A STATE EDUCATIONAL CONVENTION. 779 had borrowed $500,000; deduct the balance shown, and the actual deficit June 30, 1883, was $491,375. The governor unquestionably touched the main and only problem of this inexcusable condition of State revenues and finances, in the comment, that "the difficulty is to be found in our grossly defective system of assessment, rendered still more inefficient by the negligent and unsatisfactory manner in which it is administered. The last assessment made the taxable property of the State $374,500,000. Our real property alone is worth double that sum.” The auditor has repeatedly set forth the evils in his reports, and strenuously urged reform, on the basis of the draft of a bill carefully prepared through him, and on which the favorable action of the Legislature of 1885-86 was asked. If these estimates of our best informed authorities be not overdrawn, and we have no reason to believe they are, an equitable and full assessment of the property of the State would justify a reduction of the State tax for current expenses to twenty cents, while the school tax would be made to increase the school fund over fifty per cent.; to extend the school term to six months, and to pay the teachers over thirty per cent. more on monthly wages. On April 5, 1883, a great State educational convention met at Frankfort, for the purpose of considering the situation, and devising and organizing means for the final reform of the school system. A committee was named, reported defects and needed amendments to an adjourned meeting, called to be held at Louisville, on the 20th of September. The report recommended the most liberal reforms which were practical for adoption and use; and this great prompting movement among the friends of education in the Commonwealth was responded to by the succeeding General Assembly, in the enactment of a law adapted in the main to the general wants of the common schools, a great improvement on any which had existed heretofore. For the third time, the Legislature of 1883-84 passed an act providing for taking the sense of the people, as to the calling of a convention to frame a new Constitution for the Commonwealth, at the ensuing August election. The proposition was again defeated by the indifference of the people, and a general neglect to vote. Another act at this session provided for the construction of a new penitentiary at Eddyville, Lyon county, for the accommodation of the increasing and overflowing number of convicts, and to be occupied by an exclusive class of prisoners, toward whom the discipline aims to be reformatory. The temperance and reform sentiment growing steadily in volume and activity throughout the State, acts have been passed during the sessions of past years and to 1885-86 granting towns, districts, and counties local option laws, or the right to prohibit the manufacture of or traffic in intoxicating beverages within the limits of such districts, on a ratification by a popular vote of the citizens of the same. Under this legislation, quite a number of counties, towns, and districts of the State have adopted stringent measures of prohibition, and which are yet in force. The sentiment for temperance reform, though greatly retarded by the indiscreet zeal of many advocates, is every year more strongly demanding the purgation of the body politic and social of the great evils of the injurious traffic and habit. Intemperance is held to be a matter of legislative control. Among the laws most significant of the growth of sentiment toward the determined eradication of the most flagrant forms of vice from society is one recently enacted making gambling a felony to both the gamester and the keeper of the gambling-house, or to any one in the employ of the latter. With such laws upon our statute books, together with the ample and splendid asylums for the insane, the feeble-minded, the deaf and dumb, the blind, and our improved and liberal school law, the Commonwealth of Kentucky may proudly be ranked with the governments most advanced in all that represents the benevolence and humanity of modern civilization. In 1884, a noted presidential campaign of our historic period came off. The nominees of the Democratic national convention were Grover Cleveland for president and Thomas A. Hendricks for vice-president; of the Republican, James G. Blaine and John A. Logan; of the Greenback-AntiMonopoly, Benjamin F. Butler and A. M. West; of the Prohibition, John P. St. John and William Daniel. The popular vote in Kentucky was: For the Democratic ticket, 152,961; Republican, 118, 122; Greenback, 1,693; Prohibition, 3,139. In the United States it was: For the Democratic, 4,911,017; Republican, 4,848,334; Greenback, 133,825; Prohibition, 151,809. The electoral vote for Cleveland and Hendricks summed up two hundred and nine, against one hundred and eighty-two for Blaine and Logan and none for the other tickets. On the 4th of March, 1885, Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks were installed president and vice-president of the United States, inaugurating the first Democratic administration in power since the retirement of James Buchanan and John C. Breckinridge and the accession of Lincoln and Hamlin, on the 4th of March, 1861-a period of twenty-four years of Republican administration. Of the citizens appointed to important offices, Federal and State, by President Cleveland, and accepting service, were Judge Milton J. Durham, first comptroller of the treasury at Washington; Charles D. Jacob, minister to the United States of Colombia; Boyd Winchester, minister to Switzerland; E. A. Buck, minister to Peru; Attilla Cox, Hunter Wood, James F. Robinson, and Thomas S. Bronston, collectors of internal revenue; J. Cripps Wickliffe, United States attorney for the district of Kentucky, and Thomas C. Bell, assistant attorney; John T. Gathright, receiver of customs; Andrew Jackson Gross, United States marshal for Kentucky; Don Carlos Buell, pension agent; Thomas H. Taylor, superintendent of the canal, and Judge C. W. West, governor of Utah. AUDITOR'S REPORT OF 1885. 