USA > Wisconsin > An illustrated history of the state of Wisconsin : being a complete civil, political, and military history of the state, from its first exploration down to 1875 > Part 24
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By the act of the legislature, approved Feb. 28, 1857, the governor and secretary of state were authorized to adopt a plan, and contract for the east wing of the building. On the 27th of April, plans were received from seven architects; and the one submitted by Messrs. Kutzbock and Donnell was accepted; and after the time elapsed for receiving proposals from contractors, and the same being opened, the contract was awarded to John Ryecraft of Milwaukee, as being the lowest bidder, at ninety-two thousand dollars. Mr. Ryecraft subse- quently gave up his contract; and it was awarded to A. A. McDonnell. The work was immediately commenced, and was completed, and occupied by the assembly, in 1859. A particular account of this wing will hereafter be given.
The Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad Company completed their road to the Mississippi in the month of April, 1857. It was an occasion of great rejoicing. On the 16th of that month, an excursion-trip was made, which was largely attended. The opening of this road promised great results to the western part of the State, which had been entirely cut off from railroad communication with the lake shore. In a accordance with the act of the legislature, approved Feb. 28, 1857, enabling the regents of the State University to borrow forty thousand dollars from the principal of the university fund for the construction of the main edifice of the university, to which reference has before been made, the board of regents, after due consulta- tion, adopted a plan for the edifice of the Roman Doric style
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of architecture, combining beauty of outline with convenience of internal arrangement. The drawings were furnished by William Tinsley of Indianapolis, an architect of experience and reputation. The edifice was to contain a chapel, a lecture- room for each department, with study annexed for the use of the professor, apartments for library, apparatus, cabinet, and for collections in natural science and in art.
The plan was accepted, and the contract for the building awarded to James Campbell for the entire work, to be complete at $36,550 ; he being the lowest bidder. The stone- work of the basement story was in an advanced state of forwardness in the fall of 1857; and it was expected that it would be completed before winter, so as to enable the building- committee to complete the whole structure before the first day of November, 1858. The committee in their report say, " The exterior plan of the building is a model of architecture, impos- ing and massive; and the internal arrangements are such as to most fully meet the wants and necessities of the institution in all its several apartments. The ground was broken for the construction of the building on the 1st of June, 1857. The following is a brief account of its arrangement. It stands on the highest point of ground in the university park, one hundred feet above the level of Lake Mendota, and the water table of the structure will be more elevated than the dome of the present (old) Capitol. The general design of the building is a parallelogram, one hundred and forty by seventy feet, and about sixty feet to the cornice, to be surmounted by a dome whose extreme height will be nearly one hundred and fifty feet. It is not, however, a building of plain surface, like those now erected, but is broken by angles and projections, securing additional convenience, and higher architectural effect; giving adequate space for its cabinet collections, laboratory, scientific apparatus, libraries, reading-rooms, society-rooms," &c.
At the first meeting of the commissioners of the State Lunatic Asylum, held May 5, 1857, L. J. Farwell was elected president, J. P. McGregor secretary, and Levi Sterling build- ing-superintendent; and they employed Stephen V. Shipman as architect. After the adoption of plans, specifications, and detailed drawings, notice was published in every city in the
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State, that proposals would be received until Sept 1, 1957, for doing all the work, and furnishing all the materials, in accordance with the plan and specifications.
On the 1st of September, the bids were opened, and the contract awarded to Nelson McNiel of Portage City, as the best bidder, for building the central or main building, one longitudinal, and one transverse wing for the sum of seventy- three thousand five hundred dollars. Mr. McNiel, after making some progress on the work, finally abandoned the same, and threw up his contract, which caused much delay in the comple- tion of the building.
