PREFACE. 



THE " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1879 has grown into a larger volume than 

 usual from the multitudinous events of a year unusually prolific in legislative 

 action and political changes, and teeming with vitality in the various fields of 

 scientific progress and mechanical development, religious activity, industrial 

 advancement, and commercial transition, which come within the scope of a work 

 which aims to be a complete record of the current history of the United States 

 and of the world, and a register of every fact or occurrence which forms an 

 influential factor in modern civilization. 



The articles on the States are lengthened beyond their usual compass by 

 exceptionally important legislation transacted and pending upon the regulation 

 of railroad, insurance, and other corporations ; upon temperance, convict-labor, 

 tramps, Chinese immigration, and the different elements of the labor question ; 

 upon the regulation of the ballot and the question of the Federal control of 

 elections ; upon the question of paying or not paying State and municipal debts, 

 and other subjects of moment. The Legislatures of the individual States are 

 the arenas in which most of the socio-political questions, which in other countries 

 make the great national issues, are fought out ; and as the " Annual Cyclopaedia" 

 is the only full and comprehensive chronicle of this most momentous portion of 

 the country's history, it must not allow any important acts of legislation, nor any 

 decision of the courts concerning them, or subjects of political agitation, to pass 

 unrecorded. Full and interesting data are given this year upon the industrial 

 and agricultural condition of many of the States, as well as the usual reports of 

 public affairs, statistical information, and record of party action. In CALIFORNIA 

 a synopsis of the new Constitution is found. In MAINE and in PUBLIC DOCU- 

 MENTS the documents relating to the election difficulty are given at length. In 

 TENNESSEE, ALABAMA, and VIRGINIA, the debt questions are unfolded ; in MIN- 

 NESOTA and FLORIDA, the question of railroad land-grants ; and in other States, 

 whatever subjects are uppermost in the public mind. In separate articles the 

 Exopus OF THE COLORED PEOPLE and the YELLOW FEVER are thoroughly dis- 

 cussed. In CONGRESS the debates on the anti-Chinese and election investigation 

 bills, and the conflicts over the army and judicial appropriation bills in their suc- 

 cessive phases, are very fully reported, with the entire texts of the President's 

 vetoes. The NATIONAL BOARD OF HEALTH is explained in a timely article. 



The high value and authority of the exhaustive monographs on the MARINE 

 HOSPITAL SERVICE, the SIGNAL SERVICE, the RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS, 

 and REFUNDING THE PUBLIC DEBT will be appreciated by every reader. Every 



