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About Weekly chronicle & sentinel. (Augusta, Ga.) 1866-1877 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 1876)
arnronitic anti Sentinel. WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9, 187<i. National Democratic Ticket. FOB PRESIDENT: Samuel J. Tilden, OF NEW YORK. FOB VICE-PRESIDENT: Tbo mas A. Hendricks. OF INDIANA. State Democratic Ticket. FOB GOVERNOR: Alfred 11. Colquitt. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS. F or the State at Lare. A. B. LAWTON. JOHN W. WOFFORD. ALTERNATES, L. J. GARTRELL, H. D, D. TWIGGS. District Delegate.. First District -A. M. Rogers, of Barke. Alternate, T. E. Davenport, of Glynn. Second District-R. E. Cannon, of Clay. Alternate, James L. Seward, of Thomas. Third District—J. M. DnPree, of Ma con. Alternate, W. H. Harrison, of Stewart. . Fourth District—W. O. Tuggle, of Troup. Alternate, E. M. Butt, of Ma rion. _ Fifth District—F. D. Dismuke, of Spalding. Alternate, W. A. Shorter, of Fulton. Sixth District—Frank Chambers, of Wilkmson. Alternate, M. V. McKib ben, of Butts. Seventh District—L N. Trammell, ol Whitfield. Alternate, Hamilton Yancey, of Floyd. Eighth District—D. M. Dußose, ol Wilkes. Alternate, F. E. Eve, of Cos lnmbia. Ninth District—J. N. Dorsey, of Hall. Alternate. F. L Hariaon, of White. THE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST. The Presidential contest is gradually assuming shape and developing the sa lient points upon which the powers of the two parties are centering. But amid all the array of issues put forward by the Radical leaders to shut out from the popular sight the true and only ques tion which shonld occupy the attention of the American people, the bloody shirt stands prominently forth, dripping with gore aod smelling as if it were recently pulled from the pocket of Morton, where it has been stuffed away since 1872. They may raise their hydra-head ed questions, but amid all the chaos, the people must and will observe the issue of reform, personated in Mr. Til pen—with an ax in one hand and the faces of the lictor in the other—ready to strike off those heads and scourgf from the temple of our country the bar tering thieves who have been selling ib very life to satisfy their rapacious greed. The only issue in the campaign is hon esty against thievery, and upon that issue the Democratic party must stand oi fall. The Democratic party with Mr. Tilden as its leader can say to the peo ple, not only of America, that it will reform abuses, reduce taxation and pay off in an Administration the bulk of the national debt, but can assure the people of Europe that Emma Mines and Jay Cook railroads, bolstered np by the Navy Department, will never obtrude themselves into the great commercial marts of the world to swindle and fleece their capitalists nnder the auspices aud chaperoning of “Ministers Plenipoten tiary and Envoys Extraordinary" from onr great nation. Have the American people lost all pride in their oountry and all desire to build it np as the model of all future governments ; or do they wish to keep it dragging its huge proportions along through filthy sloughs of corruption and depravity until its magnificent form will be the horror of future civilization ? If they wish the former let them oast aside all sectional feelings—all heart-burnings and animosities that may have been en gendered by past political differences and come forward as true American citizens and support Mr. Tilden —not for Mr. Tilden or for the Democratic party—but for this great American Re public. We have au abiding faith in the peo ple when danger is really seen and it must now bo apparent to any but the cringing suitors and parasites who hang around the heels of the “Smoky Crsau,” waiting to touch the hem of his would be-imperial robe, that their pockets may be healed. THE INDIAN QUESTION. If it is true that in a multitude of counselors there is safety, then it be hooves the oouutry to listen to any one whose experience and knowledge fit him in any eminent degree for throwing light upon the “Indian question.” All sorts of theories have figured in our relations •with the Indians, but still 'he same re suits somehow attend them all—fro quent and bloody wars, involving much loss of life, a great deal of suffering, no little destruction of private property. a.nd immense Government expenditure. Whatever may be nrged in favor of the Wm. Penn policy in itself, the time has gone by when it can be made the basis of permanent relations between the whites and the Indians. The past has been too full of wars and outrages, and the memories of the savages that never forget, and their hearts that never for give, render a strict Quaker policy a mere “by-word and a hissing." “There is eternal war between me and thee," as it ooours in a supposed speech of an Indian chief, is fact as well as rhetoric. The time for the Penn policy was at the first contact of the two races, before encroachment upon either side had in augurated “the eternal war.” The number of persons who have dabbled in the Indian problem and vol unteered their advice to “Uncle Sam” is legion, but most of this advice is worth no consideration whatever. People who live at a distance from the scene of the Indian troubles, havfe no personal knowl edge of the circumstances, and never brushed against the “noble red man,” are not the most trustworthy counselors. But when a man who lives in the shadow of the tomahawk tells his story, and ad vances suggestions, he deserves more than indifferent attention. Walter Cootbb, who has lived in Montana since 1873, is visiting in Ynburn, and a re porter of one of the local papers there has given him the luxury of an “inter ~rieWi v That gentleman’s views may not qxove uninteresting in the light of the ■Sioux war and the annihilation of Cus ter's command. According to him, this conflict is no andden foray, occurring without special preparation, but a deliberate campaign on the pert of tha Indians, planned by Sitting Bull as far back as 1863, at the time of the Minnesota massacre. In the meantime he has been collecting arms and ammunition for a great Indian war. Like Tecumskh, whose last years were devoted to the mission %>t forming a grand coalition of the Indian tribes .throughout the Mississippi valley against the white man, he has used his influence to persuade the tribes throughout tha Northwest to join in a desperate cam paign against the whites. Asa conse quence, the war promises to be long and bloody. The hostile bands are not to be pnt down by a few hundred United States troops. The assurances of the Indian agents that all of' their Indians are on their reservations are in the main false and misleading, causing the fatal blander of underrating Sitting Bull’s numbers, and sending a mere handful of soldiers to do the work of a numerous force. Mr. Oopeb thinks, at the least estimate, 8,000 warriors are with the hostile chief. As might be expected, he has no compliments for the Indian agents. Through them, although for bidden to Bell arms to the Indians, the latter get their arms and ammunition. To day Srmso Bull is fighting onr troops With better equipments than the soldiers have themselves, and all because the agents love money better than they do the laws of the land. It is clear that no Quaker policy should be used by the Government in their case. They have never done the country a cent’s worth of good, but an inestimable amount of mischief. They are a sort of law unto themselves, violate articles of treaty at their pleasure, cheat and rob the Indians constantly, and keep np an irritation and hostility on the part of the savages that render all attempts of the Govern ment to maintain peaoa as idle as the wind. The extravagant journal that calls on the Government to send an army against the Indian agents is not so far out of the way after all. Mr. Cooper does, however, find a small excuse for the dishonesty of the agejnts in the fact that they are ruinously underpaid (they receive 81,500 a year), and he thinks that larger pay would secure a better set of agents and remove much of their temptation to swindle and break over the laws. The idea is worth consider- ing. From the defeat of Braddock in 1755 down, the great mistake of conducting campaigns against the Indians has been to fight them as if their warfare were conducted upon scientific principles, ac cording to methods taught at the mili tary schools. “When you are in Rome do as the Romans do,” would be a good maxim for that particular question how to kill the Indians. Mr. Coopcr's sug gestion that companies of frontiersmen be formed to do tbe fighting is a very important one. He says a single regi ment of such troops woukl accommplish more real work than 'the whole of the regular army. They would equip light ly, not needing heavy wagon trains like regular troops ; and, understanding In dian tactics thoroughly, would “beat them at their own game.” The regulars, with few exceptions, know nothing about the Indian mode of fighting. We be lieve Mr. Cooper’s views in this respect are worth a heed with a practical turn to it. It needs no demonstration that a few hundred Kit Carsons and Bill Co dys of the frontier would tax tbe milita ry genius of Sitting Bull as it has never been yet .