USA > Nebraska > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 22
USA > Nebraska > Clay County > History of Hamilton and Clay counties, Nebraska, Vol. I > Part 22
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The personnel of this convention presented names of numerous members who later became very prominent in Nebraska's public affairs. The president of the convention, John Lee Webster, is forty-five years later one of the leading members of the Nebraska Bar and one of the steadfast patrons of Nebraska's Historical Society and all efforts to preserve Nebraska's records and story. Its secretary, Guy A. Brown, later served as clerk of the supreme court and state librarian. A son of one mem- ber, A. J. Weaver, of Richardson County, in 1920, served as president of the next Constitutional Convention. Another member, O. A. Abbott, also a member of the Convention of 1821, and the state's first lieutenant governor. is still practicing law in Grand Island, in 1921. after fifty-three years active practice at the Hall County Bar and indefatigably supported the 1920 series of amendments, with few exceptions.
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Three members of this body became United States Senators, M. L. Hayward, Chas. F. Manderson and C. H. Van Wyck. Two, J. E. Boyd and J. W. Dawes became governor of the state. Several. Jefferson H. Broady, S. B. Pound, Samnel Maxwell, M. B. Reese. W. II. Munger, A. J. Weaver, became judges of the state and federal courts; and two or three became members of Congress, and a dozen others very prominent in the various walks of life.
The members of this convention were:
John Lee Webster, President
O. A. Abbott
James W. Dawes
J. 11. Sauls
Samuel Maxwell
R. F. Stevenson
A. G. Kendall
Andrew Hallner
Jacob Vallery, Sr.
S. H. Coats
Luke Agur
J. E. Doom
". H. Frady
John McPherson S. R. Foss
Charles F. Walther
J. D. Hamilton
C. H. Van Wyck
R. C. Eldridge
J. P. Becker
W. L. Dunlap
Joseph Garber
W. H. Munger
Jefferson H. Broady
A. M. Walling
James Harper
S. B. Pound
J. G. Ewan
J. E. Boyd
M. L. Hayward
C. H. Gere
J. H. Perry
Charles H. Brown
T. L. Warrington
Robt. B. Harrington
Isaac Powers, Jr.
James Laird
Clinton Briggs
D. P. Henry
Henry Grebe
C. W. Pierce
S. F. Burch
.1. J. Weaver
J. B. Hawley
MI. B. Reese
C'has. F. Manderson
H. H. Shedd
B. I. Hinman
Edwin N. Grenell
S. M. Kirkpatrick
S. H. Calhoun
M. W. Wilcox
A. H. Conner
W. M. Robertson
Frank Martin
George S. Smith
M. R. Hopewell
George L. Griffing
John J. Thompson
E. C. C'arns
J. F. Zediker
W. B. Cummins
Josiah Rogers
1. W. Matthews
W. H. Sterns
C. E. Hunter
William A. Gwyer
L. B. Thorne
T. S. Clark
Guy A. Brown, Secretary
(. L. Mather, Assistant Secretary
1876. The grasshopper scourge, which had continued through 1875, was still a perplexing problem to the people of Nebraska, and in October of this year a meeting of numerous western governors was called to discuss this trouble. In the political campaign of this year Governor Garber was renominated and re-elected.
The twelfth session of the legislature was called to meet on December 5, 1876, to pass upon the question of the legality of the election of Amasa Cobb to the office of presidential elector, and Judge Cobb was chosen by ballot, in joint con- vention of both houses. The thirteenth session was held on the same day, December 5, for the purpose of canvassing the popular vote cast for the state ticket and congressmen.
1877. GOVERNOR GARBER'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION. The fourteenth session of the Legislature convened in regular session, January 2, 1877. The Senate, with the advent of the lieutenant governor as a state officer now took a little different form in its presiding officiate. Lieutenant Governor Othman A. Abbott became the regular presiding officer. Senator George F. Blanchard became President pro tempore, and D. H. Wheeler was secretary. In the House. Hon. Albinus
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Nance was speaker and B. D. Slaughter, chief elerk. In the usual contest for United States Senator, Ex-Governor Alvin Saunders won. Another energetic attempt to remove the Capital from Lincoln ensued, and failed, and this question quieted down until 1911. One of the important pieces of legislation at this ses- sion was the passage of a bill forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquors within three miles of any place where a religious society was assembled for religious worship in a field or woodland. Grasshopper legislation played an important. part. Other subjects were the creation of a state board of immigration, and provisions regulating the submission of amendments to the Constitution.
