duced into the Senate shortly after the opening of the session last year. The debates upon this subject were frequent, long, and animated. Many among the Senators favored the measure as just and expedient. One of them averred that in a certain county of the State, not a few local offices could not be filled with competent incumbents, on account of the fourteenth amendment. On February 2, 1870, the matter was discussed again at the day and night sessions. A vote being finally taken, the memorial and resolutions were adopted-yeas 12, nays 9. The final action of the Lower House on this subject appears from the report of its sitting on February 18th, as follows: "Joint resolution to Congress for removal of disabilities, a motion to indefinitely postpone was defeated-yeas 57, nays 10. A substitute to remove disabilities from loyal citizens was offered, but not acted on." On reports of outrages perpetrated on loyal citizens, especially negroes (which reports in some cases were ascertained to be false, and in other cases the charges were reversed), the Governor was urged by certain parties to call out the militia, and he issued a proclamation, threatening to do so; but he went no further. In the Senate also, the reports of outrages were made the basis of a resolution calling on the Governor for information in writing upon the subject; when he answered by a message dated January 27, 1870, which begins as follows: "I have received and duly considered your resolution requesting information as to what steps, if any, have been taken to organize the militia under the existing laws of the State. For the reasons set forth in my last annual message, I have not deemed it necessary, nor proper, to organize any portion of the State militia." For the education of youth, there are in Alabama several male and female colleges, academies, and institutes, single or combined, in which various branches of instruction are taught. The East Alabama Female College, at Auburn, last year had 133 students registeredon its rolls. The public-school system, properly so called, rests on the basis of free tuition, and is carried out under the direction of a Board of Education, of which, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction is ex officio president, and which is composed of twelve memberstwo from each congressional district. This board is organized after the manner of a legislative body. It is, in fact, a small branch of the State Legislature, having the regulation of all matters concerning the public schools as its peculiar province; whereupon it holds regular sessions to deliberate and make enactments. The new organic law of the State declares the purpose and powers of this board, as follows: "The Board of Education shall exercise full legislative powers in reference to the public educational institutions of the State, and its acts, when approved by the Governor, or when reenacted by two-thirds of the board, in case of his disapproval, shall have the force and effect of law, unless repealed by the General Assembly." The members of this board sit also as Regents of the University of Alabama. For the immediate surveillance and management of the schools throughout the State, each county has a school superintendent appointed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction, with the consent of the Board of Education, and each township, three school trustees with a clerk, all appointed by the school superintendent of the respective county. There are in Alabama sixty-four counties, with 1,485 townships. This system is about the same as the previous one, the main difference being, that the old system had no board, vested with legislative powers, at its head, and the county school superintendents were chosen by the people at county elections; besides, that their salaries were beyond comparison smaller than at present, and the disposition of the county share in the school fund was not left to their discretion. For carrying out her school system the State applies "the interest upon the sale of school and swamp-lands, escheated estates, militia fines, and special taxes upon railroad, navigation, banking, and insurance companies: For the same purpose she appropriates, besides, an annual sum of about $700,000, derived mainly from the following sources, which during the last year yielded respectively as follows: Amount of interest on sixteenth-section fund. $136,812 59 Interest on valueless sixteenth-section fund.. One fifth of annual revenue (as appropriated December 16, 1869).. Taxes on polls (at least 180,000, at $1.90 each) Retail licenses, as per last report of Auditor Total...... 7,767 30 137.290 20 270,000 00 100.000 00 26,514 85 12,950 05 $689,355 99 This school system, or rather the manner of its management, as conducted in these last years, was loudly complained of and denounced. Its officers were charged with wantonly wasting and misappropriating the public money destined for school purposes; above all, with doing gross injustice to the white children by depriving them of one-half of the educational means designed for their benefit, and closing one-half of the schools altogether. At the session of 1870 "a resolution of inquiry into the unlawful application of the publie money of any part of the school fund of Mobile County, or other public fund," was introduced into the Senate and referred to the Judiciary Committee, with power to send for persons and papers. For about two weeks the committee examined witnesses, inspected official