MINNESOTA. 



recent traveler in the Territory of Dakota, and 

 down the Rod River of the North into Mani- 

 toba, says that, commencing at the Red River 

 iiinl stretching for hundreds, almost thousands 

 of miles in a northwesterly direction, includ- 

 ing the fertile valleys of the system of rivers 

 drained by Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba, is a 

 tract of country so largo that States the size of 

 Ohio might be cut out of it almost by the dozen, 

 and which, until within the last few years, has 

 been thought of as a bleak, uninhabitable waste, 

 valuable only for its fur-bearing animals. But 

 the reports of travelers, and now the test of 

 experience, have proven that no quarter of the 

 country excels this region in the quality and 

 yield of its small grain; and instead of its 

 being confined to the valley of the Red, there 

 is every reason for believing that it embraces 

 the valleys of the Assiniboine, Saskatchewan, 

 and other rivers far to the north. It is stated 

 by an officer of the Hudson's Bay Company, 

 who had traveled extensively over the territory 

 controlled by that company, that, beginning 

 fifty or sixty miles west of the city of Winni- 

 peg, and continuing about 900 miles until it 

 disappeared in the deserts that lie next east of 

 the mountains, and extending an indefinite dis- 

 tance to the north, is a rolling plain, in rich- 

 ness of soil the counterpart of the prairies of 

 Illinois and Iowa. 



The statistics of public schools in the State 

 show a considerable advance during the year. 

 The total enrollment for 1878 was 167,825 ; for 

 1879, 171,945 ; increase, 4,120 children. Num- 

 ber of common-school districts, 3,922 ; of 

 schoolhoases, 3,416. Value of school prop- 

 erty, $3,384,026. 



An act of the Legislnture regulating elections 

 in incorporated cities of over 12,000 inhabitants, 

 required that the ballots should be numbered 

 at the time when they were offered. The ques- 

 tion of the constitutionality of this provision 

 came before the Supreme Court, and it was de- 

 cided to be unconstitutional on the ground that 

 it interfered with and violated the voter's privi- 

 lege of secrecy. 



The National Greenback State Convention 

 assembled at St. Paul on June 10th. Ignatius 

 Donnelly was chosen President, and the fol- 

 lowing ticket for State officers was nominated : 

 For Governor, Ana Barton; for Lieutenant- 

 Governor, William McGhen ; for Treasurer, 

 Andrew Nelson ; for Secretary of State, A. P. 

 Lane ; for Attorney-General, William L. Kel- 

 ley ; for Railroad Commissioner, Ebenezer 

 Ayers. The following platform was adopted 

 by the Convention : 



We, the delegates assembled, pursuant to call, at 

 a State National Greenback-Labor Convention, held 

 in the city of St. Paul, on Tuesday, the 10th day ot 

 Juno, A. D. 1879, do adopt the following declaration 



1. We are in favor of the immediate and uncondi- 

 tional repeal of the act of I860, falsely entitled " An 

 act to strengthen the public credit," believing that it 

 was an unnecessary, dishonest, and radical change of 

 the original contract between the debtor and creditor 

 classes, an act of robbery of hundreds of millions of 



dollars from the people, for the benefit of American 

 and European bondholders, and one that was intend- 

 ed to perpetuate the national debt for all time. We 

 therefore demand that all the bonds due by the Gov- 

 ernment be paid in strict accordance with the letter 

 niid htririt or the original terras on which they were 

 issued; and that all the four and four and a half per 

 cent., and all other bonds issued since the passage of 

 that act on long time, subject, as understood, to all 

 the contingencies of subsequent legislation, be imme- 

 diately paid in non-intercst-bearing, full legal-tender 

 currency. 



2. Wo are in favor of the free and unrestricted coin- 

 ago of silver, upon the same terms and conditions as 

 gold, and its retention as a full legal tender for all 

 debts, public and private. 



8. We demand the immediate repeal of the resump- 

 tion law, believing that its postage at the time was 

 an infamous sin and crime against the debtor classes, 

 whose obligations, contracted in good faith and on a 

 currency basis, were thus more than doubled, while 

 all property was reduced nearly one half. We de- 

 nounce the whole scheme of locking up in the Trea- 

 sury-vaults $400,000,000 or $500.000.000 of currency 

 subject to redemption, and coin held for the purpose 

 of redemption, wnilo but little more than $4,000,000 

 has been redeemed or offered for redemption, as wholly 

 in the interest of a few moneyed men, and suicidal, 

 unjust, and oppressive to the great body of the Amer- 

 ican people. 



4. We regard the whole system of the contraction 

 of the currency, from April, 18G6 ; to the present time, 

 as an act of gross fraud and injustice, subversive of the 

 best interests of the nation, leading to tens of thou- 

 sands of bankruptcies, the concentration of a large 

 part of the wealth of the people in the hands of a few 

 bullionists and money-holders, and the stagnation and 

 paralysis of almost every industry. 



5. After having replaced the entire bonded debt of 

 the nation with legal-tender currency (except where 

 the faith of the Government was originally and specifi- 

 cally pledged to coin payment), wo tvelieve that there- 

 after the circulation snould bo steadily and gradually 

 increased in exact proportion to the growth of popula- 

 tion and wealth and business of the country the cir- 

 culation per capita being maintained as nearly as pos- 

 sible the same, so as not to disturb the relative value 



property, and every- 



of money and property. 

 6. We believe that all private 



of taxation for the support of the Government and the 

 protection of the people. 



7. We regard the declaration of the Republican 

 party at its last convention in this State, in 1878, 

 that " no constitutional right reposes in the Govern- 

 ment to protect the people against monopolies by the 

 powerful, arbitrary, and rapacious," as a most reck- 

 less and dangerous heresy, as heartless as it is untrue 

 and anti-republican in sentiment. 



8. We are opposed to all unjust and discriminating 

 class-legislation, and in favor of a fair field and open 

 competition for all. 



9. We are earnestly opposed to all large landed mo- 

 nopolies, either by railroads, corporations, or private 

 individuals, and believe that the public domain should 

 be held exclusively for actual settlers, in moderate and 

 reasonable quantifies. We are opposed to the present 

 or any other national banking system, and in favor 

 of the Government alone issuing all that circulates as 

 money. We are in favor of a graduated and equitable 

 income tax ; but one term of office for President and 

 Vice-President ; the election of President. Vice-Presi- 

 dent, postmasters, and as far as practicable all other 

 officers, by the direct vote of the people ; the severe 

 punishment by fine or imprisonment, or both, and by 

 disfhinchiscment and inehifibility to office, of any per- 

 son who offers to buy or sell a vote, or is guilty of any 

 fraud or intimidation or threats of violence at a ballot- 

 box or election, with a view to prevent the free and 



