CONNECTICUT. 



223 



in the Circuit Court of the United States for the 

 Southern District of New York, wherein a citizen of 

 this State is defendant, and in which the southern 

 boundary-line of this State and the validity of a 

 statute of this State entitled " An act for encouraging 

 and regulating fisheries," are drawn in question ; and 

 the Controller is hereby authorized and directed to 

 draw his order on the Treasurer of this State for said 

 amount in favor of his Excellency the Governor, in 

 such sums and at such times as the Governor shall 

 request in writing. 



The General Assembly of 1875 continued its 

 session for' about eleven weeks, and was for- 

 mally adjourned on the 23d of July. 



Among the public acts of the Legislature at 

 its session were two amendments to the con- 

 stitution of the State, which, having been 

 passed in 1874 by the House of Representa- 

 tives, and in 1875 by both Houses of the Gen- 

 eral Assembly by a two-thirds vote, were now, 

 by an act approved July 23, 1875, submitted 

 to the people for approval or rejection at a 

 general election on the first Monday in Octo- 

 ber, 1875. 



The first of the said amendments is as fol- 

 lows: 



SECTION 1. A general election for Governor, Lieu- 

 tenant - Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, 

 Controller, and members of the General Assem- 

 bly, shall be held on the Tuesday after the first 

 Monday of November, 1876, and annually thereafter 

 for such officers as herein and may be hereafter pre- 

 scribed. 



SEO. 2. The State officers above named, and the 

 Senators from those districts having even numbers 

 elected on the Tuesday after the first Monday of No- 

 vember, 1876, and those elected biennially thereafter 

 on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, 

 shall respectively hold their offices for two years 

 from and after the Wednesday following the first 

 Monday of the next succeeding January. The Sena- 

 tors from those districts having odd numbers elected 

 on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, 

 1876, shall hold their offices for one year from and 

 after the Wednesday following the first Monday of 

 January, 1877, the electors residing in the senatorial 

 districts having odd numbers shall on the Tues- 

 day after the first Monday of November, 1877, and bi- 

 ennially thereafter elect two Senators who shall hold 

 their offices for two years from and after the Wednes- 

 day following the first Monday of the next succeed- 

 ing January. The representatives elected from the 

 several towns on the Tuesday after the first Monday 

 of November, 1876, and those elected annually there- 

 after, shall hold their offices for one year, from and 

 after Wednesday following the first Monday of the 

 next succeeding January. 



SEC. 3. There shall be a stated session of the Gen- 

 eral Assembly in Hartford, on the Wednesday after 

 the first Monday of January, 1876, and annually 

 thereafter on the Wednesday after the first Monday 

 of January. 



SEO. 4. The persons who shall be severally elected 

 to the State offices and General Assembly on the 

 first Monday of April, 1876, shall hold such offices 

 only until the Wednesday after the first Mondav of 

 January, 1877. 



SEO. 5. The General Assembly elected in April 

 1876, shall have power to pass such laws as may be 

 necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this 

 amendment. 



The second amendment was as follows : 

 The General Assembly shall have power, by a 

 vote of two-thirds of the members of both branches 

 to restore the privileges of an elector to those who 



may have forfeited the same by a conviction of 

 crime. 



The following amendments to the State con- 

 stitution, to be proposed to the people for their 

 approval or rejection, were passed by separate 

 resolutions in the. House of Representatives at 

 the session of 1875, and each of them ordered 

 to be continued to the next session of the Gen- 

 eral Assembly, and published with the laws 

 passed at this session : 



To increase the number of senatorial dis- 

 tricts and of Senators from twenty-one, as it 

 now is, to not less than thirty-five or more 

 than forty-five ; to fix the number of inhabi- 

 tants entitling any newly-incorporated town to 

 a representative in the General Assembly at 

 not less than twenty-five hundred ; to render 

 certain provisions of the constitution applica- 

 ble " to all elections held on the Tuesday after 

 the first Monday of November, 1876, and an- 

 nually thereafter; " to fix the duration of of- 

 fice of judges of certain specified courts at 

 four and two years respectively ; to make the 

 elections for judges of probate biennial, and 

 the term of their office two years, commencing 

 with their election in November, 1876 ; to fix 

 the compensation of members of the General 

 Assembly "at three hundred dollars per an- 

 num, and one mileage each way at the rate of 

 twenty-five cents per mile ; " to prohibit all 

 counties, -cities, towns, or other municipalities, 

 " ever to subscribe to the capital stock of any 

 railroad corporation," or loan their money on 

 credit to it, directly or indirectly; to amend 

 Article VIII. of the amendments to the con- 

 stitution by erasing the word "white" from 

 the first line. 



An act was passed, submitting to the people 

 the question of calling or not calling a conven- 

 tion, and choosing delegates to it, for the pur- 

 pose of framing a new organic law of the 

 State, under certain limitations and restric- 

 tions specified in the act, the votes of the 

 electors on that question to be polled on the 

 first Monday in October, 1875, and the result 

 declared by the Governor by proclamation not 

 later than the 5th day of November, 1875; 

 the delegates to the convention, if called, to 

 meet together at the State-house in Hartford 

 on the 5th day of January, 1876, and the new 

 constitution to be submitted to the vote of the 

 people for adoption or rejection within a time 

 not less than one month, nor more than three 

 months subsequent to the day of final adjourn- 

 ment of the convention." The committee to 

 whom the consideration of this act was re- 

 ferred having reported on July 22d that it 

 "ought to be continued" to the next General 

 Assembly, the report was accepted, in concur- 

 rence, and the act ordered to be published 

 with the laws passed at the session of 1875. 



A bill abolishing the Bureau of Labor Sta- 

 tistics was passed. 



A bill relating to the election of presidential 

 electors, allowing women twenty-one years of 

 age, and over, to vote for such electors, was 