—Hartford Courant. INDIANA RADICALS IN A QUANDARY. It is vitally important for tbe Hayes party to carry Indiana in the October election. The Hhrtford Times says if they lose that, they are gone hook and line, bob and sinker, and they know it. It would be a proclama of their weakness in the West. We have never had much doubt, since the nomination of Tilden and Hendricks, that tbe R publicans would bo beaten in Indiana; and this we say in the full light of the desperate bribery and cheat ing which the Indiana Mortons will no doubt resort to, as they have done in oth er elections. The truth is, tbe tide is against them. Not only is the St. Louis ticket a very strong one in that State, but the Republicans are handicapped from the start by a party lukewarmness toward Hayes and Wheeler, and by the odium resting on their State ticket, head ed by Judge Godlove S. Orth for Gov ernor. His proved corruption at Wash ington, in the Venezuelan claim swin dle, is a millstone around his and his party’s neck. Three, if not four, of the principal Republican journals in Indiana refuse to endorse his nomination, for the openly given reason that he is now proved to be a corruptionist. (Thanks, once more, to tho Democratic investi gating committees, appointed by that Congress that “is doing nothing !”) The Chairman of the Republican State Committee has been trying to get some other man to agree to be the candidate for Governor, and says that he and the members of the Convention that Domi nated Orth, seeing inevitable defeat ahead as they are now going, are ready to pitch him overboard violently—repu diate their own action in nominating him—and pnt up another man ! This because Qbth won’t resign and stand aside. But, though this desperate osurse is urgsd upon the Indiana Radicals by some of tbe Hayes leaders in Ohio and other States, it can not be followed; it would be direct sui cide. Orth’s friends are too many to permit such an unheard of act. And so, there the Hayes party stands—with de feat staring it in the face, take whatever course it may. We beg leave to suggest, if Orth is to be pitched overboard, that his party take np Sohuyler in his place. A THIRTY-SIX HOUR GAUNTLET. The recent battles with the Indians of the Yellowstone country, if all the incidents of the fights could be collec ted, would furnish material to the ro mances for an entire generation of startling stories. Yet no touch of the imagination could add an element of in terest to the wild, desperate encounters, the hair breadth escapes that signal ized the bravery and fidelity to duty of the commands of Crook, Reno and Custer. One of the muei thrilling ac counts of the kind comes from tfie pen of Lieut. Db Rudio, who was with Major Reno, and is given in a letter to a friend in New York. Few Indian fight ers have ever run such a gauntlet of death as did the lieutenant and private O’Neil, who was his companion in the desperate flight for life. Early in the fight of Reno’s command witti the savages, De Rudio’s horse be came unmanageable from a wound, as he was about to mount after picking up a guidon, and broke away, leaving him 50 yards from a band of about S6O Sioux. A storm of ballets whistled after him as he ran for protection into a thicket near by. There he found pri vate O’Neil and two companions also hidden away from the savages. While crawliug from the spot the fugitives were horrified spectators of the scalp ing and mutilation of a dead soldier by squaws, two doing the work and .others performing a sort of war dance around the body and its mutilators. Soon after this cheering spectacle, De Rudio and lib? comrades were threatened with as terrible a death by fire, the savages having Ignited the woods. It burned all around them, bat a timely fall of rain arrested the flames, and saved them lives for further ad ventures. There; they remained until night, the savages scouring all about them. As soon as it was dark the party started out to reach the ford, two miles away. On their way they encountered a band of Indians, and the two others, who were mounted, fled, leaving De Rudio and O’Neill, who escaped into some bashes by the river. At the dim dawn of day they heard the trampling as of a large body of cavalry, and peep ing forth, saw horses mounted by men in dark blouses and some of them in white hats. The lieutenant thinks he recognized the dress of Tom Custer. Not dreaming that rescue was not at hand, De Rudio stepped out of the bashes and hailed them. To his dismay his shout was answered by an infernal yell and a discharge of three or four hundred shots. The lieutenant and his eow&a&op jumped into the bashes, which were mo\rd down by the ballets in all directiocs, and aras-Jed as fast as thev could to get oat of the g of the savages just returning from the #BB -of CusrKJt’s command, of whose fate the dishesrfened fugitives now had, cheir first intimation. The redskins gathered on the top of the bluff, and, as they saw the bushes move, fired in that direction at the two soldiers, who seemed to lead a Charmed life. While concealed here, they saw a band of sav ages approaching, not suspecting the proximity of the whites. The latter fired brought two Indians, and the rest fled in hot haste. The thicket was fired, and the same narrow escape from burn ing alive was again the fortune of the soldiers as characterized their first flight from the Indians. They even had to smother flames as they approached burn ing slowly through the dense under wood. During their concealment here they heard the musketry firing attend ing the final attack of the savages on Reno’s position. As soon as the red skins retreated, Dr Budio and O’Neill rejoined the command, having been abont thirty-six hours without food and drink. “THE GRASSHOPPER, FEAST.” The New York News says: July is the month in which many, too many, things ripen. With blackberries, peach es, and corn we must reckon an agricul tural product less cheering to the farm er—namely, the joyous grasshopper. In July this frivolous emblem of improvi dence sheds his last skin as a mere hop per, and at last emerges, full-fledged and thoroughly baked, with four soft but soon sturdy wings, for the express purpose of carrying despair to the heart and profanity to the lips of the Western farmer. It is during this fine, hot, dry month of August that we are invited to look on at the grasshoppers’ feast. Re cent biographers of this boon to man represent him as fully conscious of a rich and much-occupied life only then, when the sun pours vertically down to moet the upward radiance of heat al ready stored in the parched fields. It is in such weather that he begins to fsel himself born to higher things, and, hurling himself upward in the air, is astonished to find himself something of an eagle. His efforts are viewed with envy by his neighbor, who essays the same, and presently the dry buzz and clatter of a hundred wings inspire all the grasshoppers of the surrounding fields to try the paths of air. Like a rolling snow ball, this insect revival gathers force, and soon a swarm arises like a dun cloud, which receives as it proceeds a contingent from every direc tion, before and on its flanks, until the sun is darkened with the voracious masses, and the plague of locusts settles on the land. If it is curious and some what alarming to watch a single grass hopper fall upon a stalk of grass or wheat, chop it down with its strong man dibles, and rapidly devour it end on, what must be the sensations of the owner of harvest fields to see the ap parently sudden irruption of large and hungry millions of grasshoppers upon his defenseless crops ! This year the first note of warning comes from California. The newest land is experiencing the plague which is as old as Egypt, and which springs from the same causes now as formerly, and in America as in Europe and Asia. Al though called migratory in deference to the natural instinct of attributing bad things to other nations, the winged grasshopper only moves from place to place in obedience to hunger, though the flight of swarms is doubtless pro longed by the pleasnreable excitement which movement in great masses gives to the individuals. A late writer at . tributes their marvelous abundance in certain years to two main reasons, and evidently considers their occasional ap pearance in overwhelming numbers an unavoidable necessity. One cause is the abnormal quantity of their espeeial articles of diet cultivated by the labors of men, and the other is the absence, also due to men, of their natural ene mies. These are the two main factors affecting the abundance of many other scourges, among which, perhaps, the most familiar will bo the measuring worms which devour elms and other trees. The natural enemies of grasshoppers are enumerated by the same writer as moles, mioe, hawks, and many smaller birds, black crickets, and tho long green grass hopper which is usually taken for a vegetarian. Of cultivated animals, swine and turkeys are held in high esti mation. The latter destroy thousands of the wingless young, while the former root out unerringly the packages of eggs which the female deposits an inch or so below the surface of the ground. Farm ers are advised to plow np in Autumn the clay and loam soils where dead fe males are found, and after searching for the eggs, if that be possible, to turn in swine and turkeys, and trust to the Win ter frosts to kill as many of the eggs as are overlooked. In late Spring, when the grasshoppers are half grown, it is customary in Southern Russia to use a kind of harrow, made of thorny bushes, to destroy the young insects, and some times a combination of a roller and harrow. Some have springs, so that the twigs or thorns fit into the inequalities of the ground. Ditches are also dug and swarms of unfledged grasshoppers driven into them and crushed. When the roller and machine are used the practioe is to drive it in a narrowing circle, so that the escaping fry are gradually confined to the centre, and more certainly crushed. Fires and driv ing of the insects, whether fledged or unfledged, are not considered of any lasting benefit, wherever they occur in extraordinary numberfs. The two favoring causes, then, are vast amounts of congenial food and lack of hereditary enemies. Tbe former is, of course, unalterable while population in creases or remains as it is; the latter want is one of the clearest acts of retri bution which human beings are able to bring down upon themselves. The slaughter of birds which goes on