818 



VERMONT. 



Its site covers eight acres of ground, and the 

 workhouse is considered as being in every way 

 adapted to the purpose. 



In 1878 an act was passed which expunges 

 the name of " workhouse " from former acts, 

 and substitutes the name of " House of Cor- 

 rection," and defines the object of the institu- 

 tion to be "for the safe-keeping, correction, 

 employment, and reformation of all persons 

 above the age of sixteen years, convicted of 

 offenses for which the punishment by law is 

 only by fine and imprisonment; and also of all 

 persons not less than sixteen years of age at 

 the time of conviction, convicted of offenses 

 punishable by law with imprisonment in the 

 State Prison, whom the Court in its discretion 

 shall sentence to such institution." It also 

 provides that, if any other county in the State 

 will contribute, and actually pay into the State 

 Treasury, the sum of $20,000 toward the es- 

 tablishment of a House of Correction within 

 its limits, then " it shall be built at a like cost 

 from the State, and the county shall have the 

 right to use it for a common jail for said coun- 

 ty." 



A very extraordinary case of reprieve, stay- 

 ing the execution of a death- sentence within 

 one hour of the time when the doomed man 

 was to be hanged, occurred in Vermont in 

 1877; the chief points of which Governor 

 Fail-banks thus states : 



On the day appointed for the execution of John 

 P. Phair, April 6, 1877, and only an hour or two 

 before the execution was to take place, a telegram 

 was received from M. (J. Downing, of Boston, sent 

 by advice of the Chief of Police, saying that he 

 thought he saw and conversed with Mr. Phair on the 

 train coming from Providence to Boston on the next 

 day following the murder of Mrs. Frieze ; and also 

 a telegram from Charles H. Taylor, manager of the 

 Boston " Globe.'' vouching that Mr. Downing was a 

 reliable man. Phair left Eutland by the early train 

 on the morning of the murder, and went to Boston. 

 At the trial, and in a statement which he had caused 

 to be published, he claimed that he did not stop in 

 Boston, but went directly through to Providence, 

 stopped over night, and returned to Boston the next 

 forenoon. The strong evidence on the trial against 

 him showed that he, under the name of "E. F. 

 Smith," occupied a room that night at the Adams 

 House in Boston, in which, after he left, was found 

 part of a shawl, which was identified as having be- 

 longed to the murdered woman, and that under the 

 same name the next morning he pawned in one place 

 a watch, and in another an opera-glass and some 

 rings, which were also identified as having belonged 

 to her. He could not have done this if he went to 

 Providence and returned as he claimed, and as Mr. 

 Downing' s testimony tended to show. There was 

 no time for investigation. I deemed it my duty to 

 stay the execution of the sentence for a short time, 

 and did so until the 4th day of May following. The 

 matter was of so much importance, not only to 

 Phair. but to the State, that I thought an investiga- 

 tion should be had by those acquainted with the facts 

 and circumstances attending the murder and trial. 



The investigation here referred to by the 

 Governor was immediately made under his spe- 

 cial appointment by the State's Attorney and 

 one of Phair's counsel at the trial, and the 

 results of this inquiry tended to establish the 



truth of the alibi, which the telegraphic dis- 

 patch from Boston intimated, and which the 

 accused man had pleaded for himself at his 

 trial three years before, but was disbelieved. 

 On these new discoveries, Governor Fairbanks 

 ordered a further stay of execution till the first 

 Friday of February, 1879, that the Legislature 

 at the session which would take place in the 

 interval might take cognizance of the matter 

 and determine on it. In informing the Legis- 

 lature of this reprieve, the Governor states 

 that by the gravity of the circumstances of the 

 case he was compelled knowingly to act against 

 the law of the State, by whose express pro- 

 visions the time of presenting a petition for a 

 new trial in Phair's behalf, and of acting on it 

 at all, had long before elapsed. To debar a 

 man under sentence of death from the possi- 

 bility of petitioning for a new trial at any time 

 before the sentence is actually executed, even 

 though there might be good reasons for such 

 petition, the Governor regards to be a defect 

 in the law, and recommends its correction. 

 The Legislature deliberated on Phair's case at 

 this session, and determined to allow him a 

 new trial, which resulted in his conviction, and 

 he was executed on April 4, 1879. They also 

 passed a law in relation to the available time 

 of petitioning for a new trial in behalf of per- 

 sons under sentence of death. 



In the Asylum for the Insane there are at 

 present 459 patients, of whom 295 are main- 

 tained at the charge of the State, and 164 at 

 the cost of their respective towns or of friends. 

 Since the year 1871-'72, the relative propor- 

 tion of these two classes of patients appears to 

 have been undergoing a steady alteration, to 

 the pecuniary loss of the State, by an increase 

 in the number of the former, and a decrease in 

 that of the latter ; as the State beneficiaries, 

 who in that year numbered 233, in 1878 are 

 273 ; while the town or private patients, who 

 were then 273, are now 164. 



The session of 1878 closed on the 27th of 

 November. The number of bills acted upon 

 exceeded that of previous sessions by about 

 100. 



Since the adjournment of the Legislature in 

 1876, a considerable bequest has been made to 

 the State of Vermont in the interests of educa- 

 tion by Arunah Huntington, who died at Brant- 

 ford, Canada, on January 10, 1877, leaving to 

 the State the whole of his property, invento- 

 ried in the will at $202,000, as a common- 

 school fund. Mr. Huntington was a native of 

 Vermont, born at Roxbury in 1794, but re- 

 moved thence in 1828 to Brantford, where he 

 resided to the time of his death. He teft no 

 children, and his widow, a second wife, is not 

 an heir at law, because of an antenuptial con- 

 tract. All of his property, except $3,450 of 

 real estate in Canada, is personal, consisting of 

 bank and insurance stock, railroad securities, 

 and personal loans. Those who claim to be his 

 heirs at law have instituted proceedings in 

 chancery, praying that the whole devise be de- 



