History of Nebraska - Chapters 13-14



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CHAPTER XIII
THE TERRITORY UNDER PARTY ORGANIZATION -- THE FIRST PARTY CAMPAIGNS -- 
DAILY-ESTABROOK CONTEST -- SIXTH LEGISLATURE

   THE first territorial democratic ticket was nominated by the convention 
held at Plattsmouth, August 18, 1859. General Leavitt L. Bowen of Sarpy 
county called the convention to order. Mills S. Reeves of Otoe was elected 
temporary chairman and John W. Pattison, the early journalist of Omaha but 
at this time of Dodge county, temporary secretary. Silas A. Strickland of 
Sarpy was permanent chairman, and Abel D. Kirk of Richardson, Merrill H. 
Clark of Douglas, and John W. Pattison of Dodge were permanent 
secretaries. According to the report of the committee on credentials, 
delegates were present from all of the twenty-four counties represented in 
the apportionment law of the preceding general assembly.

   The following special resolution was offered and adopted:

   Resolved, That to carry out the object set forth in resolution number 
five of the resolutions adopted by this convention, it is necessary that a 
special session of the general assembly of Nebraska territory be called 
for the purpose of authorizing the people to form a constitution 
preparatory to admission into the union as a state; and we recommend to 
his excellency, Governor Black, to call a special session of the general 
assembly for that purpose at such time as to him may seem proper.

   The chief interest of the convention centered in the choice of a 
candidate for delegate to Congress; and though Dr. Miller had won his home 
county -- Douglas -- in a contest with Estabrook, the latter was taken up 
by the convention and nominated on the ninth ballot.

   The first territorial convention which may fairly be called republican 
met in the school house at Bellevue, at 11 o'clock in the forenoon, August 
24, 1859.

   Mr. Daily was on motion declared the unanimous nominee of the 
convention, and in a speech he said that he was not a candidate of any 
section. Thayer and Bennet promised to support the nominee of the 
convention. John H. Kellom of Douglas county was nominated for school 
commissioner, Henry W. De Puy for auditor, James Sweet for treasurer, and 
Oscar F. Davis for librarian.

   Orsamus H. Irish, who led the "peoples party" delegation from Otoe 
county, strongly objected to acquiescence in the Philadelphia platform, 
and the convention was by no means harmonious.

   Though manned by the leading republicans of the territory this 
convention stealthily if not sagaciously declined to denominate itself as 
republican, and it christened its nominations the people's territorial 
ticket. Its declarations of principles were as many-sided as its name was 
equivocal. It sought comprehensively to embrace all "those citizens of 
Nebraska who disapprove the policy of the national government during the 
last six years." Its demand for a homestead law, for a Pacific railroad, 
and for statehood, and its denunciation of the slave trade paralleled 
declarations on the like subjects in the democratic platform, while its 
heroic expression of devotion to popular sovereignty outran that of its 
rival, until at the end it was emasculated by th. saving clause, "subject 
to the regulations of Congress."

   In the principal counties the democrats nominated straight legislative 
and local tickets, while the opposition was called fusion or independent. 
The democrats elected their entire territorial ticket by a majority of 
about 400, and two-thirds of the members of the house of representatives. 
The council elected the

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[image caption: EXPERIENCE ESTABROOK]

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year before being democratic, that party was again completely in-the 
saddle. The canvass of Daily and Estabrook was energetic. Estabrook's 
advantage in education and legal and political experience was more than 
set off by Daily's natural ability. In edge and staying power Daily was 
something of a diamond, but in the rough, and his forcefulness was not 
impeded by delicate moral scrupulousness. At the beginning of the 
canvass -- September 10th -- the News said of him: "We are only giving 
general circulation to a plain, unvarnished truth when we state that Mr. 
D. ranks among the most illiterate of republicans," and he won the 
sobriquet of "Skisms" by the reassuring statement in a speech at Nebraska 
City, just after his nomination, that his party, unlike the Democratic 
party, was united and free from "skisms" (schisms). The witty Irish editor 
of Dakota county observed that: "Daily is such a black republican that to 
call him an abolitionist rather improves his color." By accident or design 
Daily gained a material advantage over his opponent by his opposition to 
annexation. When Estabrook began to make capital charges against him in 
the North Platte by charging that he was a member of the Brownville 
annexation convention and there favored the scheme, his South Platte organ 
retorted that on the contrary he had made a very strong speech in the 
convention against annexation, and that as a delegate from Nemaha county 
he had voted for it under instructions but also under protest.

   In political contests both sides still continued to depend upon illegal 
votes, and an important feature of every election was a race for irregular 
returns, with the advantage of course on the side of the democrats, who 
were the final judges. The territorial board of canvassers, consisting of 
Governor Black, Chief Justice Hall, and Leavitt L. Bowen, United States 
attorney for the territory, found 300 majority for Estabrook and gave him 
the certificate of election. But if the democratic candidate had any 
advantage in this beginning his opponent could count on at least an equal 
advantage in the end -- at the hands of the now republican House to which 
his appeal would lie.

   On the 27th of October Daily made a lengthy public demand for the 
certificate of election, setting forth in particular that the 292 votes of 
Buffalo county, all returned for Estabrook, were invalid because that 
county had never been organized. Daily hinted that there were fraudulent 
returns from properly organized counties, but conceded that under the laws 
the territorial canvassers could not revise returns from such counties. He 
knew that the elections committee of Congress would take care of that part 
of his case. Though there was no minority report from the committee, the 
declaration that the report was unanimous, and that, "even Gartrell of 
Georgia, a democrat of the strictest sort, was compelled to join in 
condemning them (the election frauds) by such a report," was incorrect. 
Though Mr. Gartrell, who did most of the talking for Estabrook at the 
hearing before the House, had voted in committee, on the evidence it had, 
to oust Estabrook, he complained that no opportunity of seeing the report 
was offered him until the day when it was under discussion in the House. 
The republicans of the House, led by Mr. Campbell of Pennsylvania, who 
represented the majority of the elections committee, and Mr. Henry L. 
Dawes of Massachusetts insisted on pushing the question to a vote on the 
showing of the committee, while the southern democrats asked for delay so 
that Estabrook might offer some evidence on his side. Mr. Dawes stated 
that Estabrook "omitted entirely to take any testimony on the subject 
simply because, as he says, he supposed the contestant had made a blunder 
which would be fatal to his case, and that he could not have a hearing on 
his testimony."

