ficiaries is 82; number of State beneficiaries in the Pennsylvania training school for feebleminded children, 16. The operations of the State Lunatic Asylum for the year have been conducted with more than usual success. Eighty-one more patients have been treated than in any previous year, and a new structure, authorized by law, has been nearly completed. Number under treatment during the year, 621; patients discharged, 171; total receipts, $111,231.28; payments, $109,187.70. Balance in hands of treasurer, $2,043.58. The Home for Disabled Soldiers, established by the munificence of the State, has been the source of great relief to the sick and wounded soldiers who have enjoyed its advantages. The inmates are carefully treated, and they there find a kind and friendly home. The whole number of persons who have participated in its advantages during the past year has been 202. The average number per day has been 144, and on the 30th of November the number in the institution was 157. The whole cost of the Home for the past year was $30,289.43, being about 56 cents per day for each beneficiary. An agreement has been made with the Board of Managers of the National Asylum for Disabled Soldiers by which certain payments are made toward its support, thereby reducing the cost of the Home to the State. A payment of $7,460 has already been made. A Home for the Children of Soldiers has likewise been established, and a suitable building erected for its accommodation. During the past year 151 children have been cared for and instructed in this institution. Eleven having left and one died, the whole number remaining in the Home December 1, 1867, was 130. The present strength of the enrolled militia of the State, uniformed and not uniformed, is: Commissioned officers in rifle corps..... 143 Commissioned officers in active militia.. Enlisted men in rifle corps... Total...... 81 224 .2,177 902 3,079 ..3,303 In his last message, the Governor thus recounts the natural resources of the State: The agriculture of our State is rapidly improving. The average crops per acre of the great staples wheat, corn, potatoes-are among the largest raised in the United States, and these are rising with the improved husbandry now coming into practice. New Jersey is the thirtieth State in size, and the twentieth in population; in 1860 it was the nineteenth in the amount of wheat raised, the twenty-second in the amount of corn, the eighth in potatoes, the twenty-third in value of live-stock, the seventeenth in value of slaughtered animals, the eighteenth in the value of its agricultural implements, the twelfth in the value of its farms, and the first in value per acre of its farm-lands. In the peculiar products which, both from soil and nearness to markets, we are best adapted to raise, we stand much higher, being only second in the value of market-garden products, and probably almost as high in the value of the small fruits which are the special objects of culture for a large body of our people. The importance of these comparisons will be better appreciated when it is remembered that, as a manufacturing State, New Jersey stands sixth in the amount of capital invested, and also in the annual value of its manufactured products. Its mines of iron and zinc are a source of wealth iron-ore have been mined in the State this year, to the State. More than 250,000 tons of the richest which, at the mines, is worth a million of dollars. The zinc-mines have yielded 24,000 tons of ore, all of which is manufactured into spelter or zinc oxide nearly, if not quite, a million of dollars more. within the State, and have yielded products worth This product of zinc is more than half the yield of the United States, and is considerably more than is supplied from all the mines of Great Britain. The report of the State geologist shows that there are 295,476 acres of tide-marshes in the State. In their natural condition they are of little value, from $2 to $20 an acre. About 20,000 acres of these have been banked in and so reclaimed from the action of the tide. These have cost from $5 to $20° ductive lands in the State, paying a fair profit of an acre to bring them in, and they are the most profrom $100 to $300 per acre. A very strenuous effort is now being made to reclaim the marsh between Passaic and Hackensack Rivers, and to carry the work of drainage considerably below low-water mark by means of pumps. The Legislature met in January, and its action was confined mainly to local matters. On the question of striking out the word "white" from the qualifications for voters, the Lower House, by a vote of 35 to 20, refused to make the change. A convention of the Republican party, to favor impartial suffrage, was held at Trenton, July 22d. The following resolutions were reported, and adopted by acclamation: Resolved, That the equality of all men before the law, without distinction of race or color, is recognized by the early doctrines of the republic, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Ordinance of 1787, and the political writings of Washington, Jefferson, and others of the founders, and was sanctioned by the old constitution of New Jersey, formed by the true men of the Revolution; that under the plausibly apparent necessity of tolerating slavery as a State right we have grievously departed from that standard, and that the insertion of the word "white" in the constitution of 1844 was a violation of the true principles of republican government. Resolved, That, pledging ourselves to the eradication of the word "white" from the constitution of New Jersey by every legal and honorable means, we also call upon Congress to take measures to induce or compel all the States of the Union to establish a just and uniform rule of suffrage, excluding all distinctions of class, race, or color, so that the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States, and that the United States shall redeem its original promise to guarantee to every State in this Union à republican form of government." Resolved, That the