all the while in the West is tbe direct cause of insect plagues, for it is well known that there is RO agent so destructive of in sects as a bird with young. The de struction of prairie chickens is practical ly unlimited, and does not cease during brooding months; like the buffalo, the prairie chicken has only a certain num ber of years of existence before it be comes, to all intents and purposes, ex tinct. ' Bqt it is not only edible birds like the prairie chicken which suffer. There are thousands of inpp and boys issuing eat every day to slaughter everything in the feathered line which comes in their way, from tfeh useful, in sect-devouring crow to the tiniest wren. This is a proper question for Orange era to take up, in how far birds should b* protected by effective laws for the sake of thev aid in suppressing insects. Nothing could be #ore appropriate for associations of that sort, a#d nothing is of saore serious interest to farming pop ulation*. On purely business princi ples, the logic would be on tbe side of the birds, even if a certain amount of grain were necessary to be set aside for them and for two Reasons. One is tha* if birds increase unduly, they ijsn be made available for food at certain fwSfT™" 15 . if that be necessary, while grasshopper* £an not; the other is, that since maßf grasshoppers go to the maintenance of one bird, it W to capture one bird than many grasshop pers. Thus birds save grain, are them selves available food, and save labor, while for the grasshoppers nothing can be said. It is true that Jons the Bap tist consumed them with wild honey in the desert, but Mnfortunately we are not John the Baptist. The fact is that the grasshoppers feast upon ns. Thebe was a strange panic at Jerusa lem on ther-Mseeasioo of Murad Y. to the Turkish throne. The issue of cartrid ges by the Chief of Police to fcis men to be fired in celebrating the accession of the new Saltan, and the consequent ne cessity of sending most of the aaskets to the gunsmiths for repairs, gave rise tp.the report that a general massacre of Christians w to take place the next day after the midday .psycr. Christians and Jews Closed their shops anjl barricaded themselves in tbfi various convents and hospiees in the city. The streets were fall of families fleeing with their prop erty. Seeing this the Moslems took fright. They thought the Christians' there about to massacre them. So they closed their shops and hurried to pieces of safety. Soon the streets were desert ed. Everybody was waiting for the evil hoar. Then tbe authorities took the matter in hand, showed the people that there was no cause for their fright, and by degrees persuaded them to open their shops or go home. THE VOICE OF REFORM. OUR NEXT PRESIDENT'S LETTER OP ACCEPTANCE. New York, August 4.—-The following is Governor Tilden’s letter of accept ance: Albany, N. Y., July 31st, 1876. Gentlemen —When I had the honor to receive a personal delivery of your letter in behalf of the Democratic Na tional Convention held on the 28th of June at St. Lonis, advising me of my nomination as the candidate of the con stituency represented by that body for the office of President of the United States, I answered that at my earliest con venience, and in conformity with usage, I would prepare and transmit you a formal acceptance. I now avail myßelf of the first interval in unavoidable occu pations to fulfil that engagement. The Convention, before making its nomina tions, adopted a declaration of principles which as whole seems to me a wise expo sition of the necessities of onr country and the reforms needed to bring back the Government to its true functions, to restore purity of administration, and to revive the prosperity of the people. But some of these reforms are so urgent that they claim more than a passing approval. Reform in Public Expenses. The necessity of a reform in the scale of pnblic expense, Federal, State and Municipal, and the modes of Federal taxation, justifies all the prominence given to it by the St Louis Convention, The present de pression in all the business and indus tries of the people, what is depriving labor of its employment and carrying want iuto so many homes, has its prin cipal canse in excessive governmental consumption nnder an illusion of a spe cious prosperity, engendered by the false policies of the ’Federal Govern ment. A waste of capital has been go ing on ever since the peace of 1865, which could only end in univer sal disaster. The Federal taxes of the last eleven years reach the gigantic sum of forty-five hundred mil lions; local taxation has amounted to two-thirds and much more; the vast ag gregate is not less than seventy-five hundred millions. This enormous taxa tion followed a civil conflict that had greatly impaired onr aggregate wealth, and had made a prompt reduction of expenses indispensable. It was aggra vated by mos unscientific and ill ad justed methods of taxation that increas ed the sacrifices of the people far beyond the receipts of the Treasury. It was aggravated more by a financial policy which tended to diminish the ener gy, skill and economy of production and the frugality of private consump tion, and induced miscalculation in business, and an unremunerative use of capital and labor. Even in prosperous times the daily wants of industrious communities press closely upon their daily earnings. The margin of possible national savings is at best a small per eentage of national earnings; yet now for these eleven years governmental con sumiftion has been a larger portion of the national earnings than the whole people can possibly save, even in pros perous times, • for all new invest ments. The consequences of these errors are now a present public ca lamity, but they were never doubtful, never invisible. They were necessary and inevitable, and were foreseen and depicted when the waves of that ficti tious prosperity ran highest. In a speech made by me on the 24th of Sep tember, 1868, it was said of these taxes: “They bear heavily upon every man’s income, upon every industry and every business in the country, and year by year they are destined to press still more heavily unless we arrest the sys tem that gives rise to them.” It was comparatively easy when values were doubling under repeated issues of legal tender paper money to pay out of the froth of our growing and apparent wealth taxes, but when values re cede and sink toward their natural scale, the tax gatherer takes from us not only our income, not only our profits, but also a position of our capital. Ido not wish to exaggerate or alarm. I simply say that we canaot afford the costly and ruinous policy of the Radical majority of Congress; we cannot afford that policy towards the South; we cannot afford the magnificent and oppressive centralism into which our Government is being converted; we cannot afford the present magnificent scale of taxation. To the Secretary of the Treasury I said early in 1865, there is no royal road for a Government more than for an individual or a corporation. What you want to do now is to cut down your expenses and live within your in come. I would give all the legerdermain of finance and financiering, I would give the whole of it for the old homely maxim, “Live within your income.”— This reform will be resisted at every step, but it must be pressed persistently. We see to-day the immediate represent atives of the people in one branch of Congress, while struggling to reduce expenditures, compelled to confront the menace of the Senate and the Executive, that, unless the objectionable appropri ation be consented to, the operations of the Government there under shall suffer detriment or cease. In my judgment an amendment of the Constitution ought to be devised separating into distinct bills the appropriations for the various departments of the public service, and excluding from each bill all appropria tions for other objects and all independ ent legislation. In that way alone can the revisory power of each of the two Houses and of the Executive be pre served and exempted from the moral duress which often compels assent to objectionable appropriations rather than stop the wheels of Government. The South. An accessory cause, enhancing the distress in business, is to be found in the systematic and insupportable mis government imposed on the States of the South. Besides the ordinary effects of ignorant and dishonest admin istration, it has inflicted upon them enormous issues of fraudulent bonds, the scanty avails of which were wasted or stolen, and the existence of which is a public discredit, leading to bankrupt cy or repudiation. The taxes generally are oppressive; in some instances they have confiscated the entire income of property and totally destroyed its market value. It is impossible that these evils should not react upon the prosperity of the whole country.