieved the debtor from all obligation. The Chief Justice declared that the ordinances of secession and all the acts which followed them "did not effect, even for a moment, the separation of North Carolina from the Union, any more than the acts of an individual who commits grave offences against the State, by resisting its officers and defying its authority, separate him from the State." After arguing this point at length, he said: "Those who engage in rebellion must consider the consequences. If they succeed, rebellion becomes revolution; and the new government will justify its founders. If they fail, all their acts hostile to the rightful Government are violations of law, and originate no rights which can be recognized by the courts of the nation, whose authority and existence have been alike assailed. We hold, therefore, that compulsory payment, under the sequestration acts, to the rebel receiver, of the debt due to the plaintiff's from the defendant, was no discharge." On the 11th of April General Sickles issued his military order, No. 10, for the relief of debtors. His reasons for instituting the measures set forth in the order are indicated in the opening paragraph, which is in the following words: The general destitution prevailing among the population of this military district cannot be relieved industrial resources. without affording means for the development of their The nature and extent of the destitution demand extraordinary measures. The people are borne down by a heavy burden of debt; the crops of grain and garden produce failed last year; many families have been deprived of shelter; many more need food and clothing; needful implements and auxiliaries of husbandry are very scarce; the laboring population in numerous localities are threatened with starvation, unless supplied with food ity of a large portion of the people to pay taxes by the Government of the United States; the inabilleaves the local authorities without adequate means of relief; and the gravity of the situation is increased by the general disposition shown by creditors to enforce, upon an impoverished people, the immediate collection of all claims. It is stated that the amount of indebtedness of private individuals in the States of North and South Carolina was utterly beyond their power to pay, and that it was in many cases vehemently pressed to immediate settlement. In many districts it was said that the number of suits was larger than that of the voting population, a great proportion of which consisted of summary processes, indicating that the majority of the debtors were unable to pay debts under one hundred dollars, and thus compelling the sale of personal effects as well as of real property. The first three sections of General Sickles's order were as follows: 1. Imprisonment for debt is prohibited; unless the defendant in execution shall be convicted of a fraudulent concealment or disposition of his property, with intent to hinder, delay, and prevent the creditor proceedings now established in North and South in the recovery of his debt or demand. And the Carolina, respectively, for the trial and determination of such questions, may be adopted. 2. Judgments or decrees, for the payment of money, on causes of action arising between the 19th of Debe enforced by execution against the property or the cember, 1860, and the 15th of May, 1865, shall not person of the defendant. Proceedings in such causes of action, now pending, shall be stayed; and no suit or process shall be hereafter instituted or commenced, for any such causes of action. 3. Sheriffs, coroners, and constables, are hereby directed to suspend for twelve calendar months the sale of all property upon execution or process, on liabilities contracted prior to the 19th of December, 1860, unless upon the written consent of the defendants, except in cases where the plaintiff, or in his absence his agent or attorney, shall upon oath, with corroborative testimony, allege and prove that the defendant is removing, or intends fraudulently to tion of the court. The sale of real or personal propremove, his property beyond the territorial jurisdicerty by foreclosure of mortgage is likewise suspended for twelve calendar months, except in cases where the payment of interest money, accruing since the 15th day of May, 1865, shall not have been made before the day of sale. In certain civil suits tried before the United States Circuit Court at Raleigh, over which Chief Justice Chase presided, judgment was passed against defendants residing at Wilmington, and writs of execution were issued and placed in the hands of the marshal, to be served upon the property of the said defendants. A deputy-marshal, who was charged with the duty of serving the writs, was expressly forbidden |