   The committee found that Buffalo county had not been organized and that 
the election was therefore invalid; that 238 of the 292 votes returned 
were cast, if at all, at Kearney City, situated on the south side of the 
Platte river, which stream was the southern boundary of the county as 
defined by the act of the legislature authorizing its organization; and 
that "the proof is that there are not over eight houses and not exceeding 
fifteen residents at Kearney City." The entire vote of

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Buffalo county was therefore rejected. The thirty-two votes of Calhoun 
county -- twenty-eight for Estabrook and four for Daily -- were rejected 
because, the county not being organized, but attached to Platte county for 
election purposes, those in charge of the election there should have sent 
returns to the clerk of Platte county; while instead they were sent direct 
to the governor. The committee also found that the whole voting population 
of the county did not exceed six. So the vote of Calhoun was thrown out. 
The twenty-four votes of Izard county -- twenty-one for Estabrook and 
three for Daily -- were rejected because there were no voters at all in 
the county. The twenty-three votes of Genoa precinct, Monroe county --all 
but three for Estabrook -- were rejected because that precinct was within 
the Pawnee reservation. Sixty-eight of the one hundred and twenty-eight 
votes of L'eau-qui-court county were rejected because the committee 
concluded that there were not more than sixty voters in the county. There 
were thus subtracted 429 from Estabrook's total of 3,100 votes, leaving 
him 2,671. Daily lost ten of his original 2,800 and was left with 2,790, 
or 119 majority.

   The committee on elections were no doubt technically right in finding 
that the attempt of Governor Black to organize Buffalo county by 
appointing the county officers himself was invalid; but since it appears 
by their finding that there had been an informal election of the officers, 
it may be inferred that the wish of the committee stood in close 
relationship to their thought. A legally formal election on the Nebraska 
frontier in the '50s was about as rare and impracticable as a social 
function with Parisian manners in the same region. The act creating Hall 
county specifically authorized the governor to appoint the first county 
officers, and Black, without authority, seems to have imitated the like 
action of Acting Governor Morton a few months before.

   The legislature at the last session passed an act to organize the 
county of Hall, and Hon. J. Sterling Morton, acting governor, has 
judiciously appointed and commissioned the following officers for said 
county: Probate judge, Richard C. Barnard; sheriff, Hermann Vasold; 
recorder, Theodore F. Nagel; treasurer, Joshua Smith; justices of the 
peace, William A. Hagge, Isaac Thomas; constables, George Schultz, 
Christian Menck; county commissioners, Frederick Hedde, Daniel B. Crocker, 
Hans Vieregg. The name of "Hall" was given to this county as a compliment 
to Chief Justice Hall.

   Then follows this interesting descriptive paragraph:

   Grand Island City is the county seat of Hall county, and is situated 
forty miles west of Columbus. It is the extreme western settlement of 
Nebraska and is surrounded by a thrifty, intelligent farming population. 
The country about it is upland bottom, very fertile, and timbered and 
watered. Grand Island itself is seventy-five miles in length, and averages 
four miles in width, being heavily timbered with oak, hickory, cottonwood, 
and red cedar.

   Then comes this prophecy -- in those inexperienced times little more 
substantial that, the stuff that dreams are made of, but which 
nevertheless has already all come true:

   Hall county is destined to be one of the richest and most thickly 
settled counties in Nebraska, located as it is in the fertile valley of 
the Platte and on the great highway between Omaha and the Pacific.

   And next comes the inevitable political appreciation:

   Governor Morton has been peculiarly fortunate in the selection of his 
officers, and we know they give entire satisfaction, and are heartily 
endorsed by the people of Hall county. They are men of sterling integrity 
and sound democrats, and have long resided in our territory.

   If the names of these officers are a criterion, our early foreign 
immigrants must have been quick to appreciate the advantages of Hall 
county.

   The opposition freely charged fraud in the Daily vote, and especially 
in Richardson and Pawnee counties. The growing feeling on the slavery 
question is reflected by the contemporary press:

   Our worst apprehensions, we fear, have been more than realized with 
regard to illegal voting in Pawnee, Richardson and the entire lower tier 
of counties. The delectable leaders of the fever-heated and blood-hot 
abolitionists of Falls City, an interior, seven by nine

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town near the Kansas line in Richardson county, that supports a half dozen 
whisky shops, an equal number of dilapidated dwelling-houses and one horse 
taverns, boasted that they could "import" all the voters they wanted from 
Kansas. This is the celebrated town founded by Jim Lane, and peopled by 
him with a scurvy horde of rapscallions fresh from the "sands" of Chicago 
and the Five Points of New York, as he was on his way to the memorable 
invasion of Kansas. Is it to be wondered that in a democratic county such 
a town within a stone's throw of the Kansas line, should cast for the 
republican candidate for congress one hundred and forty-three votes out of 
one hundred and seventy-two? The town could legitimately cast perhaps 
seventy-five votes.

   Every intelligent man at all conversant with politics in Richardson 
county knows that that county is democratic by at least two hundred 
majority. Yet the democratic candidate for congress gets barely thirty-
nine majority. Pawnee county out of one hundred and forty-six votes gives 
the democratic candidate barely twenty-two votes. Does any one doubt that 
the Kansas abolitionists have played their high game of fraud and illegal 
voting?

   The Dakota City Herald made a statement in regard to the Buffalo county 
part of the case, which, while it may have been colored by partisanship, 
yet throws an interesting light on the facts and conditions pertaining to 
the elections of that year:

   The Republican papers say that there were frauds perpetrated in Fort 
Kearney and L'Eau Qui Court county, both which places gave Estabrook a 
goodly number of votes; the former yielding him 292 majority and the 
latter 128. On the other hand it is charged that he republicans polled a 
large number of illegal votes in Douglas, Richardson, Pawnee, Clay and 
Gage . . . The Omaha Republican says that not fifty legal voters reside in 
the two counties of Hall and Buffalo. Had we not known that this statement 
was, to say the least, incorrect, it might have passed for what it 
purported to be in this part of Nebraska; but having visited Fort Kearney 
several times during the past three years, we know from personal knowledge 
that there are more than fifty legal voters there. At no time we were 
there was there less than three times that amount. As voters, whether they 
might be termed "legal" or not we leave others to judge. They were chiefly 
government teamsters, herders, employees about the fort, Majors, Russell & 
Waddell's employees, sutlers and their clerks, trappers, traders, and a 
few gamblers. Last spring it would be safe to say there were three 
thousand voters at the fort, including those a few miles above and below. 
We know several who became discouraged at the report from the mines, but 
determined not to go back. One party went and settled on the Little Blue; 
another crowd laid off a town six or eight miles below the fort. A number 
of others went a few miles above to fashion a city and called it after an 
illustrious Pole. The probability is there are a large number of persons 
there, and that they have daily increased since spring. While we state 
these as matters of fact, we do not say there were no illegal votes 
polled. Indeed, it would be strange if there were not, when it is charged 
that in the city of Omaha, in the face of the law, and despite the 
vigilance of the sentinels of both parties, a negro cast a democratic vote 
and ten citizens of Iowa who were just passing through the town on their 
way home, voted for Daily. We do say, however, that in the absence of 
proof to the contrary, we accept and believe the 292 majority for 
Estabrook to be all right. Now for L'Eau Qui Court. We never were in that 
county, nor any nearer to it than Dakota City, and cannot speak by 
authority. But what strikes us as strange is this fact: that county is 
represented to be republican. They elected a republican county ticket and 
gave Judge Taffe, a republican, a large majority over Judge Roberts, 
democrat, for float representative. Being of the conservative kind, and 
not having their republican belief tinctured with abolitionism, they voted 
for Estabrook to a man. Since the election not one of these republicans 
has breathed a breath of "fraud," nor anyone else that we know of, nearer 
than the Republican office at Omaha.

