UNITED STATES. 



UNIVERSALISTS. 



747 



general welfare, and the results of license and re- 

 strictive and prohibitory legislation for the suppres- 

 sion of intemperance. 



Several conventions of " Granges " were held 

 during the year, but their proceedings were 

 confined entirely to questions of transportation 

 and the interests of farmers. 



A decision of the Supreme Court, of some 

 importance, was rendered on November 29th. 

 It sustained the Court of Claims in the case 

 of the United States vs. the Union Pacific Rail- 

 way. The question presented by this case was, 

 whether by a true construction of the act of 

 1862, incorporating the Union Pacific Railway 

 Company, as amended by the act of 1864, the 

 United States, whenever it pays interest upon 

 the bonds issued to aid in the construction of 

 the road, is entitled to enforce immediate pay- 

 ment thereof from the company by suit or 

 otherwise, or whether such reimbursement can 

 be obtained only by the application of one-half 

 the compensation due the company for services 

 rendered to the Government, and five per cent, 

 of the net earnings of the road after its comple- 

 tion. The company insisted upon the latter 

 construction. The Government, by the Attor- 

 ney-General, on the contrary, held that the 

 plain meaning and intent of Congress, apparent 

 from all the statutes when construed togeth- 

 er, is that the United States is entitled, under 

 the charter accepted by the company, to retain 

 the whole value of the services rendered to the 

 United States toward the payment of interest 

 advanced by the United States upon the bonds 

 loaned to the company. 



A decision was also rendered in October, 

 adverse to the claims of females to the right 

 to vote under the fourteenth amendment to 

 the Constitution. The Chief-Justice delivered 

 the opinion that the Constitution of the United 

 States does not confer suffrage upon any one, 

 that being left for the States to do. Conse- 

 quently women must look to the States for the 

 right to vote in elections. In closing, he said : 



Certainly if the courts can consider any question 

 settled this is one. For nearly ninety years the peo- 

 ple have acted upon the idea that the Constitution, 

 when it conferred citizenship, did not necessarily 

 confer the right of suffrage. If uniform practice long 

 continued can settle the construction of so important 

 an instrument as the Constitution of the United States 

 confessedly is. most certainly it has been done here. 

 Our province is to decide what the law is, not to de- 

 clare what it should be. We have given this case 

 the careful consideration its importance demands. 

 If the law is wrong it ought to be changed, but the 

 power for that is not with us. The arguments ad- 

 dressed to us bearing upon such a view of the sub- 

 ject may perhaps be sufficient to induce those hav- 

 ing the power to make the alteration, but they ought 

 not to be permitted to influence our judgment in de- 

 termining the present rights of the parties litigating 

 before us. No argument as to woman's need of suf- 

 frage can be considered. We can only act upon her 

 rights as they exist. It is not for us to look at the 

 hardship of withholding. Our duty is at an end if 

 we find it is within the power of a State to withhold. 



Being unanimously of the opinion that the Consti- 

 tution of the United States does not confer the right 

 of suffrage upon any one, and that the constitutions 

 and laws of the several States which commit that 



important trust to men alone are not necessarily void, 

 wo affirm the judgment of the court below. 



Another case related to the validity of laws 

 passed by the Legislatures of the Southern 

 States, after they had resolved to withdraw 

 from the Union and set up a Confederation of 

 their own. The cases before the court in- 

 volved the regularity of the incorporation of 

 certain insurance companies which were cre- 

 ated by the acts of the Legislature of Georgia 

 in 1861 and 1863. The principle affirmed in 

 the judgment, however, applies to the whole 

 range of Confederate State legislation, and the 

 rule laid down by the court is thus stated in 

 the opinion delivered by Justice Strong: 



All the enactments of the de facto Legislatures in 

 the insurrectionary States during the war, which 

 were not hostile to the Union or to the authority of 

 the General Government, and which were not in con- 

 flict with the Constitution of the United States or of 

 the States, have the same validity as if they had 

 been enactments of legitimate Legislatures ; and any 

 other doctrine than this would work great unneces- 

 sary hardship upon the people of those States, with- 

 out any corresponding benefit to the citizens of 

 other States, and without any advantage to the 

 national Government. 



Another decision in the case of Burk vs. 

 Child was to the effect that a contract to pay 

 for lobby services is invalid. This decision was 

 made upon the ground that all such contracts 

 are against the maxims of sound policy. 



(For the financial condition of the United 

 States, see the article FINANCES, For the for- 

 eign relations of the country, see the President's 

 message in PUBLIC DOCUMENTS, and the title 

 DIPLOMATIC COERESPONDENCE. For the mili- 

 tary and navy affairs of the country, see ARMY 

 and NAVY respectively; and for the general 

 condition of internal affairs, see CONGRESS and 

 the several States.) 



UNIVERSALISTS. The United States Con- 

 vention of Universalists met at Lynn, Mass., 

 October 20th. Mr. Sidney Perham was chosen 

 president. The treasurer and the trustees re- 

 ported that the Murray centenary fund now 

 amounted to $120,691.10; the John G. Gunn 

 ministerial relief fund to $8,000 ; and the Bal- 

 lou centenary fund to $100 and compound in- 

 terest from September 30, 1870, to September 

 30, 1875, or $140.24. Appropriations had been 

 made from the income of the Gunn fund of $375, 

 and a balance remained on account of income 

 of $645. It was advised that as the Ballou fund 

 existed solely in the form of a promissory 

 note, and the founder had, since giving the 

 note, met with business reverses, which had 

 prevented the payment of any part of the ob- 

 ligation, no further mention of it need be made 

 by the trustees and treasurer. The general re- 

 ceipts of the treasurer for the year had been 

 $33,693.52, and his expenditures $25,674.32. 

 The indebtedness of the convention on the 1st 

 day of October was $29,500. The receipts 

 from the annual collections in the parishes had 

 been $4,106.24, and the receipts from the 

 missionary-boxes had been $3,119.22. It was 



