Connecticut western news., 1876-12-15

of March, 1875 authorized the inhabitants of the Territory of Colorado to form & State | government, with the name of the State of | Colorado and therein provided for the admis- | sion of said State, when formed, into the Union upon an equal footing with the original States. A constitution having been adopted and ratified by the people of that State, and the acting governor having certified to me the facts as provided by said act together with a l copy of such constitution and ordinances as provided for in the said act, and the provisions of the said act of Congress having been duly complied with, I issued proclamation upon the first of Auguet 1878, 8 copy of which is | hereto annexed.
 THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR
 shows that the army has been actively en- ployed during the year in subduing at the request of the Indian bureau, certain wild | bands of the Sioux Indian nation and in pre- serving the peace at the South during the | election. The commission constituted under the act Of July "A, 1876, to consider and re- port on the whole subject of reform and re- | organization of the whole army in August last, | has collected large mass of statistics and | opinions bearing on the subject before it. These arc now under consideration and their | report is progressing In accordance with the | resolutions of August IS, 1876 the army regu- | lations prepared under the act of March 1; | 1875, have not been promulgated, but are held until after the report of the above mentioned commission shall have been received and acted on.
 SECRETARY OF WAR.
 invite your special attention to the follow ing recommendations of the secretary of war. First, that the claims under the act of July 4, 1864, for supplies taken by the army during the war be removed from the offices of the quartermaster and commissary generals aud transferred to the Southern claims commission. These claims are of precisely similar nature to those now before the Southern claims com mission and the war department bureaus Have not the clerical force for their examina- the loyalty of the claimants2 Second-That Congress sanction the scheme of an annuity fund for the benefit of the families of de- ceased officers, and that it also provide for the permanent organization of
 THE SIGNAL SERVICE,
 both of which were recommended in my last annual message. Third-That the manufac- turing operations of the ordnance department be concentrated at three arsenals and an ar mory, and that the remaining arsenals be sold and the proceeds applied to thie object by tho ordnance department.
 RIVER AND HARBoR APPROPRIATIONS.
 The appropriations fer river and harbor im- provements for the current year were five mill lion and fifteen thousand dollars. With nv approval, the secretary of war directed that of this amount two million dollars should be ex- pended, and no new work sb ould be begun and | none prosecuted which were not of national | importance. Subsequently this amount was increased to $2, ,237, 600, and the works are now progressing on this basis. The improvement of the south pass of tue Mississippi river, | under James B. Eads and his associates, is progressing favorably. At the present time there is channel of twenty and tbree-tenths | feet in depth between the jetties at the mouth of the pass, and eighteen and one-hslf feet at the head of the pass. Neither channel, how | ever, has the width required before payments can be made by the United States. con- mission of engineer officers is now examining l these works, and their reports will be present. | ed as soon as received
 THE NAVY.
 The report of the secretary of the navy shows 1 tn at brauch of the service to be in condition as effective as it is possible to keep it with the means and authority given the department It is of course, not possible to rival the costly and progressive establishments of great Euro pean powers with the old material of our navy. to which no increase has been authorized since | the war, except the eight small cruisers built | to supply the place of others which had gone to decay. Yet the most has been done that was possible with the means at command, and | by substantially rebuilding some of our old | ships with durable material, and completely re- pairing our monitor fleet, the navy bas been | grs dually so brought up that though it does not maintain it's relative position among tho progressive navies of the world, it is now in A l ever has been in time of peace. The completa repairs of our five heavy ironclads are only | delayed on account of the inadequacy of the | appropriations made last year for the working bureaus of the department, which were aotu- | ally less ln amount than those made before the war, notwithstanding the greatly enhanced price of labor and materials and the increase in the cost Of the naval service growing out of the universal use and great expense of steam machinery. The money necessary fer these ol,O Or11l ho,, .l@l may be completed without further unnecessary delay and expense. When this is done all the | strength that there is in our navy will be de- veloped and useful to it's full capacity, and it will be powerful for purposes of defense and also for offensive action, should the necessity for that arise within & reasonable distance from our shores. The fact that our navy is not more modern and powerful than it is hes been made cause of complaint against the secretary of the navy by persons who at the same time criticise and complain of his en- deavors to bring the navy that we have to it's best and most efficient condition, but the good sense of the country will understand that it is really due to his practical action that we have at this time any effective navy force at com mand.
 THE PosT-oFFICE DEPARTMENT.
 The report of the postmaster-general shows the excess of expenditures, excluding expen dltures on account of previous years, over re ceipts for the fiscal year ended June 30 1876 l CO pc $4, ,10l, SSS. 6b. EStlmated expenditure for the year ending June 30, 1878, are $36, 723, 43243. Estimated revenue for same period il $30, ,645, 165, leaving an estimated excess O expenditure to be appropriated as 8 defcienc, of $3,078. 26743 The postmaster-g eneral like his predecessors, is convinced that change in the basis of adjusting the salaries O postmasters of the fourth class is necessar
 for the good of the service as we'll as for tn, interest of the government, and urgently rec ommends that the compensation of the class o postmaeters above mentioned be based upol the busine-s of their respective offices, as as certained from the sworn returns to the audi
 tor of stamps cancelled.
 FEARS OF PERSONAL SAFETY.
 A few postmasters in the Southern State have expressed great apprehensions of thei
 personal safety on account of their connec
 tion with the postal service, and have special
 ly requested that their reports of apprehendet
 danger should not be made public l: st it shoult
 result ln the loss of their lives. But no posi-
 tive testimony of interference has been sub
 m itted except in the case of mail messenge
 st Spartanburg in South Carolina, who re
 ported that he had been violently driven ava,
 while in charge of the malls on account of hi
 political affiliations as ass stant superintend
 ent of the railway mail service. Investigates
 the case and reported that the messenger Ina. . disappeared from his post, leaving his -ork t,