TEXAS. 



731 



The Governor of Washington is E. S. Salo- 

 mon. The Legislature held a session in No- 

 vember, the Eepublicans having the control of 

 both branches. Among the acts passed was 

 one fixing the legal rate of interest at ten per 

 cent., and providing for the punishment of 

 usury. A law was also passed providing that 

 all property owned by the husband or wife at 

 the time of the marriage, and all property ac- 

 quired by either of them during the marriage 

 by gift, devise, descent, bequest, or inherit- 

 ance, and all property purchased or created 

 with the separate funds of either during the 

 marriage, shall be the separate property of each 

 respectively; and that all property acquired 

 during the marriage by the joint labors of the 

 husband and wife, or by their individual labor, 

 together with all rents, profits, interest, or 

 proceeds of the separate property of both, ac- 

 cruing during the marriage, shall be common 

 property. The separate property of each is 



made exempt from seizure or execution for tho 

 debts of the other, unless a responsibility is 

 incurred by a joint obligation in writing, and, 

 being duly appointed, may act as agent for the 

 other. ^ The wife, by this act, is deprived of 

 dower in any property belonging to the hus- 

 band, and the husband, of his tenancy by 

 courtesy, in property belonging to the wife*; 

 each one having an absolute control and dis- 

 position of his or her separate property, and 

 also .of his or her half of the common property. 

 WYOMING. Little has occurred in Wyoming 

 during the year that is worthy of record. The 

 Legislature, which met at Cheyenne on the 10th 

 of November, and finally adjourned on the 

 16th of December, repealed the act conferring 

 the right of suffrage upon women ; but the re- 

 peal act was vetoed by Governor Campbell, 

 who said in his message that women had made 

 good jurors and honest and competent office- 

 holders. 



CENSUS OF 1870. 



Included in the census are 66 Indians. The 

 tribal Indians are officially estimated at 2,400. 

 The assessed value of real estate was $863,665 ; 

 of personal estate, $4,653,083 ; the true value 

 of real and personal estate, $7,015,748 ; total 

 taxation, not national, $34,471. The aggre- 

 gate value of farm-products, including better- 

 ments and additions to stock, was $402,760; 

 30,000 pounds of wool were raised. 



TEXAS. The Legislature elected under the 

 reconstruction act was in session from the 

 beginning of the year to May 31st, and from 

 September 12th to the close of December. A 

 short time before the final adjournment, it 

 passed a law ordering the next election for 

 members to take place in November, 1872. 

 One of the most important bills passed con- 

 firmed the action of the Auditorial Board, cre- 

 ated by an act of 1866, in issuing bonds and 

 certificates of indebtedness upon the ascer- 

 tained and audited debt of the State, and ap- 

 propriated $40,000 to pay the interest on this 

 audited debt to January 1, 1872, and $15,000 

 to pay the interest and principal of such re- 

 maining indebtedness as has been pronounced 

 valid and constitutional. A bill was also passed 

 providing for the issue of State bonds to the 

 value of $2,000,000, to run twenty years, at 

 seven per cent, interest in gold, to meet the 

 deficiencies in the revenue of the State. State 

 aid to the extent of $6,000,000 was granted to 

 the Southern Pacific & Transcontinental Kail- 

 road. The Governor vetoed the bill granting 



this subsidy, but it was passed over the veto. 

 In connection with it a bill was passed submit- 

 ting an amendment to the constitution to the 

 people, by which land donations to railroads 

 can be substituted for State bonds. Other im- 

 portant acts passed provide for the organiza- 

 tion of twenty-four companies of mounted 

 minute-men for the protection of the frontier 

 from raids of the Indians and other marauding 

 parties ; and authorize the creation of private 

 corporations, excepting railroad and telegraph- 

 ic, under a general law. 



Speaker Evans (Republican) was removed 

 from office on May 10th, by a vote of 46 to 29, 

 and William H. Sinclair (also Republican) 

 elected in his place. This action was in ac- 

 cordance with a resolution adopted in a Re- 

 publican caucus on the evening previous, Mr. 

 Evans opposing the proposition to defer tho 

 State election until November, 1872, and re- 

 fusing to be governed by the dictation of the 

 caucus. In October Lieutenant-Governor Don 

 Campbell died, and on November 13th Senatoi 

 Pettit, of Anderson, was elected by the Senate 

 Lieutenant-Governor and President of the Sen- 

 ate pro tern. 



The debts created since 1870 amount to 

 $860,000; one of $460,000 for frontier protec- 

 tion, to meet which seven per cent, bonds were 

 issued and placed on the market in New York ; 

 and another of $400,000 in ten per cent, bonds, 

 running for five years, predicated upon, and 

 to be paid, principal and interest, from the 



