176 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



structitn. Of the 158,380 men furnished by 

 Massachusetts during the war about three hun- 

 dred remained in the service at the close of 

 1866, principally in the regular army. They 

 are the remains of the three years men who 

 enlisted in 1865, and are drawing bounty from 

 the State. The adjutant-general of the State 

 is engaged in preparing a record of the Massa- 

 chusetts soldiers who served in the war. It 

 will give full and authentic particulars of the 

 name, rank, age, bounty, and residence, of each 

 volunteer, and the reasons for retiring, as 

 death, disability, desertion, etc. The record, 

 it is computed, will make a work of two vol- 

 umes, covering one thousand pages each. 



The annual report of Major Edward J. Jones, 

 high constable of the State, shows that there 

 are but sixty-nine men on the force. In the 

 county of Suffolk, of which Boston is the 

 greater part, there are twenty officers on duty, 

 who have, in the period of eleven months, pro- 

 secuted 4,237 persons, being an average of two 

 hundred and thirty-four per month, eighty -two 

 per week, fourteen per day, and two hundred 

 and twelve to each officer on duty. The ap- 

 propriations for the constabulary for the year 

 was $88,650; expenses, $79,153.85. There has 

 been paid into the county treasuries $51,886.61 

 for fines, etc., and $3,000 to the secretary of 

 the commonwealth for pedlers' licenses. The 

 number of prosecutions during the year were 

 7,715, of which 8,307 were for keeping liquor 

 nuisances, 2,240 for being common sellers, 163 

 for gambling, 869 for violation of the Sunday 

 law, 119 for drunkenness, 63 for larceny, etc. 

 The total amount of stolen property recoverd 

 was $4,276.75. There were 242 liquor seizures 

 during the year; amount seized, 21,493 gallons; 

 1,347 liquor dealers have suspended the traffic, 

 of whom 512 were in Suffolk County. The 

 amount of liquor destroyed by order of the 

 courts was 2,596 gallons. 



The stringent prohibitory liquor law of Mas- 

 sachusetts was resisted in various ways by per- 

 sons opposed to it. Early in March the consti- 

 tutionality of the law was tested before the 

 United States Supreme Court, at Washington, 

 in the case of the Commonwealth of Massa- 

 chusetts, defendant in error vs. John McGuire, 

 plaintiff in error. McGuire had been convicted 

 of selling liquor contrary to the statutes of the 

 State in the State courts. His defence was that 

 he was licensed to sell liquors as a wholesale 

 dealer under the act of Congress providing for 

 internal revenue. The court on the trial ruled 

 that that license was no defence, and that it did 

 not give the accused authority to sell liquor in 

 violation of the statutes of the State. A writ of 

 error was then sued out, and the cause went to 

 "Washington for review, it being made a test case 

 for several thousand similar ones pending in 

 Massachusetts. The decision of the United 

 States Supreme Court was rendered a few weeks 

 later, and fully sustained the rulings of the State 

 tribunals. 



The twenty-third registration report of 



Massachusetts, comprising the vital statistic* 

 of 1864, was published in May, 1866. From 

 this document it appears that in 1864 the 

 number of children born in the State was 

 30,449, viz.: males, 15,634; females, 14,745. 

 In the same year 12,513 couples were mar- 

 ried, a larger number than ever before reported 

 in one year. Of these 7,574 were Americans 

 the remainder (4,939) being either foreigners 

 or mixed. The above figures show an increase 

 of marriages of 1,640. The number of deaths 

 was 28,723, of which 14,964 were males, and 

 13,689 females. The relative proportion of 

 deceased Americans and foreigners remains 

 nearly unchanged for a few years past. The 

 percentage of Americans in the year 1862 was 

 85.53 per cent, of all deaths, so far as stated ; 

 in 1863 it was 85.45 per cent.; and in 18G4 it 

 was 85.10 a diminution in three years of only 

 43 of one per cent. Of Americans 51.64 per 

 cent, were males, and 48,36 were females ; of 

 foreigners, 54.78 were males, and 45.22 per 

 cent, were females. There were among Ameri- 

 cans 89.3 females to 100 males deceased ; and 

 among foreigners only 82.5 females to 100 males. 

 During six years, from 1854 to 1859, inclusive, 

 the average percentages were : American, 83.88 ; 

 foreign, 16.12; and during the last five years 

 (1860-'64) it is, American, 85.24 ; foreign 

 14.76 ; being an average for the eleven years 

 of 84.56 per cent. American, and 15.44 foreign 

 showing on the whole a comparative decrease 

 in the deaths of foreigners. The causes of 

 death, setting aside deaths in battle, do not vary 

 much from those specified in previous reports. 

 Of drowned persons there were 151, and 90 

 deaths took place from railroad accidents. Of 

 deaths by intemperance there were 137, of 

 which 93 were males and 44 females. Of deaths 

 in battle, or from disease contracted in the field, 

 8,099 Massachusetts men died during 1863-'64, 

 and 1,878 died in rebel prisons. To these num- 

 bers those missing must be added, the whole 

 number having a marked influence in deter- 

 mining the mortality average. The order of the 

 counties, with respect to the rate of mortality, 

 beginning with the lowest, is: Dukes, 1.64; 

 Berkshire, 1.91 ; Barnstable and Nantucket, 

 2.00 ; Bristol, 2.12 ; Franklin, 2.15 ; Middlesex, 

 2.20; Norfolk, 2.26; Plymouth, 2.28; (these 

 are below the average for the State, 2.33 ;) 

 Worcester, 2.37 ; Hampden, 2.58 ; Hampshire, 

 2.68; Suffolk, 2.81: The oldest person in the 

 lists of deaths recorded of six persons over a 

 hundred years, was 104 years of age. Two 

 were foreigners. Two were males and four 

 females. Of fifty-seven individuals recorded as 

 over one hundred years of age, twenty were 

 males and thirty-seven about 65 per cent. 

 were females. The average age of the sexes 

 was nearly equal, viz. : 101.4 years for the 

 males, and 101.6 for females. Nearly every one 

 had been married. 



The population of the State is approximately 

 stated at 1,267,329, being a decrease, according 

 to the census of 1860, of 9,045. This decrease 



