648 PELISSIER, AMABLE J. J. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



PELISSIER, AMAELE JEAX JACQUES, Duke 

 of Malakoff and a Marshal of France, born at 

 Maromme, near Rouen, November 6, 1794, died 

 in Algeria, May 22, 1864. He was the son of a 

 tradesman, and was educated at the military 

 schools of La Fleche and St. Cyr. Shortly be- 

 fore the return of Napoleon from Elba he was 

 commissioned a lieutenant in a regiment of the 

 line, and four years later he succeeded, after a 

 severe examination, in securing a position on 

 the staff of the Corps d'Etat Major. He first 

 saw active service during the Spanish campaign 

 of 1823, where he gained the Cross of the Le- 

 gion of Honor, and in 1826 he was promoted 

 to a captaincy. After serving witli distinction 

 in the expeditionary corps in Greece in 1828, 

 he went in 1830 to Algiers in the suite of Gen. 

 Bourmont, and during the next two years saw 

 much hard fighting. Returning to France on 

 account of ill health in 1832, he went back to 

 Algeria in 1839 with the rank of lieutenant- 

 colonel, and for upward of sixteen years was 

 incessantly engaged in the tedious and bloody 

 campaigns which ended in establishing the 

 French supremacy in the province. In 1843 

 he was promoted to a colonelcy, and during 

 the insurrection of the Kabyles in 1845 he ac- 

 quired an unenviable notoriety over Europe by 

 suffocating six hundred of the Ouled Riah tribe 

 of Arabs in a cavern at Dahra. The press of 

 France and Marshal Soult, then Minister of 

 War, condemned the act in strong terms, but 

 Pelissier was in the end sustained by his Gov- 

 ernment, and the Moniteur Algerien of July 

 22, 1845, officially declared that he simply car- 

 ried out the positive orders of his commander- 

 in-chief, Marshal Bugeaud, who justified the 

 act as a "necessity of war." In 1846 he be- 

 came Marechal-de-Camp, in 1848 Major-Gen- 

 eral and Commandant of the province of Oran, 

 and in 1850 General of Division. For his bril- 

 liant daring in storming the desert fortress of 

 Laghuat he was decorated by Napoleon with 

 the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, and 

 soon after the arrival of the allied English and 

 French forces in the Crimea, was appointed to 

 command the first corps under Gen. Canrobert. 

 In May, 1855, the latter resigned his com- 

 mand in favor of Pelissier, who signalized him- 

 self by the capture of the Mamelon Yert, by 

 his efficient cooperation at the battle of the 

 Tchernaya, and finally by the capture of the 

 Malakoff, September 8th, which practically de- 

 cided the fate of Sebastopol. For these ser- 

 vices he was made Marshal of France and Duke 

 of Malakoff, and received from Queen Victoria 

 the Order of G. C. B. He was also voted by 

 the Corps L6gislatif a pension of 100,000 francs. 

 He replaced Count Persigny as minister to Eng- 

 land in April, 1858, but a year later was recalled 

 to France to take command of the army of ob- 

 servation which was stationed at Nancy to guard 

 against demonstrations from Germany during 

 the Italian campaign of that year. In 1862 

 he was appointed Governor General of Algeria, 

 the scene of his early career, where he managed 



affairs with great skill and success until lug 

 death. He had previously been appointed a 

 Member of the Privy Council, Vice-President of 

 the Senate, and Grand Chancellor of the Legion 

 of Honor. Pelissier was a good specimen of 

 the soldier, honest, straightforward, and cour- 

 ageous, but ruthless when necessity imposed a 

 severe task upon him, coarse and brusque in 

 manners, and vain to excess. He made a poor 

 figure as a diplomatist or courtier, and was 

 only thoroughly at home hi the camp or on the 

 inarch. 



PENNSYLVANIA. The uniform prosperity 

 of this wealthy State experienced no chango 

 during the year except the destruction occa- 

 sioned by the enemy in some of the Southern 

 counties. Agriculture was prosperous and in- 

 dustry well rewarded. The internal system of 

 improvements undertaken by the State some 

 years ago created a heavy debt, the burden of 

 which still continues. On Dec. 1st, 1864, it was 

 as follows : 



Amount of public debt of Penn- 

 sylvania, as it stood on the 1st 

 day of December, 1863 



Deduct amount redeemed at the 

 State Treasury during the fis- 

 cal year ending with Novem- 

 ber 80th, 1S64, viz. : 



Five per cent, stocks 



Four and a half per ct. stocks. . . 



Interest certificates... 



Public debt Dec. 1st, ISM 



Funded debt, viz. : 



Six per cent, loans, ordinary . . . 



Five per cent, loans, ordinary . . 



Four and a half per cent, loans, 



ordinary. 



Unfunded debt, viz. : 



Relief notes in circulation 



Interest certificates outstand- 

 ing 



Interest certificates unclaimed. 



Domestic creditors' certificates. 



11104.722 73 



10,000 00 



2,270 11 



$400.030 00 

 35,605,268 72 



258,200 00 

 97,251 00 



13,086 52 



4,448 38 

 724 32 



Military loan, per act loth, Mav, 

 1861 .".j 



Total public debt December 1st, 1 

 1864 .. 



$39,490,590 78 



116,992 SI 



$3<>.379.C03 94 



$36,264093 72 



115,510 22 



$86,379,603 94 



3,000,000 00 



$39,379,603 94 



The State holds bonds received from the sale 

 of the public works, amounting to ten million 

 three hundred thousand dollars. These bonds 

 in the sinking fund reduce the public debt 

 to $29,079,603.- 



Some dissatisfaction was created among the 

 holders of the State bonds by the refusal to pay 

 the interest due upon them in specie. This is 

 the second occasion upon which the State has 

 considered it necessary to adopt this course. 

 The embarrassments which the country expe- 

 rienced in 1837 caused a suspension of payment 

 in specie by Pennsylvania; but in June, 1840, 

 the Legislature passed an act which appro- 

 priated sufficient money to reimburse the bond- 

 holders for the difference in value between 

 specie and suspended bank currency, and then 

 declared by resolution " that hereafter the in- 

 terest falling due on Pennsylvania stocks, shall 

 always be paid in specie or its equivalent,'' 



