CONNECTICUT. 



205 



effectual measures for guarding the cattle and 

 other useful animals from contagious diseases. 

 The General Assembly were urged to con- 

 sider the necessity of a legislative enactment, 

 advancing the rate of interest on money to 

 seven per cent., as the existing law, which 

 limits it to six, forced the capital of the State 

 to seek a more remunerative return abroad, be- 

 sides, that borrowers experienced great diffi- 

 culty in obtaining loans in their need, and, 

 when they succeeded in obtaining them, it 

 was by paying higher rates than the legal. 



Following the example of his immediate 

 predecessor in office, the Governor recom- 

 mended to the Legislature a change in the State 

 constitution for the purpose of changing the 

 elections from annual to bienniaf; and said, 

 that " the election should be held in the fall, 

 and that the Legislature should assemble in 

 winter, is, I think, the almost unanimous senti- 

 ment in the State." 



He appealed to the General Assembly to 

 provide a means to secure the purity of the 

 ballot-box, and said: "Any attempt, on the 

 part of any person or party, to control the 

 votes of the ignorant or vicious, by money, 

 misrepresentation, or fraud, ought to be par- 

 ticularly guarded against ; and, to the end that 

 our elections may be fairly and properly con- 

 ducted, I would suggest that more voting dis- 

 tricts may be established in some of our larger 

 towns and cities, and that the police depart- 

 ments be managed and regulated by non-par- 

 tisan boards of commissioners." 



The May session of the Connecticut Legisla- 

 ture in 1869 was twenty-six days shorter than 

 that of the preceding year, and adjourned sine 

 die on July 10th. They transacted, however, 

 no small amount of business, though most of it 

 was of personal or local interest. Among the 

 chief matters of a public character which the 

 General Assembly discussed and passed in this 

 session, besides making appropriations in favor 

 of some public institutions, they reduced the 

 State-tax from three to two and a half mills on 

 the dollar, reestablished the State Normal 

 School at New Britain, created two new Courts 

 of Common Pleas for the counties of Hartford 

 and New Haven, and passed the proposed 

 amendment to the State constitution making 

 one capital, and that the city of Hartford. 



Upon the repeal of the usury law, so far as 

 to increase the legal rate of interest from six 

 to seven per cent., and the modification of the 

 laws concerning divorce, to the end of render- 

 ing the dissolution of marriage less easily ob- 

 tainable, the Legislature came to no decision. 



The bill for a temperance law was defeated ; 



but an act was passed to punish, by a $100 



fine, the adulteration of liquor, and appointed 



a State chemist who should make the analysis 



"to ascertain its quality. 



One of the most important matters argued and 

 acted upon by the Legislature was the appli- 

 cation "for an act of incorporation authorizing 

 the construction of a railroad from the town 



of Derby, in New Haven County, to the State 

 line in the town of Greenwich, in Fairfield 

 County." The proposed new line of railway 

 is commonly named the "Parallel road," it be- 

 ing intended to run parallel with that of the 

 New York and New Haven Railroad, which 

 the citizens of Connecticut are now compelled 

 to make use of in all the business they may 

 have with New York for travel and transpor- 

 tation of merchandise. After an animated 

 discussion in both Houses, the bill was finally 

 defeated, though by small majorities, the vote 

 having been 10 to 11 in the Senate, and 104 to 

 117 in the House of Assembly. 



As to the action of the Legislature in politi- 

 cal matters, the Fifteenth Amendment to the 

 United States constitution was promptly rati- 

 fied by both branches, and an amendment to 

 the State Constitution, striking out the word 

 "white," was passed. This amendment has 

 twice before, in 1847 and 1865, been passed by 

 the Legislature and submitted to the people. 

 In 1847 the whole vote upon it was 25,106, 

 out of which a majority against its passage of 

 13,874 was given. In 1865, at a special elec- 

 tion in October, the whole vote upon the 

 amendment was 60,706, of which 27,217 were 

 in favor of its adoption, and 33,489 were 

 against it. 



The Democratic State Convention assembled 

 at Hartford on January 27, 1869, and nom- 

 inated candidates for the State offices, and 

 adopted the following resolutions : 



Resolved, That the issue of the late presidential 

 election was in no sense an indorsement by the 

 people of the United States of the repeated violations 

 of trie Constitution by the radical party, but was the 

 result of a system of proscription and corruption un- 

 paralleled in the history of the country. 



Resolved, That we shall continue to adhere to every 

 constitutional principle heretofore avoAved and sup- 

 ported by the Democratic party, under which party 

 the country has prospered, and taken the front rank 

 among the nations of the earth. 



Resolved, That while we opposed with our best 

 efforts the election of General Grant to the presi- 

 dency, we nevertheless have no desire or design to 

 embarrass his Administration by any captious oppo- 

 sition to his recommendations, but are disposed to 

 sustain him in every just and constitutional measure 

 which he may propose. 



Resolved, That the attempt of the leaders of the 

 radical party in Congress to deprive the States of the 

 Union of their right to prescribe the terms and con- 

 ditions of the suffrage of their own citizens is de- 

 signed as a fatal blow at the most essential reserved 

 right of the States ; that it is an assumption of su- 

 periority by the creature over the creator an auda- 

 cious usurpation by our servants in Congress over 

 their masters, the people ; and we will resist, by all 

 lawful means, this contemplated outrage upon the 

 principle of self-government. 



Resolved, That the spirit of hatred and revenge so 

 pertinaciously encouraged by the radical leaders 

 toward the people of the South is disgraceful to our 

 common humanity, places our Union in constant 

 peril, and threatens to alienate forever those feelings 

 of fraternity and patriotism upon which depend the 

 very existence of republican institutions. 



Resolved, That the charge of intending to repu- 

 diate any portion of the national debt, so persistently 

 made against us by our political .opponents, is a 

 slander, without excuse or provocation, as our pur- 



