MINNESOTA. 



503 



piration of term, 18; by pardon, 8; by mili- 

 tary order, 6; died, 2. The general manage- 

 ment of the prison lias been good. The ex- 

 penditures have been kept within appropria- 

 tions. The expenses of 1868 were $16,915.07. 

 The earnings of the prison labor of convicts 

 and board of United States convicts were 

 $6,179.31. He requests the Legislature to favor 

 the suggestions of the warden and inspectors 

 for some improvements in the State Prison, 

 u if it can be done consistently with the needs 

 of other State institutions." 



Commendable interest is also taken by the 

 State, and not without success, for collecting 

 her soldiers' claims against the Federal Gov- 

 ernment for back pay, bounty, and pensions. 

 The report of the Adjutant-General for 1868 

 " shows the collection of 2,284 claims during 

 the year, amounting to $227,912.35. Since the 

 organization of the bureau of claims in that 

 office in March, 1865, 5,090 cases were pre- 

 pared and forwarded to Washington, of which 

 3,698 were allowed up to December 1, 1868, 

 amounting in money value to $380,312.66." 

 For that class of soldiers, among the Minne- 

 sota inhabitants, who enlisted in 1861 and 1862 

 for three years, but who, having been dis- 

 charged on account of disability within two 

 years of their time, have received no bounty, 

 and for other classes who have not received 

 bounty equal to that given the latter volun- 

 teers, Governor Marshall urges the Legislature 

 to memorialize Congress in order " that justice 

 should be done them." 



Keferring to the first report of the Adjutant- 

 General, he recommends that the State Arsenal 

 should be kept well provided, and never left 

 with less than five thousand stands of good arms, 

 besides the other things necessary for its out- 

 fit. 



As the number of the soldiers' orphans is 

 yearly increasing with the successive deaths of 

 ex-soldiers, or their widows, he calls the atten- 

 tion of the Legislature to the subject, and hints 

 at the erection of a Soldiers' Orphan Asylum, 

 by saying that " measures may be taken to as- 

 certain the wants of this class, and, if need be, 

 to provide at the present session for their care." 



The expenses of the State cKaritable institu- 

 tions are met at present from the general re- 

 venue fund. This being liable to be overbur- 

 dened, and its means possibly diverted to pur- 

 poses less necessary than the maintenance of 

 said institutions, whose expenditures must 

 steadily increase with the population, the Gov- 

 ernor recommends the erection of a special 

 fund, destined exclusively to the support of the 

 charitable institutions of the State, by " setting 

 apart for that purpose the revenues received 

 from the railroads, together with a one-mill 

 tax." He says that "the application of the 

 railroad revenues to this very necessary pur- 

 pose would protect them from diversion or 

 application to less necessary objects." 



In connection with the public works of 

 benevolence and the commendable interest 



taken by the State of Minnesota to provide for 

 the wants of those within her limits who are in 

 a condition of suffering, the prompt and effi- 

 cient manner in which her citizens responded 

 last fall to the loud cry for help raised outside, 

 by the^ people of the Red River Settlement in 

 the British possessions, seems worthy of men- 

 tion. The number of these people, who have 

 no nearer civilized neighbors than the frontier 

 settlements of Minnesota, and this at a distance 

 of four hundred miles, consists of about fifteen 

 thousand persons, one-third farmers, who pro- 

 vide the colony with breadstuff's and vegetables, 

 and one-third buffalo-hunters, who furnish it 

 with dry meat and furs for the long winter. 

 Both kinds of food entirely failed the colonists 

 in 1868, the farmers having gathered not one 

 bushel of grain, or any thing else, because the 

 grasshoppers, like the plague of the locusts, had 

 eaten up to the roots every plant in the fields. 

 The hunters found no game whatever, be- 

 cause the buffalo disappeared last year from 

 their usual haunts, or went to parts unknown. 

 Instead of returning home well fed themselves 

 and with ample provisions for the colony, this 

 army of hunters came back empty-handed; 

 their yoke-oxen and riding horses, they had 

 been compelled, in their long absence, to slaugh- 

 ter and eat up, to keep themselves from starva- 

 tion upon the prairie. The tidings of so great a 

 calamity reached the State of Minnesota through 

 a circular of the Bishop of St. Boniface, stating 

 the sad facts and appealing to the humanity of 

 charitable people everywhere. As soon as they 

 were known, the Chamber of Commerce at St. 

 Paul appointed a committee of five, who, on 

 September 8th, published a statement of these 

 facts, calling upon all for help, and taking upon 

 themselves the charge of speedy transmission 

 of the contributed means of subsistence to the 

 sufferers. A meeting was also held by promi- 

 nent citizens of that city, Governor Marshall 

 among them, in which, upon his motion, the 

 following resolutions were adopted : 



Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting that a 

 fund to purchase and transport to Georgetown, Minn., 

 not less than ten thousand bushels or wheat should 

 immediately be raised to relieve the famine in the 

 Ked Kiver Settlement. 



Resolved, That the Chamber of Commerce _ of ^ St. 

 Paul "be requested to take charge of this subscription, 

 to organize a canvass of this city, and to make an ap- 

 peal to other cities in behalf of this object. 



Resolved, That subscriptions be received for this 

 object from all persons present at this meeting. 



Hereupon a subscription list was opened, 

 and liberal sums set down by all present. 

 Committees were also appointed to act as 

 agents, soliciting contributions everywhere in 

 the State. 



In order to increase the rather scanty popu- 

 lation of Minnesota, and with it her general 

 prosperity by the development of her resources, 

 the Governor urged the Legislature to favor 

 immigration by all means in their power. He 

 stated that, with the $3,000 appropriated at 

 their last session for the publication and dis- 



