

TENNESSEE. 



The financial condition of the State, as ex- 

 hibited in the report of the Controller of th 

 Treasury, for tho two years from January 1, 

 1878, to the date of the report, December P.', 

 1874, is as follows : 



Recognized bonded indebtedness of the 

 State, $22,908,400; assets lu>l<l in I,,T 

 against this bond account, $3,817,805.25 ; leav- 

 ing the excess of liabilities at $19,090,004.75. 



T!u- lloatin- debt is $1,085,540.49, against 

 which there are assets amounting to $2,265,- 

 704.25. The outstanding Treasury warrants 

 have been reduced since January 1, 1873, from 

 $476,884.72 to $283,290.49 ; though warrants 

 to the amount of $998,158.93 were in the mean 

 while issued for the payment of the interest on 

 the school-fund, the State debt, and other pub- 

 lic expenses. 



The loan account also had been reduced 

 since May 1, 1873, from $348,058.30 to $65,000. 

 Most of the loans embraced in this account 

 bore ten per cent, interest. 



The total taxable property of the State in 



1873 was $308,089,788, being an increase over 

 1872 of $34,215,480. The four counties of 

 Davidson, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Roane, 

 have made no report of taxable property for 

 1874. Estimating the probable amount in those 

 four counties, the total taxable property for 



1874 is $289,533,560, being an increase over 

 1872 of $16,659,307, and a decrease from 1873 

 of $18,556,173. 



The balance due for the year 1874, added to 

 the delinquency from revenue due prior to Jan- 

 uary 1, 1874, makes the total amount due from 

 non-collected taxes $1,828,333.44. 



The educational interest in Tennessee ap- 

 pears to be in a prosperous condition. The 

 law is absolutely impartial in its provisions as 

 affecting the white and colored populations of 

 the State, enacting that " the public schools 

 shall be free to all persons between the ages 

 of six and eighteen years, residing within the 

 school district ; " with the only distinction be- 

 tween the two races that " the white and 

 colored persons shall not be taught in the same 

 school, but in separate schools, under the same 

 general regulations as to management, useful- 

 ness, and efficiency." And as colored children 

 of school-age are counted alike with the whites 

 in the apportionment of school-moneys, and 

 are entitled to pursue the same studies, so are 

 the adult colored people eligible as teachers, 

 school directors, county superintendents, and 

 State Superintendents, in the same manner as 

 they are eligible to the civil offices of the State 

 or Federal Government. The whole number 

 of children of school-age in the State then 

 was 418,185. Of this number, representing 

 the aggregate of children of school-age in 

 Tennessee, about 102,000 were colored. Of 

 these, some 87,000, or about 36 per cent., at- 

 tended the public schools. Since the present 

 school system went into effect, 745 schools 

 have been organized throughout the State for 

 the instruction of colored children. Of the 



TEXAS. 789 



white scholastic population a little over 60 per 

 cent, attended nehoo|. 



l-'rom tlio report of the Commissioner of 

 I'Mucation, wherein the gifts of individuals to 

 educational institutions of all the >tat-* in the 

 I i.ioii are collected and clasHified, it appears 

 that the gifts received by the educational insti- 

 tutions of Tennessee, during the year 1878, 

 amounted in the aggregate to $654,350, dis- 

 tributed among them as follows: 



Union University, Murfrccsboro. . . 



Pisk University, Nashville 



Vanderbllt University, Nashville 



King College, Bristol 



Hlwassee College, near Sweet water 



Ban Tennessee Wesleyao University, Athens.. 



Central University, Knoxvllle 



Cumberland University, Lebanon 



Maryville College, Maryvllle 



rfatlan Brothers' College, Memphis. . 



20,000 

 511^00 

 14,000 



500 

 Ml 

 BO.OOO 



n,ooo 



2,700 

 6.000 

 2,500 

 100 



( h 



Washington Female College, Washington. 



Theological Dept. Central College. Nashville 



Tennessee School for the Blind, Nashville 



Total $664,850 



The Tennessee Hospital for the Insane, the 

 Blind School, and the Deaf and Dumb School, 

 are in a very satisfactory condition. Since 

 January 1, 1873, the average number of pa- 

 tients accommodated in the Hospital for the 

 Insane " has exceeded that of any former 

 biennial term," and the number in its charge 

 at the close of the year was " greater than at 

 the date of any previous report." 



An act was passed by the last General As- 

 sembly, approved March 20, 1873, providing 

 for the establishment of two additional Hos- 

 pitals for the Insane, one in East the other in 

 West Tennessee. After careful examination 

 of various sites, the new hospital for East Ten- 

 nessee was located, in 1874, near to the city 

 of Knoxville, and its building is now in prog- 

 ress of construction. The endeavors to locate 

 also the West Tennessee Insane Asylum have 

 proved unsuccessful. 



In the State-prison of Tennessee, at the end 

 of 1874, there were 963 convicts under con- 

 finement, of whom 380 were whites and 583 

 negroes. The Governor of the State avers thatv 

 before the emancipation of slaves, the colored 

 convicts in the penitentiary never numbered 

 more than fifteen or twenty, and that the large 

 increase in the number of penitentiary inmates 

 is to be attributed in no sense to an increase of 

 crime, but that "it is the result of a more 

 efficient administration of the criminal law, 

 aided by an improved and more healthy state 

 of public sentiment." 



There are now in the prison 59 convicts of 

 the age of sixteen years and under; 275 of the 

 age of twenty years and under; and 316 from 

 sixteen to twenty-one years old, inclusive; not- 

 withstanding a number have been pardoned 

 simply on account of their youth. 



TEXAS. One of the most important ques- 

 tions before the people of this State relates to 

 the needed revision of the State constitution. 

 According to Governor Coke, the present con- 

 stitution is in many essential particulars an 



