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. 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. Ten 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. 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 sessed valuation. more than eleven per cent. of the whole asThe 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.. $4,884,634 Received during the year.. Total... Paid during the year....... 5,681,829 $10,565,968 6,725.027 Surplus revenues which have been transferred to the sinking funds as follows: Under article 7, section 1, of the Constitution.....$1,700,000 Hero, then, is the issue fairly stated, and it is for Total...... 850000 780.165 .$2,530,165 Total. $89,081,035 96 $38,298,749 87 $7,793,710 69 $457,668 32 $42,530,907 08 3,827,818 Canal debt, paying interest on the 30th of September, 1867: Ann'l Int't. Principal. $3,247,900 10,775,000 Under article 7, section 12, of the Constitution.. 1,700,000 $162,395 The State has been allowed, in the course of the year, $879,058 for claims on the Federal Government for war expenses, and $650,286 are still in course of settlement, while a new claim of $281,845 has been presented. The military agencies of the State, established at Albany and Washington, have been engaged in prosecuting personal claims for 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 historical 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 se lected and furnished with the necessary struetures 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 se cure 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 in the State; 5,263 male teachers and 21,218 female teachers have been employed for their instruction. The amount of money to be apportioned 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 already 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 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 England, 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 trative reform it has inaugurated; that it will steadily declares its purpose to continue the work of adminisfight 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. United States, in carrying out measures of reconResolved, That the course of the Congress of the struction 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 for voting reconstruction based on the principle of all now struggling in the States lately in rebellion 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 Executive. 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 |