— The noble motives of humanity concur with the material interests of all in requiring that every obsta cle be removed to a oomplete and durable reconciliation between kindred people once unnaturally estranged on the basis recognized by the St. Louis plat form—of the Constitution of the United States with its amendments universally accepted as a final settlement of the controversies which engendered civil war. But in aid of a result so benifleont the moral influence of every citizen as well as every governmental authority ought to be exerted, not alone to maintain their just equality be fore the law, but likewise to establish cordial; fraternal good will among all citizens, whatever their race or color, who are now united in the one destiny of common self-gov ernment. If the duty shall be assigned to me I should not fail to exeroise the power with which the laws and the Con stitution of our country clothe its Chief Magistrate to protect all its citizens, whatever their former condition, in every political and personal right. Currency Reform. Reform is necessary, declares the St. Louis Convention, *o establish a sound cnrrency, restore the public credit and maintain the! national honor, and it goes on to demand a judicious system of Dreparation by public econo mies, by official retrenchments and by wise finance, which shall enable the na tion soon to assure the whole world of its perfect ability and perfect readiness to moot any of its promises at the call of the creditor entitled to payment. The objects demanded by ti)6 Convention is a resumption of specie piwments on the legal tender notes of the United States. That would o* only restore the public credit and maintain the National honor, bnt it wonld establish a sound currency for the people. The methods by which this object is to bepnrsned and the means by which it is to be obtained are dis closed by what the Convention deman ded for the future and by what it de nounced in the past. Bank Note Resumption. Resumption of specie payments by tbp Government of the Uni ted Stares on its legal tender notes, wonld establish specie payments by all the banks on all their not**. Official statements 011 the 15th of May show the amounts of the bank notes was $300,- 000,000, Isas SSO.?Q9,OOQ held by them selves. Against these pW9 hundred and eighty millions of notes the batiks held 8141,000,000 of legal tender notes, <jr a little more than 50 per cent, of the amount, but they also had a deposit is the Federal Treasury, as security for these notes, bonds of the United States worth in gold about $360,000,006, avail? able ana current in all the foreign money Markets. tn resuming the banks, even it were possible io* fill their notag to be presented for payment, wonld have $500,000,000 61 specie funds to pay $580,000,000 of notes,: without contracting their loans to their customers or calling op any private debtor for payment. Suspend ed banks undertaking to resume have usually boon obliged to collect from needy borrowers the means to redeem excessive issues and provide revenues. A vague idea of distress is therefore often associated with the process of po sumption, but the conditions which caused distress in these former instances do not exist. The Government has only to make good its promises and the banks ean take care of themselves without dis tressing anybody. The Government is, therefore, the sole delinquent. Leisl Tender Resamptioa. The amount of the legal tender notes of the United States now outstanding is less than 8370,000,000, besides $34,000,- 000 of fractional currency. How shall the Government make these notes at all times as good as specie ? It has to pro vide in reference to the mass which would be kept in use by the wants of business a central reservoir of coin, adequate to the adjustment of the tem porary fluctuations of international balances, and as a guaranty against transient drains artificially created by panic or by speculation. It has also to provide for payment of such fractional currency as may be presented for re demption and such inconsiderable por tions of the legal tenders as individuals from time to time may desire to con vert for special use or in order to lay by in coin their little stores of money. Resumption Not Difficult. To make the coin in the Treasury available for this reserve, to gradually strengthen and enlarge that reserve, and to provide for snch other exceptional demands for coin as may arise, does not seem to me to be a work of difficulty, if wisely planned aJd discretely pursued. It ought not to cost any sacrifine to the business of the country. It should tend, on the contrary, to a revival of hope and confidence. The coin in the Treasury on the 30th of June, including what is held against coin certificates, amounted to nearly $7,000,000. The current of precious metals which has flowed out of our oountry for eleven years from July 1, 1865, to Jnne 30, 1876—averaging near ly $76,000,000 a year—was $832,000,000 in the whole period, of which $617,000,- 000 were the product of our own mines. To amass the requisite quantities by in tercepting from the current flowing out from the country, and byacquiring from the stocks which exist abroad, without disturbing the equilibrium of foreign money markets, is a result to be easily marked out by practical knowledge and judgment. With respect to what ever surplus of legal tenders the wants of business may lail to keep in use, and which in order to save interest will be returned for redemption, they can be either paid or they can be funded. Wheth er they continue as currency or be ab sorbed into the vast mass of securities held as inyestments, is merely a question of the rate of interest they draw. Even if they were to remain in their present form and the Government were to agree to pay on them a rate of interest making them desirable as inyestments, they would cease to circulate and take their place with Government, State, munici pal and other corporate and private bonds, of which thousand of millions exist among us. In the perfect ease with which they can be changed from currency into investments lies the only danger to be guarded against. The adop tion of any general measures to remove a clearly ascertained surplus—that is, the withdrawal of any which are not a permanent excess beyond the rates of business. Even more mischievous would be any measure which effects the public imagination with the fear of an appre hended scarcity in a community where credit is so much used. Fluctuations of values and vicissitudes in business are largely caused by the temporary belief of men, even before those beleifs conform to ascertained realities. Amount of Necessary Currency. The amount of necessary currency at a given time cannot be determined arbitrarily, and should not be assumed upon conjecture. That amount is sub ject to both permanent and temporary changes, an enlargement of which seem ed to be durable happened at the begin ning of the civil war, by a substituted use of currency instead of individual credits. It varies with certain states of business. It fluctuates with considera ble regularity at different seasons of the year. In Autumn, for instance, when buyers of grain and other agricultural products begin their operations, they usually want to borrow capital or circu culating credits, by which to make their purchases, and want these funds in cur rency, capable of being distributed in small sums among numerous sellers— the additional of currency at which times is five or more per cent, of the whole volume, and if a surplus beyoud what procured for ordinary use does not happen to have been on hand at the money centres, a scarcity of currency ensues and also a stringency in the loan market. It is in reference to such experiences that in a discussion of this subject in my annual message to the New York Legislature, of January 5, 1875, the suggestion was made that the Federal Government is bound to redeem every portion of its issues which the public do not wish to use. Having as sumed to monopolize the supply of cur rency and enacted exclusions against everybody else, it is bound to furnish all which the wants of business require. The system should positively allow the volume of circulating credits to ebb or flow, according to the ever changing wants of business. It should imitate, as closely as possible, the natural laws of trade, which it has superseded by arti ficial contrivances; and in a similar dis cussion in my message of January 4, 1876, it was said that resumption should be effected by snch meas ures as would keep the ag gregate amount of the currency self adjusting duriDg all the process, with i out creating at any time an artificial scarcity and without exciting the public imagination with alarms which impair confidence, contract the whole large machinery of credit and disturb the natural operations of business. Means of Resumption. Public economies, official retrench ments and wise finance are the means which the St. Louis Convention indi cates as provision for reserves and re demptions, the best resources, a reduc tion of the expenses of tbe Government below its income, for that imposes no new ohange in the people. If, however, the imprudence and waste which have conducted us to a period of falling reve nues oblige us to supplement the re sults of economies and retrenchments by some resort to loans, we should not hesitate. The Governmet ought not to speculate on its own dishonor ih order to save interest on its bonds—promises which it still compels private dealers to accept at a fictitious par. The highest national honor is not only right, but would prove profitable. Of the public debt, $985,000,000 bear interest at 6 per cent, in gold and $72,000,000 at 5 per cent., in gold. Tbe average interest is 5.58 per cent. A financial policy which should secure the highest credit, wisely availed of, ought gradually to obtain. A reduction of one per cent, in the in terest on most of the loans, a saving of one per cent, on the average, would be $17,000,000 a year in gold. That saving regularly invested at 4J per cent, would, in less than thirty-eight years, extin guish the principal. The whole $170,- 000,000 of funded debt might be paid by this saving alone, without cost to the people. Proper Time for Resumption. The proper time for resumption is tbe time when wise preparations shall have ripened into a perfect ability to aecom plish the object with a certainty and ease that will inspire confidence and en courage the reviving of business. The earliest time in which such a result can be brought about is the best. Even when the preparations shall have been matured the exact date wonld have to be chosen with reference to the then exist ing state of trade and credit operations in our ov?n country, the course of foreign commerce and the condition of the ex changes with othei: nations. The specific measures and the actual date are matters of detail haying reference