656 



the legislative and $175,000 for the executive 

 department, and $95,000 for printing. Besides 

 these there were special appropriations for 

 various purposes amounting in the aggregate 

 to nearly $2,000,000. The largest of these 

 were, $380,000 for soldiers' orphans' schools, 

 $168,000 for the Reform-School at Morganza, 

 $150,000 for the Insane Hospital at Warren, 

 $110,000 for the National Guard, $100,000 for 

 building the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, 

 $96,000 for the Danville Hospital for the In- 

 sane, $89,500 for the Dixmont Hospital for the 

 Insane, $83,000 for the support of the indigent 

 deaf and dumb for 1876, $75,000 for the State 

 normal schools in 1875, $62,000 for the sup- 

 port of the indigent deaf and dumb for 1875, 

 $55,000 for the military display at the Cen- 

 tennial Exhibition, $50,175 for the Eastern 

 Penitentiary, $50,000 for the normal schools 

 in 1876, $45,000 for the Philadelphia Blind 

 Asylum, $42,000 for the House of Refuge at 

 Philadelphia, $40,000 for the State Board of 

 Centennial Managers, $35,000 for the Hospital 

 of the Insane at Harrisburg, $33,000 for the 



Training - School at Media, $30,500 for the 

 Western Penitentiary, and $25,000 each for 

 the Southeastern Insane Hospital, the Wilkes- 

 barre Hospital, and the Jewish Hospital at 

 Philadelphia. 



The general legislation of the session was 

 unimportant. Among the acts passed was one 

 amending and consolidating the laws relating 

 to game and fish ; one providing for the re- 

 funding and redemption of the indebtedness 

 of counties, cities, towns, townships, bor- 

 oughs, school-districts, and other incorporated 

 districts ; one providing for the punishment 

 of the offense of unlawfully obtaining the keys 

 of bank vaults, s.'ifes, and other depositories of 

 money ; one establishing a State Board of Ag- 

 riculture ; and one authorizing the Governor 

 to appoint a commission to devise a plan for 

 the government of cities. Among the measures 

 defeated was one providing for an amendment 

 of the constitution of the State, transferring 

 the Capitol from Harrisburg to Philadelphia, 



While a bill was pending to regulate the 

 amount of toll, and other charges to be col- 



BRIDGE OYEB THE SUSQUEHANNA AT HATHE DE GRACE. 



looted by boom companies, several members 

 were accused of bribery, and an investigation 

 was ordered. The result was, the expulsion of 

 Emile J. Petroff and Martin F. Lynott from 

 the House of Representatives for conduct un- 

 becoming members. 



The committee appointed in 1875 to investi- 

 gate the accounts of the Treasury made a re- 

 port, the main points of which were that about 

 $3,400,000 had been diverted from the sinking- 

 fund without constitutional warrant, and that 

 an average monthly balance of $2,100,000 was 

 retained in the hands of the Treasury for a 

 period of twelve years, beginning witli 1862, 

 and no money accounted for as interest on the 

 same. 



The commission to devise a plan for the gov- 

 ernment of cities, authorized by the act already 

 mentioned, was appointed after the close of 

 the session of the Legislature, and carried on 

 its investigations through the rest of the year, 

 but was not prepared to report at the begin- 

 ning of the session of 1877. 



There was no election of State officers this 

 year. A convention was held by the Demo- 

 crats at Lancaster on the 22d of March, for the 

 purpose of selecting delegates to the National 

 Convention, nominating presidential electors, 

 and giving expression to their political prin- 

 ciples. William A. Wallace, Heister Clymer, 

 A. H. Dill, and II. M. North, were chosen as 

 delegates at large to the St. Louis Convention, 

 and Charles R*. Buckalew was nominated at 

 the head of the electoral ticket. The platform 

 adopted was as follows : 



The Democracy of Pennsylvania reassert their de- 

 votion to all the provisions of the Federal Constitu- 

 tion and to a perpetual union of the States ; pledge 

 themselves to a rigid fidelity to the public trust; to a 

 pure and economical administration of the Federal, 

 State, and municipal governments ; to local self-gov- 

 ernment in every section ; to the honest payment of 

 the public debt, and to the sound preservation of the 

 public faith. They see with humiliation and alarm 

 the evidences of bribery, fraud, and peculation in 

 high pLices, the distress that prevails, and the wide- 

 spread financial ruin that impends over the people 

 of the State, and they charge that these evils are 