   Daily was declared entitled to his seat without a roll call, May 18, 
1860. It is not likely that Estabrook's blunder in not offering any 
contradictory testimony would have changed the result. There was a richer 
field for irregularities in his section of the territory than in Daily's, 
and so it would have been difficult, and probably impossible for him to 
overcome this natural presumption against himself before a more or less 
prejudiced committee and house. After the certificate had been given to 
Estabrook by the territorial canvassers conservative opinion was averse to 
a contest on this ground: "One great reason why so little has heretofore 
been secured for Nebraska is that she has never yet had a delegate so situ-

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[image captions: DR. JETUS R. CONKLING, OMAHA. MRS. JENNIE HANSCOM 
CONKLING. DR. JAMES H. PEABODY, OMAHA. MRS. JENNIE YATES PEABODY.]

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ated that he could work for the territory; he has always devoted the most 
of his time to watching and defending his seat."

   Judge Alfred Conkling, father of Roscoe Conkling, prepared Daily's 
protest to the board of canvassers. He came to Omaha to practice law, but 
finding the methods of the profession at that time not to his liking, soon 
returned to New York. Roscoe Conkling was a member of the House of 
Representatives at this time.

   The News proclaims that Otoe is still the banner county, having polled 
fifty-three more votes than Douglas -- the next in rank -- at the late 
election.

   It had taken six years of time and the work of five legislative 
assemblies to get the territorial organization into fair working order, 
and a serious obstacle to its progress had been bitter local sectionalism. 
The remaining years of the territorial existence were to be more or less 
seriously distracted by sectionalism on a national scale. At first the 
republicans are chiefly bent on party formation and supremacy in the 
territory, and then, for the rest of the territorial period, will follow 
the passions and distractions of the war. At first the democratic leaders 
are on the defensive, and then they bitterly attack the policy of their 
victors. The democrats are divided, the majority following Douglas and 
jealous of the minority, led by the federal office-holders, who must needs 
stand more or less openly on the side of the breach between Buchanan and 
the hero of popular sovereignty occupied by their chief. This division 
doubtless accounts for the democratic aid given to republicans to pass a 
bill prohibiting slavery and its veto by the governor.

   But on the whole the sixth territorial assembly, which convened 
December 5, 1859, was the tamest of all the legislative assemblies up to 
this time. Thomas J. Boykin of Sarpy, Thomas J. Collier of Dakota, and 
William A. Little of Douglas county took the seats left vacant in the 
council by the resignation of Leavitt L. Bowen, H. C. Crawford, and 
William E. Moore, and Dr. Edmund A. Donelan of Cass county was elected 
president. Elmer S. Dundy of Richardson county and William H. Taylor of 
Otoe county were the only republicans in the council.

   The seat of Richard C. Barnard of the district of Monroe and Hall was 
unsuccessfully contested by Leander Gerrard. R. S. Parks applied for a 
seat "as member elect from the gold regions." The committee on privileges 
and elections reported that it was impossible to seat Mr. Parks because 
the maximum number of members under the organic law had already been 
apportioned; but they stated that the petitioner represented a very 
important portion of the territory and a community greatly in need of 
legislation, and eminently deserving the consideration, attention, and 
favor of the house. The committee recommended that the petitioner be 
admitted within the bar of the house at pleasure.

   Of the thirty-nine members of the house twenty-five were classed as 
democrats; the rest were republicans, full-born or in embryo. There was a 
struggle over the organization between the administration democrats, led 
by the governor and secretary of the territory, and the opposing faction, 
led by Rankin, in which the latter won. Strickland of Sarpy county, the 
democratic candidate, was elected speaker over Marquett of Cass, the 
republican candidate, by a vote of 24 to 12. Names on the list of members 
familiar to present-day Nebraskans are George B. Lake and Andrew' J. 
Hanscom of Douglas; Turner M. Marquett, Samuel Maxwell, and Dr. William S. 
Latta of Cass; Stephen F. Nuckolls of Otoe; John Taffe of Dakota, and 
Eliphus H. Rogers of Dodge.

   Governor Black's message was devoted mainly to refuting common slanders 
as to the bad climate and unproductivity of the soil of the territory, and 
to an argument justifying its admission as a state, in the course of which 
he estimates the population at 50,000 to 60,000. A historical paragraph of 
the message is worth quoting:

   This territory was organized at the same time with Kansas, on the 30th 
day of May, 1854, and the first legislature met at Omaha, on the 16th day 
of January, 1855. In that body eight counties were represented. Now, at 
the expiration of less than five years, twenty-five counties have their 
representatives

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[image captions: EVANDER W. BARNUM, PIONEER OF CASS COUNTY. JAMES A HACKER,
PIONEER OF NEMAHA COUNTY. JOHN STEINHART, PIONEER OF OTOE COUNTY. JOHN 
DUNBAR, PIONEER OF OTOE COUNTY]

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in the legislature, and thirty-five counties have been fully organized, or 
their boundaries defined by law. With the exception of those which lie 
immediately upon the Missouri river, nearly all the counties have been so 
laid off as to cover a surface of exactly 24 miles square. The lands in 
Nebraska actually surveyed amount to 8,851,758.59 acres. The surveys have 
been extended from the dividing line between Kansas and Nebraska, on the 
40th parallel, to the latitude of 42 degrees and 51 minutes, while the 
average depth from the Missouri river is about 140 miles.

   Bad conditions and not much better economic ideas are illustrated in 
this paragraph:

   It is a matter of bitter experience that the people of this territory 
have been made to pass through the delusive days of high times and paper 
prices, and the consequent dark and gloomy night of low times and no 
prices. We have had our full share of the financial spasms which for two 
years have afflicted the great body of the American people. They are 
gradually passing away, but they will never altogether disappear until the 
producing causes are removed. One chief and, manifest cause so far as new 
states and territories are concerned (not the only one), is the enormous 
and overwhelming rate of interest which is exacted for the loan of money, 
for a common credit in many cases, even for the necessaries of life, or 
for a brief extension and forbearance of an existing debt. It is idle to 
look for relief, except in stringent and effective legislation. I am not 
sure that the evil can be entirely banished by law, but it is worth the 
trial. I therefore recommend the passage of a usury law, contrived in the 
best possible way to overturn the present system and practice of 
extravagant and ruinous rates of interest.