1828. In May of this year, Judge Daniel E. Gantt, chief justice of the state supreme court died, and in a few days following. Hon. Amasa Cobb was appointed to fill the vacaney on that court. The President approved the bill in June, to permit holding United States district and circuit court at Lincoln. Steps were taken in August toward the organization of a state historical society. The banner of the republican state ticket was led in this year by Albinus Nanee as the vic- torious gubernatorial candidate.
1879. GOVERNOR NANCE'S ADMINISTRATION. The Eighth Legislature con- vened in fifteenth session, January 2, 1879, and adjourned on February 25. Lieut. Gov. Edmund C. Carns, presiding over the Senate, with Hon. William Mar- shall, as president pro tem., and Sherwood Burr, secretary; and in the House, Hon. C. P. Mathewson was speaker, and B. D. Slaughter again chief clerk. This legislature made provision that all impeachments of state officers should be tried by the supreme court, except for supreme judges, by all district judges. The new United States court house and postoffice at Lincoln was completed and ready for occupancy in January. A legislative investigation of the University was a feature of this year's session. Ex-President Grant visited Omaha during Novem- ber of this year.
1880. In the political campaign of this year, the republicans accorded a renomination to Governor Nance, who led the state ticket to victory again.
1881. GOVERNOR NANCE'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION. The ninth legislature in sixteenth session convened January 4, 1881, and remained in session until February 26th. Lieutenant Governor Carns presided over the Senate, with John B. Dinsmore, of Clay County, as President pro tem., and Sherwood Burr, remain- ing as secretary. In the House, H. H. Shedd of Saunders County was speaker and B. D. Slaughter remained chief clerk. Van Wyck won the U. S. senatorship over Paddock in this session. The really important achievement of this session was the initiation of the Slocumh Law. This Act gave the local licensing boards discretionary power, and so increased the license fee, that it materially decreased the number of saloons, and for more than forty years remained a very effective weapon of regulation, until statewide prohibition came. The high skill of the work of John H. Ames, and his colleagues Alexander II. Connor, of Kearney, and Stephen H. Calhoun, of Nebraska City, as the committee on revision which had this aet in charge, and their assisting colleagues in this session of the legislature was attested by the fact that no changes were later made in this act, in more than forty years of its active usefulness.
This year, 1881, saw the formal organization of a movement destined to grow into importance, The Farmer's Alliance. Another organization destined to play a persistent part and put up a hopeful struggle for many years, was the Nebraska
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woman suffrage association, which had a 49 year struggle before it was to see the full accomplishment of its hopes, in 1920. A woman suffrage amendment was pushed through the House in 1881, but a prohibition amendment failed that year. This was a year of great floods, with their attendant distress and disaster, especially at Lincoln, Omaha, Nebraska City, Humboldt. Roea, Sterling, and Brownville. Ex-Senator P. W. Hitchcock, father of Nebraska's present U. S. Senator, G. M. Hitchcock ( 1920), died on July 10th.
1882. A strike on the B. & M. Railroad of laborers necessitated calling eight companies of militia and three companies of regulars in March. In April, Governor Nanee called the Legislature to meet on May 2d in special session (the tenth special session ), and it convened for a session of thirteen business days, terminating on May 24th. Its call showed among other purposes were to divide the state into three congressional districts, regulate the powers of cities of first class, and assign Custer County ; to provide for expenses incurred in quelling the recent riots in Omaha, mentioned above, and to give assent to the act of Congress to extend the northern boundary of the state. A report was made upon a voluminous investiga- tion of bribery charges that had been made, growing out of railroad legislation in the session of 1881. The men involved were acquitted, but the member in question and the lieutenant governor found to have merited the solemn criticism of the House, but the substitute motion providing for the same lost by one vote. This year saw the organization of a state anti-monopoly league at Lincoln, and also in the fall, an anti-prohibition convention was held at Omaha. A greenback convention was held at Lincoln, in September.
We are now approaching a decade, in which for something less than ten years a series of unsuccessful attempts were made to procure reform legislation, and to com- bat the insidious hold that had been gained by the railroad interests upon the poli- tical affairs of the state. This had been attained by a most liberal use of the "pass privilege" not only to state officials, legislators, court officials and employes. but to professional men and political workers in almost every community and in those days was hardly considered "wrong" as it is viewed in the early years of the twentieth century. The Omaha Bee, in these early years of the eighties often waxed very defiant of the "corporation control" of the dominant party, the republican. The republicans nominated James W. Dawes, of Saline County, for governor, and the democrats chose J. Sterling Morton. In their platform they attacked the issuance of free passes to public officers and sought legislation against the practice and generally denounced railroad interference with political conventions. Dawes easily defeated Morton, and the woman suffrage amendment to the constitution was defeated almost two to one. But the democrats elected their candidate for state treasurer this year.