to ever chang ing conditions; they belong to the do main of practical adnjjnigtktive states manship. The captain of a steamer about starting from New York to Liver pool does not assemble a council oyer his ocean chart and fix an angle by which to lash the rudder for the whole voyage. A human intelligence must be at th: helm to discern tbe shifting forces of the waters and the wind; a human hand mast be helm to feel the elements day by day and guide $o a mastery over them. Preparing far Resumption. Such preparations are everything, without them a legislative command, fixing a day ; an official promise, fixing a day, are shows. They are worse—they are a snare and a deltfsion to all who trust them. They destroy all confi dence among thoughtful men, whose judgment will at least sway public opinion. An attempt to act in each a command or sapb a promise, without preparation, would end in new suspen sion ; it would be a fresh calamity, pro ductive of confusion, distrpst and dis tress The act of Congress of the Jith of dun#, J#7s, enacted that on and after the Ist of January, 1879, the Secretary of the T easury ahSh re deem in coin the legal tenders of tbe United States on presentation at the of fice of the Assistant Treasurer in the city of New York. It authorized the Secre tary to prepare and provide for such re sumption of specie payments by the use of -any surplus rpyegues ao^ . otherwise appropriated, and by isains ip Ins dis cretion certain classes of bonds. More than one and a half of the years have pipipj, Qongress and the President have continued ef?T WPOS to unite in acts which have legislated ant of existence every possible surplus ap plicable to this purpose. The coin in the Treasury claimed to belong to tjip Government had, on the 30th of Jnne, fallen to less than 845,000,000 as against $59,000,000 on the Ist of Janaary, 1875, and the availabily of a part of that sam is said to be questionable. The reve nues are falling faster than appropria tions and expenditures are reduc ing, leaving the Treasury with diminishing resources. The Secre tary has done nothing under his powers to issue bonds. The legislative committee and the official promise, fix ing a day for resumption, have thus far been barren. No practical preparations towards resumption have been made; there hgs been no progress; there have been steps backward; there is no econo my in the operations of Government. The homely maxims of everyday life are the best standards of its conduct. A debtor who should promise to pay a loan out of a surplus income, yet be seen every day spending all he could lay his hands on in riotous living, would lose all character for honesty and veraci ty. His offer of anew promise, or his profession as to the value of old prom ise, would alike provoke derision. Resumption Plank of the St. Louis Platform. The St. Louis platform denounces the failure for eleven years to make good the promise of legal tender notes. It denounces the omission to accumulate any reserve for their redemption; it de nounces the conduct which, during elev en years of peace, his made no advances towards resumption; no preparations for resumption, but instead of, has ob structed resumption by wasting our re sources and exhausting ail our surplus income, and while professing to intend a speedy return to specie payments has annually enacted fresh hindrances there to, and having first denounced the bar renness of the promise of a day of re sumption it next nenounces that barren promise as a hindrance to resumption; it next demands its repeal and also demands the establishment of a judicious system of preparation for resumption. It cannot be doubted that the substitution of a system of preparation without the prom ise of a day for the worthless promise of a day without a system of preparation, would be the gain of the substance of resumption in exchange for its shadow. Nor is the denunciation unmerited of that imprudence which the eleven years since the peace has consumed $450,- 000,000, and yet could not af ford to give the people a sound and stable currency. Two and a half per cent, in the expenditures of these eleven years or even less would have provided all the additional coin needful to resumption, relieved to business dis tress, the distress now feit by the peo ple in all their business and industries. Though it has its principal cause in the enormous waste of capital occasioned by the false policies of our Government, it has been greatly aggravated by the mismanagement of the currency.— Uncertainty is the prolific point of mischief in all business. Never were its evils more felt than now. Men do nothing because they are unable to make any calculations on which they can safely rely. They undertake noth ing, because they fear a loss in every thing they would attempt,. They stop and wait. The merchant dares not buy for the future consumptioniof his cus tomers; the manufactuierdares not make fabrics which may not refund his out lay—he shuts his factory and dis charges his workmen; capitalists can nit lend on security they consider safe, and their funds lie almost without interest; men of enterprise, who have credit and securities to pledge, will not borrow; consumption has fallen below the natural limits of a reasonable economy; prices of many things are under their range in frugal, specie payment time, before the civil war; vast masses of cur rency lie in the banks untouched. A year and a half ago the legal tenders were at their largest volume and the twelve million since retired have been replaced by fresh issues of fifteen millions of bank notes. In the meantime the banks have been surrendering about four millions a month because they cannot find a profit able use for so many of their notes. The public mind will no longer accept sham. It has suffered enough from illusion. An insincere policy increases distrust; an unstable policy increases uncertain ty. The people need to know that the Government is moving in the direction of ultimate safety and prosperity and that it is doing so through prudent, safe and conservative methods, which will be sure to inflict no new sacrifice on the business of the country. Then the inspiration of new hope and well fonnded confidence will lave in the restoring processes of nature and prosperity will begin to return. The St. Louis Contention concludes its expression in regard to the currency by a declaration of its convictions as to the practical results of the system of preparations it demands. It says : “We believe such a system, well devised aud above all entrusted to competent hands for execution, creating at no time an ar tificial scarcity of currency and at no time alarming the public mind, into a withdrawal of that vaster ma chinery, credit, by which ninety-five per cent, of all business transactions are performed—a system open, public and inspiring general confidence—would, from the day of its adoption, bring heal ing on its wings to all onr barrassed in dustries; set in motion the wheels of commerce, manufactures and the me chanic arts; restore employment to la bor and renew in all its natural souroes the prosperity of the people.” The Government of the United States, in my opinion, can advance to a resumption of specie payment on its legal tender notes by gradual aud safe processes, tending to relieve the present business distress. If charged by the people with the ad ministration of the Executive Office, I should deem it a duty so to exercise the powers with which it has been or may be invested by Congress as best and soonest to conduct the country to that beneficent result. Civil Service Reform. The Convention justly affirms that re form is necessary in the civil service— necessary to its purification; necessary to its economy and its efficiency, neces sary in order that the ordinary employ ment of the public business may not be a prize fought for at the ballot box, a brief reward of party zeal instead of posts of honor, assigned for proved competency and held for fidelity in the public employ. The Convention wisely added that reform is necessary even more in the higher grades of the pnblic service. President, Vice-President, Judges, Senators, Representatives, Cabi net officers—these and all others in au thority, are the people’s servants. Their offices are not a private perquisite they are a public trust. Two evils infest the official service of Federal Government—one is the prevalent and demoralizing notion that the public service exists not for the business and benefit of the whole people, but for the interest of the office holders, who are in truth but the servants of the people. Under the influence of this pernicious error public employments have been multiplied. The numbers of those gath ered into the ranks of office holders have been steadily increased beyond any possible requirement of the public bus iness, while inefficiency, peculation frand and malversation of the public funds,from the highest places of power to the lowest, have overspread the whole service like a leprosy. The other evil is the organization of the official class into a body of political mercenaries, gov erning the caucuses and dictating the nominations of their own party and at tempting to carry the elections of the people by nndue influence and by im mense corruption funds, systematically collected from the salaries or fees of office holders. The official class in oth er countries, sometimes by its own weight and sometimes in alliance with the army, has been able to rule the unorganized masses, even un der universal suffrage. He>e it has already grown into a gigantic power, capable of stiffling the inspirations of a sound public opiniop and oi resisting any change of administra’iop qntil mi - government becomes intolerable and public spirit has beep stung to the pitch. A Civic Revolution, The first step in reform is the eleva tion of the standard by which the ap pointing power selects its agents to exe cute official trusts. Next in importance is a concientious fidelity in the exercise of the authority to hold to account and displace untrustworthy or incapable subordinates. The public interest in an honest, skillful performance of official trust mast not be sacrificed to the usufruct of the incumbents. After these immediate steps, which will en sure the exhibition of better examples, we may wisely go on to the abolition of unnecessary offices and finally to the patient, careful organization of a better civil seryice system under the tests, wherever practicable, of proved com petency and fidelity. While much may be accomplished by these ruetfiods, it might encourage delusive expectations if withheld here—the expression of my conviction that no reform of the civil service in this conntrv will be complete and permanent until it# Chief Magistrate is constitutionally disqualified for re election, experience h&?