   Financial conditions are set forth as follows:

   According to the auditor's report, the present liabilities of the 
territory are $31,068.23. On the 20th of September, 1858, they amounted in 
warrants to $15,774.95. Between the 20th of September, 1858, and November 
1st, 1859, in accordance with various laws, warrants were issued for $16,
459.95, making the current expenses for that time appear to be the whole 
of that sum. But fully one-half the amount of those warrants was for 
liabilities incurred during the year 1857-58, making the actual current 
expenses for this year to be, in fact only about $8,000. The revenue from 
taxes, due January 1st, 1859, as reported by the different counties 
(Pawnee county excepted), amounts to $19,387.57, so that the whole debt of 
the territory may be set down at $11,680.66 more than the estimated 
resources of the year ending December 1st, 1859.

   In his recommendation as to taxation the governor hits on the idea of 
"the unearned increment," and wins the everlasting esteem of the present 
day single tax advocates:

   It is true that the man who labors and improves his own land, may be 
recompensed for all that he does, but still he serves, in some degree, 
both the government and the community, in the very work that he does for 
himself. Further, he adds to the value of every acre of vacant land in or 
near his neighborhood. If that land is held for mere speculation, is it 
not clear that the owner looks to the labor of others for the gains which 
are to follow the enhanced value of his estate? In regard to this subject 
I wish to be explicit and plain. It is a fact very well known that 
hundreds of thousands of acres of the best land in Nebraska are held, by 
individuals who have never broken a single foot of sod with spade or 
plough. These lands, being unimproved, pay only at present a comparatively 
small tax. The man who lives on and improves his property, in town or 
country, has generally a reasonable amount of personal property. For the 
purpose of making the burdens as light as possible, where they should be 
light, I recommend that real estate shall be made the chief basis of 
revenue. I think it would be well if there was a special exception, to a 
limited extent, from all taxation made in favor of the different kinds and 
varieties of stock and cattle. As, for instance, a certain number of 
sheep, swine, oxen, horses, cows, etc.; the object being mainly to 
encourage the tax-payers of the territory to rear and keep stock, 
especially such stock as is valuable and of the most improved description 
or breed.

   Though the criminal law of the territory had been restored, the 
governor complains that it is rendered ineffectual for lack of a 
penitentiary or other public prison, and he states that a large and 
enterprising population in the Western part of the territory, mostly in 
the mining region, are without the benefit of county organization, and 
consequently in a great measure without the protection of law.

   The message is a well-worded and occasionally eloquent address, and 
sustains Governor Black's reputation as a brilliant stump speaker. The 
last paragraph is a fine sample of this kind of oratory. No other public 
man

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of Nebraska has written so "finely" -- with such rhetorical taste or 
oratorical effect as Governor Black wrote. Two veto messages of this 
session are notable, one at great length in objection to the anti-slavery 
bill, the other a deserved but ineffective rebuke of the now settled and 
vicious custom of granting special charter privileges to individuals, for 
the first time the auditor feels justified in stating in his report that, 
the revenue law is fairly effective, and his optimism is based upon the 
fact that the counties now comply with the law so far as to levy the 
taxes; but a year later the treasurer is compelled to complain that they 
are not paid. The territory is still living almost wholly on credit in the 
form of fast increasing warrants.

   The principal enactments of the legislature were as follows: An act 
providing for an election to be held the first Monday in March, 1860, to 
decide whether or not the people desired state government, and to elect 
delegates to a convention which should prepare a state constitution; 
concerning the jurisdiction of justices of the peace and procedure before 
them; providing that a delegate to Congress should be elected in 1860 and 
every two years thereafter, and that his term of office should begin on 
the 4th of March next after his election; a homestead and personal 
property exemption law. A bill prohibiting slavery in the territory was 
passed by both houses, but was vetoed by the governor. The legislature 
authorized the organization of the counties of Dawson, Kearney, Morton, 
Nuckolls, Shorter, West, and Wilson, and legalized the previous 
organization of Gage county. Dawson and Kearney counties continue as small 
parts of their originals; Holt takes the place of West; Morton and Wilson 
lay partially adjacent in the region where the Sweetwater flows into the 
North Platte river, now in south central Wyoming. Shorter county, whose 
name was changed to Lincoln in 1861, adjoined Kearney on the west; both 
held elections in 1860, but for some reason the board of territorial 
canvassers counted out the vote of Shorter. These two counties were 
assigned legislative apportionment in 1861. Neither Morton, West, nor 
Wilson appears to have performed any organized function. About the usual 
number of special acts for incorporations and ferries and bridges were 
passed. Joint memorials to Congress were adopted asking for school lands 
in lieu of those covered by the Indian reservations in Nemaha and 
Richardson counties; for indemnity for the cost of the Pawnee Indian 
campaign; for appropriations to build a penitentiary; to construct a 
military road from Nebraska City to Fort Kearney; and for $30,000 to 
complete the capitol. The memorial for the capitol appropriation recites 
that "under a degree of mismanagement, wholly unpardonable, upon the part 
of the executive, Mark W. Izard," the whole appropriation of $50,000 was 
expended, "and the building only just begun." The first act protecting 
game animals in Nebraska was passed at this session.

   The statehood measure was generally favored and party lines were not 
drawn in considering it. Party animosity was concentrated on the anti-
slavery bill, and it was as bitter between the democratic factions as 
between the two parties themselves. A speech on the usury bill, delivered 
in the house by S. F. Nuckolls, illustrates the pinched financial 
conditions of those times as well as the insight into economics of a man 
untrained in its principles. Mr. Nuckolls conducted a large across-the-
plains freighting business besides other important enterprises. Our county 
of Nuckolls was created by the sixth assembly, of which he was a member, 
and received his name.

   The death of Judge Fenner Ferguson occurred at his homestead farm at 
Bellevue, October 11, 1859. Judge Ferguson was the first chief justice of 
the territorial supreme court and was a resident of Michigan at the time 
of his appointment. He possessed fair ability, commanded general respect, 
and had the good will of the citizens of the territory to an unusual 
degree, especially for a public officer of those days. He served one term 
as a delegate to Congress, from December, 1857.



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CHAPTER XIV
POLITICAL CONVENTIONS -- CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS OF 1860-1862 -- SEVENTH 
LEGISLATURE --MORTON-DAILY CONTEST -- DEPARTURE OF GOVERNOR BLACK -- 
APPOINTMENT OF GOVERNOR SAUNDERS -- MILITARY AFFAIRS -- EIGHTH LEGISLATURE

   AT the statehood election of March 5th, 2,372 votes were cast against, 
and 2,094 for a state government. The main issue was so complicated with 
cliques and prejudices that the vote was scarcely a true expression of 
public sentiment in relation thereto; "not one-half the democratic voters 
participated in the election, treating the whole thing as a farce." The 
statehood scheme was put forward, and in the main supported by the old 
South Platte element, and particularly by Otoe county. Thus the heavy 
majority for state government came from the following counties: Cass, 303; 
Otoe, 249; Washington, 202; and Nemaha, 96; while against the proposition 
Douglas gave 456; Dakota, 174; and Sarpy, 226. Sarpy had by this time 
accepted the inevitable, given up capital hopes, and was adjusting herself 
to her local interest, while the considerable influence of Daily doubtless 
had something to do with throwing Richardson, which gave 154 against the 
state proposition, out of gear with her South Platte traditions and 
locality.

