ALABAMA. 



AMERICA. 



15 



peace of our republican form of government, and we 

 therefore favor the most liberal system of public free 

 schools that is consistent with the financial condition 

 of the State. 



The Republican State Convention met at 

 Selma, May 20th. George Turner, ex-United 

 States Marshal, was appointed President. A 

 large majority of the delegates appointed to 

 the Chicago Convention favored General Grant. 

 A stormy debate on the report of the commit- 

 tee on credentials disturbed the meeting. 



The State election took place on the first 

 Monday in August, 1830. Governor Cobb was 

 elected by a majority of 92,545 over Mr. Pick- 

 ens, the Greenback candidate. All the candi- 

 dates on the State ticket received about the 

 same vote. At the election the Democrats had 

 no regular Republican ticket to oppose. The 

 Executive Committee of that party advised the 

 support of the Greenback ticket, but in several 

 counties, where there were many negroes, not 

 a Greenback State ticket was seen. A Demo- 

 cratic ticket alone was voted. The only real 

 contest made for the Greenback ticket was in 

 the counties of the First District, where about 

 one third of the vote for Mr. Pickens was cast. 

 Even there the Democrats had a handsome ma- 

 jority. At this election the Democratic vote 

 was the largest ever cast, which was attributed 

 to the intense interest attaching to contests for 

 local offices, as many as ten Democrats in some 

 counties running for the same office. Each 

 of these men was supporting the Democratic 

 State ticket, and the colored voters obtained 

 by them voted, in nine out of ten cases, the 

 whole ticket from Governor down. This ac- 

 counted largely for the increased vote for the 

 Democratic State ticket over previous elec- 

 tions ; and even should the vote of those coun- 

 ties where it is urged that fraud was perpa- 

 trated be thrown out, there would still be a 

 majority for the Democratic State ticket of 

 over 60,000. Hancock electors received more 

 than 80,000 majority over the Republican can- 

 didate for Governor. 



The vacancy in the Supreme Court, caused 

 by the death of Judge Manning, was supplied 

 by the appointment of Henderson Michael 

 Somerville a selection highly approved by the 

 State at large. 



At the session of the Legislature which com- 

 menced in November, James L. Pugh was 

 elected to the United States Senate during the 

 unexpired term of the late Senator Houston. 

 Mr. Pugh was born in Georgia, on December 

 12, 1819. He was a candidate for Presidential 

 Elector on the Taylor and Fillmore ticket in 

 1848, and on the Buchanan ticket in 1856, and 

 was chosen. In 1859 he was a member of 

 Congress. During the war he was in the Con- 

 federate army and Congress. 



No acts of general importance were passed 

 by the State Legislature previous to its recess 

 in December. 



The returns of the census show the popu- 

 lation of the State to bs 1,253,069, with four 



counties incomplete, and estimated on the basis 

 of 1870, with the percentage of gain in the dis- 

 trict added. The population in 1870 was 984,- 

 215. 



AMERICA. A new difficulty between the 

 United States and British Governments re- 

 specting the interpretation of the fishery 

 clauses of the Washington Treaty arose from 

 an act of violence committed by some New- 

 foundland fishermen upon a party of Ameri- 

 cans who were seining for herring in Fortune 

 Bay in January, 1878. A demand for indem- 

 nification of the American fishermen for the 

 loss sustained was presented to the late Brit- 

 ish Government, but was curtly dismissed by 

 Lord Salisbury. Measures were initiated in 

 Congress with reference to the possible failure 

 to* come to a common understanding of the 

 meaning of the treaty, and a strong disposition 

 was manifested in Congress and among the 

 public to renounce altogether the privileges 

 and obligations flowing from the treaty with 

 respect to the fisheries, on account of the fre- 

 quently recurring misunderstandings and dis- 

 putes regarding the fishery rights. The dila- 

 tory answer of the British Foreign Office pro- 

 tracted the controversy until it devolved upon 

 the present British Government. Mr. Evarts 

 repeated his demands and the reasons on which 

 they are based to the new Government, and 

 found Lord Granville disposed to view the 

 question as a debatable issue, admitting of dis- 

 cussion and perhaps of arbitration. (See CAN- 

 ADA and UNITED STATES.) 



In the Canadian Dominion the construction 

 of the Pacific Railroad has for a second time 

 been intrusted to the hands of a syndicate. 

 A contract has been concluded, on the basis of 

 extensive land grants and money subsidies, 

 which is strenuously opposed by the party out 

 of power. The question of the ratification of 

 the bargain is the first business to be consid- 

 ered by the Dominion Parliament in its winter 

 session of 1880-'81. The contract is of a simi- 

 lar nature to those under which the United 

 States transcontinental roads were built. 



The quadrennial election in the United 

 States, resulting in the election of James A. 

 Garfiekl for President over Major- General 

 Winfield S. Hancock, was characterized by an 

 unusual degree of partisan fervor ; yet so vig- 

 orous has been the commercial revival, so 

 strong the consumptive demand and the pro- 

 ductive impulse, that the usual disturbance 

 and interruption of mercantile affairs attend- 

 ing a Presidential contest were scarcely felt in 

 any part of the Union. 



The harassing, irregular wars which have 

 been carried on against the United States Gov- 

 ernment by Sitting Bull and his Sioux, and 

 Victoria with his murderous band of Apaches, 

 have ceased; and no organized force of tur- 

 bulent Indians now menaces the settlements 

 of the far West. 



The interoceanic canal at Panama has not 

 yet been begun, but the capital has all been 