}ng repeatedly exposed the futility of self-imposed re strictions by candidates or incumbents. Through this solemnity only can he be effectually delivered from his greatest temptation to misuse the power and pat ronage with which the Executive is ne cessarity charged, Educated in the belief that it is the first duty of a citizen of the Republic to take his fair allotment of care and trou ble in public affairs, have for forty years, a# a private citizen, fulfilled that duty though occupied in an unusual degree during all that period with the cencerns of government, I have acquired the habit of official life. When a year and a half ago, 1 entered upon my present trust it was in order to consummate re forms to which I had already devo ted several of the best years of my life. Knowing, as I do, there fore, from fresh experience, how great the difference between gliding through an official routine and working ont a re form of systems and policies, it is im possible for me to contemplate what needs to be done in the Federal admin istration withont an anxious sense of the difficulties of the undertaking. If summoned by the suffrages of my coun trymen to attempt this work, I shall en deavor, with God’s help, to be the effi cient instrument of their will. [Signed] Samuei, J. Teuden. To Gen. John A. McClernand, Chair man ; Gen. W. B. Franklin, Hon. J. J. Abbott, Hon. H. J. Shannhorst, Hon. H. J. Redfield, Hon. I'. S. Lyon and others, Committee, &o. THE STATE CONVENTION. SPEECHES OF HON. CLIFFORD AN DERSON AND GEN. COLQUITT. [Constitution's Report .] Remarks of Hon. Clifford Anderson. Gentlemen of the Convention : I have never been placed in any posi tion, the duties of whieh I had conclud ed to endeavor to perform, in which I felt more diffidence and embarrassment than in this. The position is one to which I did not expect to be assigned, and it is one which I did not desire, because I believed there were other gen tlemen who are delegates to this Con vention who conld discharge its duties more acceptably than myself. I have great distrust of my abilities to meet the demands which are put upon me as presiding officer of this Convention, for although I have been connected with deliberative bodies in past years I do not claim to be a parliamentarian. I can promise to endeavor to discharge the duties faithfully and impartially, and I shall rely upon your aid to accomplish the objects had in view in placing me in this position. I thank yon for the com pliment and honor of being called upon to preside over this Convention of the representative men of the grand old SState of Georgia. Taken com pletely by surprise, I hive no set speech with which to address you, but you will pardon me for suggesting that the circumstances in which we are placed impose great responsibilities upon those who compose this Convention of the Democratic party of Georgia. Wo are just emerging from the gloom that was cast over the destinies of this great State by the carpet-bag rule under which we suffered for so many years after the close of the late civil war. We are just beginning to experience the prints of a wise administration of the State government. We are just begin ning to feel that the future of Georgia is in hauds of patriots aud friends—of men of intelligence and character—of men worthy of the respect and admi ration of our people. But not yet has the Government of this great country been rescued from those who would bring it to destruction, for although there is a majority of those who repre sent the great patriotic ideas of the age in the Lower House of Congress, the Executive Chair and the Upper House are still in the hands of those who do not appreciate or realize the dangers or duties of the hour. We have need of wisdom and patriot ism to accomplish the great ends of Government for this people. The mis sion of the Demooratio party is not ouly to preserve what we have accomplished in Georgia and keep the State govern ment in the hands of the friends of Georgia and who, by their intelligence and character are entitled to the confi dence of the people, but to rescue from the hands of those who sit in power at Washington the control of this great nation, and to-day we are just entering upon a great campaign which is not only to determine the future of Georgia, but of this great country—whether those who have misruled for so many years shall continue to do so for the years to come, or whether in their place men shall be installed who shall reflect the patriotic sentiment of the country, North and South, and restore the Gov ernment to the purity of the early days of the Republic. Gentlemen, upon your deliberations to-day depend milch. I know we can look with perfect confidence to the suc cess of the candidate you present for Governor. But your deliberations re late not only to who shall be Chief Mag istrate of Georgia lor four years after the present incumbent retires, but they will have an influence upon the result which shall be had next November and which will determine whether the men who are now in power and have oppress ed us, and who by their corruptions have dealt unjustly with ail classes and sections and thus disgraced the Govern ment, shall remain injpower, or in their places shall be called the representatives of reform and the grand patriotism of the age—men who will stand forth be fore ttie country and the world as the exponents of those great principles which once were the admiration of the people of this country and devotion to the rights of the people under the Con stitution. I say, then, your duties are of a responsible character. I know that you have come up here with an earnest desire to faithfully discharge those du ties. Let there be harmony and let no bad feeling linger in any breast when the deliberations of the Convention are closed. Whoever is selected, let him receive the cordial support of every man in this Convention and of those re presented by them, and let him be borne into the Gubernatorial office amid the plaudits of the people of Georgia, who have so much at stake in this great con test. And let us so deliberate and so act as to promote the success of those men presented to us by the National Democratic party for President and Vice-President of the United States.— Let us contribute to their success aud rescue the Government from the hands of those who would despoil and ruin it; let us drive out the thieves and the money-changers, and establish upon a firm basis the principles of constitution al liberty which our fathers fought for and maintained in the earlier days of the Republic. This grand duty is yours here to-day. Will you be equal to it ? Will you sacrifice all prejudices and mi nor considerations and come grandly and unitedly to the duties of this hour aud upon which our future depends.— Let us do this and then go home aroused with feelings of patriotism to achieve the grand destiny before us. Let us so act as to assist the working out of that great destiny for both btate and Nation which will be worthy of the renown and glory of the fathers of the Republic. [Cheers interrupted the speaker at the conclusion of almost every sentiment and greeted him as ho finished in rous ing notes of approval.] Gen. Remarks. Mr. President and Fellow-Democrats: I thank you most heartily for the kind ness and the unanimity of support which has been shown me and which so far exceeds any confidence that I may have in my own worth and merits and places me under such a weight of obli gation that I shall not even attempt to express my appreciation of it. Surely no man ever had greater reason for thanks and gratitude, and it is due to myself and to yon to say that while I live I shall remember with the pro foundest feelings of gratitude the dis play of favor which you have made to me to-day. And if I shall be called by the voice of the people to official station the recollection of it will be an incen tive to do my utmost to subserve the interests of the State and advance the happiness and prosperity of the people. [Applause. ] I feel the compliment all the more in the light of warmly championed candi dacy of other distinguished fellow-citi zeus—their merits, abilities and patri otism, their capabiliiies for the exalted office, for which they were pressed by their friends. I warmly unite in endors ing, and I accept the preference which yon to-day have made in no vain conceit that it is in any sense a tribute to supe rior excellence. [Applause.] I accept, gentlemen, the standard which you to day have placed in my hands and I trust that it will be so borne daring the canvass as to lead to victory, and, if vic tory is aohieved, that inits results neith er you nor yonr too partial constituency shall have any reason to be ashamed of your standard bearer. [Cheers.] But I know yon too well not to be fully aware of the fact that you will expect of me, if elected, the exhibition of my ap preciation in the acts of an