SENATE. Dan'l W. Munn, Cairo. W. Shepherd, Jerseyville. I. McManus, Keithsburg. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. N. R. Casey, Mound City. *Seat contested, tAdmitted to seat of Merriam. A. Mittower, Milton. G. W. Parker, Charleston. C. H. Frew, Paxton. Irus Coy, Bristol. E. S. Taylor, Evanston. Lieutenant-Governor Dougherty presided over the Senate, and Chauncey Ellwood was elected Secretary, over James Low, by a vote of 17 to 6. Franklin Corwin was elected Speaker of the House, over Newton R. Casey, by a vote of 53 to 23, and James P. Root, of Cook, Clerk, over J. Merrick Bush, of Pike, by a vote of 56 to 23. The message of Oglesby, the retiring Governor, was laid before the two houses on the 4th. It was non-political and was confined exclusively to the discussion of questions relating to the internal affairs of the State. There had been four years of unbroken prosperity. From December 1, 1866 to December 1, 1868, there had been paid on the public debt, principal and interest, $2,687,114.01, and for the four years commencing December 1, 1864 and ending December 1, 1868, $4,743,821.44. The first year of the administration of Gov. Oglesby had been a very laborious one; ten regiments of volunteer soldiers were organized under the last call of the President, and when the rebellion closed the Governor's time was occupied almost wholly, for many months, in giving attention to the details of mustering out of the service the Illinois soldiers. Gov. Oglesby was an eminently popular man. The Legislature being in harmony with his views, his recommendations were carried out in the greatest measure. The Normal University at Normal was declared a State institution; the Industrial University at Champaign was created; the foundation for the school for feeble-minded children, at Lincoln, was laid; the Eye and Ear Infirmary at Chicago was fostered; the the Soldiers' Orphans' Home at Normal was established; the office of Attorney-General was created; a reform in the management of penitentiaries was instituted; a reform school for juvenile offenders was created, and the new State House was begun. The two houses met in joint session on the 11th of January, when Gov. Palmer took the oath of office and delivered a brief inaugural address, in which he took occasion to urge upon the attention of the General Assembly the recommendations contained in the message of his predecessor. Said he: "I am able to say that the whole duty of the Governor, to the utmost extent of the requirements of the constitution, has been discharged by my predecessor. The comprehensive message communicated to the General Assembly at the opening of the present session furnishes the amplest information of the state of the government, of the operation of existing laws, and covers, by wise and judicious recommendations, almost every subject in regard to which legislative action can be necessary or expedient. "I cannot better discharge my duty to the people than by urging upon your attention the information given, and the measures recommended, by the experienced and patriotic statesman who now retires from the executive office which he has filled with such advantage and credit to the State." This body was in session one hundred and six daysa longer period by far than that of any former General Assembly. The vital public acts which were passed, and received the approval of the Governor, were as follows: Acts to secure the endowment fund of the Illinois Agricultural College; to encourage agricultural societies; to erect and carry on an asylumn for the insane for Northern Illinois; making appropriations for the Illinois Industrial University; to establish and maintain the Southern Illinois Normal University; to appoint a State Agent to collect war claims against the United States; to amend an act establishing a home for the children of deceased soldiers; to provide for building a soldiers' monument at the National Cemetery near Mound City; to aid the Illinois Soldiers' College at Fulton; to amend an act providing for the erection of a new State House; to aid the Eye and Ear Infirmary; to appoint a Board of Commissioners of Public Charities; to provide for calling a convention to revise, alter or amend the Constitution of the State; to allow convicts in the penitentiary a credit for good conduct in the diminution of their term of imprisonment; to prevent cruelty to animals; to facilitate drainage of wet or overflowed lands; to prevent frauds in elections for subscriptions to stock in or for donations in aid of any incorporation; to prevent frauds upon gas consumers and gas companies; to regulate insurance companies; to punish frauds upon insurance companies; to provide for permanent survey of lands; to provide for the preservation of field notes, maps, and other papers appertaining to land titles in the State; to prevent prize-fighting and sparring or boxing exhibitions; to amend the railroad law; to regulate the rate for the conveyance of passengers and freight by railroads; to protect lives and property of persons at railway crossings of the public highways; to fence railroads; to fund and provide for paying the railroad debts of counties, townships, cities and towns; to amend the act establishing the State Board of Equalization; to amend an act condemning the right of way for purposes of public improvement; to amend the school law; to facilitate the transportation of grain, produce and merchandise by railroads; to protect widows and orphans from the sacrifice of their property by sales upon mortgages and trust deeds, and the XVth amendment to the National Constitution was ratified. CHAPTER XXV. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1869-70. Illinois having outgrown the Constitution of 1848, the Convention which had been elected to amend, alter or revise the same, met at Springfield on the 13th of December, 1869, and was composed of the following delegates, which are given by districts: 1st-William J. Allen. 2d-George W. Brown. 3d-W. G. Bowman. 4th-James M. Sharp. 5th-William B. Anderson. 6th-James M. Washburn. 7th-Harvey P. Buxton. 8th-J. H. Wilson, George W. Wall. 9th-Silas L. Bryan. 10th-Robert P. Hanna. 11th-James C. Allen. 12th-James P. Robinson. 13th-Beverly W. Henry,1 Ferris Forman.2 14th-Charles E. McDowell. 15th-William H. Snyder, William H. Underwood. 16th-Charles F. Springer, Henry W. Billings.3 17th-John Scholfield. 18th--George R. Wendling. 19th-Edward Y. Rice. 20th-Milton Hay, Samuel C. Parks. 21st-John W. Hankins. 'Resigned March 3. Vice B. W, Henry. Died April 19. |