256 



CONNECTICUT. 



Legislature. The Democrats opposed the amend- 

 ment on grounds of expediency and policy, and 

 contended that Congress was powerless to 

 change the Constitution during the enforced 

 exclusion of certain Eepresentatives from Con- 

 gress. This view was repelled by the Eepub- 

 licans, who held that Congress has against con- 

 quered rebels all the powers of conquest. 



Among the hills passed was one empower- 

 ing the voters of any town to consolidate the 

 school districts of such town into one, and ap- 

 point a committee to manage them. The towns 

 were also required to raise a tax of four-tenths 

 of a mill for school purposes instead of three- 

 tenths, the rate previously established. Bills 

 were also passed legalizing eight per cent, in- 

 terest on money contracts, appropriating $10,- 

 000 in aid of a homeopathic hospital, to be 

 paid when an equal amount shall be expended 

 upon it by the friends of that practice; and 

 chartering new lines of railroad. Among the 

 the latter was a bill for a branch line from 

 Salisbury, to connect the Harlem and Housa- 

 tonic roads. Resolutions were adopted appoint- 

 ing a commission to report to the next Legisla- 

 ture the opinions of the city authorities of Hart- 

 ford ^.nd New Haven upon the subject of ac- 

 cepting the present State-houses in those cities, 

 and building new ones ; and proposing an 

 amendment to the constitution providing for 

 one capital, to be selected by a plurality 

 vote of the people. A bill prescribing that 

 " eight hours of labor, done and performed in 

 the day by any one person, shall be a lawful 

 day's work, unless otherwise agreed by the 

 parties," passed the Senate, but was defeated 

 in the House. A project to construct a bridge 

 for the Shore Line Eailroad across the Connec- 

 ticut Eiver at Lyme, near its mouth, was urged 

 with great persistence, but failed in both Houses 

 toward the close of the session. A bill taxing 

 interest on United States bonds was rejected; 

 also a resolution changing the session of the 

 Legislature to January. The House bill, char- 

 tering the Derby and State Line Eailroad, to 

 run parallel with the New Haven road, was lost 

 in the Senate. The Governor vetoed two bills, 

 one of which, chartering an Accident Insurance 

 Company at Hartford, was passed over the 

 veto. The other bill, vetoed late in the session, 

 required judges, in case of appeals, to certify to 

 the evidence. The veto was sustained by an 

 almost unanimous vote, and the bill was de- 

 feated. 



On May 1, 1866, the total State debt amount- 

 ed to $10,400,000, of which $8,206,288 were 

 over and above assets. The taxable property 

 of the State increased from $231,000,000, in 

 1860, to $290,000,000 in 1865, exclusive of 

 money invested in national securities, and the 

 general financial condition was such as to jus- 

 tify the conclusion that the annual expenditures 

 of the State government, including the pay- 

 ment of interest on the debt, can be kept within 

 $1,000,000. At the present rate of taxation 

 the annual receipts are estimated at $1,625,000, 



which would leave about $600,000 to be ap- 

 plied to the extinguishment of the debt, in ad- 

 dition to the accumulations of the sinking fund 

 already provided for, which amounted to $72,- 

 000 in 1866. 



The school fund, according to. the last com- 

 putation of the State Auditor, amounted to 

 $2,046j532.23, a part of which is unproductive, 

 and the total revenue from the fund for the 

 year ending April 30, 1866, was $136,471.94, 

 of which $130,658 was expended upon the edu- 

 cation of 118,780 children, or $1.10 per child. 

 The increase of children over the previous year 

 was 3,955. "Public education," says Governor 

 Hawley, "received a marked impulse by the 

 important modification of the school laws en- 

 acted last year, vesting the supervision of the 

 Normal School, and of the entire system of 

 common schools, in a State Board of Education, 

 and imposing upon the Secretary of the Board 

 the ordinary duties of the Superintendent of 

 Common Schools." 



The catalogue of Yale College shows that at 

 the close of 1866, 709 students were attached to 

 that institution, of whom 500 belonged to the 

 undergraduate department, and the remainder 

 followed special courses of theology, medicine, 

 law, philosophy, and the arts. The staff of the 

 college comprises the president, 35 professors, 

 nine tutors, four instructors, a librarian-, and a 

 demonstrator of anatomy. The libraries, ex- 

 clusive of the 2,500 volumes of the Oriental So- 

 ciety, contain 77,500 books, besides a large 

 number of pamphlets. In October, 1866, Mr. 

 George Peabody, of London, made a donation 

 to the college of $150,000 for the purpose of 

 establishing a Museum of Natural History. Of 

 this sum $100,000 are to be immediately ex- 

 pended in the erection of a suitable building ; 

 $20,000 are to be invested until a fund of 

 $100,000 is accumulated, which is to be em- 

 ployed in completing the museum ; and $30,000 

 are to be devoted to the care of the museum 

 and the increase of its collections; three- 

 sevenths of the sum being devoted to zoology, 

 three-sevenths to geology, and one-seventh to 

 mineralogy. 



During the year ending April 1, 1866, 41 

 banks, with an aggregate capital of $12,087,930, 

 were organized under the national banking law, 

 in addition to those which had previously taken 

 this course, leaving but eight State banks, with 

 an aggregate capital of $1,985,920, and a cir- 

 culation of $1,275,732. The capital of all the 

 banks of Connecticut, State and national, ninety 

 in number, amounted in April, 1866, to $26,- 

 182,243. On January 1, 1866, there were 51 

 savings banks in operation, 50 of which re- 

 ported assets amounting to $28,891,454.71, and 

 deposits amounting to $27,319,013.59. The 

 higher rate of interest paid by adjoining States, 

 and especially by the General Government, re- 

 duced the deposits $1,823,274.99 during the 

 past year, and gradually led the trustees to in- 

 vest more than a quarter of the whole in na- 

 tional bonds. 