administra tion rather than in any words that I might speak here to-day. [Applause.] We are entering upon a campaign in which there are involved interests of stupendous magnitude. Upon oar side we are contending for peace, fraternity, economy, honesty in office and freedom from the clap-trap of bought political power, the elevation of the Government from menial hsnfis of those in which there wifi be found an illustration of the purity and high character of the men iyfio founded our institutions and im posed Upon 48 tfie responsibility of their perpetuity. We are confronted by a great party which practically, if not avowedly says it is for sectional hate and agitation; that it will deny to one-third oi the people of these States the bless ings of a Union based upon free thought and political equality ; who think the offices of this Governmeht are party chattels*to be filled with officer-holders who, but for their position, wonld be dependent npon the charities of the world. [Applause. J| - ' Since the war we have sought peace and through all onr trials and the Pro tean hues and shapes of reconstruction ye have meant peace, and the recorded facts of our history prove it. On the hostings, in the pulpit, iu the columns of the press aud from the bench lessons of charity, good will and harmony to all classes of our fellow-citizens have been t night and inculcated with a sincere purpose. [Loud cheers.] But I shall not detain you to-day, gentlemen, with an elaborate speech upon the great na tional issues. We have illustrated in the administration of the State of Geor gia since it was committed to the Demo cratic party that no one of the rights or privileges of any good citizen of the country has been denied to him who bad a right to claim them. [Cheers.] In illustrating this I might refer to the present able aDd admirable administra tion. [Applause.] And in the same line to whioh I have made reference, it will be the duty of that officer who shall be called to preside as his successor to continne. [Cheers.] Gentlemen, without going any further and without any premeditation, allow me to say that while I receive your stan dard with great diffidence, distrustful of my own powers, yet strong in the purity of my intentions, 1 believe that, with your earnest co-operation, we will vital ize the Democratic party and give a gov ernment to the country which will en courage industry, unite a divided peo ple, aud be a token of peace, harmony and happiness, under the providence of God, at the coming of which we might bow down in humble tbanksgiviugs. [Applause.] I thank you, gentlemen, for your great kindness. [Prolougad applause. ] REAL STATE OF THE CROPS. A GOOD AVERAGE CENTENNIAL HARVEST. A Survey of the Agricultural Situation in tlie Northern States—Where Farmers lluve Prepared aud W here They Have Not. There is no better way to forecast bus iness prospects than by ascertaining the agricultural prospects of the year. It is now definitely known that the wheat crop of California is uncommonly large, and the yield is estimated at a trifle over 30,000,000 bushels. Undoubtedly Cali fornia takes the lead as a wheat produc ing State. Indeed, it is far in advance of all other States except Minnesota, which follows close. When California first came into our possession it was generally believed to be worthless for agricultural purposes, except in its val leys where irrigation could he practiced, but it has been gradually determined that the annual rain fall of eighteen inches, coming early in Winter and de creasing as Spring advances, is sufficient to mature wheat, and that wherever the soil is capable of being plowed this grain can be grown all over the whole face of the country. This, however, does not apply to the southern portion of the State, and it is to be added that there are exceptional dry years coming once in from five to eight. The general condition of the California wheat crop is this: it matures early without mois ture; after being cut it remains in the fields for months without receiving the least injury, for not a drop of rain falls. The only drawback is, it beoomes ex ceedingly hard, and in grinding at the home mills a quart of water is added to every bushel, otherwise the bran would not separate from the flour. Eugiand takes the largest part of Cali fornia’s surplus, and uses it to raise the grade of dark and injured wheat. Australia takes several million bushels, and the Sandwich and Philippine Islands draw their supplies thence. If the con dition of the laboring people of China and India could be elevated by an in crease of day wages the Asiatic demand for California flour would become im mense. So also would be the demand for more of our staple provisions. There is every evidence that California is en joying great prosperity. The Far West. Nevada scarcely raises her head ag riculturally, depending as she does on California for most of her supplies. Idaho and Montana raise an abundance of wheat, also all kinds of vegetables, but ouly by irrigation, a condition com mon to the whole great interior, from the Sierra Nevadas to the 100th meri dian, which runs 200 miles west of the Missouri and 400 miles east of the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Within a few years Arizona has made rapid progress iu agricultural develop ment. Irrigating canals have been taken from the several streams, especially from the Gi'la, and first class flouring mills have been built. A good market is found at the military posts. Arizona is about as remote as Alaska, since the only route to the East is by way of San Francisco. For the most part the cli mate is hot; fruits of all kinds thrive wonderfully, and peaches are better than in any other part of the United States. Much of the country is unex plored, but it is known that there are vast forests, and thousands of valleys watered by beautiful streams, many of which disappear in the sand. Utah has large crops of wheat and other grain, but probably no surplus, since the many silver mines require heavy supplies. No grasshoppers have appeared this year, and according to the usual course they will not increase sufficiently to do damage within five or six years. The Mormon people seem to be highly prosperous so far as worldly matters are concerned. Little progress is reported from New Mexico. No greater breadth is under cultivation than 150 years ago, and the system of culture there is the same as that which now prevails among the Moors in Northern Africa. The chief interest is of a pastural nature, flocks of sheep covering the elevated plateaus, and the number owned by one man ranges from 50,000 to 200,000 head. The owners of these flocks belong to the aristocracy. Usually, when young men, they finish their education by serving several years in commercial or banking houses in New York city. The Heart of tlie Continent. Colorado, the new State, has a better prospect for wheat and corn than ever before, and there will be a decided sur plus of wheat, which hitherto has found a ready market in Atlantic cities in the form of flour, on account of its superior quality. Here, as elsewhere in the inte rior, the rainfall is so slight, being an nually only twelve inches, against fifty fonr in New York, that nothing can be grown without artificial irrigation. The heavy masses of snow in the mountains furnish an abundance of water, filling all the streams during the Summer months, and the .rsnpply is conducted over the fields in thousands of rivulets, as on the farms of the valley of the Po in Northern Italy. Within a few years irrigating works have been constructed on a most extensive scale by immigrants from the States, and towns and cities have arisen, fome of them almost hid den by the groves of forest trees. Schools, churches, mills, railroads, and all the evidences of civilization are pre sented, and the mines of silver and gold, now yielding seven mil ions of dollars a year, gives activity to all the industries. In the Arkansas Valley are several apple orchards that will yield thisseason 1,000 bnshels each. Hitherto fruit trees have been largely Winter killed, but the prac tice of growing trees from the seed se cures success, provided the hardest va rieties are selected. Settlements are pushing up the Mis souri in Dakota, and large breadths of wheat of excellent quality are grown. Oats aDd barley are favorite crops, but only the small, quickly-growing sorts of corn mature. In June, Minnesota people estimated that they would have 30,000,000 bushels of wheat, but adverse conditions have reduced the yield to 24,000,000. Al though of the Spring variety the quality is good owing to the locality being in the neighborhood of the 100th meridian, the line of aridity, not long ago most dealers refused to submit to having their wheat graded by the Chicago standard, since, as was alleged, it was used to mix with the inferior Spring wheat of other parts of the Northwest. A heavy percentage of Minnesota wheat is manufactured into fionr at home, in mills that have no superiors, perhaps no eqnals in the world. Fruit culture is rapidly advancing in this State by the planting of hardy sorts, and three trees of anew variety, grown fiom the seed, sold last year for 82,000 each. By all accounts Wisconsin has re markably good crops this year. Indeed, the people are rejoicing that their fields promise so abundantly. The reports from Michigan are encouraging, though unfavorable causes have operated. Their apple crop is likely to be an average one. The Rhode Island greenings of Michigan are the best grown in the ccnntry, and some other kinds are high ly esteemed. Some of tfie Miohigan packers are doing great damage by mix ing in inferior fruit. The New En*lapd and Middle Slates. On the whole, New York may be said to have average crops. For the most part the farming is good, and the fer tility of tfie soil is tolerably well sus tained, especially in the shale and lime stone regions. There are more intelli gent and thrifty farmers in New York, with a proper appreciation of their du ties and opportunities, than in any other State. Of all the New England States the best accounts come from Vermont. The limited amonnt of land, comparatively speaking, which each has in cultivation admits of thorough work. Their mea dows and their grass lands are probably unexcelled. Complaint is constantly made that the hill towns of Massaohu setts annually lose in population, and the reason undoubtedly lies in the di minished fertility of the soil. Farms on the border of the Connecticut valley have been depleted to furnish manure for the tobacco fields, which in one way or another contiuue to Vie profitable.