From the first annual report of the commissioners appointed to locate and erect a house of refuge for juvenile delinquents, the commissioners inform us that they accepted an invitation to attend a convention at the New York House of Refuge in the month of May, where seventeen institutions were represented, and also the institutions located at Rochester, N.Y., Massachu- setts Reform School at Westborough, and other institutions, from which they received much valuable information. On their return, they adopted the plan of the Maine State Reform School. The plan of building consisted of three detached parallel buildings, each fifty-nine feet distant, and all united by a narrow corridor nine feet wide, set in the centre, and across each building, extending through the whole, adapting all in their internal accommodation, and external view, in appearance, to one building. The central building was sixty-four by one hundred feet, four stories high above the basement. The side-buildings were to be fifty-seven by ninety-four feet, and three stories above the basement ; the corridor two stories above the base- ment, to be built of Waukesha stone. The whole cost of the structure, when completed, it was thought would exceed largely the appropriation of twenty thousand dollars. The institution is located at Waukesha, twenty miles west of Milwaukee, and situated on the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad. Sixty acres of land were to be donated to the State for the purchase of the location; and eleven acres additional were to be pur- chased. A portion of the work was put under contract to be completed the same season so as to afford accommodations for . eighty boys.
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Agreeably to law, the plan adopted, and the contract for building, were approved by Hon. Coles Bashford, governor, David W. Jones, secretary of state, and William R. Smith, attorney-general.
The Democratic State Convention for the nomination of State officers was held at Madison, Aug. 28, 1857. Quite a spirited time was had. On the third formal ballot, James B. Cross received eighty-nine votes for governor ; J. C. Fairchild, thirty- seven votes ; F. Huebschmann, fourteen ; and a number scatter- ing. Mr. Cross was nominated. Edward D. Campbell received eighty-three votes for lieutenant-governor, and Henry M. Billings, fifty-one. Mr. Campbell was declared nominated. The other candidates put in nomination were David W. Jones for secretary of state ; Charles Habich, state treasurer ; Gabriel Bouck, attorney-general ; Lyman C. Draper, superintendent of public instruction ; J. C. Squires, bank comptroller; Edward McGarry, state-prison commissioner.
The Republican State Convention met on the 2d of Septem- ber. The following persons were nominated : governor, Alex- ander W. Randall ; lieutenant-governor, Carl Schurz ; sec- retary of state, J. L. V. Thomas ; treasurer, S. D. Hastings ; attorney-general, M. M. Jackson; bank comptroller, J. P. McGregor; superintendent of public instruction, J. G. McMynn ; state-prison commissioner, E. McGraw.
At the election in November, A. W. Randall, Republican, was elected governor by 454 majority ; E. D. Campbell, Demo- crat, lieutenant-governor by 107 majority ; D. W. Jones, Democrat, secretary of state, 1,886 majority ; S. D. Hastings, Republican, treasurer, 379 majority ; Gabriel Bouck, Democrat, attorney-general, 516 majority ; L. C. Draper, Democrat, super- intendent of public instruction, 391 majority ; J. C. Squires, Democrat, bank comptroller, 835 majority ; and Edward M. McGraw, Republican, State-prison commissioner.
The year 1857 will be remembered by many as a disastrous one in a financial point of view. Early in the fall, what is known as a monetary panic came over the country ; and the Western States felt it severely, and Wisconsin among the num- ber. A number of prominent merchants were obliged to yield to the pressure and scarcity of money, and close up their places
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of business. The following statistics are from the report of the secretary of state for the year 1856 : -
Aggregate number of acres of land assessed .
11,891,920
Aggregate valuation per acre
ยท
$3.22
Aggregate valuation of land assessed .
$38,268,908
Aggregate valuation of city and village lots
10,423,839
Aggregate valuation of personal property
5,524,455
Aggregate assessed
54,217,202
Valuation equalized
150,000,000
State tax, ratio two mills
300,000
The
CROSSCUP & WEST-SC.PHILA
W. C. Mitford.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. RANDALL.
Events of 1858- The Governor's Message - Alleged Frauds concerning Land Grants - The Investigation - Bill for the Removal of the Capital to Milwaukee - Legislation.
