TEXAS. 



671 



for so high a latitude, the difference in mean 

 temperature between summer and winter in 

 Puget iSound being only 24 degrees. The rivers 

 of the west coast abound in fine salmon, cod, 

 and halibut. The real and personal property 

 of the Territory is assessed at a little more 

 than ten million dollars. Gold is found in 

 Stevens County, in the northern part of the 

 Territory, on Clark's Fork of the Columbia and 

 its tributaries, and silver near the coast in 

 Pacific County, in the southwest part of the 

 Territory. Coal is found, of excellent quality 

 and in large quantities, at several points. Iron 

 and other minerals abound. The leading ex- 

 ports of Eastern "Washington are live stock, 

 gold, wheat, and flour; of Western Washing- 

 ton, lumber, coal, salmon and other fish, piles 

 and spars. 



Wyoming. Area, 9 7, 883 square miles. Pop- 

 ulation, in 1869, estimated at 60,000. Capital, 

 Cheyenne. Governor, J. A. Campbell. The 

 Territory was organized in 1868, and held its 

 first election September 2, 1869. For delegate 

 to Congress, S. F. Nuckolls, Democrat, was 

 elected, having 1,336 majority in a total vote 

 of 5,266. The Legislative Council has nine 

 members, and the House of Representatives 

 thirteen. Both are unanimously Democratic. 

 The Territory had five counties Albany, 

 Carbon, Carter, Laramie, and one not named 

 at the time of the election. To "Wyoming 

 more than to any other Territory or State of 

 the Union the title of " The Heart of the Con- 

 tinent " may be appropriately applied. Situated 

 between the 41st and the 45th parallels of 

 north latitude, and between the 27th and 34th 

 degrees of west longitude from Washington, 

 traversed in its whole breadth by the Union 

 Pacific Railway, and soon to be connected by 

 railroad lines with Idaho, Montana, and Colo- 

 rado, with a soil of remarkable fertility, well 

 adapted to all the crops of the temperate zone, 

 and to the rearing of stock with the great- 

 est facility, rich in the precious metals, 

 which only require development to equal the 

 abundant yield of the Territories north and 

 south of it, and still more rich in its vast coal- 

 beds, its excellent iron-ores, its silver, copper, 

 lead, audits petroleum-wells, with a market at 

 hand for all it can produce from its mines, its 

 fields, its herds, the new Territory enters up- 

 on its organized existence under favorable 

 auspices. There were in May, 1869, in the 

 northern part of the Territory (the Wind River 

 Valley) some troubles with the Indians, but 

 these are not likely to be repeated, as the 

 United States troops are specially watchful in 

 that region, and the locality is not so favorable 

 as some others for Indian raids. 



TEXAS. The great event of 1869 in Texas 

 was the work of reconstruction in accordance 

 with the provisions of the acts of Congress, 

 known as the " Reconstruction Acts," to the 

 end that she might be recognized and admit- 

 ted as a State into the Union again, and, as 

 such, participate, through her representatives, 



in the administration of the Federal Gov- 

 ernment. 



An election having previously been held and 

 delegates chosen to sit in a convention, for the 

 purpose of framing a new State constitution, 

 the Assembly met at Austin on the 15th of 

 June, 1868, and the session was long and 

 stormy, though the delegates were almost all 

 Republicans, the Democrats numbering only 

 about ten. But the Republican members 

 themselves composing that body were not of 

 one mind. A great, seemingly irreconcilable, 

 contrariety of sentiments on substantial points 

 manifested itself among them from the begin- 

 ning, and time served only to increase it. 



The chief subjects of discord between these 

 two sections were the white citizens of the 

 State who had favored secession, and the ex- 

 tent of the State. Texas now measures about 

 220,000 square miles, which is nearly equal to 

 five times the area of the State of New York. 

 The "Radicals " insisted on disfranchising some 

 thirty thousand whites all those, in fact, who 

 had been in any way connected with secession ; 

 they insisted also upon dismembering Texas, 

 and dividing it into several States, so that the 

 organic law, in course of formation, should 

 be moulded for the use of that one only among 

 the projected States within whose boundary 

 they would continue to reside. On both 

 these subjects the Conservatives met and 

 firmly opposed the "Radicals," contending 

 that the white citizens who had taken part 

 in the secession movement should now be 

 enfranchised, and that the State should re- 

 main, in regard to its area, as at present, and 

 be governed by the provisions of the new con- 

 stitution. 



These two sections of the Republican party 

 had about an equal number of adherents 

 among the delegates in the convention, and, 

 as neither would yield to the other, the result 

 was an open disruption, when they formed them- 

 selves into two opposite parties. Each division 

 had also its leader, the Radicals being headed 

 by Edmund E. Davis, who was also the presi- 

 dent of the convention ; the Conservatives by 

 A. J. Hamilton, formerly Governor of the State, 

 in 1865-1866, and now one of the Associate 

 Justices of the Supreme Court, who exercised, 

 perhaps, a greater influence on a large portion 

 of the assembly than the president. 



This split, on the other hand, gave strength 

 and importance to the few Democratic dele- 

 gates, who, on account of their number, must 

 have otherwise been quite insignificant. They 

 could, indeed, neither originate nor carry a 

 measure calculated to give expression to their 

 principles or promote their interests ; but they 

 were enabled to hinder the passage of extreme 

 measures proposed against them by adding 

 their weight to that portion of their adver- 

 saries who were less inimical. 



By a letter dated February 4, 1869, Majpr- 

 General Canby, commanding the Fifth Mili- 

 tary District, informed the Secretary of War 



