GILCHRIST, ROBERT. 



GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS. 375 





In 1885, and called Bismarck Archipelago. In 

 1886 were added the islands of Bougainville, 

 Choiseul. Isabel, and others in tbe northern 

 part of the Solomon group, with an area of 

 8,500 square miles and a population of 80,000 

 persons. The acquisitions of 1885 included 

 gi'ine of the Marshall Islands, having an area 

 of 42 square miles and about 10,000 inhabitants. 

 The Providence and Crow groups have also 

 become German territory. In the summer of 

 1888 the natives for the first time attacked 

 German officials in the Bismarck Archipelago. 

 Kaiser Wilhelm's Land is the field of operations 

 for a trading and colonization society called 

 the Xe\v Guinea Company, which has stations 

 on the coast at Finsch-Haven and Constantino 

 and Hatzfeld harbors. There is much land 

 that is considered suitable for settlement by 

 Europeans and adapted for the cultivation of 

 tobacco and food-plants, but no progress has 

 yet been made in colonization. The islands 

 of the Bismarck Archipelago prodtice copra], 

 or dried cocoanut, of which 1,500 tons were 

 exported in 1885, mother-of-pearl, and trepang. 

 A plantation at Blanche Bay is producing cot- 

 ton of the Sea Island variety. In New Guinea 

 there have been several collisions with the 

 natives, who have no rifles, but use the spear 

 and the bow with dexterity. The first serious 

 fight occurred in December, 1886, in Huon 

 Gulf, where a boat from the " Samoa " gun-boat 

 was attacked, which led to the burning of their 

 village. The same punishment befell the as- 

 sailants who killed some Malay laborers on a 

 plantation at Hatzfeld harbor in July, 1887. 



GILCHBIST, ROBERT, an American lawyer, 

 born in Jersey City, X. J., Aug.2l, 1825 ; died 

 there, July 6, 1888. He had a liberal educa- 

 tion at private schools, studied jurisprudence, 

 in 1847 was admitted to the bar of New Jer- 

 sey, and practiced his profession till the time 

 of his death. He was a counselor of the Su- 

 preme Court of the United States, and was a 

 member of the Assembly of New Jersey in 

 1859. In 1861 he enlisted, in response to the 

 first call by the State for troops, and went to 

 the front as captain in the Second New Jersey 

 Volunteers. Until the close of tbe war he 

 adhered to the Republican party, but he left 

 that party on the question of the reconstruc- 

 tion of the Southern States, and in 1866 was 

 nominated for Congress on the Democratic 

 ticket. In 1869 he was appointed Attorney- 

 General for the nnexpired part of the official 

 term vacated by the resignation of Hon. George 

 M. Robeson, and in 1873 was reappointed for 

 a full term. In 1875 he was presented as a 

 candidate for the office of United States Sena- 

 tor. In 1873 he was appointed one of the 

 commissioners to revise the Constitution of 

 the State of New Jersey, but resigned before 

 that work was completed; and, likewise, his 

 obligations to important professional engage- 

 ments required him to decline an appointment 

 as a justice of the Supreme Court, as also the 

 office of Chief-Justice of New Jersev. Mr. 



Gilchrist was endowed with a bold will and 

 intrepid moral courage; he was faithful, just, 

 generous, and notably non-partisan. His knowl- 

 edge of the principles of jurisprudence, espe- 

 cially of constitutional law, was erudite and 

 accurate and profound, and few have been 

 engaged in a greater number of celebrated 



ROBERT GILCHRTST. 



causes. As Attorney-General his services were 

 acknowledged to be valuable. His interpreta- 

 tion of the fifteenth amendment peaceably 

 secured the right of negro suffrage in New 

 Jersey, and he was the author of the Riparian 

 Rights act, and was the counsel for the State 

 in the suit to test the constitutionality of that 

 statute. From this source the fund for the 

 maintenance of the public schools of New Jer- 

 sey is chiefly derived. In his private practice 

 his thoroughness and attention to minute de- 

 tail made him exceptionally successful. His 

 skill and courage secured to the United States 

 the half-million dollars left by Joseph L. Lewis 

 to be applied to the payment of the national 

 debt, and he brilliantly won many other im- 

 portant suits. Mr. Gilchrist was not only an 

 able counselor in many matters relating to the 

 most difficult portions of law-practice, but was 

 an effective orator before a jury. He con- 

 tinued to pursue his profession until the last 

 vear of his life. 



GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS AT WASHING- 

 TON. The administration of the United States 

 Government is conducted by the President 

 through nine departments, the heads of which 

 are appointed by him. and, with two excep- 

 tions, constitute his Cabinet of advisers. These 

 Departments are the State, Treasury. War, 

 Navy. Interior, Post-Office. Justice. Agricult- 

 ure, and Labor. The respective Secretaries of 

 State. Treasury. War. Navy, and Interior, and 

 the Postmaster and Attorney Generals, receive 

 an annual salary of $8.000 ; the Commission- 

 ers of Agriculture and Labor, $5,000. Public 

 business in these departments is transacted be- 



