VIRGINIA. 



797 



had never until recently been known to fail, 

 often become totally dry in a dry season. 



Political. The following were the Republican 

 nominations: For Governor, Samuel E. Pin- 

 gree; Lieutenant-Governer, Ebenezer J. Orms- 

 bee ; Secretary of State, Charles W. Porter ; 

 Treasurer, William H. Dubois ; Auditor, E. H. 

 Powell; Members of Congress: First District, 

 John W. Stewart; Second, William W. Grout. 

 The following were the Democratic nomina- 

 tions : Governor, Lyman W. Reddington ; Lieu- 

 tenant-Govern or, Nathan P. Bowman ; Treas- 

 urer, Henry Gillett ; Secretary of State, Herbert 

 F. Brigham ; Auditor, Carlos S. Noyes ; Con- 

 gress, First District, George H. Simmons ; 

 Second District, Martin H. Goddard. At the 

 election on the 2d of September, the Republi- 

 can State and congressional candidates were 

 chosen. The vote for Governor was : Repub- 

 lican, 42,524; Democratic, 19,820; other, 854. 

 The Legislature consists of 27 Republicans and 

 3 Democrats in the Senate, and .195 Republi- 

 cans, 35 Democrats, and 9 others in the House. 

 The vote for Presidential Electors on the 4th 

 of November was as follows : Republican, 39,- 

 514; Democratic, 17,331; Greenback, 785; 

 Prohibition, 1,752; scattering, 27. 



VIRGINIA. State Government. The following 

 were the State officers during the year : Gov- 

 ernor, William E. Cameron, Readjuster ; Lieu- 

 tenant-Governor, John F. Lewis; Secretary of 

 State, H. W. Flournoy; Treasurer, Isaac R. 

 Barksdale; Auditor, Morton Marye; Second 

 Auditor, Frank G. Ruffin; Attorney-General, 

 Frank S. Blair ; Superintendent of Public In- 

 struction, Richard R. Farr ; Commissioner of 

 Agriculture, Randolph Harrison ; Superintend- 

 ent of Land-Office, Joseph A. Wingfield; Rail- 

 road Commissioner, George A. Martin. Court 

 of Appeals: L. L. Lewis, B. W. Lacy, R. A. 

 Richardson, T. T. Fauntleroy, D. A. Hinton. 



Legislative Sessions. The Legislature which was 

 in session at the beginning of the year adjourned 

 on the 19th of March. An extra session, called 

 at the demand of the Democratic majority, as- 

 sembled in August, and did not finally adjourn 

 until the beginning of December. At the reg- 

 ular session 571 acts were passed, and at the 

 extra session 200. Of these a large number 

 were local or private. Many political acts were 

 passed over the Governor's veto, the general ef- 

 fect of which was to concentrate power in the 

 Legislature. Among the acts of the regular 

 session were the following: 



Providing a new charter for the city of Norfolk ; to 

 provide for the appointment of Capitol police, etc. ; 

 amending the charter of the city or Portsmouth ; to 

 promote medical science, and to protect graves and 

 cemeteries from desecration ; to regulate the practice 

 of medicine and surgery ; authorizing religious con- 

 gregations and other benevolentj literary, and chari- 

 table institutions which are not incorporate to sell or 

 encumber their property; incorporating the city of 

 Roanoke (formerly town of Big Lick) regulating the 

 granting of licenses for the exercise of any privilege ; 

 to amend the act relative to the formation of joint- 

 stock companies ; amending the law regulating the 

 appointment of directors of lunatic asylums, the law 



regulating such asylums, and the law touching the 



TV-w' *,-! T\ 1, J r*i;_ IT .-. . i t* ZT 



the appointment and removal of district-school trus- 

 tees ; an act for the preservation of oysters, and to ob- 

 tain revenue for the privilege of taking them within 

 the waters of the State ; providing tor an eight weeks' 

 course of instruction for the colored teachers of the 

 State ; repealing the collateral inheritance tax ; regu- 

 lating the taking of oysters in the Potomac river ; to 

 provide for the assessment of taxes on persons, prop- 

 erty, and incomes, and imposing taxes thereon for the 

 support of the government and public free sshools, 

 and to pay the interest on the public debt, and to pro- 

 vide for the mode of applying for licenses to transact 

 any business in the State, and prescribing the amount 

 of such licenses | providing for the organization of the 

 militia ; to prohibit the active participation in politics 

 of school-omcersj and officers and employe's of asy- 

 lums and institutions of learning ; to lessen the dan- 

 ger of traveling on railroads, and to require them to 

 erect suitable depots, and to fence in railroad-beds ; 

 joint resolutions relative to the State debt ; and a 

 congressional reapportionment bill. 



The following were among the acts of the 

 extra session : 



To provide for the appointment of electors for Presi- 

 dent and V ice-President of the United States by elec- 

 tion by the people ; providing for the assessment of 

 real estate in 1885 and every fifth year thereafter ; to 

 provide for the establishment of the Southwestern 

 Lunatic Asylum ; to prevent the spreading of diseases 

 among domestic animals ; requiring the banks of the 

 State to make regular reports to the State Auditor. 



The following are the chief features of the 

 joint resolutions relating to the State debt : 



1. That the people of Virginia have accepted the 

 act of Feb. 14, 1882, known as the " Eiddleberger 

 bill," as the ultimate settlement of the debt of this 

 State ; that it is their unalterable purpose that that 

 settlement shall be final, and that any expectation 

 that any settlement of the debt of this State upon any 

 other basis will ever be made or tolerated by the peo- 

 ple of Virginia is absolutely illusory and hopeless. 



2. That the interests of the public creditors, as well 

 as the safety and welfare of the State, require that this 

 settlement shall be accepted by the creditors as well 



bonds and claims against the Commonwealth to come 

 forward with promptness and fund the same. 



An election law was passed at the regular 

 session, which was subsequently declared un- 

 constitutional by the Court of Appeals. It 

 provided for the election, by the Legislature 

 in 1884, and every four years thereafter, of 

 three freeholders for each city and county, who 

 were charged with the duty of appointing the 

 election officers for the various precincts. 

 There was no provision in the law requiring 

 these freeholders or the election officers to be 

 of different political parties. At the extra 

 session this law was re-enacted in substantially 

 the same form, except that the requirement 

 that the city and county electoral boards should 

 consist of freeholders was omitted. The Court 

 had made that requirement the ground of its 

 decision. The new act is in litigation. 



Finances. The following are the transactions 

 of the treasury for the year ending Sept. 30, 

 1884: 



