620 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



ties in which the sale of spirituous liquors is 

 prohibited by law. 



An act was also passed making it unlawful 

 for any dealer to sell intoxicating liquors to 

 minors. 



The " election law," passed by the General 

 Assembly at this session, ordered an election 

 to be held on the first Thursday in August, 

 1874, and every two years thereafter, for 

 members of Congress, members of the Legisla- 

 ture, and certain county officers ; also for the 

 choice of six Superior Court Judges, on that 

 day, and every eight years thereafter. The 

 act further provides for the holding of an elec- 

 tion on the first Thursday in August, 1876, 

 and every four years thereafter, for Governor, 

 Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Au- 

 ditor, Treasurer, Superintendent of Public In- 

 struction, and Attorney-General. On the same 

 day, and every eight years thereafter, five Su- 

 preme Court and six Superior Court Judges 

 are to be elected. 



North Carolina is represented in Congress as 

 follows : 



Senate. M. "W. Ransom, Democrat; A. S. 

 Merrimon, Democrat. 



House of Representatives. First district, 

 Jesse J. Yates, Democrat; second district, Jolm 

 A. Hyman, Republican; third district, A. M. 

 "Waddell, Democrat ; fourth district, Joseph J. 

 Davis, Democrat; fifth district, A. M. Scales, 

 Democrat ; sixth district, Thomas S. Ashe, 

 Democrat; seventh district, "William M. Rob- 

 ins, Democrat ; eighth district, R. B. Vance, 

 Democrat. 



The General Assembly is classified as fol- 

 lows : 



The total vote cast for Superintendent of 

 Public Instruction was 182,812, of which Ste- 

 phen D. Pool, Democrat, received 98,217, and 

 his Republican opponent, Mr. Purnell, 84,595. 

 The election throughout the State showed 

 large Democratic gains. A congratulatory ad- 

 dress to the people of the State was issued by 

 the Executive Committee of the Conservative 

 Democratic party, in which the results of the 

 election and their causes were thus given: 



Notwithstanding the overwhelming defeat you 

 sustained in the last presidential election, you now 

 carry the State, electing the Superintendent of Pub- 

 lic Instruction by nearly 12,000 majority, gain five 

 Superior Court Judges, elect nine Solicitors, have 

 more than two-thirds in the General Assembly, and 

 send to Congress a Conservative member from each 

 district except one, where we largely reduced the 

 majority against us. 



It is true that in this contest you are not unmind- 

 ful of the record of the Republican party, consisting 

 of so many .grievous evils, among which we may enu- 

 merate : 



1. The great corruption that existed among the 

 leaders of that party. 



2. The fraudulent misuse of legislative power to 

 fasten on our people a large and oppressive public 

 debt still unprovided for. 



3. The sacrifice of the State's interest in nearly all 

 her public works. 



4. The protection of our system of internal im- 

 provements. 



5. The corruption, imbecility, and malpractices of 

 many ministers of the law, who turned our courts 

 into engines of oppression and mocked at justice, 

 disgracing the higli places heretofore adorned by 

 the most illustrious names in the history of our 

 State. 



6. The denial to some of our citizens of many of 

 their dearest and most sacred rights, the free use of 

 unlawful means to carry elections, and other inva- 

 sions of the liberties of the people. 



Yet the chief issue presented in the canvass was 

 one recently forced on us by our political adversa- 

 ries, namely, that arising from the civil-rights 

 bill, a measure fraught with the most direful con- 

 sequences to all of pur people, and especially to the 

 laboring-classes, being calculated to arouse the worst 

 passions of the two races, to destroy the peaceful 

 and even friendly relations existing between them, 

 and to inaugurate an era of strife and commotion 

 which would be destructive of our present prosperi- 

 ty. Its adoption would destroy the common schools 

 of our State, so much needed in a country whose 

 government must rest on the virtue and intelligence 

 of the people, and where all men are invested with 

 the elective franchise ; while its social features are 

 violative of the dearest rights of freemen, and in 

 direct conflict with the principles of local self-gov- 

 ernment declared in the Constitution of the United 

 States. 



On the 17th of July Governor Tod R. Cald- 

 well died at Hillsboro', whither he had gone to 

 attend to the interests of the State at the an- 

 nual meeting of the stockholders of the North 

 Carolina Railroad Company. lie was suc- 

 ceeded as chief magistrate by Lieutenant- 

 Governor Curtis H. Brogden. In his message 

 to the Legislature in November, Governor 

 Brogden spoke of the late Executive in the fol- 

 lowing language: "He was a man of noble 

 and generous impulses, of unsullied virtue, and 

 stern integrity. His loss to the State was a 

 great public calamity, and his name and mem- 

 ory will be long and affectionately cherished 

 by his friends and countrymen. Ever faithful 

 to the calls of duty, he passed through the 

 numerous responsibilities and trials imposed 

 upon him without a stain upon his integrity as 

 a public servant, his honor as a man, or his 

 character as a citizen. He was candid and 

 conscientious, sincere and just. He loved his 

 State with the affection of a true son, and, as 

 his life was crowned with honors, may his 

 memory be crowned with fame! " 



On the 1st of October the educational fund 

 showed a balance of $8,322 and the public 

 fund $225,702. The receipts of the educa- 

 tional fund for the year ending September 30, 

 1874, were $44,384, and disbursements $56,029. 

 The receipts of the public fund amounted to 

 $667,114, and the disbursements to $451,339. 



The State debt is a subject of grave impor- 

 tance to the people of North Carolina, as it 

 is already large and rapidly increasing by the 

 accumulation of interest. On the 1st of Octo- 

 ber the debt was reported as follows: 



