610 



NEW JERSEY. 



and organize a State Reform School for Juve- 

 nile Offenders," passed at the last session of 

 the Legislature, the Board of Control appointed 

 six persons as trustees, whose first duty was to 

 purchase land and erect buildings ; but the sum 

 of $15,000, the amount appropriated for the 

 purpose, having been found insufficient for the 

 purchase of a suitable site, a further appropria- 

 tion was recommended by Governor Parker, 

 under the conviction, after visiting the State 

 prison and county jails, that such an institu- 

 tion could not fail to work incalculable good to 

 the community by the reformation of criminal 

 and vagrant youths. 



The number of patients in the State Lunatic 

 Asylum at the beginning of the year was 333. 

 In the course of the year 192 were received 

 and 158 were discharged or died, leaving in 

 the Institution at the end of the year 367 pa- 

 tients. The receipts for the year, including 

 $10,000 appropriated by the State, were $86,- 

 236 ; the payments for the same period were 

 $86,155, leaving a balance in the hands of the 

 Treasurer of $81. 



Owing to the high prices of provisions 

 and the difficulty of procuring work for the 

 convicts, the expenditures of the State Prison 

 largely exceeded the income, the receipts hav- 

 ing been only $30,154, while the expenditures 

 amounted to $43,878, involving a loss of $13,- 

 724. 



The survey of the marl region of the. State, 

 comprising nearly a thousand square miles, is 

 now complete, with the maps and sections, by 

 the aid of which the position of the marl can 

 be readily ascertained by the use of compass 

 and level, thus making all the varieties of this 

 valuable fertilizer easily accessible. The iron- 

 ore region of Morris County, embracing eighty 

 square miles, and including some of the richest 

 iron mines in the United States, has also been 

 minutely surveyed and mapped upon a large 

 scale. 



During the year efforts were renewed to 

 have the New York Quarantine established on 

 the soil of New Jersey. On this subject Gov. 

 Parker, in his third annual message, says : 



On the 6th of November last, application was 

 made to the Federal authorities at Washington to per- 

 mit the health officers of New York to locate hospi- 

 tals ou Sandy Hook. Having received information of 

 the contemplated application, on the 4th of Novem- 

 ber last I telegraphed to the New Jersey State Agent 

 to visit the President at once, and notify him that on 

 behalf of the State of New Jersey, I protested against 

 any action of the General Government looking to 

 the establishment of a quarantine hospital at Sandy 

 Hook. On the 6th of November I forwarded a tele- 

 gram to the President, renewing the protest against 

 granting the application, and claiming for the State of 

 New Jersey jurisdiction over the designated locality. 

 On the following day I received a despatch from the 

 Secretary of War, stating that the question had been 

 referred to him, and that the health officers of New 

 York were then at Washington urging the Govern- 

 ment to grant authority to locate quarantine hospi- 

 tals on Government property at Sandy Hook. Ac- 

 companied by the Attorney-General of this State 

 (whose views on the subject entirely coincided with 



mine), I immediately visited Washington, and had 

 full and satisfactory interviews with the President 

 and Secretary of War. Written objections denying 

 the right of the United States to make the proposed 

 grant were filed with the Secretary, by whom they 

 were referred to the Attorney-General of the United 

 States. I have recently received information that 

 the Attorney-General has decided that the General 

 Government has not the right to grant the applica- 

 tion. This decision, it is hoped, will settle the ques- 

 tion of jurisdiction over Sandy Hook, and put an 

 end to the efforts of the New York authorities to in- 

 duce the General Government to aid in establishing 

 their quarantine on the soil of New Jersey. 



With regard to the controversy between the 

 State and the General Government as to the 

 power of the latter to make a post road of the 

 railroad from Raritan Bay to the Delaware, 

 Gov. Parker remarks : 



The General Government has no right to build 

 a foot of railroad or to charter a corporation to 

 construct the same, in any of the States, for the 

 purpose of carrying passengers or freight for com- 

 pensation. Neither can Congress authorize any rail- 

 road company chartered by a State to do any act 

 that is forbidden or that is not authorized by the law 

 of its incorporation as passed by the Legislature. 

 No power can make the creature superior to or inde- 

 pendent of its creator. 



The proposition to amend the Federal Con 

 stitution by adding an article abolishing slavery 

 throughout the United States, was transmitted 

 to the Legislature of New Jersey, at its last 

 session, for ratification or rejection, and was 

 rejected by the Senate and House of Assem- 

 bly. 



The Republican State Convention assembled 

 at Trenton on the 20th of July, and nominated 

 Marcus L. Ward for Governor, to fill the place 

 of Joel Parker. A series of resolutions were 

 adopted, pronouncing the war not a "fail- 

 ure," and rejoicing in the advent of peace, 

 endorsing President Johnson's reorganization 

 policy, strongly denouncing the conduct of the 

 Democratic party during the war, pledging the 

 support of the party to the constitutional amend- 

 ment abolishing slavery, expressing gratitude to 

 the heroic men of the army and navy, in favor 

 of exempting discharged soldiers from the poll 

 tax, pledging the party to the most rigid econo- 

 my in the State administration, and reaffirming 

 the resolutions of the Baltimore Convention 

 in reference to the Monroe doctrine. A reso- 

 lution in favor of negro suffrage was voted 

 down by an overwhelming majority. 



The Democratic Convention assembled also 

 at Trenton on the 30th of August, and Gen. 

 Theodore Runyon was unanimously nominated 

 for Governor. A series of resolutions were 

 reported, charging the consequences of the war 

 on the election of a sectional President and the 

 fanaticism of a sectional party, favoring a re- 

 turn of the Government to its original purposes 

 and objects, declaring and insisting on the rights 

 of the States, opposing negro suffrage, and 

 agreeing with President Johnson that the ques- 

 tion should be left with the States, favoring a 

 return to the specie currency, opposing the 

 exemption of Government bonds from taxation, 



