410 



MARYLAND. 



no faction, and that we are the firm and unswerving 

 supporters of the great Kepublican party of the 

 United States. And, so far as the Kepublican party 

 of Maryland is concerned, we most sincerely hope 

 that all of its deliberations may be characterized by 

 great unity of action. 



2. That we feel called upon to ignore the action of 

 the Baltimore Convention of June 1, 1869, and un- 

 hesitatingly condemn it as ill-timed, unwise, and cal- 

 culated to engender a spirit of contention among the 

 colored Kepublicans, and lead to the formation of 

 petty factions of a most disturbing and mischievous 

 character. 



On the 7th. of October the Democratic Con- 

 vention, called to nominate a candidate for the 

 office of Comptroller of the Treasury, met in 

 the city of Baltimore, and, without adopting 

 any "platform," proceeded to ballot for a can- 

 didate. There were six contestants, of whom 

 Levin Woolford was the successful one. 



The Eepublican Convention met on the 12th 

 of October, for the purpose of nominating a 

 candidate for Comptroller, and, after adopting 

 a platform, nominated TV. A. McKellip. 



The following are the resolutions adopted as 

 the platform of the party in the election of 

 Comptroller and members of the State Le- 

 gislature : 



Resolved, ly the Republicans of Maryland, in Gen- 

 eral Convention assembled, That we have undimin- 

 ished confidence in the Adninistration of President 

 Grant, devoted as it is to the maintenance of the na- 

 tional credit and the enforcement of economy and 

 honesty in all branches of the public service. ^ 



Resolved, That repudiation of our national indebt- 

 edness is exclusively a Democratic doctrine, and 

 should be, in whatever guise presented, utterly scout- 

 ed and denounced by every man who cares to pre- 

 serve either his country's honor or his own. 



Resolved, That we are in favor of the enactment 

 of a free railroad law, and the removal of all legisla- 

 tive restrictions upon the development of the agri- 

 cultural and mineral resources of the State. 



Resolved, That as the militia law of the State was 

 enacted for purposes of doubtful loyalty, is unneces- 

 sary and produces a wasteful expenditure of the pub- 

 lic money and an oppressive capitation tax on the 

 people, it ought to be repealed. 



Resolved, That the oyster law recently enacted is, 

 in the opinion of the convention, a mere machine for 

 furnishing place for political partisans, oppressive 

 alike to afl engaged in this laborious business, and in 

 no wise calculated to protect the oyster interests or 

 to benefit the treasury of the State, and ought to be 

 repealed or essentially modified. 



Resolved, That we are in favor of a comprehensive 

 system of public schools that will give to all classes 

 of our citizens the advantages of education for their 

 children. 



Resolved, That we, as national Eepublicans, stand 

 pledged to the adoption of the fifteenth amendment 

 to the Constitution of the United States, which gives 

 equal rights to all men, without distinction of race 

 or color. 



On the 20th of October the Republican State 

 Central Committee issued an address, review- 

 ing the financial history of the State for the 

 years 1868 and 1869, from which it appears 

 that the appropriations made by the Legisla- 

 ture in March, 1868, were as follows : Spe- 

 cial appropriations, $5,307,404.10 ; general ap- 

 propriations for 1868, $1,696,998.11 ; general 

 appropriations for 1869. $1,614,488.11. Total, 

 $8,618,890.32. 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



The election, held on the 2d of November, 

 resulted in the choice of every candidate on 

 the Democratic ticket, and therefore the Le- 

 gislature which assembled January 5, 1870, 

 consisted entirely of members of the same 

 political party, a circumstance which has never 

 occurred but once before in any State in the 

 Union, and that was as now in Maryland. 



The vote polled was 23,412 for McKellip, 

 Republican ; and 52,754 for "Woolford, Demo- 

 crat. Woolford's majority was 29,342. 



MASSACHUSETTS. The Legislature as- 

 sembled on the 5th of January, and remained 

 in session until the 25th of June, thus consum- 

 ing 171 days a longer time by one week than 

 that of 1868, which was the longest ever held 

 in this State. 



The business accomplished may be briefly 

 summed up as follows : The fifteenth amend- 

 ment to the Constitution of the United States 

 was adopted. A number of new branch rail- 

 roads were chartered. An ocean telegraph 

 company was authorized. Twenty new savings- 

 banks and two or three insurance companies 

 were chartered. A railroad commission and 

 a bureau of statistics were established. The 

 Boston (Methodist) University was chartered. 

 New and stringent game-laws were passed, and 

 about fifty private and miscellaneous corpora- 

 tions were authorized. 



The three great measures of the session were: 



1. The establishment of a State Board of Health. 



2. The abolishment of the district system of 

 public schools, and the revision of the educa- 

 tional system of the State. 3. The enactment 

 of the prohibitory liquor law. 



The new school law, in abolishing the old 

 " district system," required the towns where 

 it still existed to take immediate possession of 

 all the school-houses, land, and other property, 

 owned and used by the district, to appraise the 

 property and levy a tax for it, and remit the 

 amount to the tax-payers of the several dis- 

 tricts. Hereafter the schools will be managed 

 directly by the towns, through the general 

 school committee. The result will be fewer 

 schools and better. There will no longer be 

 schools of one, two, or three scholars, as has 

 frequently been the case in some of the sparse- 

 ly-populated hill-towns for the last few years. 

 By a supplementary act, union districts and 

 contiguous districts in different towns are also 

 abolished, and the way of appraising the prop- 

 erty of such districts is prescribed. Towns 

 shall assume all the debts of districts, and de- 

 duct their amount from the amount to be re- 

 mitted to the districts. By another act, towns 

 may appropriate money for the purpose of" pro- 

 viding conveyance for children to and from 

 school. In accordance with the resolves of 

 last year, there have been appropriated $25,000 

 each to Williams College and the Agassiz Mu- 

 seum of Comparative Zoology. The new ap- 

 propriations are $1,000 for the purpose of in- 

 structing the convicts in the State Prison in 

 reading, writing, and other branches ; $10,000 



