628 



O'CONOR, CHARLES. 



OHIO. 



to accept, by the "Bourbons" at the Louis- 

 ville Convention. He received 21,559 votes. 

 In February, 1869, he was elected President of 

 the Law Institute of New York, succeeding 

 James T. Brady, who had died. 



Up to the time of his death he worked at his 

 profession. In 1882 he argued the Tennessee 

 bond suit in Tennessee, which was decided ad- 

 versely to the bondholders for whom he ap- 

 peared. He remained in the case, and to his 

 last hours of health was engaged in preparing 

 for the second argument. 



In 1880 he decided on making Nantucket his 

 home, and in 1881 he erected a house and a 

 fire-proof library there, and removed thither 

 his furniture and books from Fort Washington, 

 his home for over thirty years. In April, 1884, 

 he took a trip to New York, caught cold, and 

 on his return to Nantucket fell ill and died. 



In 1854 he married Mrs. MacCracken, a 

 widow, formerly Miss Cornelia Livingston, 

 who died May 12, 1874. Mr. O'Conor never 

 had any children. He was rather tall, slender, 

 and remarkably straight. Up to the last he 

 was as erect as a young man. His hair was 

 very dark in youth, but for many years was of 

 snowy whiteness. He had heavy eyebrows, 

 and his eyes, which were blue, impressed most 

 people as being black. A portrait in oil by 

 Reinhardt hangs in the rooms of the Bar As- 

 sociation in New York. On April 16, 1867, a 

 bust of him by J. Wilson MacDonald was pre- 

 sented to the Supreme Court of the State of 

 New York, but he would not consent to its 

 being placed there until after his death. 



He was very fond of wit and humor, and 

 used to introduce it into his briefs and argu- 

 ments to such an extent that it sometimes be- 

 came a defect. He remarked this himself, tell- 

 ing the writer that frequently, after yielding to 

 the irresistible impulse in court, he would feel 

 greatly mortified, but was certain to repeat the 

 offense. 



To the end of his life he wished to see the 

 Democratic party triumph ; but as party lines 

 became of late years less distinct, he formed a 

 theory that the work of politics was over. He 

 formulated a new system of government. He 

 held that there should be no political parties, 

 that laws should be few and very seldom 

 changed, that the office of President should be 

 substantially abolished, and that the adminis- 

 tration of the laws should be in the hands of 

 a house of judges, subject to impeachment. 

 He was extremely charitable, and gave away 

 large amounts, generally in as secret a way as 

 possible. This was done to spare himself the 

 frequent application of professional beggars. 

 Where his sympathies were not called into 

 play, he was a remorseless judge of human 

 nature ; but, once the chord of sympathy was 

 touched, his weakness manifested itself. By 

 common consent he is placed among the lead- 

 ers of the bar, standing with two or three 

 others in the front rank. He won his success 

 by dogged work, joined with great ability. He 



read to an enormous extent in law, but held 

 that an hour's thinking was worth many hours 

 of reading. The monument of his legal labors 

 is preserved in the collection of his cases and 

 opinions, filling more than a hundred volumes, 

 bequeathed to the Law Institute of New York. 



OHIO. The State officers for the year were 

 as follow : Governor, George Hoadly ; Lieu- 

 tenant-Governor, John G. Warwick ; Secretary 

 of State, James W. Newman ; Auditor of State, 

 Emil Kiesewetter; Treasurer of State, Peter 

 Brady ; Attorney General, James Lawrence ; 

 Commissioner of Common Schools, Leroy D. 

 Brown ; Board of Public Works, John P. Mar- 

 tin, George Paul, and Henry Weible ; Judges 

 of Supreme Court, Martin D. Follett, Selwyn N. 

 Owen, John W. Okey, George W. Mcllvaine, 

 and William W. Johnson; Clerk of Supreme 

 Court, J. W. Cruikshank. 



Finances. On Nov. 15, ] 883, the public funded 

 debt of the State was $4,522,515. During 

 the year there was paid $419,635.81 ; leaving 

 the public funded debt of the State, Nov. 15, 

 1884, $4,102,879.19. The reduction of the an- 

 nual interest- charge during the year was $18,- 

 358.25. The irreducible State debt, on which 

 interest is 6 per cent., now stands at $4,446,- 

 006.06. The local debts aggregated $49,258,- 

 383.93, an increase during the year of $1,625,- 

 260.72. 



Military. The Ohio National Guard consists 

 of 87 companies of infantry, divided into 11 

 regiments, 1 battalion, and 2 unattached com- 

 panies, and 8 batteries of light artillery, num- 

 bering, in all, 5,828 enlisted men, being an 

 increase during the year of 371. 



Benevolent Institutions. The number of patients 

 under treatment in the Insane Asylums dur- 

 ing the year was 4,663, of whom 206 were dis- 

 charged improved, 263 unimproved, and 257 

 died. In the Institution for Feeble-minded 

 Youth there are 407 boys and 251 girls ; in the 

 Blind Asylum, 138 boys and 102 girls; in the 

 Deaf and Dumb Asylum, 260 boys and 216 girls, 

 and in the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, 

 408 boys and 234 girls. 



Penitentiary. By the act of March 24, 1884, 

 the management of the Penitentiary was re- 

 organized by the appointment of a board of 

 managers, warden, and subordinate officers. By 

 the same act the system of contract-labor was 

 abolished ; but this act, in the opinion of the 

 Attorney-General, was not and could not, un- 

 der the Constitution, be applicable to contracts 

 in force when the law took effect. Therefore, 

 much of the available labor is, and necessarily 

 will be, for some time to come, applied to these 

 contracts. Since May 1, 1884, when the new law 

 went fully into force, contracts have expired 

 under which 148 men have been employed ; 592 

 prisoners are working upon contracts that will 

 expire before Nov. 1, 1885 ; 242 upon contracts 

 expiring between Nov. 1, 1885, and Nov. 1, 

 1886, and 265 upon contracts expiring between 

 Nov. 1, 1886, and Nov. 1, 1887. Of the 1 . 

 prisoners confined Nov. 1, 1884, 1,846 were 