doctrine of the absolute equality of all men before the law, of which impartial suffrage is a necessary corollary, is in strict accordance with that sublime declaration of the fathers of the republic, that "all men are created equal," which was and is the corner-stone of all our democratic institutions. Resolved, That by our action this day we intend heartily to indorse the votes of our Senators and Representatives in Congress in favor of securing impartial suffrage to all the people of the States lately in rebellion, and to repudiate the charge that we aro willing to impose upon others a fundamental princi ple of government which we are not prepared to accept for ourselves. Resolved, That the Republican party of New Jersey, encouraged by past triumphs, and proud of the high record of its executive, its legislators, and its Senators and Representatives in Congress, cheerfully accept the issue of impartial suffrage as one of the most important questions to be adjusted in the approaching campaign, confident that it will be sustained by the calmer judgment and patriotic sentiment of the people of the State and the gracious approval of Almighty God. Resolved, That this convention approves the course of the loyal majority in Congress in steadfastly resisting the attempts of the President to substitute his will for the authority of Congress in reconstructing the States lately in rebellion, and that we adjure them, as they value liberty and the safety of the nation, to persevere in that resistance to the end. September 5th, the Democratic State Committee issued an address to the people, in which they referred to the question of suffrage as follows: The right of suffrage, whether it is considered a natural or conferred right, has always, since the Revolution which separated the States of the Union from the dominion of Great Britain, been controlled by the people of the several States respectively. There is not a syllable or letter of the Federal Constitution which, by the most latitudinarian construction, yields it to the Federal Government, and any attempt to exercise it by the Congress of the United States is a usurpation entirely destructive of the rights of the States, so jealously guarded by the founders of the republic. The pretext of the Republican party is, that the interference of Congress in the suffrage of the Southern States is justified by the late rebellion, or, in other words, that in order to punish the Southern people for rebelling against the authority of the Federal Government, they have inflicted upon them negro suffrage, and placed the government of their States within the control of the negro. That this act of wanton cruelty has no warrant in the Constitution, and is in direct opposition to the professions of the Republican party pending the war, when the people expended their blood and treasure for the maintenance of the Union as it was, cannot be denied. Nevertheless, it has been perpetrated, and greatly as we would condemn it in regard to its effects upon the white people of the South, a large proportion of whom were faithful to the Union and periled all they held dear in the world in its support, we propose at the present only to refer to its effect upon the white people of the Northern States. Ten First-it makes the negroes participators with us in the choice of Senators and Representatives in Congress, as well as in the electoral college for the election of a President and Vice-President. States of the Union, if under existing circumstances they may be so termed, with about one-fourth of the representation in the electoral college controlled by negroes, is humiliating to the white voters of the North. But this is not all. The Republican party insist that because they have given the suffrage to the negro in the Southern States, they must, to be consistent, admit the Northern negroes to a similar privilege; and the members of that party in this State have, at a recent convention held at Trenton, most solemnly and unanimously pledged themselves to the eradication of the word white" from the suffrage article of the State constitution, and have, with equal decision, resolved to call "upon Congress to take measures to induce or compel all the States to establish a just and uniform rule of suffrage, excluding all distinctions of class and race or color. Here, then, is the issue fairly stated, and it is for the people of New Jersey to determine at the coming election whether they are willing or not to share with the colored race in the government of the State. The vote for county officers was as follows: Democratic, 67,468; Republican, 51,114. Democratic majority, 16,354. NEW YORK. The financial condition of the State of New York in 1867, as ascertained from official sources, may be briefly stated as follows: The total value of the property of the State, as returned to the assessors, is $1,664,107,725. The aggregate annual taxation imposed upon this property was stated by the Financial Committee of the Constitutional Convention, in August last, at $180,981,398, or more than eleven per cent. of the whole assessed valuation. The census of 1865 gives the entire population of the State as 3,827,818, calling it 4,000,000 at the present time. The annual taxes exceed $45 for every person in the State, or $200 for each voter. The debt of the State, on the 30th of September, amounted to $41,114,592, after deducting the balance of sinking funds unapplied. If the debt of the State and of cities and towns be thrown together into one aggregate, along with the proportion of the national debt which will fall to the lot of New York, the entire burden of indebtedness now resting upon the commonwealth will be shown to be upward of $630,000,000. The following table (see page 541) exhibits the debt of each county in the State. The finances of the canals of the State are fully exhibited by the following figures: Balance in the treasury and invested Oct. 1, 1866.. $4,931,634 Received during the year.... Total.. Paid during the year... 5,691,829 $10,565,963 6,725.027 