   The Omaha Republican contented itself with insisting on the choice of 
free state -- that is, republican -- delegates to the constitutional 
convention; while the Nebraskian, the democratic organ at the. capital, 
stoutly asserted that democrats would put an antislavery provision in the 
constitution. Douglas, or popular sovereignty, democrats were undoubtedly 
in the majority in the territory, and they resented the insistence of 
Governor Black, in his recent veto of the anti-slavery bill, that the 
people of the territory, through the legislature, did not possess the 
power under the organic act to deal with the slavery question. It was 
charged also that the administration, or Buchanan faction, kept Douglas 
democrats off the delegate ticket in Douglas county. Of the fifty-two 
delegates to the constitutional convention the republicans chose about 
forty, and while, because the state proposition was defeated at the same 
election, there was no constitutional convention held, the democrats were 
left in a bad plight. Among the well-known names of the delegates were 
Alfred Conkling, Gilbert C. Monell, grandfather of Gilbert M. Hitchcock, 
John M. Thayer, John Taffe, Thomas L. Griffey, Oliver P. Mason, Thomas W. 
Tipton, Thomas P. Kennard, judge Augustus Hall, Isaac Pollard, Dr. Jetus 
R. Conkling, and William Cleburne.

   The republican territorial convention for 1860 was held at Plattsmouth 
on the 1st of August. Daniel L. Collier of Burt county was temporary 
chairman and T. W. Tipton of Nemaha, temporary secretary. W. F. Lockwood 
of Dakota county was president of the regular organization. Samuel G. 
Daily was a candidate for renomination for delegate to Congress, and J. M. 
Thayer of Douglas, W. H. Taylor of Otoe, T. M. Marquett of Cass, and John 
Taffe of Dakota county were his principal opponents. At the first Thayer 
ran even with Daily, but the latter was nominated on the tenth ballot. The 
resolutions reported by G. C. Monell of Douglas county endorsed the 
nomination of Lincoln and Hamlin for president and vice president; 
declared in favor of a homestead bill, and of a bill giving the school 
commissioner of the territory the right to lease the school lands; favored 
appropriations by Congress for completing the capitol, for building a 
penitentiary

Page 298

[image caption: Victor Vifquain was a pioneer of Saline county, Nebraska. 
He was a general in the army during the Civil War and prominent in 
Nebraska politics.]

Page 299

at Bellevue, for building a government road from Nebraska City to Fort 
Kearney, for bridging the Platte at a point on the direct line of 
communication between Nebraska City and Omaha; declared that increased 
population in the mining regions and the resulting immense travel along 
the Platte valley demanded a Pacific railway; denounced the appointment of 
non-residents to fill the federal offices; and declared that the anti-
slavery bill passed by the last legislature "was demanded by the continued 
attempt of slavery propagandists to establish the institution in this free 
territory." The demand of the address of Alfred Conkling, chairman of the 
republican committee, for sober men in office, was not uncalled for, and 
is suggestive of a marked phase of social conditions of that time.

   The democratic convention was held at Omaha on the 15th of August. A. 
J. Hanscom of Douglas county was temporary chairman and Mills S. Reeves of 
Otoe county was permanent president. J. M. Woolworth, chairman of the 
committee on credentials, incorporated in his report this interesting 
statement: "Your committee find that Victor Vifquain holds a certificate 
of election as a delegate to this convention from said county [Saline] and 
report the matter to the convention without recommendation." This was the 
first introduction of General Vifquain into the politics of the 
commonwealth, in which for more than forty years he was an important and 
interesting figure. On his admission as a delegate Mr. Vifquain made a 
speech whose brevity was equaled only by its patriotism, quite 
characteristic of the speaker.

   Gentlemen of the convention, and fellow democrats:

   I thank you in the name of the democrats in my own county for the 
resolution taken in reference to Saline county.*

   It is not necessary for a Frenchman to promise fidelity to the stars 
and stripes -- Lafayette's memory and the French blood spilled for the 
independence of this beautiful country is a guarantee of it. I swear to 
the democrats fidelity and devotion until death.

   On the 11th of August the News acknowledges a call from "Victor 
Vifquain, Esq., an enterprising and intelligent Frenchman who resides at 
Beranger on the Blue, seventy-five miles west of this city. Last fall his 
county polled sixteen votes, every one of which was for the entire 
democratic ticket." General Vifquain's oath of fidelity to his party was 
kept during the intervening forty years "until death," without swerving so 
much as a hair's breadth. J. Sterling Morton was nominated for delegate to 
Congress on the fourth formal ballot. The other principal competitors for 
the nomination were A. J. Poppleton, S. A. Strickland, Stephen Decatur, 
and J. V. Kinney. Judge Eleazer Wakeley received fifteen votes on the 
informal ballot, but he then immediately withdrew his name from further 
consideration. Judge Kinney also notified the convention that, owing to 
the fact that he had recently been appointed chief justice of the supreme 
court of Utah, he could not become a candidate; but he received fifteen 
votes on the last ballot.

   Mr. Poppleton evidently transferred his strength to Morton on the 
decisive ballot, and it is interesting to observe this evidence of the 
early friendship of these two eminent citizens of Nebraska, which lasted 
to the end of Poppleton's life. At the ratification meeting at Nebraska 
City, says the chronicler of the event, "Mr. Poppleton commenced with a 
most feeling and eloquent eulogy of the many traits of character developed 
in Mr. Morton -- that he had known Morton from the time they were school 
boys together; and he was proud to follow so gallant and noble a leader in 
the present canvass." But ruinous factional strife was not wanting. "The 
little squad of Douglasites of this city" dominated the convention, and 
Morton was thrust down the throat of Governor Black as the bitterest pill 
for him to be found, and then, to meet this inconsistency, they wanted to 
lay Morton, also an administration office-holder, up to dry, too. In the 
hearing of the Morton-Daily contest Morton threw a ray of light on this 
subject:

   I will state in reply to the statement that Colonel Black awarded a 
certificate to a political opponent, that in that election Colonel Black 
and every appointee of that administration, with one exception, sustained 
Daily,

Page 300

[image caption: Jonas Welch was a pioneer of Columbus, Nebraska, and 
prominent in local politics. He was a delegate to the national democratic 
convention.]

