376 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



That existing vested rights in real estate shall not be 

 impaired by the provisions of this section. 



Every person hereafter elected or appointed 

 to any office of honor or profit under the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States, either in the 

 civil, military, or naval departments, except 

 the President, is, hy another act, required to 

 take the following oath hefore entering upon 

 the duties of such office : 



I. A B, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I have 

 never voluntarily borne arms against the United 

 States since I have been a citizen thereof; that I have 

 voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel, or en- 

 couragement to persons engaged in armed hostility 

 thereto ; that I have neither sought, nor accepted, nor 

 attempted to exercise the functions of any office what- 

 ever, under any authority or pretended authority in 

 hostility to the United States ; that I have not yielded 

 a voluntary support to any pretended government, 

 authority, power, or constitution within the United 

 States, hostile or inimical thereto. And I do further 

 swear (or affirm) that, to the best of my knowledge 

 and ability, I will support and defend the Constitution 

 of the United States against all enemies, foreign and 

 domestic ; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to 

 the same ; that I take this obligation freely, without 

 any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and 

 that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of 

 the office on which I am about to enter, so help me 

 God. 



The Confiscation, Tax, Tariff, and Militia 

 Laws are noted elsewhere in these pages. 



This session of Congress closed on the 17th 

 of July, 1862. It was marked by industry on 

 the part of the members, and a disposition not 

 only to sustain the Executive in the conflict 

 with the Confederate States, but to urge him 

 to all such measures as should tend to liberate 

 the slaves in those States. It is a singular fact 

 that not a proposition for conciliation or one 

 that looked to a redress of any conceived 

 grievance on the part of the South was enter- 

 tained in either House. One was offered by 

 Mr. Saulsbury, of Maryland, on the second day 

 of the session, and immediately laid on the ta- 

 ble. It does not appear to have been alluded 

 to afterward, nor was any other offered. The 

 resolutions expressing the sense of Congress on 

 the object of the war adopted at the previous 

 session were repudiated, and bills providing for 

 the emancipation of the millions of slaves 

 through the confiscation of all the property of 

 disloyal owners in those immense Southern 

 States, were passed into laws. 



Slavery, and the laws regulating it, w.ere 

 abolished in the District of Columbia. Slavery 

 was forbidden in all the Territories of the United 

 States. Liberia and Hayti were recognized as 

 independent .republics, and as belonging to the 

 family of nations. A new treaty, relative to the 

 slave trade, was ratified with Gr-jat Britain, 

 which allowed to her the liberty of searching 

 American vessels under certain circumstances. 

 All persons in the army or navy were prohib- 

 ited from returning slaves, or sitting in judg- 

 ment on the claim of their masters. The slaves 

 of disloyal persons in the Confederate States 

 were declared to be emancipated on coming 

 within the lines of the Federal army. A reso- 



CONNECTICUT. 



lution to tender compensation to loyal mas- 

 ters on the voluntary emancipation of their 

 slaves was also adopted by Congress. 



CONNECTICUT, one of the Eastern or New 

 England States, first settled in 1633. Area, 

 4,674 square miles. Population in 1860, 460,- 

 147. Governor till first Wednesday in May, 

 1863, William A. Buckingham, of Norwich. 

 Secretary of State, till same date, James Ham- 

 mond Trumbull, of Hartford. The election for 

 State officers takes place on the first Monday 

 of April. At the election of April, 1862, the 

 total vote was 70,430, of which William A. 

 Buckingham received 39,782, and was elected. 

 The Legislature consists of 21 senators, and 

 251 representatives. The Senate was unani- 

 mously Republican. The House of Represen- 

 tatives had 195 Republican members, and 56 

 Democrats. The State expenditure for the 

 year, aside from school-fund revenue, was 

 $2,148,257, of which about $1,866,097.52 was 

 for war purposes ; two thirds of this amount 

 would be refunded by the general government. 

 The valuation of the State, as returned by the 

 assessors, which does not include State or other 

 property exempt from taxation, and estimates 

 real estate much below its true value, was 

 $254,742,695. The census valuation in 1860, 

 which probably comes nearer the actual prop- 

 erty of the State, was $444,274,114. The re- 

 sources and liabilities of the banks of the 

 State in April, 1862, amounted to $39,211,643, 

 the capital of the banks being $21,790,937, 

 their circulation, $8,023,681, and the specie in 

 their vaults $1,518,317. The assets of the 

 savings banks of the State (forty-five in num- 

 ber) were $20,539,758.55, showing a surplus 

 of $556,799.11 over their liabilities. The rail- 

 road property of the State (twelve railroads) 

 cost about $26,000,000, and seven of the twelve 

 roads paid dividends during the year, varying 

 from two to twelve per cent. The total expen- 

 diture for common-school purposes during the 

 year was $486,000, of which $130,850.40 was 

 from the revenue of the school fund. The 

 State has a normal school, with 9 teachers and 

 174 pupils, and three colleges, with 55 profes- 

 sors and instructors and 809 students. There 

 are also an asylum for the deaf and dumb, at 

 Hartford, the first founded in the United States, 

 with 18 teachers and 222 pupils, and the Con- 

 necticut School of Imbeciles, at Lakeville, 

 Litchfield county, with 2 teachers and 19 pupils, 

 and a State reform school at West Meriden, 

 with 148 inmates. The Retreat for the Insane, at 

 Hartford, is an incorporated institution, found- 

 ed in 1824, and had in April, 1862, 221 patients. 

 It is under the charge of John S. Butler, M. D. 

 The State had increased its population during 

 the decade ending in 1860 by 89,355 inhabi- 

 tants, or 24.10 per cent; but this increase was 

 almost entirely in the cities and large towns, 

 the increase of New Haven county being 31,- 

 757, of which 18,922 was in the city of New 

 Haven, and nearly 6,000 in the city of Water- 

 bury, while the remainder was distributed 