THE administration of Coles Bashford as governor of the State closed on the fourth day of January, 1858. On that day, the inauguration of the new State officers took place at ten, A.M. Only the governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, and superintendent of public instruction, were present, of the new officers. Quite a number of the citizens of Madison were present, though not as many as usual, owing to a misunder- standing as to the time of the inauguration. The oath of office was administered to Alexander W. Randall, governor ; David W. Jones, secretary of state ; Samuel D. Hastings, state treasurer ; and Lyman C. Draper, state superintendent of public instruc- tion ; and, subsequently, to William H. Watson, Gov. Randall's private secretary, by Hon. Orsamus Cole, one of the justices of the Supreme Court. The other officers elect were expected to arrive during the day. Gov. Randall appointed Rufus Parks superintendent of public property, and Horace Rublee, state librarian. Gen. J. Duane Ruggles was appointed assistant secretary of state ; F. A. Scofield, assistant state treasurer ; and S. H. Carpenter, assistant superintendent of public instruction.
The eleventh session of the legislature was held on the 13th of January, 1858, and adjourned on the 17th of March, after an unusually long session of one hundred and twenty-five days.
In the senate, Hon. E. D. Campbell, lieutenant-governor elect, took his seat as president, and J. L. V. Thomas was elected secretary, and Nathan L. Stout sergeant-at-arms. In
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the assembly, Frederick S. Lovell was elected speaker, L. H. D. Crane chief clerk, and Francis Massing sergeant-at-arms. The political complexion of the legislature was as follows : senate, eighteen Republicans and twelve Democrats; the assembly, fifty-one Republicans and forty-six Democrats. Gov. Randall in his message gives the following statistics : estimated receipts for the year 1858, 8525,824.25, and the revenue to meet the same, 8455,478.59, - a deficit of 870,345.66 ; and says in regard to the same, " The report presents a gloomy prospect for the tax-payers of the State, especially in the present time of great financial distress ; " but he added, " This deficit will be reduced by the issue and sale of fifty thousand dollars of State bonds to replace that number which are due the present year, and for the payment of which the new bonds will be issued and sold." He reports the whole number of school-children in the State as 241,647, an increase of 27,761 over the number reported for the previous year ; the number of children who had attended the public schools, 153,613; and the amount apportioned to the schools in March, 1857, sixty-six cents to each scholar ; and the apparent amount to be apportioned the present year, about 8230,000, nearly ninety-five cents to each pupil. He further reported that there were fifty-seven pupils in the Deaf and Dumb Institution, and twenty in the Institute for the Blind ; that the commissioners of the Hospital for the Insane had let the contract for the building, and progress had been made in the work; that the productive fund of the university was 8315,913.46, giving an income of $22,116.74. The institution had one hun- dred and sixty-four students in attendance. He said that the State Historical Society had a library of over four thousand volumes, and about the same number of unbound documents and pamphlets, a collection of forty oil portraits, and a cabinet of geological and antiquarian specimens ; and he recommended every reasonable facility for its substantial prosperity. He gave a few statistics of the agricultural productions of the State for the year, as reported to the secretary of state; viz., barley, 409,000 bushels ; corn, 5,100,790 bushels ; oats, 6,312,304 bushels; potatoes, 2,318,694 bushels ; wheat, 8,717,756 bushels ; butter, 6,655,686 pounds; and 22,706,700 pounds of lead ; and he recommended important amendments to the banking-law.
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
He reported that the whole number of banking associations organized and doing business in the State was seventy-five, of which number twenty-seven were organized in 1857; the whole amount of circulating notes to January, 1858, was 83,215,488, which were secured by the deposit of public stock and specie in the sum of $3,862,041; that the revision of laws under the law of 1857 was nearly completed. He referred to excessive local legislation, and to the enforcement of the laws on that subject, and recommended a change in the assessment laws. He referred to the Pacific Railroad, which he heartily recom- mended, and to the slavery question, which was greatly agitating the country, and took strong party grounds against its extension into new Territories. He also referred to the grave charges that had been made the previous year, of corrupt conduct in the legislature, which disposed of the grants of land donated to the State for railroad purposes, and recommended a thorough inves- gation of the same.