Page 301

either by voting for him or by working for him, or by refraining from 
working for me . . . Governor Black did make two speeches for me in this 
way: In endorsing the Buchanan platform and the veto message prohibiting 
slavery in the territory, which was the burden of his speech; at the end 
he also said: "I endorse Mr. Morton as the candidate of the party, 
although he is not such a democrat as I can heartily support."

   It was charged against Black that he did everything in his power to 
defeat Morton -- worked, spent money, and voted against him. On the other 
hand it was insisted that the Douglas democrats were slighted in the 
convention and that the Buchanan-Breckenridge faction dictated its 
proceedings; but the skill with which Morton steered between the factional 
rocks and over the factional rapids was conceded. Dr. B. P. Rankin, in a 
speech at Nebraska City, refused to support Morton for Congress, and 
asserted that in the legislature, in 1857, Morton did all he could to kill 
his resolution eulogizing Douglas as the champion of popular sovereignty 
and called him a Douglas democrat as an epithet. Rankin also complained 
that Morton kept on drawing his salary of $2,000 under Buchanan while he 
pretended to support Douglas.

   Resolutions of both party conventions favored internal improvements in 
substantially similar terms, but the democratic resolution specifically 
asked for a grant of land to build a Pacific railroad, having its eastern 
terminus at or near Fort Kearney with four branches from that point to the 
Missouri river, the territorial legislature to select the routes. The 
convention also pledged itself to demand "a grant of land to establish a 
university in Nebraska, and that said university should be established in 
Cass county, as the most central point in the territory."

   The attitude of the convention toward national questions was both 
discreet and wise. After the preamble, which vainly recited that the 
people of Nebraska had no voice in the election of a president and that 
their own interests demanded their energies, the convention pointed to 
"the unprecedented degree of prosperity" to which the party of Thomas 
Jefferson had carried the country, and then frankly and unequivocally 
pledged the party to make Nebraska a free state. The political attitude of 
the two parties is now reversed, the republicans for the first time 
acknowledging and marching aggressively under their national standard, the 
democrats somewhat evasive of national, and emphasizing local issues. The 
Omaha Nebraskian, one of the two leading democratic organs of the 
territory, had insisted, as early as January 14th of this year, that, 
"until an all-wise Providence shall remove Nebraska four or five degrees 
further south slave labor cannot be profitably employed in this territory. 
We venture to predict that when a convention shall assemble

[image caption: Engraving from an old daguerreotype taken in the early 
'50s and now owned by Charles L. Saunders of Omaha. ALVIN SAUNDERS War 
Governor of Nebraska territory May 15, 1861, to February 21, 1867]

to frame a constitution for this state of Nebraska not a delegate will 
vote for a slavery constitution." As we have seen, this assertion was 
vindicated by the declaration in the party platform in the fall of this 
year; and it is significant as showing the determination of the 
democrats -- even though it may not have reflected their independent anti-
slavery feeling -- to acquiesce in the prevailing sentiment of the 
Northwest, before the country had

Page 302

come to the final parting of the ways in the national election of that 
year.

   Even the democratic organ of the North Platte presented the standard-
bearer and the situation in this light:

   Mr. Morton, the nominee, is well, and we may add, very favorably known 
to Nebraska. He has been identified with the interests of the territory 
ever since its organization, and during the last two years has acquired no 
little celebrity as the faithful, efficient and untiring secretary of 
Nebraska. Endowed with fine talents and possessed of a liberal education, 
with a pleasing address, and those better qualities of the heart that draw 
around him hosts of friends, none can deny his fitness for the high 
position assigned him by his party. Probably no man in Nebraska is so 
cordially hated and feared by the small coterie of rascals that prowl 
around certain localities of this territory, as J. Sterling Morton. Daily 
and his coadjutors are particularly bitter against him. The members of 
that little cabal of spoils hunters, have made sundry and sweeping charges 
against him, as disbursing officer of Nebraska. The democracy of Nebraska 
have taken up the gauntlet thus thrown down by Daily and his toadies, and 
avow their confidence in the integrity of the man so grossly assailed. Mr. 
Morton, too, has always been known as an earnest friend to appropriations 
for the various purposes mentioned elsewhere in this paper. Daily is known 
to be as decidedly opposed to those appropriations. The issue is therefore 
made up, and the canvass may be regarded as begun.(1)

   Morton's home paper presented a picture of the man, and aimed to 
restrict the issues:

   Hon. J. Sterling Morton, democratic candidate for delegate in congress, 
is a pioneer squatter, having emigrated to the territory in 1854. His 
interests are all here. For six years his best energies, his time and his 
talents have been devoted to the development of the material interests and 
resources of Nebraska territory. His has been the strong arm and the 
sturdy hand of productive industry. It is instituting no invidious 
comparisons to say that probably no other man in the territory has done 
more for the fostering and development of our agricultural resources -- 
the importation of the best and choicest breeds and varieties of stock, 
&c., &c. . .

   Not only is Morton as an individual deeply interested in fostering the 
development of Nebraska and hastening in of the bright future that awaits 
her -- the platform of principles upon which he stands pledges him to use 
his utmost exertions as the delegate of the people of Nebraska, 
irrespective of party, to secure for the territory, not only all "needful 
appropriations," but certain special appropriations, which it is submitted 
Nebraska stands greatly in need of at this present time. These needful 
appropriations are specially mentioned in the platform of principles and 
measures of the democratic party of Nebraska.(2)

   The republican war cry in the campaign was raised against Morton for 
disregarding the election of Furnas as public printer, for the alleged 
frauds in the frontier counties in the election of 1859, and against the 
administration for the veto of the. homestead bill -- a dangerous question 
in Nebraska. The republicans also charged that the democrats were 
responsible for the sale of public lands which forced many of the 
squatters to pay for them. It was urged that "five per cent a month is the 
enormous rate of interest paid by hundreds of settlers in Nebraska" for 
money, "which they were forced to submit to or lose their lands," that 
Morton petitioned for the sale of the lands, and afterward refused to sign 
a remonstrance against it; that the enforcement of these sales at a time 
when settlers could not pay for their land ruined nine-tenths of them; and 
the bill of particulars specified that the books of the register of deeds 
of Nemaha, Richardson, and Pawnee counties showed that the enforced land 
sales had saddled a debt of $43,130 on Nemaha farmers secured by trust 
deeds on 27,340 acres and drawing interest from twenty-five to sixty per 
cent per annum; on Richardson county of $25,966,11, 15,102 acres, interest 
as above; on Pawnee county, $16,103, 6,985 acres, nine-tenths of this 
drawing sixty per cent, which must be forfeited; total $85,109.11, at an 
average rate of fifty per cent, making interest $42,595. To this charge 
the democrats answered, in plausible palliation, at least, that Judge 
Holly of Nebraska City, Richard Brown of Brownville, and James Craig of 
Missouri, all democrats, went to Washington at their own expense and 
secured the postponement of the sale of lands for a 

(1. Omaha Nebraskian, August 18, 1860.)