1883. GOVERNOR DAWES' FIRST ADMINISTRATION. The tenth legislature, in eighteenth session, convened January 2, 1883, adjourning on February 26. Lieut. Gov. Alfred N. Agee was president of the Senate, with Alexander H. Connor, of Buffalo County, president pro tem., and G. L. Brown, as secretary, succeeding Sherwood Burr, who had served for three terms. In the House, George M. Humphrey, of Pawnee County, was speaker, and D. B. Slaughter, for his fifth successive term, was chief clerk. Charles F. Manderson was elected United States Senator to succeed Saunders. The democrats instead of making hay while the anti-monopoly sun was rising, supported their two strong, but rather reactionary party leaders, Morton and Vol. 1-12
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J. E. Boyd. Of course, in those days, just as now, forty years later, each party had its two widely divergent elements, radical or progressive as now called, and ultra- conservative, or reactionary, as in modern parlance, termed. With four of her sons on the republican ticket holding a very even lead at the start, Manderson, Saunders, then senator, J. H. Millard and John C. Cowin, Douglas County was pretty sure of the prize. The construction of the new capitol was authorized at this session. Judicial districts in the state were increased from the constitutional number of six, to ten. Legislative investigation ensued for both the insane hospital and the penitentiary. An attempt to create a railroad commission passed the House, but failed in the Senate. A dozen other proposed measures reflected the growing anti- railroad monopoly feeling. The construction of the capitol was moving along. The west wing. finally constructed at a total cost of $83,178.81, was finished by the close of 1881, and Contractor Stout finished the east wing, at a final cost of $108,247.92, in 1882.
1884. In their May convention the republicans of the state tabled, by a small margin, a motion to declare a preference for James G. Blaine. In the August con- vention, the republicans re-nominated Dawes for governor, while the democrats for a third time chose J. Sterling Morton, to face defeat. An amendment to extend legislative sessions carried this year, but the one to provide a railroad commission failed. The corner-stone of the state capitol was laid on July 15th.
1885. GOVERNOR DAWES' SECOND ADMINISTRATION. The eleventh legislature met, in nineteenth session, January 6, 1885. Its adjournment was on March 5th. Lieutenant Governor Shedd was president and Church Howe, president pro tem., and Sherwood Burr returned for another session as secretary ; while in the House, Allen W. Field of Lincoln was speaker, and J. F. Zedicker was chief clerk. There was a legislative investigation of school funds, and appropriations provided for many unfinished matters from prior years.
1886. In January of this year, the supreme court decided that counties must pay for the upkeep of their insane patients. The republicans in this year chose General John M. Thayer as their successful standard-bearer, and his opponent was James E. North, of Columbus.
1884. GOVERNOR THAYER'S ADMINISTRATION. The twelfth legislature, met in twentieth session, on January 4, 1887, and stayed until March 31st. Lieut. Gov. H. H. Shedd, presided over the Senate, with George D. Meiklejohn, of Nance County, as president pro tem., and W. M. Seeley as Secretary ; while in the House, N. V. Harlan of York was speaker, and B. D. Slaughter, again chief clerk. A bureau of labor was established at this session, as was a state board of pharmacy. This latter consisted of the attorney-general, secretary of state, anditor, treasurer and commissioner of public lands and buildings. A state inspector of oils, at $2,000 per annum was provided for. The labor bureau was one destined not to become of great importance until some thirty years later. These boards are mentioned at this point, mainly, as being the early members of a flock of such boards that sprang up in the following three decades. The old Constitution of 1825 efid not allow the formation of new executive offices. This was circumvented, as the necessity for further bureaus and state departments became evident and pressing, by creating boards or bureaus, with the governor and other state elective officers as members, or head, and then providing for a deputy, or secretary, or inspector, who drew the salary, conducted the department, and was particularly. the "political general."
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This continued until in 1915, when under Governor Morehead, consolidation of these departments, and bureaus, then numbering almost thirty, was begun, and in 1919, when under Governor Mckelvie, the new Civil Administrative Code was enacted, around twenty such boards, commissions and bureaus still existed, and the Constitutional Convention of 1920 provided for the creation of new departments, and new executive officers, to do away with this process of circumvention, and dupli- cation.