books of account, and heard counsel who appeared before them in behalf of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the School Superintendent for Mobile County on one side, and the School Board of Commissioners on the other. In March 3, 1870, they submitted the result of their investigation in a rather lengthy report; from which it appears that considerable amounts of money, belonging to the school fund of Mobile County, had been illegally drawn and applied. They concluded with recommending and suggesting some change in the system and order of officials. This report was received, and five thousand copies of it were ordered to be printed; but no legislative action was taken. Preparatory to the contest for the general election of November 8, 1870, the Republicans met in State Convention, where they renominated State officers, as follows: William H. Smith for Governor; Pierce Burton for Lieutenant-Governor; James T. Rapier for Secretary of State; Arthur Bingham for Treasurer. Their platform, accepted at the same meeting, was as follows: Resolved, That President Grant has proved hinself a pure patriot and a wise statesman; and that we pledge to his Administration our hearty support, recognizing in its ability, honesty, economy, and liberality, the guarantee of national peace and prosperity. Resolved, That we congratulate the country on the reduction of the national debt by an honest collection of the revenue, and by large reductions in the expenditures of the Government, thereby relieving the people of the burden of taxation to a large extent, without impairing the national faith or honor. Resolved, That we cordially endorse the administration of Governor William H. Smith, whose conduct of State affairs, under the unprecedented difficulties and troubles arising from the new condition of freedom and from reconstruction, plainly illustrates the benign effects of a just application of Republican principles. Releet, That we point with pride to the complete system of internal improvement established in Alabama by Republican legislation, which, wisely limited by existing laws, will afford the amplest means of development to all sections of the State without impairing her credit. Resolved, That a tariff of revenue is indispensable, and should be so adjusted as not to become prejudicial to the industrial interest of any class or section of the country, while securing to our own home producers and laborers fair competition with foreign capital and labor. Resolved, That, as the party of peace and of equal rights for all men, we favor universal amnesty and the removal of all political disabilities, and, while yielding obedience to law and order ourselves, we demand from our opponents submission to law and the cessation of all intolerance, violence, and out rage. Resolved, That we favor a liberal and efficient system of public schools, extending the opportunity for education to the whole people. Resolved, That we favor the elevation of labor, the stimulating of all the industrial interests of the State, the oblivion of past strife, the union of all in the great and good work of repairing, rebuilding, and rehabilitating our State in her new condition, and pressing Alabama onward and upward to the exalted condition of wealth and power for which God and Nature designed her. The "Democratic and Conservative party of Alabama," in pursuance of a call addressed to the people by its Central Executive Committee, assembled in State Convention at Montgomery on September 1st. The following were the nominations made in this convention: For Governor, R. B. Lindsay; for Lieutenant Governor, E. H. Moren; for Secretary of State, J. J. Parker; for Treasurer, L. F. McCoy. They also adopted and declared as their platform: 1. That we stand ready to obey the Constitution of the United States and the laws passed in pursuance thereof, and the constitution and laws of the State of Alabama, so long as they remain in force and unrepealed. 2. That we are opposed to the unjust, extravagant, and unnecessary taxation, both State and Federal, with which our people are now oppressed; to the wasteful squandering and embezzlement of the publie money and public property; and we are in favor of the strictest economy in public expenditures, and of a rigid and prompt accountability of all public officers. 3. That we are in favor of law and order; fair and peaceful elections, free from fraud and corruption; and that we shall demand a fair count of the ballots cast. 4. That we are in favor of confiding the government of the State to our own people, to men of known capacity and integrity, who accept the office for the general good, and do not seek official position for public plunder. 