518 



MINNESOTA. 



OFFICE IT. 8. DISTRICT ATTORNEY FOE VIRGINIA, ) 

 NOBFOLK, October 8, 1866. ) 

 Hon. Henry Staribery, Attorney- General of the United, 



States : 



SIR: In compliance with your request, I submit 

 herewith the substance of the verbal statement I 

 iiiade you a few days since in answer to your ques- 

 tion, "Why no demand has been made upon the 

 military authorities for the surrender of Jefferson 

 Davis, in order that he might be tried upon the in- 

 dictment found against him in the United States Cir- 

 cuit Court at the term held at Norfolk in May last." 



Two reasons have influenced me in not taking any 

 steps for removing him from their custody. The one 

 relates to the safe-keeping, the other to his own per- 

 sonal comfort and health. I have never had any 

 doubt but that he would be delivered to the United 

 States marshal of the district, whenever he should 

 have demanded him on a capias or other civil 

 process. 



But you can readily understand that so soon as he 



foes into the hands of that officer, upon any action 

 ad by me, his place of confinement would be one of 

 the State jails of Virginia. 



At Fortress Monroe all necessary precautions can be 

 and are taken to prevent his escape. Over the inter- 

 nal police of a State jail the marshal has no authority, 

 and the safe custody of the prisoner could not be 

 secured save at a very great expense. 



Mr. Davis is now in as comfortable quarters as the 

 most of those occupied by the army officers at the 

 fort. The location is a healthy one. His family 

 have free access to him. He has full oportunity for 

 exercise in the open air. 



If his health be feeble, remove him to one of the 

 State jails, and his condition, instead of becoming 

 better, would in all these respects be much for the 

 worse. 



His counsel probably understood all this, and, I 

 think, will not be likely to take any steps which 

 would decrease the personal comforts or endanger 

 the life of their client. 



I have the honor to be, most respectfully, your 

 obedient servant, L. H. CHANDLER, 



U. S. District Attorney for Virginia. 



MINNESOTA. The financial condition of 

 this State is very favorable. Its funded debt 

 exclusive of unrecognized railroad bonds con- 

 sists of $350,000, of which only $190,000 is not 

 held by the State. Its claim against the United 

 States exceeds $100,000, and the increase of 

 the sinking fund will speedily cancel the entire 

 debt. The taxable value of real and personal 

 property returned for 1865-'6 was $45,127,- 

 318; for 1866-% it is estimated at $57,500,000. 

 The revenue for the ensuing year on this basis 

 from taxes will be $322,546. The balance in the 

 treasury at the close of the year was $68,189. 



The cash receipts of the school fund during 

 the past year were $109,935 and the total 

 permanent fund amounts to $1,333,161. The 

 number of school districts in the State is 1,993 ; 

 the number of pupils in attendance 52,753, and 

 the number of persons between five and twenty- 

 one years of age 102,118. The number of 

 school-houses is 1,297, and the average daily 

 attendance 33,319. The State University has 

 not been put in operation. The expenditures 

 for the State Prison expenses and buildings 

 during the year were $21,272. The logs sealed 

 in 1866 amounted to 157,273,944 feet, valued at 

 $2,359,124. Over two hundred acres of land 

 have been donated to the State, for a site of an 



insane hospital. Temporary buildings have 

 been provided, and the number of patients is 

 thirty, which it is estimated will be increased 

 to a hundred during the ensuing year. The 

 Deaf and Dumb Institution contains twenty- 

 eight pupils. The number of miles of railroads 

 in^ the State in operation is 315, of which 109 

 miles were completed during the year. The 

 population of the State on June 1st, 1866, is 

 estimated at 310,000, and the immigration of 

 the year at 38,000. 



The Governor, Marshal], in his message to 

 the Legislature at its session in January, 1867, 

 urged the adoption of the amendment proposed 

 by Congress to the Federal Constitution. Ho 

 said: 



It secures to all citizens of the United States equal 

 civil rights it apportions representation in Congress 

 and the electoral college equally among the States, 

 according to the number of persons enjoying politi- 

 cal rights it forbids the holding of civil or military 

 office under the United States, or any State, by any 

 one who, having taken an oath to support the Con- 

 stitution of the United States, joined in the rebellion 

 to overthrow that constitution it renders binding 

 and sacred the national debt created to preserve the 

 Government, and forbids the assumption and pay- 

 ment of any debt incurred in the effort to destroy the 

 Government. 



These reasonable, just, and necessary conditions 

 are offered by Congress, representing the loyal peo- 

 ple and States that saved the Government from over- 

 throw, as the terms upon which the people and States 

 lately in rebellion may again enjoy equal and full 

 participation in the Government. 



The voice of the people in the late elections has 

 fully approved the action of Congress, and irrevoca- 

 bly decreed the adoption of this amendment, as a 

 condition precedent to the restoration of the rebel 

 States to their former and normal relations to the 

 Union. It is now for those States to choose whether 

 upon these liberal terms they will again enjoy the 

 rights of the Union, which they voluntarily relin- 

 quished and criminally destroyed, or perpetuate 

 their present anomalous and disorderly attitude of 

 separation from the Federal Government. Nor will 

 the nation long permit the contumacy of the dis- 

 loyal elements now governing the Southern States 

 to retain them in this condition of anarchy, or pre- 

 vent them from resuming their constitutional func- 

 tions in the Union. In the event of their refusal to 

 accept the amendment, it may become the duty of 

 Congress to reorganize their civil governments on 

 the basis of equal political rights to all men, without 

 distinction of color, and thus to devolve upon the 

 now disfranchised loyal people of the South the work 

 of national reintegration. 



It would not be strange if, when we see the end, 

 we should recognize the hand of Providence in the 

 hardening of men's hearts, who still in a political 

 sense refuse to let the children of oppression go 

 free. 



The State election, which took place on No- 

 vember 6th, was for the choice of an auditor and 

 a clerk of the Supreme Court. The convention 

 of the Republican party for the nomination of 

 candidates was held at St. Paul, on September 

 19th. Sherwood Hough was nominated for 

 clerk of the Supreme Court, and Charles Mc- 

 Ilrath for auditor. The resolutions on political 

 questions adopted, were as follows: 



Resolved, That the Union party of Minnesota, having 

 sustained the General Government during four .year* 



