UNITED STATES. 



823 



German missionaries, 10 preachers, 615 mem- 

 bers, and 247 pupils in Sunday-schools. The 

 Woman's Missionary Association had received 

 $12,054. It co-operated with the Home, Front- 

 ier, and Foreign Missionary Society in the 

 work of the Sherbro and German missions, 

 and sustained a Chinese mission at Portland, 

 Greg. It employed 18 ministers and preachers, 

 and returned 171 members, 319 pupils in Sun- 

 day-schools, affa 116 pupils in day-schools. 



A Church Commission which was appointed 

 by the General Conference of 1885 to consider 

 the present Confession of Faith and Constitu- 

 tion of the Church and prepare amended forms 

 of the same, has published its report for the 

 information of the Church preparatory to tak- 

 ing a vote upon its adoption in 1888. The 

 commission was instructed in the action em- 

 bodying its appointment to preserve unchanged 

 in substance the present Confession of Faith 

 so far as it is clear, to retain the present itin- 

 erant plan, and to keep sacred the general 

 usages and distinctive principles of the Church 

 on moral reforms. The amendments proposed 

 in the Confession of Faith include verbal 

 changes and reconstruction of sentences for the 

 sake of grammatical accuracy and definiteness 

 of expression ; a systematic arrangement of 

 the Confession, under distinct articles; and the 

 addition of articles of justification, regeneration 

 and adoption, sanctilicntion, the Christian Sab- 

 bath, and the future state. 



The principal changes in the Constitution 

 consist in the introduction of lay representa- 

 tion into the General Conference, which, it is 

 provided, u shall consist of elders and laymen," 

 and of the following new rule: 



We declare that all secret combinations which in- 

 fringe upon the rights of those outside their organiza- 

 tion, and whose principles and practices are injurious 

 to the Christian character of their members, are con- 

 trary to the Word of God, and that Christians ought 

 to have no connection with them. The General Con- 

 ference shall have power to enact such rules of dis- 

 cipline with respect to such combinations as in its 

 judgment it may deem proper. 



The amended documents are to be submitted 

 to the people of the Church for approval or 

 disapproval in November, 1888; the Confes- 

 sion of Faith as a whole, and the Constitution 

 as a whole, except as to the provision for lay 

 delegation and the rule against secret societies, 

 which are to be submitted separately. 



UNITED STATES. Administration. The follow- 

 ing were the chief officers during the year : 

 President, Grover Cleveland, Democrat, of 

 New York; Secretary of State, Thomas F. 

 Bayard, Delaware ; Secretary of the Treasury, 

 Daniel Manning, New York; Secretary of 

 War, William C. Endicott, Massachusetts ; 

 Postmaster-General, William F. Vilas, Wiscon- 

 sin ; Attorney-General, Augustus H. Garland, 

 Arkansas; Secretary of the Navy, William C. 

 Whitney, New York; Secretary" of the Inte- 

 rior, Lucius Q. C. Lamar, Mississippi ; Chief 

 of Bureau of Statistics, William F. Switzler ; 

 Director of the Mint, James P. Kimball ; Com- 



missioner of Customs, John 8. McCalmont; 

 Treasurer, Conrad N. Jordan ; Superintendent 

 of Coast Survey (acting), Frank M. Thorn ; 

 Kegister of the Treasury, William S. Rose- 

 crans ; Comptroller of the Currency, William 

 L. Trenholm ; Commissioner of Internal Reve- 

 nue, Joseph S. Miller; Commissioner of Navi- 

 gation, Jarvis Patten, succeeded by Charles B. 

 Morton ; Commissioner of the General Land- 

 Office, William A. J. Sparks; Commissioner 

 of Pensions, John C. Black ; Commissioner of 

 Indian Affairs, John D. C. Atkins ; Commis- 

 sioner of Patents, M. V. Montgomery ; Com- 

 missioner of Education, John Eaton, succeeded 

 by Nathaniel H. R. Dawson; Director of the 

 Geological Survey. John W. Powell ; Com- 

 missioner of Labor, Carroll D. Wright ; 

 Commissioner of Railroads, Joseph E. John- 

 ston ; Commissioner of Agriculture, Norman 

 J. Colman ; Fish Commissioner, Spencer F. 

 Baird ; Civil-Service Commissioners, Alfred P. 

 Edgerton, John H. Oberly, and Charles Ly- 

 rnan. Supreme Court : Chief-Justice, Morrison 

 R. Waite; Justices, Samuel F. Miller, Stephen 

 J. Field, Joseph P. Bradley, John M. Harlau, 

 William B. Woods, Stanley Matthews, Horace 

 Gray, and Samuel Blatchford ; Clerk, James 

 H. McKenney. 



Army. The expenditures of appropriations 

 under direction of the Secretary of War, by 

 requisition upon the Treasury, during the year 

 ending June 30, 1886, amounted to $36,990,- 

 903.38. The sum of $1,208,016.46, pertaining 

 to the War Department appropriations, was 

 carried to the surplus fund June 30, 1886. 

 The Lieutenant-General reports the army at 

 the date of the last consolidated returns, to 

 consist of 2,103 officers and 23,946 men. 



Military Academy. There were present Sept. 

 1, 1886, 309 cadets. The total number of 

 officers for duty at the post, including 8 pro- 

 fessors and 2 surgeons, is 58. The Superin- 

 tendent strongly favors the general adoption 

 of the competitive system in the selection of 

 candidates, and says that in the ten years be- 

 ginning with 1873, 269 cadets were graduated 

 out of 569 appointed after competition, and 250 

 cadets graduated out of 1,001 appointed with- 

 out competition. 



Navy. The navy, aside from ships in course of 

 construction, consists of : 1. Fourteen single-tur- 

 reted monitors, none of which are in commis- 

 sion, nor at the present time serviceable. The 

 batteries of these ships are obsolete, and they 

 can only be relied upon as auxiliary ships in 

 harbor-defense, and then after such an expen- 

 diture upon them as might not be deemed jus- 

 tifiable. 2. Five fourth-rate vessels of small 

 tonnage, only one of which was designed as a 

 war- vessel, and all of which are auxiliary mere- 

 ly. 3. Twenty-seven cruising-ships, three of 

 which are built of iron, of small tonnage, and 

 twenty-four of wood. Of these wooden ves- 

 sels it is estimated by the Chief Constructor of 

 the Navy that only three will be serviceable 

 beyond a period of six years, at which time it 



