-The governor is elected for two years, and | receives an annual salary of $4,000. He must be 30 years of age and a citizen of the state for seven years next preceding his election. He is not eligible for more than six years in any period of eight. In case of the removal of the governor from office, or of his death or resignation, the executive functions devolve upon the speaker elected by the senate. The secretary of state is elected for four years by joint vote of the general assembly, and receives a salary of $1,800 a year and perquisites. A bill may be passed over the executive veto by a majority vote of each house. The state treasurer and comptroller are appointed by the general assembly for two years. The constitution provides that the number of representatives in the legislature shall not exceed 75 until the population of the state shall be 1,500,000, and shall never exceed 99. The number of senators is limited to one third of the number of representatives. There are now (1876) 25 senators and 75 representatives. The sessions of the legislature are biennial, beginning on the first Monday of January in odd years. Senators and representatives receive $4 a day and $4 for every 25 miles travel to and from the capital. No member will be paid for more than 75 days of a regular session, or for more than 20 days of an extra session, or for any days when absent from his seat. The judicial power is vested in a supreme court and chancery, circuit, county, and justices' courts. The supreme court consists of a chief justice and five asso

Nashville...

Knoxville. Chattanooga

ciates, who are elected by the people for eight years, and receive a salary of $4,000 each. Its jurisdiction is appellate only. Terms are held annually in Knoxville, Nashville, and Jackson. The attorney general and reporter for the state is appointed by the judges of the supreme court. Judges of the circuit and chancery courts are elected by the people for eight years. Two terms of the chancery court are held in each county annually. They have all the powers and jurisdiction incident to a court of equity, and exclusive jurisdiction of all equity cases where the amount in controversy exceeds $50. They have jurisdiction with the county courts over the person and property of persons of unsound mind, and of infants. Three terms of the circuit court are annually held in each county. Concurrently with justices of the peace they have jurisdiction of all debts and demands on contract over $50, and exclusive jurisdiction of matters relating to the validity of wills; also appellate jurisdiction of all suits brought before inferior tribunals. Each county has a court consisting of the justices of the county, which has jurisdiction of probate matters. Justices of the peace are elected by the people for six years, and constables for two years. Judges may be removed from office by a two-thirds vote of the legislature. They are prohibited from charging juries with respect to matters of fact, but may state the testimony and declare the law. Fines exceeding $50 on any citizen must be assessed by a jury. The right

of suffrage is given to every male person of the age of 21 years who is a citizen of the United States and a resident of Tennessee for one year, and of the county where he offers to vote for six months. There is no other qualification except the payment of a poll tax of not less than 50 cents nor more than $1 a year. In 1867 the state gave to negroes the right to vote. Elections for governor and members of the general assembly are held biennially in even years, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November; for judicial and other civil officers, on the first Thursday in August. Ministers of the gospel and priests are ineligible as members of the legislature. No person who denies the being of God or a future state of rewards and punishments can hold any civil office. Any person who has engaged in a duel or preparations for a duel, either as principal or second, is disqualified from holding any office of honor or profit, besides being subject to punishment by law. Amendments to the constitution may be proposed in either branch of the general assembly; before taking effect they must be approved by a majority of the members elected to each house of the general assembly when first proposed, by two thirds of the next legislature, and subsequently by a popular vote. The grounds of divorce are: impotence, adultery, desertion for two years, conviction of an infamous crime or of felony, malicious attempt upon the life of the wife, pregnancy by another man at the time of marriage without the husband's knowledge, cruelty, indignities by the husband forcing the wife to separation, abandonment of the wife or turning her out of doors, and refusal to provide for her. The legal rate of interest is 6 per cent., but any rate not exceeding 10 per cent. may be contracted for in writing; if more than 10 per cent. is agreed upon, only 6 per cent. can be collected. Usury is punishable by a fine of not less than $100. Tennessee is represented in congress by 10 representatives and 2 senators, and has therefore 12 votes in the electoral college.-On Dec. 19, 1874, the bonded debt of the state was $22,908,400, which was largely contracted by the indorsement of railroad bonds. The assets of the state on bond account amounted to $3,817,896. The state revenue during 1873 and 1874, not including bonds or coupons paid by railroad companies, amounted to $3,618,703, and the disbursements to $3,290,158. According to the federal census, the true value of property was $201,246,686 in 1850, $493,903,892 in 1860, and $498,237,724 in 1870. The assessed value of all taxable property, as reported by the state authorities, was $308,089,738 in 1873 and $289,533,656 in 1874. The amount of state tax levied in 1873 was: East Tennessee, $254,200; Middle, $542,686; West, $435,472; total, $1,232,358. In 1874 it was: East Tennessee, $192,913; Middle, $401,563; West, $410,190; total, $1,005,066. The total valuation of taxable property in 1872 was $265,874,258; taxation, $1,090,694. The