The session of 1885, provided for a three cent passenger fare, reducing the existing three and half and four cent a mile rates. The board of railroad com- missioners was abolished and a "board of transportation" established. In January, 1887, the first state convention of Woman Suffrage Society was addressed by Miss Susan B. Anthony. Algernon S. Paddock, who had been territorial secretary with Governor Saunders in the last years preceding statehood, was elected United State Senator, the office some years before held by Saunders. In March of this year, George L. Miller retired from the editorship of the World-Herald. Dr. Miller generally allied with the faction of which Boyd was another leader and opposed to the Morton faction was a great factor in the party proceedings of those days. Arrayed likewise against the shrewd and aggressive Edward Rosewater, of the Omaha Bee, the keen rivalry, and what even might be termed feud, of those two great state newspapers was engendered. An asylum for the insane was located at Ilastings in this 1887 session. In October of this year, President Grover Cleveland stopped in Omaha. In November, the supreme court of the state upheld the power of the new board of transportation to fix rates. In this same month, Mayor A. J. Sawyer and the city council of Lincoln were incarcerated in the Douglas County jail, and fined for contempt by Judge Brewer, but ten days later released by order of U. S. Attorney General Garland. This action arose from a hearing before the city council in which the police judge was being tried upon charges of accepting fines from certain law violating interests upon immunity for their acts. During an adjourmment after which the entire council was to pass upon the defendant's case, the order was secured at St. Louis interfering with the council's course ; and when the council later removed the police judge and appointed another, the "fireworks" started.
1888. In January, the U. S. supreme court reversed Circuit Judge Brewer's decision in the habeas corpus case of the Lincoln city council. The Union Pacific obtained an injunction to restrain the board of transportation from interfering with their seale of rates. January 12, Nebraska was visited by the great blizzard, elsewhere treated in this work. In February, the great railroad strike on the Burlington started, and in March, Judge Dundy granted the railroad an injunction against the strikers. This was a presidential campaign year, and in the outset, Nebraska took one notable part when John M. Thurston was made temporary chairman of the national republican convention at Chicago. Governor Thayer was accorded a renomination by the republicans, and his opponent was John A. McShane of Omaha. In their platform this year, the democrats began what developed into an habitual pounding of the republican creation, "a trust."
1889. GOVERNOR THAYER'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION. The thirteenth legis- lature met in eleventh regular session (dropping a count of the ten extra sessions) January 1, 1889, and remained in session until March 30th, the sixty-seventh day. Geo. D. Meiklejohn, the president pro tem., of the last Senate now presided in his
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clear right as lieutenant governor, with Church Howe again president pro tem., and W. M. Seeley again secretary while in the House, John C. Watson, of Otoe County. was speaker. and Bradner D. Slaughter, of Nance County, for the seventh and last time was chief clerk. Agitation over Attorney-General Leese's report favoring throwing the Union Pacific Railroad into receivership, selling it and hav- ing the state control it: over having a state railroad commission, and over the Omaha police commission law were features of the opening of this session. It was a fairly quiet, and somewhat reactionary session, ominons of the storm about to break forth in Nebraska politics in the next few years. Among the three amend- ments to the constitution which this legislature submitted, two respecting increase of supreme judges from three to five, and the salaries to $3,500 and distriet judges' salaries at $3,000 the remaining one was the really important step of the session. This was the submission of prohibition to a vote of the people. The wording of this amendment was "The manufacture, sale and keeping for sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage are forever prohibited in this state, and the legislature shall provide by law for the enforcement of this provision." The demo- erats opposed it and the republicans were somewhat divided. A. E. Cady offered an additional proposition, that "The manufacture and sale and keeping for sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage shall be licensed and regulated by law." Charles F. Manderson was re-elected U. S. Senator, the first of Nebraska senators to be accorded a re-election to a full second term of another six years, Tipton hav- ing only served a partial term before his re-election.
Forecasting the growing influence of the Farmers' Alliance movement, was the filing of articles of incorporation with capital stock at $150,000 of the Custer County Farmers' Alliance purchasing and selling corporation. Congressman James Laird died at Hastings, in August of this year. In September, the Union Pacific Railroad employes at Omaha federated in the Brotherhood of Railway Employees, another movement portending future developments. In October, occurred the death of Hon. Guy A. Brown, state librarian and elerk of the state supreme court.
