PATRIOTIC ORDER OP -THE SONS OF AMERICA. 



703 



be signed by the president or vice-president of 

 the provisional committee and the secretary. 

 When five local leagues are organized in any 

 State a State league may be formed. When one 

 fourth of all the States are organized, a commit- 

 tee of conference may be called by the executive 

 committee and signed by the president, which 

 conference committee shall consist of not fewer 

 than five delegates from each State ; and action 

 may then be taken to decide whether a national 

 convention shall be called and who shall be 

 present thereat. 



PATRIOTIC ORDER OF THE SONS OF 

 AMERICA, an organization founded in Phil- 

 adelphia in 1847, and reorganized in 1866. The 

 objects of the order are the inculcation of pure 

 American principles and institutions ; opposition 

 to foreign interference in any of the aifairs of 

 state and to organized disregard of the laws of 

 the land ; and the development and maintenance 

 of the public schools. Its members are to make 

 themselves familiar with the rights and duties of 

 American citizenship. It is also declared that 

 the two most cherished ideas of this nation have 

 been from the beginning the absolute separa- 

 tion of church and state and the freedom of the 

 common schools from all ecclesiastical interfer- 

 ence, and the members of the order pledge them- 

 selves to work to establish these ideas. A fur- 

 ther object of the organization is to have some 

 test more reliable than a five years' residence in 

 the United States applied to intending citizens. 

 The order is both non-sectarian and non-politi- 

 cal. The total membership is over 250,000, with 

 three camps in New York city. It is a bene- 

 ficiary as well as a patriotic organization, car- 

 ing for its members and their families in times 

 of trouble. 



PENNSYLVANIA, a Middle State, one of 

 the original thirteen, ratified the Constitution 

 Dec. 12, 1787; area, 45,215 square miles. The 

 population, according to each decennial census, 

 was 434,373 in 1790; 602,365 in 1800; 810,091 

 in 1810; 1,047,507 in 1820; 1,348,233 in 1830; 

 1,724,033 in 1840; 2,311.786 in 1850; 2,906,215 

 in 1860; 3,521,951 in 1870; 4,282,891 in 1880; 

 and 5,258,014 in 1890. Capital, Harrisburg. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year : Governor, James A. 

 Beaver, Republican ; Lieutenant-Governor, Will- 

 iam T. Davies; Secretary of State, Charles W. 

 Stone, who resigned on Nov. 30 to accept an elec- 

 tion to Congress, and wassucceeded by J.H.Longe- 

 necker ; Treasurer, William Livsey, succeeded on 

 May 5 by Henry K. Boyer; Auditor-General, 

 Thomas McCamant; Secretary of Internal Af- 

 fairs, Thomas J. Stewart ; Attorney-General, 

 W. S. Kirkpatrick; Superintendent of Public 

 Instruction, D. J. Waller, Jr., appointed in Feb- 

 ruary; Insurance Commissioner, J. M. Forster; 

 Secretary of Agriculture, Thomas J. Edge; 

 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Edward M. 

 Paxson : Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, 

 James P. Sterrett, Henry Green, Silas M. Clark, 

 Henry W. Williams, James T. Mitchell, and J. 

 B. McCollum. 



Population. The following table shows the 

 population of the State by counties, as deter- 

 mined by the national census of this year, com- 

 pared with the population as shown by the na- 

 tional census of 1880 : 



* Decrease. 



Finances. The following is a statement of 

 the public debt on Nov. 30, 1890 : Relief notes, 

 act of May 4, 1841, $96,145 ; interest certificates 

 unclaimed, $4,448.88; interest certificates out- 

 standing, $13,038.54: domestic creditor, $25; 

 total, $113,656.92. Five-per-cent. bonds. $18,- 

 414.70; 6-per-cent. bonds, $2,000; 6-per-cent. 

 Chambersburg certificates, $148.66 ; total, $20,- 

 563.36. Interest bearing debt : 3|-per-cent. bonds, 

 $1,663,500; 4-per-cent, bonds, $6,732,100 ; 5-per- 

 cent, bonds, $3,303,100; 6-per-cent. agricultural 

 scrip bond, $500,000 ; 6 per cent, on proceeds 

 of experimental farms sale, $17,000; total, $12,- 

 215,700. This makes an aggregate indebtedness 