(2. Nebraska City News, August 25, 1860.)


Page 303

year. It would have taken almost indefinite postponement of the time for 
payment to avoid inconvenience or hardship, and these extravagant 
complaints were no doubt largely a partisan afterthought.

   Democrats themselves were vexatiously divided upon the slavery 
question. While most of them were against slavery it was asserted that 
Governor Black was a Breckenridge democrat, and that in his speeches in 
the campaign for Morton he advocated letting slavery into all territories 
and the admission of more slave states.

   The republican journals assailed Morton violently, and the completion 
at this time of the gradual change of the Advertiser from a democratic to 
a republican organ was a serious injury to his cause. Furnas had kept at 
the head of the editorial columns of the Advertiser, during the preceding 
eight months, the names of Douglas and Andrew Johnson of Tennessee -- the 
latter subsequently nominated for vice president on the ticket with 
Lincoln -- as his choice for president and vice president, but after the 
Charleston convention he withdrew this last pretense of democracy. He 
assailed Morton with virulence because he had refused to recognize him as 
public printer in 1858. Notwithstanding that Morton was then, as always 
afterward, too much devoted to his political opinions to sufficiently 
sacrifice or neglect them for success, his brightness and skill in 
discussion were already proverbial. "Morton is a pleasant looking, 
pleasant spoken man -- very cautious -- always spoke of his opponent as 
Samuel, or my friend Samuel -- would deal heavy blows sometimes, but 
always dealt them with a smile on his lips -- made some awful charges 
which he must have known were all moon-shine -- is as much superior to 
Estabrook, as the sun is superior to the moon."

   But Morton, with his college and urban breeding, was a shining mark for 
the bucolic wit, humor, and malice of his extreme frontier environment.

   Daily's abolition organ at Nemaha City charges Morton with a fine 
foppish air. As to Morton's fine foppish air we think it will be taken as 
a fine joke wherever he is known, and he is known pretty generally 
throughout the territory. We have seen Morton among his "Suffolks" when we 
thought he didn't present a very foppish air. We have seen him making 
fence, hauling posts, and the like (we believe he is not a rail splitter) 
when we have thought his air was very fine but not very foppish. Morton 
and his family presented rather a humid and humorous air, but not a very 
foppish one when, six years ago, they woke up of a morning in their log 
hut in Nebraska and found the snow on their bed to the depth of twelve 
inches.(3)

[image caption: DR. JOHN MCPHERSON Member of territorial constitutional 
convention and credited with establishing the first Nebraska newspaper, 
the Advertiser, at Brownville.]

   Daily's homely art and artfulness were put to powerful use, and the now 
thoroughly receptive anti-slavery sentiment in the Northwest lent peculiar 
force to his assaults on "this yer dimmicratic party" and his 
uncompromising and ultra-conservative opponent.

   In an agreement signed at Beatrice, on the 26th of September, the two 
candidates agreed to give up discussion at Austin, Clay county because "we 
are credibly informed that no audience exceeding six persons can be raised 
at that place."

   The territorial board of canvassers found

(3. Nebraska City News, September 8, 1860.]

Page 304

that of the 5,900 votes cast Morton received 2,957 and Daily 2,943, and 
they gave the certificate of election to Morton, but through the 
remarkable action of Governor Black, one of the canvassers, Morton's cup 
of victory was to be dashed from his very lips.

   There is contemporary statement that Buffalo county was unorganized in 
1859 and that Butler, Calhoun, Cuming, Izard, Jones, Kearney, Monroe, and 
Saline counties were unorganized in 1860. As has already been indicated, 
the application of the term "organization" to these new counties was very 
indefinite and variable in its meaning. The table of election returns 
throws some light on their status.

   The republicans carried the council 8 to 5, and the house stood 
republicans 28, democrats 11. But the seat of Asa M. Acton, democrat of 
Richardson, was contested by E. J. Davenport, and both were excluded. 
There was a bitter partisan contest for the seat of councilman from 
Richardson county between Elmer S. Dundy and William C. Fleming. Thayer, 
republican, voted to oust Dundy, making the vote a tie; but the president 
of the council gave the casting vote for Dundy and saved him. The 
democratic organs, the News and the Nebraskian, attacked Dundy, the man as 
well as the politician, with a violence which is seldom indulged in by the 
most yellow journals of the present day. It was the case of the half-breed 
vote again, and it was alleged that Dundy, acting in the capacity of 
deputy county clerk, threw out the votes of white men living on the half-
breed tract and gave himself the certificate of election; but the part of 
the charge that Dundy acted as clerk in his own behalf was not well 
founded. When Secretary Morton came to administer the oath to members of 
the council, Dundy refused to take it in vindictive and threatening 
language: "I have often been sworn but have never yet taken an oath. I 
desire to say to the secretary, that neither he nor any other man, can 
cram an oath down my throat, so help me God. It is an insult to which I 
will not submit, and Secretary Morton and his friends and admirers shall 
find that they cannot insult me with impunity."

   Dundy kept his word, as Morton was to realize soon in his congressional 
contest.

   The seventh general assembly convened December 3, 1860. William H. 
Taylor of Otoe county was chosen president of the council, and Henry W. De 
Puy of Washington county speaker of the house. Taylor had been a Douglas 
democrat as lately as two years before that time.

   The statute of 1856 provided that the governor should apportion the 
representation for both houses of the general assembly, and the statute of 
1858 specifically apportioned the members of the house. The organic act 
made it the duty of the governor to apportion the membership of both 
houses of the first legislature and then provided that "thereafter . . . 
the apportioning representation in the several counties or districts to 
the council and house of representatives according to the number of 
qualified voters shall be prescribed by law." But the governor, presumably 
under color of the unrepealed part of the act of 1856, attached Johnson to 
Nemaha for a council district, and Cedar, Dixon, and L'eau-qui-court to 
Dakota for another council district. In attempting to trace enactments and 
account for acts of administration one is tempted to designate 
irregularity of procedure as the genius of those territorial times.

   The governor's message was practical, direct, and business-like, the 
best of his papers in this respect -- and its closing appeal, invoking a 
spirit of devotion to the Union and the Constitution, evinces so clear, 
deeply patriotic, and sympathetic a conception of the impending danger to 
both as to stamp him as much more than a stump speaker of rare skill. The 
messages of the two eloquent territorial governors, Cuming and Black, were 
given to rhetorical style, and both men loved perorations; but, 
considering the peculiar and doubtful economic conditions in Nebraska and 
the political cataclysm which then menaced the whole country, this closing 
prophecy and exhortation by the most graceful and engaging political 
orator of the territorial period, if not of the entire life of the 
commonwealth, was not out of place:

   I can not close this communication the

Page 305

last regular message I shall have the honor to submit -- without uttering 
the voice of direct appeal to you in your own behalf and that of the 
people at large. Our internal affairs call for the exercise of wisdom, 
sound judgment, patience, and an honest purpose. These will not fail of 
producing prosperous results now, and permanent good in time to come. I 
believe today, and with no broken nor diminished confidence, in the 
wonderful capacity of Nebraska and in her ultimate and complete success. A 
soil so rich and prolific, a climate for most parts of the year so 
pleasant, and at all seasons so full of health, was not meant for a waste 
place nor a wilderness. God has written His decree of her prosperity deep 
in the earth, and develops His designs in the rejoicing harvests which 
return in smiling abundance to them who, betimes, have sown in tears. With 
an unfaltering trust it becomes us to believe, and to say that we believe 
that He will not suffer His own ordinances to fail, and the plain purposes 
of His own will to come short of completion.