781 Vice-President Hendricks suddenly dying in office, on the 25th of November, 1885, less than nine months after his inauguration, John Sherman, Republican, was elected by the United States Senate to preside over that body in his stead, on its assembling in December. The auditor for the period 1883-85 sets forth very clearly the existence of certain defects in our laws for the assessment and collection of revenues, and suggests very obvious and practical remedies in the same report, and also in the draft of an improved revenue bill, which was carefully prepared under his direction and submitted to the legislative session of 1885-86 as the basis for a new law. In this last report, the financial statement of the auditor shows that June 30, 1885, there was a balance in the treasury of $122,311, which, adding total receipts for the year, $3,323,055, makes the sum of $3,445,367 in the treasury. Disbursements for the same year to June 30, 1885, were $2,919,779, leaving a balance of $525,587. This balance was credited: To the general expense fund, $35,812; to reserve to meet bank loan, $200,000; to the sinking fund, $180,896; to the school fund, $108,879. But of the total receipts, $512,500 was derived from the sale of bonds, as ordered, leaving only $2,810,555 actual receipts. from revenue. Of the expenditures, $300,000 was paid to banks, making the actual expenditures for the government $2,619,779. At the same date, June 30, 1885, there were of unpaid claims $146,000, and of unpaid balances upon appropriations made by the previous Legislature $182,997. So, instead of a net balance of $35,812, as above, there was an actual deficit of $293, 185. The auditor but reiterates that these everrecurring deficits have their causes in the shrinkage of values under defective revenue laws and their still more defective execution in the assessment of property. From the statistics of the census of 1880, some interesting conclusions are reached, which throw much light upon the growth of population and wealth. When we consider the very large emigration from Kentucky of its native-born people and the steady natural increase of her population, with the very small comparative additions from other States and foreign countries, we note that the fecundity of the Kentuckians is most remarkable, and, perhaps, not surpassed by any other community in the world. Of 1,648,690 population, 1,402,612 are native born, 186, 561 are immigrants from other States, and 59,517 from foreign countries, or 245,078 immigrants in all. The total number of persons born in Kentucky, and resident beyond the State, as shown by the census of 1880, amounted to about 400,000. This statement, of course, includes the colored race. The following figures will show the steady and healthy increase of population each decade, since 1790: The population in 1790 was 73,677; in 1800, 220,955; in 1810, 406,511; in 1820, 564, 135; in 1830, 687,917; in 1840, 779,828; in 1850, 982,405; in 1860, 1,155,684; in 1870, 1,321,011; in 1880, 1,648,690. Table Showing the Relative Production, as Compared With Other States, of Certain Agricultural Staples in Kentucky, in Successive Decades. Thus it seems that Kentucky has long stood first in the production of hemp, by the advantage of her fertile bluegrass soil; and by the stimulus. given to the growth of white burley tobacco, she has taken precedence in the production of this staple article. A source of wealth and industry of inestimable value for indefinite years in the future has been opened up through the instrumentality of the State Geological Bureau. Public attention was directed to the importance of the superior mineral and timber resources of Kentucky under the administration of Professor N. S. Shaler, as chief of this department of exploration. The interest was continued and steadily increased under the enterprising and able management of Professor John R. Procter, the successor of Professor Shaler. In connection with the regular duties of his office, as chief of the Geological Bureau, Professor Procter has given attention to the work of advertising abroad the advantages of Kentucky, as an attractive land for the settlement of emigrants and the investment of capital from abroad. Under his intelligent direction, the features of geological formations, the diversity and value of soils, and the distribution of many natural sources of wealth were indicated upon State and county maps for the convenience of the public. The results of this work have been to bring a large amount of foreign capital for investment in our midst, to locate quite a number of colonies and individuals from other States and from foreign countries, and to give quite an impetus to many new industries within the borders of our Commonwealth. Professor Procter is a native Kentuckian, born in Mason county, and reared there to manhood. He continued to serve at the head of the Geological Survey until the termination of the existence of the bureau in 1893, during the administration of Governor Brown. IMPORTANT EVENTS OF 1886 TO 1892. 783 CHAPTER XXXII. (1886-1892.) INCLUSIVE of the centenNIAL YEAR OF KENTUCKY. Barriers to constitutional changes. same. Devices to solve the difficulties. Plan adopted by the Legislature, 1885-86. The results satisfactory in 1887. tion. Administration of Governor Knott. Act permitting the acquisition of lands by the United States Government. Other acts of 1885-86. Reform of the revenue laws. Construction of the same by the courts. Party State conventions, 1887. urer. State inspector and examiner. Treasurer Sharp, resigning, is suc ceeded by Henry S. Hale. Presidential election, 1888. Harrison and Morton elected. Centennial of the United States Government, 1889. People's party organized. Decision of the boundary of Kentucky. Terrible cyclone in Louisville, 1890. Constitutional Convention sits. The work of the convention set forth in an address to the people of Kentucky. Results of late geological survey. Coal and iron in South-eastern Kentucky. Other natural resources of wealth. Charles J. Norwood. Increase of manufactures and wealth. Administration of Governor Buckner. Bureau of agriculture. Munificent charities of Kentucky. Ed Porter Thompson. Administration of Governor Brown. Centennials of the State and of the nation. John W. Headley. Celebration of the State centennial. L. C. Norman. W. H. Bartholomew. The people of the State were chafing under the restrictive provisions of the constitution of 1850 against any future change. The failure at the polls in 1884 to register the requisite proportion of votes, though the majority in favor was large, was piquantly felt. The sentiment for a change had grown for years, with a sense of its necessity. The framers of the fundamental law, in their very earnest desire to discourage agitation, had builded less wisely than they would have done had they known the future. |