bounties, pensions, etc., and have collected the sum of $665,000; 18,000 claims, involving something like $2,000,000, still remain on their hands awaiting settlement. The Bureau of Military Statistics has continued its labor of collecting and preserving memorials and his torical narratives respecting the late war, and has received, during the year, $10,917 for the "Hall of Military Record," which, added to former receipts, makes up a sum of $36,288 already received toward that object. The "Soldiers' Home," at the close of the year, gave shelter to 279 inmates. A large proportion of these consist of mutilated soldiers who are unable, by their own unassisted efforts, to earn a subsistence, while some are there for temporary treatment for sickness. Many of the former class supported themselves by light employment during the summer, but returned to the Home on the approach of winter. The Insane Asylum at Utica has had 1,042 patients under treatment during the year, of whom 401 persons were received since January, 1867. Two other asylums for the insane are now in process of construction: one at Ovid, called the Willard Asylum, the other at Poughkeepsie, called the Hudson River Asylum. Neither of these institutions is yet so far completed as to admit patients for treatment. Commissioners are also at work upon the construction of buildings for an institution for the blind at Batavia. In pursuance of an act of the last Legislature, the Asylum for Inebriates at Binghamton has been transferred to the State, but remains in charge of the same trustees who had the care of it before this change took place. This institution is founded on the theory that habits of intemperance produce a disease, which can be effectually eradicated by proper methods of treatment. Under the superintendence of Dr. Albert Day, this asylum meets with considerable success in reclaiming the unfortunate class of persons consigned to its care. The inmate receives no alcoholic stimulant or any substitute for it, but is supplied with the most wholesome food, engaged in rational employments and recreations, and, above all, treated as a gentleman, and taught, by the highest course of moral education, to respect himself and aspire to respectability in the eyes of others. In aggravated cases recuperative medicines are resorted to for a time. All are at liberty to go and come, but are put "upon their honor" not to visit the city, and their money is kept in the custody of the superintendent, who makes all necessary purchases for them. Dr. Day has had this institution in charge only since last May. The State prisons are said to be in a satisfactory condition, though their expenditures have exceeded their receipts for the year past by about $170,000. At the Dannemora Prison the convicts are employed directly by agents of the State, and that system appears to work with great success. In April last the Legislature provided for the temporary occupation of Barren Island, in the harbor of New York, for quarantine purposes, while a permanent station should be selected and furnished with the necessary structures and appliances on Coney Island. The commissioners appointed to carry into effect the provision for establishing the permanent station have been restrained by an injunction from taking possession of sufficient land to secure what they deem a proper isolation, the court having decided that they had no authority to take the question of isolation into account. Hence this matter awaits the further action of the Legislature; 148 vessels have been placed under quarantine since the beginning of the year. The whole number of immigrants who have landed at the port of New York in the last twelve months is no less than 242,738, or 9,320 more than arrived during the previous year. The Commissioners of Immigration col lect a tax of $2.50 from each foreigner, and the fund thus created is devoted to the support of the sick and indigent on their arrival. A fine hospital on Ward's Island has been built out of the resources of this fund, to afford shelter and minister the proper care to such as require the beneficent offices of such an institu tion. The amount of money raised by State taxation for the support of schools during the year is $1,403,163, while the local voluntary taxation of the various school districts amounts to $5,591,871. Funds realized from other sources make up a grand total of $8,873,230, which exceeds the expenditures of the year for school purposes by about $1,192,324. The total number between the ages of five and twenty-one, who have availed themselves of the advantages of public education in the 11,724 school districts, is reported at 1,372,853, or 30.62 per cent. of the entire number of such persons the State; 5,263 male teachers and 21,218 female teachers have been employed for their instruction. The amount of money to be appor tioned among the public schools for the current year is stated at $2,400,134. The Normal Schools at Albany and Oswego are reported as in a flourishing condition, and four additional institutions of the same character are in process of construction at the villages of Fredonia, Brockport, Cortland, and Potsdam. That at Brockport (though not yet completed) is al ready in successful operation in one building, while the others are rapidly approaching completion. The establishment of two more Normal Schools besides those mentioned has been authorized by law, at Buffalo and Genesee, and no doubt is entertained that these, too, will be put into operation at an early day. The Cornell University has made rapid progress. One large and substantial stone edifice has been finished, and another is in process of erection. A large number of professors have been already chosen, and it is announced by the trustees that students will be received in September next. 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. The 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 made 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. 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 |