1890. In January, the state board of agriculture located the state fair at Lincoln for five years; and the central shops of the Burlington were located at Havelock in the summer of this year. A conference of anti-monopoly republicans was held in May. This was the year in which the populist outbreak started in Nebraska. On July 29th, a state convention met at Lincoln, composed of representa- tives of the Farmers' Alliance. State Grange and Knights of Labor, and this body nominated for governor, John H. Powers, of Hitchcock County, president of the Alliance. Charles H. VanWyck was his chief contender for this nomination, and then refused to take the consolation prize of a congressional nomination. To add to the growing confusion. Governor Thayer had in May issued a call for a special session of the legislature to convene on June 5th. Its purposes were to abolish the transportation board, pass a maximum railroad rate law, adopt the Australian ballot and act upon currency legislation. The furore created by this move forced its recall and revocation within a week. The republicans in July nominated for governor. Imcius D. Richards, of Dodge County, and the democrats chose James E. Boyd. Another milestone in this year's campaign was the nomination for Congress in the first district of William JJ. Bryan. Boyd for governor received 71,331 votes. Powers, 20,137, and so complete was the revulsion that Richards, the republican, ran third with 68,828, but the rest of the republican state ticket pulled
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through by small majorities, ranging close to 4.000. To Congress the opposing candidates were elected and republicans beaten in each district. William J. Bryan defeating Wm. J. Connell; William A. MeKeighan defeating N. V. Harlan; Omer M. Kem defeating both Dorsey, republican, and W. Il. Thompson, democrat. The prohibition amendment was defeated by a vote of 82,293 for and 111,728 against ; a majority against it being but a few thousand more than the majority of over 22,000 cast against it in Douglas County. During this year, the citizens in the western part of the state were suffering from the loss of their crops. Despite the denial of Governor Thayer in March that any of the people in Nebraska needed help, in April, the governor and Robert R. Greer, president of the state board of agriculture, appealed to the state to aid the settlers in Cheyenne, Kimball, Scotts Bluff and Banner counties, and in November. the governor and the mayor of Lincoln joined in a call for a meeting to devise means to help these western settlers in the state. Rev. Geo. W. Martin was appointed superintendent of relief and Rev. Luther P. Ludden, superintendent of distribution of this work, and about ten days later an advisory board and treasurer were appointed. In December, the citizens of Chadron appealed for protection from the Indians, and one of Governor Thayer's last important official acts was to send to them one company of militia from Long Pine and order companies at Fremont, Tekamah and Central City to be in readiness. About a week later he had to order out another company of militia to quell impending riots in the legislative hall. The exit of Governor Thayer from the executive duties was occasioned with con- siderable stir and excitement. He refused to turn over the governorship to James E. Boyd, and fortified the executive offices. So the state had two governors. Thayer held down the regular executive offices and Boyd established himself in the old board of transportation quarters. Thayer then applied to the supreme court for a writ of quo warranto against Governor-elect Boyd, and on January 15. Thayer vacated the executive offices, surrendering to Governor-elect Boyd, reserving any rights he might have thereto until the decision of the supreme court could be forth- coming. On February 6th the two governors delivered their message to the Legislature.
GOVERNOR BOYD'S ADMINISTRATION. 1891. The fourteenth legislature con- vened in the twelfth regular session on January 6th, and remained in session for seventy-one days, the longest record then attained by any session, with adjournment on April 4th. Thomas J. Majors, so long a prominent figure in Nebraska govern- mental cireles, was presiding officer of the Senate, as lieutenant governor, and W. A. Poynter, later governor, as president pro tem .; with C. H. Pirtle as secretary : while in the house. Hon, Samuel M. Elder, independent, of ('lay County, was speaker, and Eric Johnson, chief clerk. While in this initial campaign the independents had not won the governorship, they took all of the elective offices of both houses unto themselves. A controversy arose over the right of retiring Lieutenant- Governor Meiklejohn to preside over the joint convention of the two houses, which was claimed by Speaker Elder, so that the election of Boyd might be declared. Then to add to the confusion, the contest of Powers against Boyd's election came on for hearing, based upon a claim that while Boyd appeared to have a plurality of 1,114 votes over the other candidates, some 2,000 persons were bribed in Douglas County to vote for Boyd. What a trial might have disclosed will never be known, for a most emphatic denial of any trial eut short this contest. The advent of Gov-
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