5. That the party now in control of this State have obtained power by usurpation against the will of the people, and they have imposed enormous and unnecessary taxes; they have created unnecessary and useless offices for the sole purpose of feeding their needy followers; they have, by profligate extravagance and corruption, increased the debt of the State many millions of dollars, and have even refused to execute the provisions of their own constitution relating to the classification of State Senators and their tenure of office; and by numerous other enormities in legislation they have shown themselves unfit to govern the people of a free State, and they ought to be ejected, through the ballot-box, from the offices they hold in defiance of the wishes and in contempt of the interests of the people. The contest at the approaching election was eagerly entered upon, and fought out by both parties with unusual vigor and animation. The voting at the polls went on throughout the State more peaceably than had been anticipated. It resulted in the election of the Democratic ticket, except for State Treasurer; instead of Mr. McCoy, who received but 123 votes, was elected Mr. Grant, another Democrat, with 76,902 votes. The Democrats elected, also, a large majority of members of the State Legislature in the Lower House, which consists of 64 Democrats and 36 Republicans, two of whom are Conservatives. The Senate remains, as it was, composed of 32 Republicans and one Democrat, they having refused to classify, and let one-half of their number be chosen by the people at this election, as has been before stated. The smallest number of votes cast for State officers by the two parties, respectively, was 72,538 for the Republican Secretary of State, and 76,902 for the Democratic State Treasurer; the largest was 76,292 for the Republican Governor, and 78,682 for the Democratic Lieutenant-Governor. Taking these two highest figures as representing the entire vote at the command of each party, the whole vote cast in the State at the election of November, 1870, would have been 154,923, with a Democratic majority of 2,389; whereas, at the presidential election in November, 1868, the whole vote polled in the State was 148,452, consisting of 76,366 Republican and 72,086 Democratic votes, with a Republican majority at that time of 4,280. Although the voting at the polls passed off quietly, its result was not as quietly submitted to by several among the defeated Republican candidates. The first who openly refused to acquiesce in it was the ex-State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The new Superintendent, having duly qualified at the office of the Secretary of State, presented his commission to the Board of Education on November 22d, in order to take his seat as president, when the incumbent, Mr. Cloud, refused to recognize him as his successor, alleging that Mr. Hodgson, at the time the votes were cast for him, was ineligible, because he had once sent a challenge to a certain J. G. Smith to fight duel with deadly weapons. On November 23d Mr. Hodgson sent a formal communication to the Board, notifying them that, being the Superintendent of Public Instruction, he had entered upon the discharge of his official duties, and would recognize no act passed by them without him, who was their president ex officio. As to the alleged grounds of his ineligibility, he said Mr. Cloud had legal means at hand to contest his election; at the same time he denied and disproved the charge. The members of the Board, having held an informal meeting among themselves the same day, resolved to recognize Mr. Cloud as their president no longer. More worthy of note is the resistance opposed to the result of the election by Governor Smith, as it very nearly filled the State with tumult and disorder. The organic law prescribes that, after a State election has taken place, the two Houses of the Legislature shall meet in joint convention within the first week of the session, when the presiding officer of the Senate shall open the sealed returns, and count and publish the vote before a majority of the General Assembly. The Legislature began their session according to law, on the fourth Tuesday, the 22d of November, 1870, and, in compliance with the said provision of the constitution, the Senators went in a body to the Hall of Representatives on the 26th, for the purpose of counting the vote cast for the State officers on the 8th, when the Secretary of the Senate read an injunction issued by one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Alabama, upon a bill filed in chancery by Mr. Smith, complainant, on the 25th, and served on R. R. Barr, presiding officer of the Senate, defendant, "commanding and enjoining him to desist and refrain from opening and publishing the returns for Governor, of the election held on the 8th of November, 1870, in the State of Alabama, until the further order of the court." Mr. Barr announced, therefore, that he could not count the vote for Governor, and proceeded to count the vote for Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney-General, when he declared E. H. Moren, J. J. Parker, and J. W. A. Sanford, duly elected to the said offices, respectively. Hereupon a resolution was offered by a Republican Senator, to the effect that the new Lieutenant-Governor, who had just been proclaimed elected, and is ex officio President of the Senate, should be installed in office forthwith, and then proceed to count the vote for Governor. The acting President ruled the resolution out of order. An appeal having been made from the decision to the convention, Mr. Barr declined to put the appeal to vote; but, ordering the Senators to return to their chamber, he left the House. The Speaker took his place as temporary President, and put the appeal from the said decision of the chair to the vote of the convention, when the chair was not sustained, and the resolution adopted. The new LieutenantGovernor was then conducted to the chair, and assumed the presidency of the convention. After having ascertained that there were 74 members of the General Assembly present in the hall, which was ten more than necessary to constitute a majority, as required by the constitution, he counted the vote for Governor and Treasurer, which was: For Governor: R. B. Lindsay, 77,721; W. H. Smith, 76,292— Lindsay's majority, 1,429. For Treasurer: Grant, 76,902 Bingham, 74,376-Grant's majority, 2,526. Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Grant were declared by the President duly and constitutionally elected to the offices of Governor and Treasurer of the State of Alabama, respectively. On motion of a Republican Senator, a joint committee of three was appointed to inform Mr. Lindsay of his election, and conduct him to the hall. He was received with warm applause, as was also the speech which he addressed to the convention. Before adjournment a committee of three from the House was appointed to act with a committee on the part of the Senate, to conduct Governor Lindsay to the executive office on the morning of November 28th. Mr. Smith, however, refused to recognize Mr. Lindsay as Governor of Alabama. He regarded himself as the Governor elected by the people, and continued to occupy the executive office; whereupon a correspondence took place between them. As if he feared that violence would be used to eject him forcibly from the capitol, Mr. Smith had also quartered United States troops in it, and caused them to guard the Governor and Treasurer's offices. Concerning this extraordinary measure, the following preamble and resolution were offered by a member to the Lower House at its sitting of November 28th: Whereas, Article 4, section 4, of the Constitution of the United States, provides: "SECTION 4. The United States shall guarantee to shall protect each of them against invasion, and, on every Stato a republican form of government, and application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence." And whereas, peace and order now prevail throughout the borders of the State of Alabama; and whereas, a military force belonging to the army of the United States has been quartered within the capitol of this State during the present session of the General Assembly, without the application, knowledge, or consent, of the General Assembly therefore be it Resolved, That, the Senate concurring, a committee, consisting of three of the Senate and three of the House, be appointed to ascertain without delay upon whose application, by whose order, and for what purpose, the said military force was quartered in this capitol; and that the General Assembly desist from all further proceedings until the report of said committee be received and acted upon. A warm debate ensued, Republican members opposing the resolution, which they perhaps suspected to conceal some further object to their prejudice. They held a consultation among themselves on the subject during a short recess, which seems to have cleared their suspicions. The resolution having been taken up again after the recess, and put to the vote, it was almost unanimously adopted-yeas 83, nays 2. The course pursued by Mr. Smith, who was joined in it by Mr. Bingham, the State Treasurer, created intense excitement throughout the State, not without serious apprehensions of public disturbances. It was generally condemned by all parties. Men conversant with the law also made formal arguments on the subject, either in speeches delivered at meetings held for the purpose, or in letters addressed to Mr. Smith in the newspapers. They said that the law furnished him with ready means of redress, if he thought himself wronged at the result of the election; but, instead of using them, he had recourse to a Court of Chancery, which has nothing to do in the premises; besides that, his bill of complaint, so far as it appeared from the injunction issued on it, did not make the only interested person a party in the case, but aimed at a third party, a stranger, and its avowed object was to prevent the counting of the vote, which yet was the very first, if not the only, thing necessary to be done for trying and ascertaining the truth in the case, as if the intention of Mr. Smith, by hindering the count of the vote, had been to shut up the very door to a trial, and keep himself indefinitely in office. On November 29th Mr. Lindsay sent his message to the General Assembly, which was read in the Lower House, the Senate being then adjourned, it was said, on that account. He referred to "the remarkable and anomalous condition of public affairs, occasioned by the untoward events of the past few days," yet hoped that the present "embarrassing circumstarices would soon yield to the combined efforts of patriotism and reason." Pointing to the hard condition of tax-payers, especially small farmers, he urged the Legislature to relieve them "to the utmost extent possible to the government," and recommended a suspenon of the penalty incurred by delinquents, VOL. X.