— Broom corn has almost ceased to be cul tivated, though formerly it was an im portant crop, although raised cheaper iu Illinois ; and now Illinois suffers in like manner because Nebraska and Kansas can raise it cheaper still. Next to Ver mont, Connecticut farming has most im proved, and many of the farms are high ly attractive. New Jersey, Maryland aDd Delaware are having a favorable season, and the wheat and grass crops were fully up to the average. Corn looks tolerably well. The short fruit crop, especially of peaches, will be of great advantage to tbose who have half crops. That part of Pennsylvania east of the mountains had a fine harvest, and the corn prospects are hopeful. Only about five per cent, of the whole region is poorly farmed. The apple crop is de cidedly short, but the quality may be superior. Iu places, plums are grown, aud the curculio seems to bo resting. The soil of Eastern E ennsylvania is un excelled, as its basis is iimestoDe. The western district has a basis of shale, and these advantages alone are sufficient to make the Commonwealth rich. The Great Corn Belt. A large part of the Northern States is now to be considered by itself, for the reason that it has been visited by a com mon calamity. The region embraces much of Western Pennsylvania, most of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and the eastern parts of Kansas and Nebras ka; and it includes the great corn belt of the United States, where is grown the surplus of corn that enters into the mar kets of the wo; Id either in the form of grain or of provisions, viz : pork, beef, lard and butter. On no other part of the earth’s surface can so much corn to the area be produced, and in no other part is the quality so good. It is to be added that intensity of production is limited to a region not much larger than the State of Illinois, equal to about 120 average counties, and that the corn pro ducing counties lie, a few in Ohio and Indiana, perhaps five in each, in the whole of central Illinois, in southern lowa, eastern Kansas, and Nebraska, ami in the river counties of Missouri. It is from these counties that the actual commercial surplus comes. Elsewhere the supply is absorbed'by the local de mand. A commercial corn crop must be planted from the 15th to the 22d of May, or it will be a failure, because the field is so large that, if planted later, there will not be time to work it. As soon as the corn appears, teams, barrows, or other implements are ready to stir the ground and kill the weeds, and not a day, not an hour is suffered to pass un improved. The whole business is re duced to a complete system and may al most be called a science, aud, except as to some slight differences, as to check planting or drilling aud in the use of implements, all the farmers agree on common methods, and the work progres ses with the promptness and certainty of a huge piece of machinery. In uni formity, in vastness of extent, in capital invested, and in geueral successful re sults, no other example of rural com mercial industry in he world is at all comparable to the corn growing in this great corn belt. The three great cities, Cincinnati, Chicago aDd St. Louis, which stand at the outer angles of this region, have been built up aud are sustained by this wonderful grain. A Wholesale Calamity. Well, the corn crop for 1876 was planted in 1 due season, though under a great disadvantage, for the ground was cloddy and hard, aud many teams were broken down, so terribly heavy and ur gent was tlie work; but it was all in, and the triumphant farmer waited for a little season. The story is soon told. Rains fell continually, and on low, level ground it was impossible to work the corn, and now, to-day, the mournful observer traveling through from beyond the Missouri almost to the Alleghanies, sees thousands upon thousands of fields where the corn, never yet touched since the day of planting, is from six to twelve inches high, yellow, standing in water. No work, do possible favorable condition, can make it, worth fifty cents an acre* On rolling, high, quickly drained land, the corn looks well, and the estimate is—perhaps it is high— that there will be half a crop. There were twelve days during June when an incredible amount of rain fell in Central Illinois, stated to have been 43,500 cu bic feet to the acre, or an amount equal to twelve inches on a level. As there was no discharge over so vast an area of prairie, there could be only one result. Meanwhile there is a large stock of hogs raised since the scarcity of two years ago, and plenty of cattle, all looking well at present. How they are to be fattened is a question. But there is one hopeful view, so far as the whole region is concerned, to the effect that the corn crop of last, year was the largest ever grown, and heavy lots are on hand in Central Illinois, estimated to be 50,000,- 000 of bushels, which will largely in crease this year’s half crop. It is manifest that while the rain was falling wheat,, oats, barley, and rye must have suffered, aud that therefore there is shortage so far as these products are concerned. Certainly the wheat crop must be short, and yet only a few days since wheat fell nearly 15 cents a bushel. Tlie reason for this wonderful - decline is alleged to be the deficiency of suitable storage iu New York city and the dam age wheat is suffering by the hot weath er, aud on account, of the low condition in which it was harvested last year.— There are said to be 4,000,000 bushels in New York aud scarcely 2,000,000 in Chicago, all below good grade, and now comes a low grade from much of this year’s crop. There is a pretty large wheat-prodno ing region not yet mentioned. Com mencing on u line 100 miles west of' Kansas City, we have a country 150 miles wide where th'e rains were timely and where an immense breadth of most excellent wheat was grown, whioh is now mostly threshed. This includes all of Western Kansas and Nebraska; and be sides, favorable weather prevailed in three-fourths of lowa, where not only wheat, but corn, oats, and all vegetables are good and abundant. Thus, while the dosses by wet weather have been enormous, a vast amount has still been saved, and the wealth of the country is materially increased. PRIM ATI VE WARFARE. Interesting Proposition by a Montcngran to a Wounded Russian Officer. [From the London Daily A'ews.] The Montenegran method of making war is very primitive. A Russian officer, who visited their country, and studied it, tells us tfiat a Montenegran never sues for mercy; and whenever one of them is severely wounded, and it is impos sible to save him from the enemy, his own comrades cut off his herd. When at the attack of Clobuck, a small detach ment of Russian troopS was obliged to retreat, an officer of stoat make, and no longer young, fell on the ground from exhaustion. A Montenegran, perceiving it ran immediately to him, and, having drawn his paragan, said, “You are very brave, and must wish that I should cut off your head. Say a prayer, and make a sign of the cross.” The officer, horri fied at the proposition, madd an effort to rise, and rejoin his comrades with the assistance of the friendly Montenegran. They considered all those who have been taken by the enemy as killed. They carry out of the battle their wound ed comrades on their shoulders. Arms, a small loaf of bread, a cheese, some garlic, a little brandy, an old garment, aud two pair of sandals made of raw hide, form all the equipage of the Mon lenegrans. On their march they do not sesk any shelter from rain and cold. In rainy weather the Montenegran wraps around his head the strooka (a shawl of course cloth), lies down on the ground and, putting his rifle under him, sleeps very comfortable. Three or four hoars of repose are quite sufficient for his rest and the remainder of his time is occu pied in oonstaut exertion. It is impossi ble to retain them in the reserve, and it seems that they cannot calmly bear the view of the enemy. The tactics of the Montenegrans are confined to being skillful marksmen. A stone, a hole, a tree offer them a cover from the enemy. Firing usually in a prostrate position on the ground, they are not easilyy hit, while their rapid and sure shots carry destruction into the closed ranks of a regular army. They have besides a well practiced eye for judging of distance, and thoroughly understanding how to take advantage of the ground. Of oourse it will always be difficult to employ such warriors against regular troops. WASHINGTON NOTES. Washington, August s.— The Senate has up resolutions to print 10,000 copies of the message of the President and accompanying documents on the recent trouble at Hamburg, S. C. The posi tion of Gibson and Wike was wrongly stated in the proceedings of the Bank ing and Currency Committee yesterday. On the motion in the committee direct ing the chairman to report a bill repeal ing the time fixed for the resumption of specie payments, Mr. Gibson voted “No” and Mr. Wike voted “Aye.” The amendment proposed by the Senate Military Committee to the House bill for protection of the Rio Grande border is verbal, making its provisions manda tory.
