258 



CONNECTICUT. 



CORNELIUS, PETER YON. 



preponderated, as was usually the case in this, 

 State before the war; still, in the Cpunties of 

 New Haven and Tolland there were more 

 males who died than females. The proportion 

 between either sex of those who died in 1866 

 was as 98.42 males to 100 females in 1865 it 

 was as 107.22 of the latter. 



The number of organized and equipped mi- 

 litia in the State is 4,141, constituting forty-one 

 infantry companies, which seems to be fully 

 adequate to the requirements of the State. 



The views of the newly-elected Governor on 

 Federal affairs were expressed in the following 

 extract from his message to the Legislature: 



The right of a State voluntarily to withdraw from 

 the Union has been abandoned by those who at- 

 tempted to carry it into effect. Four years of san- 

 guinary warfare brought this result to the country; 

 and yet the great object of that war has thus far 

 been defeated. The Union is not restored. Ten 

 States are, by the action of Congress, denied all par- 

 ticipation in the National Government, the laws of 

 which they are required to obey. Measures such as 

 these tend to empire, not to union. If persisted in 

 they must inevitably destroy the federative character 

 of our government, and transform the republic into 

 a despotism. The course of legislation pursued by 

 Congress toward the ten States of the South is, in 

 my judgment, wholly unwarranted by our funda- 

 mental law, and as fatal to the Union and the Con- 

 stitution as the principle of secession which has been 

 suppressed. 



At the session of the Legislature which en- 

 sued, a resolution was adopted requesting the 

 opinion of the Judges of the Court of Errors 

 as to the validity of legislation for the taxation 

 of the principal or income of the bonds issued 

 by the Federal Government and held by citizens 

 of the State. This opinion the judges declined 

 to give, on the ground that it would be a case 

 purely of advice and not of judgment, and not 

 binding upon any one. A bill for this purpose 

 subsequently passed the House yews 109, nays 

 97. 



A proposed amendment to the State Consti- 

 tution, conferring manhood suffrage; passed in 

 the House yeas 109, nays 80. The result of 

 the action of the session was to send the pro- 

 posed amendment to the next Legislature, when 

 a vote of two-thirds of each House will be re- 

 quired in order to bring it before the people. 



The question of one or two capitals for the 

 State has been submitted to the people for their 

 decision. The State House at Hartford, built 

 in 1796, has become too small for the present 

 wants of the State, while the one at New 

 Haven is extensively out of repair. The land 

 upon which each is built belongs to the re- 

 spective cities. 



No decisive action on the subject of temper- 

 ance was taken by the Legislature. The ex- 

 isting law of the State is prohibitory, or the 

 " Maine Law." Petitions for a license law were 

 presented, and also remonstrances against it. 

 Unsuccessful efforts were also made to author- 

 ize bridging the Connecticut Eiver near Middle- 

 town for the Air-Line Railroad between New 

 York and Boston. 



Much interest exists in parts of the State 

 relative to the fish in the Connecticut River, 

 chiefly the salmon and shad. The Legislatures 

 of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Ver- 

 mont, propose to unite with Connecticut in a 

 system of laws for the general purpose of pre- 

 serving the fish of the New England waters. 

 As the Connecticut River supplies Vermont, 

 New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecti- 

 cut alike with two great benefits, namely, 

 water-power and fish, it evidently requires co- 

 operation that the use of the water-power 

 shall not prevent the supply of fish. The 

 building of dams drove the salmon from the 

 Connecticut. The same cause has decreased 

 the numbers of shad. But the shad find spawn- 

 ing beds below the dams, which are not suit- 

 able for the salmon, and their decrease is not 

 so decided. It is now proposed that New 

 Hampshire and Vermont assume the expense 

 and charge of supplying the head-waters of 

 the Connecticut with the spawn of the two 

 fish; that Massachusetts construct fish ways 

 through the dams which obstruct the river, and 

 that Connecticut protect the ingress and egress 

 of the fish at Saybrook. By this combination 

 f effort success is probably assured. 



CORNELIUS, PETER VON, an eminent Ger- 

 man painter, one of the three founders of the 

 Diisseldorf school of painting, born at Diissel- 

 dorf, September 16, 1787; died at Berlin, Prus- 

 sia, March 6, 1867. He was the son of a paint- 

 er, and early showed a strong leaning toward 

 the study of art, and while still a child earned 

 considerable sums by illustrating almanacs 

 and other cheap publications. Meanwhile he 

 kept his eye upon a higher aim, and, studying 

 the works of Raphael and the antique, accus 7 

 tomed himself to repeat their designs from 

 memory. At the age of sixteen he lost his fa- 

 ther, and feeling the necessity of earning money 

 for the support of his widowed mother, deter- 

 mined to renounce all thought of becoming an 

 artist, but his mother would not consent to the 

 sacrifice. Good and noble woman that she was, 

 she preferred to struggle with the narrowness 

 of her lot rather than to jeopard the future of 

 her son. 



In 1811 the young Cornelius went to Rome, 

 having already given proof of his ability by 

 painting the interior of the cupola of the church 

 at Nfcuss. At Rome he was joined by Von 

 Schadow and by Overbeck, and the three young 

 men worked with fervor and energy, painting 

 together in several series of pictures among 

 others a " History of Joseph " for the palace 

 of M. Bartholdy, ambassador of Prussia. Here, 

 too, he designed his illustrations to the ' k Nibe- 

 lungen Lied," which, more than any other work 

 of his, made his name known to Germany. He 

 proposed also a series of illustrations in fresco 

 to the "Comedy" of Dante, but had only 

 made the designs when he was invited to Mu- 

 nich by the Crown Prince of Bavaria, after- 

 ward King Louis. At Munich he remained 

 several years, and executed at the command of 



