TOUCEY, ISAAC. 



679 



stances by white men. Heavy damages to the citi- 

 zens, in live-stock and property, have resulted, but 

 the loss of life has been small, amounting to about 

 twenty-six persons. 



It will be impossible to prevent Indian raids as 

 long as there are wild Indians not assigned to any 

 denned territory, and protection to the frontier can- 

 not be afforded with the force in the district, owing 

 to the numerous demands made upon it in the exe- 

 cution of the reconstruction laws. 



Voluntary county organizations of citizens have 

 in some cases been authorized and proved effective 

 in some localities, but in others the arrangement has 

 not met with cordial response from the people. 



It is recommended by General Eeynolds that a 

 line of telegraph be built connecting the posts be- 

 tween KedlSiver and the Eio Grande at some con- 

 venient point, with Austin, San Antonio, or Waco. 

 Such a line will afford prompt communication with 

 frontier posts, and will effect concert of action. The 

 expenses will be trifling compared with the advan- 

 tages that may reasonably be expected. 



Depredations in the country between the Nueces 

 and Eio Grande, which is sparsely peopled and de- 

 voted chiefly to the raising of cattle, have been 

 numerous. The offenders, Indians and Mexicans, 



gmerally come from the south side of the Eio 

 rande, and the stolen cattle are conveyed there for 

 sale. Orders have accordingly been issued directing 

 that the crossing of cattle shall be limited to speci- 

 fied points, but a sufficient time has not elapsed in 

 which to test the efficiency of this regulation. The 

 evil threatens to become one of such magnitude as 

 to demand a reference to the Government of Mexico. 



The ordinary civil machinery of the State has been 

 in operation, aided, whenever necessary and prac- 

 ticable, by the military force of the United States. 

 Improvement is apparent in the disposition of juries 

 to punish for murder and other high crimes. Military 

 aid has been furnished to civil authorities to sup- 

 press bands of desperadoes who infest the State. 



Under the provisions of the joint resolution of 

 February 18, 1869, many county offices were vacated. 

 Efforts to fill the vacancies thus occasioned have, in 

 many cases, been unsuccessful. Laxity in execution 

 of laws and interference with the collection of State 

 taxes have been caused by persons qualified being 

 unwilling to accept office on account of the short 

 duration of the term, and the fact that u appointees " 

 are in most cases unpopular. The number of cases 

 tried by military commission, under section 3 of the 

 act of March, 1867, from October 1, 1868, to Septem- 

 ber 30, 1869, is fifty-nine, of which twenty-one were 

 convicted, and thirty-eight acquitted. 



The number of murders in the State from January 

 1, 1869, to September 30, 1869, was three hundred 

 and eighty-four, and the number of crimes of this 

 nature is steadily diminishing. 



Quarantine regulations have been established, and 

 an officer of the medical department detailed to super- 

 vise their observance. The State has been exempt 

 from all epidemic disease. 



TOUCEY, ISAAC, LL. D., an American jurist, 

 political leader, and Cabinet officer, born in 

 Newtown, Fairfield County, Conn., November 

 5, 1796; died in Hartford, Conn., July 30, 

 1869. He was of a family distinguished for in- 

 tellectual culture and refinement, and was early 

 destined for the bar. His education was most- 

 ly a private one, though pursuing the full 

 collegiate course of study. From 1810 to 1814 

 lie was prosecuting his studies with a very ac- 

 complished teacher at Westport, Conn., and 

 for nearly three years more he was engaged 

 in teaching the classics and mathematics, and 

 thus fixing indelibly in his mind what he had 

 previously acquired. In 1817 he commenced 



a course of legal study under Judge Chapman 

 of the Supreme Court, who resided in his na- 

 tive town ; and, in 1818, he was admitted to 

 the bar, at Hartford, which thenceforward be- 

 came his home. He soon attained a high rank 

 in his profession, though surrounded by some 

 of the ablest lawyers in New England. In 

 1822 he was appointed State Attorney for 

 Hartford County, and retained the position till 

 1835. In the spring of 1835 he was elected to 

 Congress from the First Connecticut District, 

 andin 1837 was r^'elected by a handsome majori- 

 ty. His two terms of service covered the pe- 

 riod of the great financial panic of 1837, and, 

 true to his earliest convictions, Mr. Toucey sus- 

 tained the measures of the Executive (Gen- 

 eral Jackson during his first term and Mr. Van 

 Buren during his second). A man of calm, 

 thoughtful, judicial cast of mind, he wielded 

 a powerful influence in the House of Eepre- 

 sentatives. He was chairman of the special 

 committee on the Graves and Cilley duel, and 

 his report on the subject, concluding with a 

 resolution for the expulsion of Graves and the 

 censure of the seconds, was fully approved by 

 the best men of both parties in the House. 

 In 1839 Mr. Toucey returned to the practice 

 of his profession ; was again appointed State 

 Attorney in 1842, and held the office till 1844. 

 In 1845 he was nominated for Governor of 

 Connecticut; there was no election by the 

 people, and the Whigs, having a majority in the 

 Legislature, elected their candidate. The next 

 year he was again put in nomination, and, as be- 

 fore, there was no election by the people, but, 

 the Democrats having a majority in the Legis- 

 lature, Mr. Toucey was chosen. His course in 

 regard to a proposed prohibitory liquor law, and 

 the question of a bridge over the Connecticut at 

 Middletown, was used to prevent his nomina- 

 tion the next year, as he had foreseen would 

 be the case. In 1848 President Polk -nomi- 

 nated him for Attorney-General of the United 

 States. He accepted and served in this capa- 

 city till the close of Mr. Polk's Administration, 

 being also, for a part of the time, acting-Secre- 

 tary of State. He added, while in this position, 

 to his already high reputation as a jurist. In 

 1850, a year after his return home, he was 

 elected a State Senator, and in 1852 a member 

 of the Assembly from Hartford. There was an 

 unfilled United States senatorship at this time, 

 and Mr. Toucey was elected to serve out the 

 five years of it. He took his seat immediately 

 after receiving his credentials, and though 

 during that period he was for but little of the 

 time the representative of a majority of the 

 people of his State, yet his course in the Sen- 

 ate was dignified, and never specially offensive 

 to his political opponents. His term expired 

 March 4, 1857, and Mr. Buchanan at once 

 offered him a seat in his Cabinet as Secretary 

 of the Navy, which he accepted, and held till 

 March 4, 1861. As a member of the Cabinet 

 and one of the constitutional counsellors 

 of the President, his opinions were always 