On the 21st of January, the select committee of the assembly, to whom had been referred that portion of the governor's mes- sage relating to alleged frauds and corrupt conduct in relation to land-grants, made a report, and recommended the adoption of the following resolution : -
" Resolved, by the assembly, the senate concurring, that a committee of three members of the senate, and five of the assembly, be raised, whose duty shall be fully and impartially to investigate into the frauds, bribery, and corrupt acts reported or alleged to have been perpetrated or committed by members of the legislature or others, in the disposal, or procuring the dispo- sal by the legislature of 1856, of the lands granted to the State to aid in the construction of railroads, by act of Congress approved June 3, 1856, &c .; and that same joint committee and a majority thereof are hereby vested with plenary power to perform and discharge this duty, and may send for and compel the attendance of witnesses, and the production of papers, documents, and records, with power to employ one or more clerks, to administer oaths, and to report to the legislature the facts found, and the testimony taken by them."
This resolution was passed by the assembly, and concurred in by the senate, and the committee appointed, of which Hon. Denison Worthington was chairman. On the 13th of May, the committee made a voluminous report on the subject, with the testimony taken in the case. Many persons of political and
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personal high standing were involved more or less by the report. How far all the charges, light or heavy, are sustained by the testimony, must be left to the judgment of the people of the State. Many who had been supposed to have been deeply implicated were but little, if any, involved in any crim- inal action ; and others, whose purity had been regarded as above suspicion, were believed to be guilty.
The members of both political parties were involved in the charges preferred and in the result. It appears by the report, that thirteen senators and fifty-nine members of the assembly were implicated ; also the bank-comptroller, lieutenant-governor, private secretary of the governor, a judge of the supreme court, three officers of the assembly, and some twenty-three prominent lobbyists and public men interested in the land- grant. Bonds and stock to the par value of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars were given or assigned to the sena- tors ; four of whom received or were assigned the sum of twenty thousand dollars, and the remainder ten thousand dollars each. In the assembly, bonds and stock were assigned to the value of three hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars; one of which, to the amount of twenty thousand dollars; eight, ten thousand dol- lars each ; and the remainder, five thousand dollars each. One senator who voted for the land-grant bill in the senate declined receiving his share ; and in the assembly four members voted for the bill who had no bonds assigned them ; and in the sen- ate four members voted for the bill, but had no bonds. Those who voted against the passage of the bill in both houses, to the number of eighteen, were excluded from any participation in the benefits being distributed. The three State officers received ten thousand dollars each, and the private secretary of the governor five thousand dollars.
In making out the list of persons who were to be the recipi- ents of bonds, the amount designated on the book was given opposite their respective names. The committee report that the figures indicated the number of bonds, of one thousand dollars each, that were to go to some one; making in all the sum of fifty thousand dollars. In the list were five dashes. These dashes were intended to represent the governor, Coles Bashford. This is quite evident from a reply to a question propounded to
Dio tized
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
Byron Kilbourn, as to who was the person thus indicated. He was asked if it was the governor. He replied that the inquirer " was a very good guesser."
It is not necessary to go further into details in relation to this affair. It created great excitement all over the State, as well as at the East, much to the discredit of the people of Wisconsin. It may be proper to give the names of some of the parties whose names are given as the recipients of these pecuniary favors, who subsequently denied receiving them ; but we forego the temptation.
Among other measures that were before the legislature was a bill, introduced toward the close of the session, for the re- moval of the State capital, temporarily, to Milwaukee. The bill came up on its passage, the 15th of May, in the assembly, having been ordered to a third reading the day before. The closest vote of the session was had on it. On the first vote there was a tie, the speaker not voting. Mr. J. H. Knowlton (opposed to the bill) changed his vote for it, which carried it, and immediately moved a reconsideration. The reconsidera- tion was carried by one majority, - thirty-nine to thirty-eight. The final vote was then taken ; and there was an exact tie, every man voting. As it requires a majority to carry a bill, it was of course lost.
The history of this movement is a singular one. It was begun only in jest ; but, by one means or another, it grew into a serious matter, and came so near success, that, on the day pre- vious, the proposition had a majority of six in the assembly. The attempt only anchored more firmly the capital at its pres- ent advantageous location.
