NEBRASKA. 



NESMITH, JOHN". 



475 



county institutes, to be held by the County 

 Superintendents under the supervision of the 

 State Superintendent, who was also required 

 to apportion school moneys, decide upon the 

 text-books to be used, compile and distribute 

 the school laws and acts relating to school 

 lands, lecture at the Teachers' Institutes, make 

 out an elaborate and complete report of the 

 condition of the schools of the State each year, 

 and perform such other duties as his position 

 required. 



There were no elections held in the State 

 during the year 1869, for members of Congress, 

 a Legislature, or State officers. The Legis- 

 lature was in session at its new capital, and 

 passed a number of excellent acts which cannot 

 fail to promote the future interests of the State. 

 The most important of these, after the school 

 law already referred to, were : 



1. An election law, the 29th and 30th sec- 

 tions of which define who may be an elector 

 and how he shall vote ; while the 46th makes 

 the only reservation in regard to disqualifi- 

 cation of voters. It will be seen that insane 

 persons and idiots are not by this act excluded 

 from suffrage, though this defect is remedied in 

 the registration act. The sections named are 

 as follows : 



SECTION 29. Every male citizen of the United States 

 and he who, in accordance with the laws of the United 

 States, files his declaration of intention to become 

 such, and who has attained the age of twenty-one 



gears, and shall have been an actual resident or this 

 tate for six months, of the county forty days consec- 

 utively, and of the precinct or ward where he intends 

 to vote, ten days next preceding the election, shall 

 be entitled to vote at any election in this State, and 

 the registrars of the several counties in this State, in 

 determining the residence of a person offering to 

 be registered, shall be governed by the following 

 rules so far as the same may be applicable : 



1. That place shall be considered and held to be 

 the residence of a person in which his habitation is 

 fixed without any present intention of moving there- 

 from, and to which., whenever he is absent, he has 

 the intention of returning. 



2. A person shall not be considered or held to have 

 lost his residence who shall leave his home and go 

 into another State or Territory, or county of this State, 

 for temporary purposes merely, with the intention of 

 returning, provided that six months' consecutive resi- 

 dence in this State shall be necessary to establish a 

 residence within the meaning of this act. 



3. A person shall not be considered and held to 

 have gamed a residence in any county of this State 

 into which he shall have come for temporary purposes 

 merely, without the intention of making it his resi- 

 dence. 



4. If a person remove to another State or Territory 

 intending to make it his permanent residence, he 

 shall be considered and held to have lost his residence 

 in this State. 



5. If a person remove to another State or Territory 

 intending to remain there for an indefinite time, and 

 as a place of present residence, he shall be considered 

 and held to have lost his residence in this State, not- 

 withstanding he may intend to return at some future 

 period. 



6. The place where a married man's family resides, 

 shall generally be considered and held to be his resi- 

 dence ; but if it is a place of temporary establishment 

 only or for transient purposes, it shall be otherwise. 



Y. If a married man have his family fixed in one 

 place, and he does his business in another, the former 



shall be considered and held to be the place of resi- 

 dence. 



8. The mere intention to acquire a new residence, 

 without the fact of removal, shall avail nothing, nor 

 shall the fact of removal, without intention. 



9. If a person shall go into another State or Terri- 

 tory, and while there shall exercise the right of a citi- 

 zen, by voting, he shall be considered and held to 

 have lost his residence in this State. 



SEC. 30. Each elector shall, in full view of the 

 people assembled at the polls where he offers to vote, 

 deliver in person to one of the judges of election, a 

 single ballot, or piece of paper, on which shall be writ- 

 ten or printed the names of the persons voted for, 

 with a pertinent description of the office which he or 

 they may be intended to fill. 



******* 



SEO. 46. Every person who shall be convicted and 

 sentenced to be punished by imprisonment in the 

 penitentiary, as herein provided for, or who shall be 

 convicted or, and sentenced for bribery, under the 

 provision of this act, shall be deemed forever after 

 incompetent to be an elector, or to hold any office of 

 honor, trust, or profit, within this State, unless such 

 convict shall receive from the Governor of the State 

 a general pardon, under his hand and the seal of the 

 State, in which case said convict shall be restored to 

 all his civil rights and privileges. No person who 

 shall have been, or who shall hereafter be convicted 

 of any crime in any court of record in the United 

 States, punishable by imprisonment in the State 

 prison or penitentiary of any State or Territory in the 

 United States, or of the United States, shall be eligible 

 to, and is hereby; prohibited and disqualified from 

 holding any public office of honor, trust, or emolu- 

 ment, either oy appointment or the suffrage of the 

 people within this State, and any person so as afore- 

 said convicted is hereby disqualified from exercising 

 the right of the elective franchise at any election held 

 in this State, except he produce a full and complete 

 pardon for the offence from proper authority. 



2. A registration act, providing for a careful 

 and just registration of voters, before each 

 election, and declaring suitable penalties for 

 fraudulent voting or the violation of its pro- 

 visions by judges of elections. 



3. An amendment of the marriage act pro- 

 viding for marriage licenses and a strict regis- 

 tration of marriages in the Probate Courts. 



4. A new law preventing in the more densely- 

 settled counties the running at large of stock, 

 a great evil in all the newer States. The act 

 was intended also to encourage the setting of 

 hedge-rows, live fence, and forest-trees, by re- 

 quiring that the party complaining of the tres- 

 pass of stock upon his lands must have con- 

 structed a hedge-row not less than ten feet wide 

 on all sides of the land which he desired pro- 

 tected, the first year in which he claimed such 

 protection, and every year subsequently, set 

 out not less than four rods of live fence and 

 ten trees for every acre of land protected. 



NESMITH, JOHN, one of the most enterpris- 

 ing and successful of New England manufac- 

 turers, born at Londonderry, N. H., August 3, 

 1793; died October 15, 1869. Mr. Nesmith 

 commenced life a poor boy, and had only the 

 common advantages of education at that time. 

 At fourteen years of age he was placed in a 

 country store, and served an apprenticeship of 

 five years, after which, in connection with his 

 brother Thomas, he went into business for 

 himself. As soon as their cash capital and en- 



