Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/238

 226 MARYLAND 15th amendment to the constitution of the United States, colored citizens are entitled to vote. No one who engages in or aids or abets a duel, or sends or accepts a challenge, nor any defaulter in public funds, can hold office ; and no minister of the gospel or person holding any civil office of profit or trust under the state or United States, except that of justice of the peace, is eligible to the legislature. The legislature is prohibited from lending the credit of the state to any individual, association, or corporation, and restrictions are placed upon the power of special legislation, of contracting a public debt, and of pledging the faith or credit of the state for the construction of in- ternal improvements. Amendments to the constitution must be proposed by three fifths of each house of the legislature and ratified by the people. Every 20 years the people are to vote on the question of holding a convention to revise the constitution. Murder in the first degree is punished with death; arson, rape, and treason, with death or imprisonment for a term of years, in the discretion of the court ; other crimes are punished by fines and im- prisonment. The chief grounds of divorce are adultery, abandonment for three years, im- potency at the time of marriage, and illicit intercourse of the wife before marriage, un- known to the husband. A separation from bed and board may be had on the ground of cruel treatment, excessively vicious conduct, or desertion. A married woman may acquire, hold, and manage separate property free from liability for the debts of her husband; she may dispose of it by will as though single, but her husband must join with her in any deed. The rate of interest is 6 per cent. Maryland has two senators and is entitled to six repre- sentatives in congress, and has therefore eight votes in the electoral college. The valuation of property, according to the United States census, has been as follows : YEARS ASSESSED VALUE. True value of real and per- sonal eitate. Real eitaU. Penonal eitate. ToUl. 1850... $219,217,864 87fi.910.944 643,748,976 1860... 3870... $66,841,488 mtjnajttt $28ij98.8bb 186,924,586 $297,185,288 428,884,918 The taxation not national in 1870 was $6,632 - 842, of which $1,781,252 was state, $1,542,218 eounty, and $3,309,872 town, city, &c. The total debt amounted to $29,032,577, of which 118,317,475 (bonded) was state, $1,565,779 ($1,305,395 bonded) county, and $14,149.313 ($14,097,856 bonded) town, city, &c. The amount given as state debt includes liabilities incurred in aid of railroads, canals, &c. The sinking fund amounted to $1,764,450. Ac- 'ordirii; to the report of the comptroller for ,ir ending Sept. 30, 1873, the receipts into the state treasury, including a balance of $339,171 10 on hand at the beginning of the year, were $2,771,848 58, of which $1,814- 348 96 was from ordinary sources, viz.: $268,- 955 61 from dividends and interest paid by banks and railroad and canal companies, $715,- 664 81 from taxes on property, $4,605 27 from taxes on state and other stocks, $77,- 868 47 from taxes on incorporated institu- tions, $540,263 53 from licenses on trades and occupations, marriages, the oyster fishery, &c., $15,183 36 from fees, $14,349 13 from fines and forfeitures, $7,629 73 from grain inspec- tions, $16,403 97 from tobacco inspections and warehouses, $8,777 34 from state live- stock scales, $2,559 41 from state wharves, $2,332 01 from the land office, $65,195 52 from taxes on commissions of executors and ad- ministrators, $39,817 61 from taxes on col- lateral inheritances, $4,773 50 from taxes on protests, and the rest miscellaneous. The dis- bursements were $2,287,038 36, leaving a bal- ance at the close of the year of $484,810 22 ; besides which there was $14,220 08 in the treasury to the credit of the school fund, and $66,579 28 to the credit of the sinking fund. Deducting $453,296 02 paid in redemption of the debt, and $152,500 to meet the state's sub- scription to stock of railroad companies in Charles and St. Mary's counties, the ordinary expenditures amounted to $1,681,242 34, viz. : $15,000 for the blind asylum, $16,800 for bounty to volunteers, $25,406 67 for salaries of civil officers, $77,961 92 for colleges and academies, $49,904 91 for colored schools, $30,000 for the deaf and dumb asylum, $10,- 000 for the colored deaf and dumb and blind asylum, $50,050 for various charitable and re- formatory institutions, $701,909 29 for in- terest on the public debt, $88,802 78 for sala- ries of judicial officers, $2,500 for the Maryland inebriate asylum, $14,000 for the state peni- tentiary, $23,816 72 for the militia, $49,200 for pensions, $388,566 97 for public schools, $9,500 for the state normal school, $2,000 for the colored state normal school, and the rest miscellaneous. The assessed value of property was $424,672,712, and the tax, 17 cents (10 cents for public schools) on $100, amounted to $721,994 17. The assets of the state on Sept. 30, 1873, were represented by productive stock and bonds of railroad and other com- panies to the amount of $4,455,464 18; amount due from incorporated institutions, tax col- lectors and other officers, $1,995,701 96; un- productive stock and bonds and accrued in- terest, $21,608,694 51 ; total, $28,059,-860 65. More than $20,000,000 of the unproductive assets consist of stock and bonds of and interest due from the Chesapeake and Ohio canal com- pany, which it is believed, at a not very distant period, will make some return to the state. The funded debt at the above date amounted to $10,741,215 60. Deducting the sinking fund and the productive stock and bonds, the net debt was $6,219,172 14. The free school fund, including the fund for the indigent blind ($10,770 47), amounted to $314,010 16, in- vested in stocks and bonds, except $14,220 08