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WRIGHT, JOSEPH A. 



WURTEMBURG. 



pable determination to perpetuate the supremacy of 

 military power in the United States ; by its attempts 

 to preserve the ascendency of a minority party 

 through the subversion of the Government ; by its 

 unceasing aggressions upon the freedom of speech 

 and of the press ; by its open and active friendship 

 for despotic forms of government ; by its invention 

 of false excuses for tyranny ; by its unscrupulous tax- 

 ation of the people for the aggrandizement of its 

 power in the enrichment of its leaders ; by its odious 

 alliances with the traditional enemies of republican 

 institutions ; by its shameless assaults upon the elec- 

 tive franchise ; "by its substitution of partisan decrees 

 for the obligations of the supreme law : by its intend- 

 ed abrogation of the reserved rights or the States and 

 permanent maintenance of a national standing army 

 to enforce compliance with its usurpations has 

 proven false to all its pretensions of patriotism, false 

 to the Government and the people, and deserves the 

 reprobation of the friends of freedom throughout the 

 civilized world. 



Resolved, That the indiscriminate disfranchisement 

 of more than 12,000 citizens of Wisconsin, by offi- 

 cially publishing their names as deserters, while 

 many of them were faithful soldiers of the Union 

 armyj without previous trial and conviction, or other 

 sufficient proof of crime, is an unconstitutional exer- 

 cise of legislative power, and in many instances a 

 wanton and cruel libel upon the living and the dead, 

 which demands instant and complete reparation at 

 the hands of the people. 



Resolved, That the enormous tax, directly and in- 

 directly imposed by congressional legislation upon 



dangerous schemes of partisan aggrandizement, is an 

 exhaustive drain upon the resources of the State, which 

 calls for earnest and united effort in behalf of retrench- 

 ment and reform. 



Resolved, That we ai-e in favor of the full and 

 punctual discharge of the national obligations and 

 debts, precisely on the conditions and times on which 

 they were contracted, and the faith of the Govern- 

 ment pledged to its creditors. 



At the election in November the total vote 

 for Governor was 142,510. Governor Fairchild 

 was reflected by a majority of 4,764. The 

 vote for the constitutional amendment, giving a 

 salary to members of the Legislature, was 58,- 

 363 for, and 24,418 against. The Legislature 

 stands as follows: Senate Republicans, 18; 

 Democrats, 15. House Republicans, 59; 

 Democrats, 41. 



WRIGHT, Hon. JOSEPH A., ex-Governor 

 and United States minister to Prussia ; born 

 in Pennsylvania, about 1810, died at Berlin, 

 Prussia, on the 11 of May, 1867. At an early 

 period of his life he left Pennsylvania and set- 

 tled in Indiana. His early advantages were 

 limited, but, like many prominent men, he also, 

 without the aid of family influence or pecuniary 

 means, simply through his own untiring energy, 

 raised himself, by successive and rapid strides, 

 from an humble and obscure position to some 

 of the highest and most responsible offices 

 within the gift of the people and the Govern- 

 ment. Devoting himself to the study of the 

 law, he was admitted to the bar in early man- 

 hood, and soon took a conspicuous stand in his 

 profession, and became a member of the State 



Legislature. In 1843 he was chosen to repre- 

 sent his State in Congress. He was elected 

 Governor of Indiana in 1849, and continued to 

 hold that position until 1857. In that year 

 President Buchanan appointed him minister to 

 Prussia, which position he held until the acces- 

 sion of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency. He re- 

 turned to this country in 1861, and, acting with 

 the War Democrats, was in 1862 elected United 

 States Senator from Indiana (in place of J. D. 

 Bright), serving one session. In 1863. Presi- 

 dent Lincoln appointed him United States com- 

 missioner to the Hamburg Exhibition. He was 

 appointed minister to Prussia for the second time 

 by President Johnson, in 1865, and continued 

 to fill that position up to the time of his death. 

 That he was able to discharge the duties of 

 these several offices with credit to himself may 

 be attributed to his active and superior intel- 

 lect; but his elevation to these high places was 

 owing more to his persevering energy, and to 

 his strict integrity and inflexible honesty. 

 As United States minister he was highly 

 popular, ever ready to place his familiarity 

 with Berlin at the disposal of his countrymen. 

 He assisted them in obtaining introductions to 

 distinguished men, and in gaining admission to 

 places not open to the general public. To 

 young men, especially to those attending the 

 university, he was particularly obliging, intro- 

 ducing them to the general circle of his friends 

 and inviting them to his house on Sabbath 

 evenings, when homesickness steals over one 

 with added power. To the Germans it was 

 incomprehensible how a man without a univer- 

 sity education, and without wealth, could be so 

 honored at home, could become the represent- 

 ative of a first-class power at the aristocratic 

 court of Prussia ; and still more inexplicable 

 did it seem that, having attained all this, hav- 

 ing become the associate of royal ministers and 

 ambassadors of kings, he should be so accessi- 

 ble. Like most Western public men, he had 

 devoted himself to the so-called practical ques- 

 tions more than to scientific theories ; yet his 

 society and opinions, though the latter were 

 expressed in homely phrase rather than in the 

 language of the schools, were much esteemed 

 by a wide circle of men of letters. 



A consistent and devoted member of the 

 Methodist Church, Mr. Wright never hesitated, 

 when opportunity offered, to express his reli- 

 gious convictions with fervid earnestness that 

 added to their novelty. 



WURTEMBERG, a kingdom in South Ger- 

 many. King, Karl, born March G, 1823 ; suc- 

 ceeded his father, June 25, 1864. Area, 7,840 

 square miles; population, in 1864, 1,748,328. 

 The aggregate revenue for the financial period 

 from 1864 to 1867 was 51,226,785 florins; 

 surplus of revenue o^er expenditures, 34,077 

 florins. Public debt, in 1867, 98,343,670 flor- 

 ins. The army, in 1867, consisted of 29,392 

 men. {See GERMANY.) 