constitution provides that all property shall be taxed according to its value, so that the taxes shall be equal and uniform throughout the state, and that no species of property shall be taxed higher than any other of the same value. But the legislature is empowered to except from taxation property held by the state, counties, cities, or towns, and used exclusively for public or corporation purposes, and such as may be held and used for purposes purely religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational. In 1875 the comptroller reported that no railroad company had ever paid any taxes to the state; and that no corporations, excepting insurance companies and a few banks, had paid the taxes levied by law. The state prison is in Nashville, and there are also several temporary prisons in various parts of the state, where convicts are employed upon railroads, mines, &c. The total number in confinement during the two years ending Dec. 1, 1874, was 1,625, of whom 744 were held on Dec. 1, 1872; 881 were received during that period, and 963 were in confinement at the end. Of the last number, 380 were white and 583 colored; 925 were males and 38 females; 13 had a good and 97 a fair education, 199 could read and write, and 654 had no education; 34 were under 16 years of age, and 275 under 21; 21 were sentenced for life, and 69 for 20 years or longer. The prisoners are employed under lease on public works, buildings, railroads, &c. The revenue thus received, is reported to be greater than the cost of supporting the prison. There is preaching and Sunday school instruction. The state hospital for the insane, near Nashville, was opened in 1852. The average daily number of patients during the two years ending with 1874 was 379; the whole number under treatment during that period was 561, of whom 374 remained on Jan. 1, 1875. Of the latter, all but 37 were maintained free of charge. The cost of maintaining the institution during the two years named was $157,987. The accommodations of the hospital are inadequate, the number of insane in the state being estimated at not less than 1,200. The Tennessee school for the blind, in Nashville, opened in 1844, had 55 pupils in 1874. Its cost during that year was $33,890. It is estimated that there are not fewer than 1,200 blind in the state. This school has recently been very much enlarged. The Tennessee deaf and dumb school is in Knoxville, and was opened in 1845. The number of pupils in attendance during the two years ending with 1874 was 155, of whom 121 remained on Jan. 1, 1875. There were seven instructors. The ordinary expenditures during this period amounted to $53,356.—There was no satisfactory system of common schools in Tennessee prior to 1873, when the present law providing for a general state system was enacted. The school fund, which had been lost or diverted to other purposes, was restored, together with the suspended interest. A per

manent fund, amounting in 1875 to $2,512,500, was thus secured; the interest on this, at the rate of 6 per cent. per annum, is distributed semi-annually among the counties according to school population. The law also authorizes for school purposes a poll tax of $1, and a tax of one mill on the dollar upon all the taxable property of the state, and provides that when the money derived from the school fund and the taxes imposed by the state shall be insufficient to support a public school for five months in the year in each of the districts in any county, the county court shall levy an additional tax for the purpose, or submit the proposition to a vote of the people. About one half of the counties of the state have levied an additional tax to prolong the schools. The total annual income from the permanent fund and state taxation is about $600,000. The state superintendent of public instruction is appointed for two years, and receives an annual salary of $3,000. County superintendents are elected biennially by the county courts. Three directors are elected in each district for three years. The public schools are free to all persons between the

NAME OF INSTITUTION.

ages of 6 and 18 years; but there must be separate schools for colored persons. The school population (one county not reporting) on June 30, 1875, was 425,901; white, 319,671; colored, 106,230. The number of pupils enrolled (one county not reporting) was 198,085; average attendance (16 counties not reporting), 136,118; number of schools (13 counties not reporting), 3,942; school revenue, $740,316; total expenditures, $703,358. In 1873-4 public schools in various parts of the state received aid from the Peabody education fund to the extent of $34,300. The state normal university, under the control of the state board of education, was opened as a department of the university of Nashville in December, 1875. It has an annual revenue of $6,000 from the Peabody education fund and $6,000 from the university of Nashville. Normal instruction is also afforded in several of the colleges. In several of the cities there are efficient systems of free schools, supported in part by the cities and in part from the state and county school revenues. The universities and colleges of Tennessee, with the number of instructors and pupils in 1874-'5, were as follows:

Denomination.

No. of No. of pupils instruc- in collegiate tors.

No. of pupils in all department. departments,

When opened.

The East Tennessee university embraces the state college of agriculture and the mechanical arts, for which provision was made by congress in 1862. The university was organized in 1840 (the East Tennessee college having been opened in 1808), and the agricultural college in 1869. There are three courses of study of four years each, agricultural, mechanical, and classical; and two preparatory courses of three years each. Each senator is entitled to name two, and each representative three students, who may attend the institution without charge for tuition, and may also pass free on railroads between their homes and the university. For others, the annual cost of tuition is $36 in the college and $30 in the preparatory department. Students are required to perform manual labor during the freshman and sophomore years. The university has a considerable library, and cabinets of geology, mineralogy, and zoology. The university of the South, at Sewanee, is under the control of the Protestant Episcopal

Protestant Episcopal.. Methodist Episcopal, South 27

church. It has separate schools for each department of learning. The institution has about 10,000 acres of land on a plateau of the Cumberland mountains, 2,000 ft. above the sea and 1,000 ft. above the surrounding country. Owing to the favorable climate of this elevation, studies are continued during the summer, and a long vacation occurs in the winter. The university has a library of over 5,000 volumes. The East Tennessee Wesleyan university, at Athens, has a collegiate department, with classical and scientific courses, and preparatory and academic departments. Fisk university was organized in 1866 through the efforts of the American missionary association of New York. It is designed for the instruction of colored persons, and has made the training of teachers a prominent part of its work. It was named after Gen. C. B. Fisk, then commissioner of the freedmen's bureau, through whose efforts government buildings were obtained for the institution. Since 1871 upward