There was considerable feeling in the legislature in reference to the management of the affairs of the State University ; and a committee, of which Temple Clark of the senate was chairman, made a report on the same, to the effect that certain changes should be made. In consequence of the public sentiment ex- pressed, the board of regents, at their meeting on the 2d and 3d of June, 1858, passed an ordinance embodying the plan of organization, in its main features, of the assembly bill on the subject ; organizing the department of " science, literature, and the arts," of the following schools : agriculture, commerce, engi-
CROSSCUP & WEST-SC.PHIL
JEllaman
e
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HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
neering, natural science, philology, philosophy, and polity ; the establishing of five scholarships yielding one hundred dollars per annum each, to be awarded, on examination, to meritori- ous young men desirous of pursuing an extended course in any of the university schools. The department of " science, liter- ature, and the arts " was to report to the Board a system of higher graduation. All schools or chairs of instruction pre- viously established in the university, by ordinance or otherwise, were abolished ; and all appointments in the same were de- clared to be null and void. This ordinance was to go into full force and effect at the opening of the next academic year, on the fourth Wednesday of September, 1858. A committee of correspondence was appointed to report to the July meeting of the Board. At the adjourned meeting, July 29, Chancel- lor Lathrop resigned his position ; which was accepted, and resolutions adopted, testifying to his untiring devotion to the interests of the institution, and that his long and faithful administration met with their unqualified approval. On the day following, the regents elected the following persons as . professors : Hon. J. H. Lathrop, LL.D., professor of ethical and political science ; Daniel Read, professor of mental phi- losophy, logic, &c. ; J. W. Sterling, professor of mathematics and natural philosophy ; Ezra Carr, professor of chemistry and natural history ; J. D. Butler, professor of ancient lan- guages; J. C. Pickard, professor of modern languages ; and Henry Barnard, LL.D., of Hartford, Conn., as chancellor.
The legislature passed one hundred and fifty-five bills of a general nature, and two hundred and eighty-one of a private and local character, five joint resolutions, and forty-one memo- rials to Congress. The following are a few of the more impor- tant general laws passed : to authorize the borrowing of money, on the faith and credit of the State, for the purpose of defray- ing extraordinary expenditures, and fifty thousand dollars of State bonds to be issued and sold for that purpose ; for the for- mation of county agricultural societies ; to provide for the incorporation of academies and other institutions of learning ; to provide for disposing of the drainage fund, and the distribu- tion of the interest thereof ; for the organization, enrolling, and discipline of the militia of the State; to amend an act entitled
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"An Act to authorize the Business of Banking ;" an act relat- ing to the public printing ; to amend the law relating to the as- sessment and collection of taxes ; to amend the law on offences against the public policy ; a strong anti-gambling law ; to pro- vide for levying a State tax for 1858, of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; to authorize the governor to visit the several State and public institutions in other States, and to appropriate seven hundred and fifty dollars for services and expenses incurred in so doing ; and in relation to the publica- tion of the revised statutes. To summarize : there were thirty- eight laws amending general laws, ten relative to circuit courts, eighty-three amendatory to private and laws, twelve on rail- roads, twenty on schools, twenty-six State roads, fourteen on taxation.
In relation to this session of the legislature, " The Madison Patriot " says, -
"The legislature which closed its labors on the 17th will long be remem- bered as one of the most remarkable, in many respects, of all those that preceded it. That a large majority of the members were men of in- tegrity, and disposed for the public weal, cannot be doubted; but they were nearly all new members, and without former legislative experience. They set out to accomplish a great good, by holding up to public scorn and execration the wholesale briberies and iniquities of the immediate past : but they lacked concentration of effort; and, for want of union and precon- certed action, they failed to achieve the great triumph they sought, by pro- viding a 'sovereign remedy' for the evils they exposed. Although the business of legislation was greatly retarded by the various investigations, still the revision of the statutes consumed less time than was reasonably expected. This massive work passed through the forms of legislation nearly as perfect as it came from the revisers, -a compliment to the com- mission, of no mean magnitude."
On the 15th of June, bids were opened for the printing of the Revised Statutes as authorized by the legislature ; and the same was awarded to W. B. Keen of Chicago as the lowest bidder.
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