98 



CALIFORNIA. 



The immigration from China for thirteen 

 years ending July has been as follows : 



. The political canvass of the year in Califor- 

 nia was quite active, and attended with some 

 excitement, but it was conductd almost wholly 

 on local issues. The leading questions of dis- 

 cussion were those relating to irrigation, trans- 

 portation "monopolies," tax reform, and re- 

 form in municipal government. The first State 

 Convention of the year was that of the Repub- 

 licans, held at Sacramento on the 10th of June. 

 T. G. Phelps was nominated for Governor, Jo- 

 seph M. Cavis for Lieutenant- Governor, Edward 

 Hallett for Secretary of State, J. J. Green for 

 Controller, Robert Gardner for Surveyor-Gen- 

 eral, William Beekman for Treasurer, E. D. 

 Sawyer for Attorney-General, Ezra S. Carr for 

 Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Grant 

 I. Taggart for Clerk of the Supreme Court. 

 The declaration of principles was as follows : 



The Eepublican party of California, in State Con- 

 vention assembled, makes the following additional 

 declaration of principles, reaffirming the State plat- 

 form of 1871 and the national platform of 1872 : 



Resolved, That we have undiminished confidence 

 in the wisdom, patriotism, and integrity of the pres- 

 ent Chief Magistrate of the United States, Ulysses 

 S. Grant, and join our political brethren throughout 

 the Union in the cordial and earnest support of his 

 administration, in the fullest recognition of his illus- 

 trious career in the military and civil service, and in 

 condemnation of that rancorous party spirit which 

 prompts his and our enemies to as unconsidered and 

 unjust attacks on him as those to which his great 

 predecessors, Washington, Jackson, and Lincoln, 

 were subjected during their administrations. 



Resolved, That the letter addressed by the Presi- 

 dent to the chairman of the Pennsylvania Kepubli- 

 can State Convention upon the subject of his suc- 

 cession is a full refutation of the slanders of those 

 who charged him with intriguing for reelection ; 

 that we accept it as explicit to a final settlement of 

 the third-term agitation created by our enemies 

 solely to arouse jealousies and dissensions in the Ee- 

 publican party. 



Resolved, That the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fif- 

 teenth amendments to the Constitution of the United 

 States, added to that instrument by the votes of ^the 

 requisite three-fourths of the States of the Union, 

 are as sacred and binding as any of its provisions ; 

 that they are to be maintained by the enforcement 

 of all congressional enactments, notwithstanding the 

 opposition, secret or avowed, of the Democratic 

 party or hostile White Leagues in the Southern 

 States. 



Resolved, That the conduct of that portion of the 

 people in the South who defy the fifteenth amend- 

 ment and seek, by intimidation or force, to prevent 

 the lawful exercise of the elective franchise by the 

 great body of colored citizens resident therein, is a 

 rebellious defiance of the national authority, and an 

 attempt to prevent the election of the next Presi- 

 dent by the people, calculated to arouse the worst 

 passions of men, and to disturb the peace of the na- 

 tion, and should be met with by all law-abiding citi- 

 zens, North and South, as an effort to revive the 

 flames of civil war. While admitting that differ- 

 ences of opinion exist as to the extent of the conspir- 

 acy against the constitutional election of the Presi- 

 dent in 1876, we deem it well to caution the people 

 against slumbering in the face of danger. 



Resolved, That, with all our countrymen, of what- 

 ever section, who yield obedience to the Constitution 

 and laws and who do not defend or justify those who 

 disobey them, we desire to cultivate fraternal rela- 

 tions, without regard to mere party difference ; we 

 will at all times unite with them to promote justice 

 and good order and public tranquillity. 



Resolved, That the cost of the State and several 

 county governments can and ought to be reduced 

 one-half, and to that work the next Legislature 

 should address itself. This can be done by a read- 

 justment of public business, curtailment of the 

 large list of officers, employe's, and such reduction 

 of the salaries and fees as will place the public ser- 

 vants on a footing as to compensation with persons 

 in private business and immediately abate the al- 

 most universal preference for public over private em- 

 ployment ; honesty and economy in the mainte- 

 nance of the various institutions of the State ; total 

 abandonment of the practice of voting the people's 

 money to institutions which were called into exist- 

 ence without State action, and by additional checks 

 and safeguards to render official peculation difficult 

 of concealment and surer of punishment when dis- 

 covered. 



The next resolution demands the punish- 

 ment of citizens guilty of corrupt practices : 



Resolved, That the Republican party will aid in the 

 development of the resources of the State by all le- 

 gitimate means. As it appears that the agricultural 

 capability of large sections cannot be fully shown 

 unless some practicable system of irrigation is adopt- 

 ed, the Republican party demands of the Legisla- 

 ture that it assume control of the various lakes and 

 rivers, subject only to mining and mechanical rights, 

 and provide for its distribution over the largest pos- 

 sible area of irrigable land by the adoption of a com- 

 prehensive system that shall make the irrigation 

 works, to be constructed for this purpose, part and 

 portion of the realty of the various districts, and to 

 be wholly subject to the control and management of 

 the owners of the irrigable lands therein. 



Resolved, That the freedom of the State from ec- 

 clesiastical control is of equal importance with the 

 maintenance of religious freedom from State con- 

 trol ; that the common schools and institutions of 

 the State were established as a preventive of the 

 crime and poverty which attend ignorance, and we 

 will tolerate no interference with it from any quarter, 

 and that any effort to divide the school fund for the 

 purpose of supporting sectarian schools with por- 

 tions thereof shall be met with all the resistance in 

 our power. 



