7. United States Senator Chosen.-At the session of 1881 Johnson N. Camden was elected a United States Senator to succeed Hereford. The Republican members numbered only twenty out of a total of eighty-six; and their votes were cast as a compliment to Archibald W. Campbell.

8. Condition of the State (1877-1881).-During this administration the country at large recovered, in a great measure, from the financial distress of the four preceding years. The people were healthy, industrious, law-abiding, and patriotic; the crops were usually abundant; taxes were paid with unusual ease and creditable punctuality; the public institutions were administered with great economy; there were fewer failures in business than in any other State of equal area and population; new mines were opened; manufactures increased both in number and variety; the forests interested experienced lumbermen; the attention of colonists was directed to the unimproved lands of the interior; the building of railroads kept abreast of the march of progress; and the population increased in a greater ratio than in any other State east of the Mississippi, except two.

9. Election of 1880.-The era of good feeling that prevailed during the administration of the liberal-minded Mathews, received a backset during the campaign of 1880. Jacob B. Jackson, the Democratic candidate for Governor, in a speech at Fairmont preceding his nomination, unfortunately let slip some words which were construed by his political enemies as utterances of hate to the Republican party, and his intention to bequeath that hatred as a legacy to his children. These remarks, doubtless intended to make Democrats love him more, were seized upon as campaign material, and were kept displayed in prominent type from week to week, during the campaign, in many of the Republican journals. George C. Sturgiss was the Republican nominee. The national candidates on the opposing tickets were Garfield and Hancock. The campaign throughout the United States was characterized

by slanderous, reports, personal scandal, forgeries, and personal abuse. In this State an appeal was made to every sentiment that could arouse partisan feeling. The old sores of the war were torn open and bled afresh. Jackson was elected by a plurality of 16,139 over Sturgiss, and a majority of 3,112 over both Sturgiss and French, the Greenback candidate. Sturgiss ran ahead of his ticket from 500 to 1000 votes over the other candidates. Joseph S. Miller was elected Auditor; Thomas O'Brien, Treasurer; Bernard L. Butcher, State Superintendent of Free Schools; and C. C. Watt, Attorney General.

I.

CHAPTER XVII.

JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION (1881-1885).

Inauguration of State Officers.-Governor Jackson and the rest of the executive officers were inducted into office on March 4, 1881. The ceremonies were much the same and quite as elaborate as those attending the qualification of his predecessor, with the additional feature of a parade carried out with much pomp. The inaugural address, both in tone and spirit, contrasts sharply with that of his predecessor. Mathews and Jackson represented different types of men. Jackson was a partisan and could not easily lay aside his prejudices; but back of it all lay a vigorous manhood and an unquestioned honesty, characteristic of the "old school" in which he had received his training.

2. Policy of Governor Jackson.-Jackson expressed the opinion that "to open the mines of wealth;" to cut down and saw up the forests; and to utilize our generous soil, under our salubrious climate, for "raising most of the agricultural products," were the essentials necessary "to make our State one of the most prosperous of the Union." He recommended the enactment of salutary laws, as an inducement to immigration and the development of manufactures, and as a means of increasing our wealth and influence. He endorsed a revision of the laws so as to reconcile the "seeming repugnancy in many of the statutes, and to make certain what the law is." He insisted that the incurables in the asylum should be a charge upon the counties from which they come and not upon the State. He pointed out the unwisdom of failing to make

appropriations to the Normal Schools during the session of 1879, and urged that regular appropriations should thereafter be made. He proposed the abolition of the offices of President and Vice President of the University, and objected to the enlargement of the professional schools so as to enable the institution to graduate students in either law or medicine, under the belief that conditions did not justify the innovation. By 1885 he had modified his notion, and said: "It should be made in fact what it is in name'-a University; and he favored coeducation. He recommended appropriations to render the work of the State Board of Health and the Commissioners of Pharmacy efficient, and the enactment of laws to prevent the vending of fraudulent land titles in this State by speculators in eastern cities. He called attention, repeatedly, to the unorganized condition of the militia, and urged the passage of proper laws for the enlistment of a volunteer force that would be able to preserve the peace and enforce the laws, without the necessity of calling on the Federal Government in cases of domestic disturbance.

3. Management of Public Institutions.—In 1883 the Hospital for the Insane for the first time afforded accommodations for all entitled to admission therein; but in a short time it was again overcrowded, and the old question presented itself, What shall be done with our insane? Based upon charges made by the Clarksburg Telegram, a joint committee was appointed (1882) to visit the asylum and examine into the charges and the sanitary condition and general management of the institution.

The School for the Deaf and the Blind was also overcrowded and new buildings were called for. No provision was made to meet the expenses voluntarily incurred in keeping the Normal Schools in operation after the failure of the Legislature of 1879 to make an appropriation for their support, although the Governor repeatedly urged the justice of such an appropriation.