TWENTY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY. The Twenty-fifth General Assembly convened January 7, and consisted of the following members: SENATE. Daniel W. Munn, Cairo. Jas. Strain, Monmouth. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. N. R. Casey, Mound City. Wm. C. Shirley, Staunton. Malden Jones, Tuscola. S. A. Hurlbut, Belvidere. Lieutenant-Governor Bross presided over the Senate, and Chauncey Ellwood, of DeKalb, was elected Secretary, over J. R. Flynn, of Macoupin, by a vote of 17 to 7. Franklin Corwin, of LaSalle, was elected Speaker of the House, over Newton R. Casey, of Pulaski, by a vote of 58 to 24. Stephen G. Paddock, of Bureau, was elected Clerk, over M. B. Friend, of Cass, by a vote of 58 to 24. Among the new members of this Assembly who were able and active were: Munn, Boyd, Fort, Casey, Bates, Hanna, Bowyer, Conkling, Knapp, Hurlbut. The Governor's message was presented to the Assembly on the 7th. It was an able and somewhat lengthy state paper, in which was a careful and practical discussion of all the State interests. During the two years ending December 1, 1866, the State debt had been reduced $2,607,958.46. The experimental school for idiots, under the direction of Dr. C. T. Wilbur, which was authorized by the previous General Assembly, having proved successful, he recommended additional appropriations in that behalf, as also for the Soldiers' Orphans' Home; recommended an appropriation for a monument to the memory of Abraham Lincoln; renewed his recommendation in favor of an Industrial College; supported an appropriation in favor of having Illinois properly represented at the Universal Exposition of the Industry of all Nations, at Paris; favored the establishment of a house for the correction of juvenile offenders; recommended a reform in the pardoning power; called attention to the necessity of calling a convention to revise the Constitution. The two houses met in joint session, January 15, and re-elected Lyman Trumbull United States Senator, over T. Lyle Dickey, by a vote of 76 to 33. This body was in session fifty-two days. Acts were passed to provide for the erection of a new State House; to locate, construct and carry on the Southern Illinois Penitentiary; to aid the Illinois Soldiers' College; to declare the Normal University, at Normal, a State institution; to remove the remains of Gov. Wm. H. Bissell to Oak Ridge cemetery, and to erect a monument over the same; to establish a Reform School for Juvenile Offenders; to create the office of Attorney-General; to establish a State Board of Equalization of Assessments; to locate the Industrial University; to provide for reducing the rate of State taxation for payment of interest on the public debt; to regulate warehousemen, and authorize connections of railroads with warehouses, and the 14th amendment to the National Constitution was ratified. Under the law creating the office, Robert G. Ingersoll was appointed Attorney-General. SPECIAL SESSION. Gov. Oglesby convened the General Assembly in special session, June 11, to provide, among other things, for the passage of a law for the assessment and collection of taxes on the shares of capital stock in banks and banking associations, and to amend an act entitled "An act to incorporate the Mississippi River and Wisconsin State Line Railroad Company," approved February 28, 1867. A second special session was convened, June 14, to provide for the management of the Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet. The lessee of the penitentiary, without warning, had surrendered the lease to the Governor, and hence this special session. The law passed at this session laid the foundation for the present admirable system of penitentiary government. CHAPTER XXIII. STATE CAMPAIGN OF 1868. Aggregate Vote for State Officers-Aggregate Vote for Members of Congress-Aggregate Vote for Presidential Electors. The year 1868 brought the people together in another National struggle for the election of a President and VicePresident, and again the State was made to resound with the thunder of party tactics. The Republican State Convention met at Peoria May 6, to nominate a State ticket and appoint delegates to the National Convention. John M. Palmer was nominated for Governor; John Dougherty, for Lieutenant-Governor; Edward Rummel, for Secretary of State; Charles E. Lippincott, for Auditor; Erastus N. Bates, for Treasurer; Washington Bushnell, for Attorney-General, and John A. Logan for Congressman-at-Large. The Democrats met May 7, at the same place for the same purpose. John R. Eden was nominated for Governor; William H. Van Epps, for LieutenantGovernor; Gustav Van Horbeke, for Secretary of State; John R. Shannon, for Auditor; Jesse J. Phillips, for Treasurer; Robert E. Williams, for Attorney-General, and William W. O'Brien for Congressman-at-Large. U. S. Grant, of Illinois, and Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, were nominated at Chicago May 20, by the Republican National Convention, for President and Vice-President. The Democratic National Convention met at New York July 4, and nominated Horatio Seymour, of New York, and Francis P. Blair, of Missouri, for President and Vice-President. State issues were completely absorbed in the discussion of National questions growing out of the war, and the best talent of both parties was brought actively into the campaign, and every county and district vigorously canvassed, and for many months the voice of the political orator was heard in the remotest portions of the State. The Republicans, however, were victorious in the State and Nation. Of the fourteen Congressmen elected, eleven were Republican, and both branches of the Legislature were Republican. The aggregate vote for State officers, Congressman-atLarge, Congressmen, by districts, and Presidential electors, is as follows: |