-2 A to save them from the necessity of an immediate sale of their cotton-crop at great sacrifice. He also invited them to a review and modification of the entire system of taxation, which he characterized" as offensive and burdensome to the masses, and the mode of its enforcement oppressive." He concluded by saying that he would at a future time call their attention to other important matters, which he deemed then "proper to withhold." This also on December 5th. message was sent by Mr. Lindsay to the Senate On this day Mr. Smith sent a short message to the Senate, saying: "At the time fixed by law for the commencement of your session, I had satisfied myself that, at the late election in this State, I received a majority of votes cast for Governor. Actuated by this belief, I determined to adopt a legal and peaceful mode to have a fair and impartial count of the vote thus cast. After consulting gentlemen who are recognized.as among the ablest attorneys in the State, I was advised, and now believe, that the injunction obtained was a legal and proper remedy." Not doubting that the injunction would be obeyed by all concerned, he had withheld his annual message, that he might state in it the reasons of his action. But now that the vote had been counted in disregard of the injunction, and Mr. Lindsay recognized as Governor by the House of Representatives, he could not send the annual message in the usual way; yet proffering himself ready "to submit to either House any information called for by resolution." On the same day, and by the same person, however, he sent to the Senate and House of Representatives the other message also, submitting such information as he "deemed sufficient to show the condition of the State government." The present bonded indebtedness of the State is $5,382,800, the interest on which has been paid as soon as matured, and her credit fully maintained. Under the general act authorizing the endorsement of first-mortgage bonds to railroads in the State, passed at the session of the Legislature adjourned on March 3, 1870, Mr. Smith had endorsed bonds of five railroad companies for the aggregate length of 465 miles, 250 of which belong to the Alabama and Chattanooga road. In accordance with special acts passed at the same session for particular roads, he had also issued bonds to several roads, as follows: Alabama and Chattanooga, $2,000,000; Montgomery and Mobile, for the section extending from Montgomery to Texas, $1,500,000; Montgomery and Euphania, $300,000; Selma and Gulf, $40,000. Concerning charitable institutions, he commends the management and efficient working of the Insane Hospital at Tuscaloosa, and the Alabama Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind at Talladega. He mentions also the Freedmen's Hospital near Talladega. It had been established since the war and conducted at the expense of the Federal Government until the Freedmen's Bureau was discontinued. On that occasion the State assumed the charge of the hospital, and a law was passed forbidding the reception of new patients. A few helpless colored people still remain as its inmates. On December 7, 1870, Mr. Lindsay commenced a suit against Mr. Smith to recover the books, papers, and other property, belong ing to the Governor's office, but the difficulty was finally adjusted harmoniously. The following is the Federal census of Alabama, by counties, for the years 1860 and 1870: the whole people of Germany, declared that one of the principal conditions of the conclusion of peace between Germany and France (see GERMAN-FRENCH WAR), would be the annexation of the province of Alsace, and at least part of the province of Lorraine, to Germany. Thus the history and the ethnographical condition of these two provinces attracted general attention, and their ultimate fate was awaited with considerable interest. In support of their claims, the German people stated that the province of Alsace and a considerable portion of Lorraine had always been inhabited by a German-speaking people, that they had been torn from Germany by fraud and violence, and that, in spite of all the efforts made by the French Government to denationalize them, they had preserved their native language up to this day. A German work, especially devoted to the investigation of the numerical strength of the German nationality in all the countries of Europe (Böckh, Der Deutschen Volkzahl und Sprachgebiet in den europäischen Staaten, Berlin, 1870), gives the following facts with regard to the gradual conquest and annexation of these two provinces by France: Up to the year 1648 France had, in consequence of former encroachments of German territory, annexed a German population of about 54,000. By the Peace of Westphalia, France, which in the religious war of thirty years supported the same Protestants who were so cruelly persecuted at home, against the Catholic Government of Austria and its Catholic allies, obtained a number of Austrian possessions, with a population of 227,000 inhabitants. At the close of the seventeenth century Louis XIV. instituted socalled Chambers of Reunion, which were to examine which districts within the bounds of the German Empire had at any previous period been under French jurisdiction; and the districts thus singled out, together with 226,000 inhabitants, were at once seized and incorporated with France, while at about the same time the Republic of Strasburg and the Bishop of Strasburg placed another tract of land with about 260,000 inhabitants under the protection of France. In the course of the eighteenth century France annexed the duchy of Lorraine, with about 178,000 inhabitants, and several dominions of German princes in Alsace and Lorraine. Finally the Republic of Mühlhausen and a number of districts belonging to several German princes, with a territory now numbering 290,000 inhabitants, were united with France in and after the year 1790. Until the Revolution of 1789, but little effort had been made to substitute the use of the French for that of the German language. The present idea of compact nationalities, coextensive with the boundaries of the several countries, was then almost unknown. Germans remained unmolested in the use of their language, as the French subjects of several German princes in Alsace and Lorraine had always enjoyed ful |