544 



NEW YOKK. 



mentioned, shall determine the rates of toll on 

 the canals. Another material change in the 

 canal policy is the application of the surplus 

 revenues until October, 1878, to the payment 

 of the canal and general fund debts, and after 

 that period to the general purposes of the State, 

 until the sum of $18,007,287.68, advanced to 

 the canals since 1846, and interest thereon, 

 shall have been paid. This scheme was op- 

 posed by Mr. Hatch, in a minority report of the 

 Committee on Finance, in which he set forth the 

 importance of applying the surplus revenues 

 of these works to their extension. 



An article was reported to the convention 

 by the Committee on Prisons, providing for a 

 State police, under the control of a superintend- 

 ent, appointed by the Governor, to hold office 

 seven years. This system was designed to su- 

 persede all other police regulations throughout 

 the State. The Committee on Charities re- 

 ported an article, enjoining upon the Legisla- 

 ture the duty of establishing a Board of Com- 

 missioners of Charities, who should be required 

 to report to the Legislature, at each session, 

 upon the condition of charitable institutions in 

 the State, and who should exercise a general 

 supervision over these important interests, the 

 members of such board to be appointed for 

 eight years by the Governor, with the advice 

 and consent of the Senate. In adverting to 

 the great moral evils which spring from the 

 wretched condition of those whom charitable 

 institutions are mainly intended to relieve, the 

 committee say: 



The infants whose lives are daily taken in this 

 State by their wretched parents, is placing the moral 

 character of the commonwealth beneath some of the 

 most despotic and debased governments of the Old 

 World ; and the appalling facts of murder and other 

 crimes of distress and poverty, recorded in the re- 

 ports and journals of the day, prove that this is not 

 the time to arrest the power and means of the State 

 in'its mission either of preventing or punishing crime. 

 There are also crimes which shall be nameless here, 

 and which are largely upon the increase in New Eng- 

 land, New York, and all over the country. It is 

 enough to say that they affect the morals of the State, 

 the future of its population, and the general welfare. 



How far the various projects which have 

 been before the Constitutional Convention will 

 appear essentially unchanged in the organic law 

 of the State when submitted to the people, it is 

 impossible now to say, as the results of revision 

 and amendment have not yet been put forth in 

 any authentic form. 



The Republican State Convention assembled 

 at Syracuse on the 25th of September. The 

 Hon. Roscoe Conkling was elected to the chair 

 as the presiding officer, and on taking that posi- 

 tion addressed the convention in a speech of 

 some length, condemning the course of the 

 President on the great national question of ad- 

 mitting the Southern States to a participation 

 in the general government of the country. The 

 nominations made by the convention were as. 

 follows: for Secretary of State, General Mc- 

 Kean, of Saratoga; for Comptroller, Thos. Hill- 

 house, of Ontario ; for Treasurer, General T. B. 



Gates, of Ulster; for Attorney-General, Joshua 

 M. Van Cott, of Brooklyn ; for State Engineer 

 and Surveyor, A. C. Powell, of Onondaga; for 

 Canal Commissioner, Jno. M. Hammond, of Al- 

 legany ; for State Prison Inspector, Gilbert De 

 La Matyr, of Genesee ; for Judge of Court of 

 Appeals, Chas. Mason, of Madison. After the 

 nominations had been made, the following reso- 

 lutions were adopted as embodying the prin- 

 ciples represented in the convention : 



Resolved, That the Republican Union party of the 

 State of New York reassert its declarations of the 

 rights and liberties of men in all their fulness, and 

 that it renews its pledges to protect and defend those 

 rights and liberties and the franchises which secure 

 them. 



Resolved, That, as Republicans of the State of New 

 York, recognizing the obligation of consistency and 

 straightforwardness in support of the great principles 

 we profess, we unhesitatingly declare that suffrage 

 should be impartial, that it is a right not to be limited 

 by property or color. 



Resolved, That as the Eepublican party has not 

 hesitated fearlessly to search out corruption and mis- 

 government, and frankly to expose them, so it now 

 declares its purpose to continue the work of adminis- 

 trative reform it has inaugurated ; that it will steadily 

 fight corruptionists and ever hold them its enemies ; 

 that it will urge war against them until corruption 

 and maladministration are rooted out and destroyed, 

 and that we will see to it at all hazards that the inter- 

 ests of the State are committed to public servants of 

 integrity untainted by any of the fraudulent usages 

 and practices of that party whose fear to grapple 

 with corruption first brought upon it the contempt 

 of the people. 



Resolved^ That while all measures for the ameliora- 

 tion of society are entitled to and should receive the 

 earnest consideration of thinking Republicans, and 

 while all the history of the party shows it the only 

 true friend of such measures, we do inscribe upon 

 our banners simply and solely these watchwords : 

 National Reconstruction, through Liberty and Justice 

 State Reform through Integrity and Economy. 



Resolved, That our efforts shall be directed to pro- 

 mote thorough economy in administration, State and 

 national, to establish fairness and equality in bearing 

 the public burdens ; that under no circumstances 

 shall the credit of the nation or State be infringed by 

 wrongfully tampering with public obligations, and 

 that the fame of the Republic shall never be dishon- 

 ored by the slightest deviation from the path of finan- 

 cial integrity. 



Resolved, That the course of the Congress of the 

 United States, in carrying out measures of recon- 

 struction on the basis of freedom, regardless of the 

 seductions of the Executive patronage, or the terrors 

 of Executive power, meets our earnest approval, and 

 that unreservedly we do hereby assure them of our 

 determination to stand by them through this struggle. 

 and in all measures necessary to place liberty and 

 peace on lasting foundations, even to the severest 

 remedies known to the Constitution. 



Resolved, That our thanks are due and are given to 

 all now struggling in the States lately in rebellion 

 for voting reconstruction based on the principle of 

 equal justice ; that to them we tender our sympathy 

 and support, and that we will never relinquish them 

 to the mercies of baflled traitors or a faithless Execu- 

 tive. 



Unsolved^ That this convention recognizes in the 

 Hon. Edwin M. Stanton a public officer of tried fidel- 

 ity, unselfish patriotism, indomitable energy, and dis- 

 tinguished ability, whose firmness and integrity in 

 war and peace have entitled him to the highest con- 

 fidence of the nation, and we call upon the Senate of 

 the United States, in the name of our loyal people, to 

 scrutinize well the reasons which shall lie assigned to 