   The relation of a territory to the general government is peculiar, and 
one, in many respects, of entire dependence. Without the aid and fostering 
care of the federal government the territorial condition, especially at 
the beginning, would be deplorable indeed, and the great object of 
ultimate hope, the admission into "the Union" as a sovereign state would 
be sadly distant and uncertain. The suggestion of self interest, and the 
loftiest patriotism should combine to make the people of the territories 
faithful to the constitution and firm in their attachment to "the Union." 
When one is the subject of open and frequent violation, and the other 
trembles on a sea of troubles, every good and conscientious citizen will 
ask himself the question, What can I do that my Country may be saved? You 
can not shut your eyes, nor can I close mine to the fearful fact that this 
confederacy is shaken to the center, and vibrates with, intense feeling to 
its farthest borders. If it is not in our power to do something towards 
bringing back the days of other years when peace prevailed, let us at 
least do nothing towards making the present more gloomy, and the future at 
best, but hopeless. Rather with one accord let us invoke the God of all 
peace, for "even the wind and the sea obey Him," that He will subdue the 
storm and quiet every angry element of alienation and discord.

   The message and the reports of the auditor and treasurer repeat the 
familiar doleful financial refrain. The territorial debt has risen in five 
years to $52,960.37, with $30,259.10 of taxes remaining unpaid, and the 
public business is still done in depreciated and rapidly increasing 
warrants. The treasurer complains that "many of the organized counties. 
have failed to make any returns whatever, and some others only a small 
part of the amount assessed to them," and the auditor learns "that some 
counties in the southern part of the territory have taken it upon 
themselves to discard the levy of taxes made in 1859 by the

[image caption: SAMUEL FINDLEY BURTCH Member of constitutional convention, 
former treasurer of Sarpy county, member of legislature, 1877, and 
receiver of United States land office.]

territorial board of equalization, and have made a levy to suit their 
views." Of a levy on the several counties of $19,615.47, for 1859, only $4,
813.36 had been paid. The message recommends the funding of the warrants, 
then worth only fifty or sixty cents on the dollar, into five or ten year 
bonds. It complains also that the territorial officers who receive fees 
are getting extravagant compensation. Exemption from taxation of a portion 
of individual holdings of land to encour-

Page 306

age growth of trees is also recommended.

   Other conditions are set forth as follows:

   It is not to be denied that appropriations to this territory have been 
both indifferent and few. Legislative memorials have hitherto accomplished 
but little, and we have all become familiar with disappointment. They may 
not always fail, and if properly enforced, we are not without hope of 
their ultimate success. An appropriation for the building of a 
penitentiary is of immediate necessity. The completion of the capitol 
building is equally necessary and I will cheerfully coöperate with you in 
every endeavor that may be made to obtain from congress the required 
appropriations. Without a bridge over the Loup Fork, the government road 
up the Platte valley is but a work half done. This improvement is both a 
public and a military necessity; and not less required, but indeed a 
matter of fair and just demand is an appropriation for at least one 
military road from some suitable point on the Missouri river and south of 
the Platte to Fort Kearney. The question of gold in the western part of 
this territory and of Kansas, is no longer doubtful nor open to debate. 
The travel to and from the mines during the past season has been, as you 
are well aware, immense. The incoming year will show a large and material 
increase. The vast emigration has been attended with considerable sickness 
and suffering, and in many instances death has ensued from the lack of 
accommodations, nursing and care. The hospital attached to Fort Kearney is 
perhaps the only place on the whole route where those overtaken by 
sickness have any opportunity of being nursed and furnished with medical 
attendance. I have received the gratifying intelligence that the officers 
of that post, including those of the medical staff have done everything in 
their power to relieve the sick and mitigate their sufferings. Their means 
are necessarily limited and the accommodations small.

   The only political question of importance considered at this session 
was the bill abolishing slavery. In view of the liberal attitude of the 
democratic platform toward that subject, and the fact that the Douglas 
popular sovereignty element was in the ascendency, democratic members 
could not consistently oppose the prohibition measure, and it passed the 
council with only three members voting no, Belden, Bennett, and Little, 
and the house with only two opposing, Acton and Porter. The governor again 
vetoed the measure, giving the far-fetched reason for his objection that 
by the terms of the treaty of the Louisiana Purchase the prohibition could 
be legally made only after admission of the territory as a state, and 
further that the Dred Scott decision stood in its way. But since the 
decision, or the dictum, only decided that a law of Congress -- the 
Missouri Compromise -- prohibiting slavery in territory of the United 
States was unconstitutional, the question of the power of the local 
legislature in the premises was at least an open one. Both houses passed 
the bill over the veto, the council by the vote by which it had originally 
passed, and the house with the same number in opposition, but Downs taking 
the place of Acton, who had been unseated.

   In accordance with the governor's recommendation, acts were passed as 
follows: Fixing the annual rate of interest at ten per cent in the absence 
of agreement and a maximum of fifteen per cent by agreement, with a 
penalty of forfeiture of interest for violation of the law; a law 
providing for the refunding of outstanding warrants, which by the act of 
1857 drew ten per cent interest, at seven per cent; reducing the fees of 
officers paid by that method, and the salaries of the territorial auditor 
and treasurer from the extravagant sum of $800 and $400 respectively to 
the munificent sum of $600 and $200. And to show beyond a peradventure 
that economy was rampant, the offices of territorial school commissioner 
and librarian were abolished and their duties imposed upon the auditor 
presumably to give that officer no time to grieve over his own reduced 
stipend. Another attempt was made to amend the revenue and school laws so 
that taxes might be collected. The manufacture of sugar was encouraged by 
a law requiring county treasurers to pay out of any money in their hands 
not otherwise appropriated five cents for each pound of merchantable sugar 
manufactured from cane raised within the county.

   Congress was memorialized to organize the already provisionally 
organized territory of Jefferson for the following reasons:

   Your memorialists, the legislative assembly of the territory of 
Nebraska, would most re-

Page 307

spectfully represent to your honorable body that the people residing in 
the western portion of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, commonly 
known as the provisional territory of Jefferson, have, through their 
delegate to this assembly, expressed a desire to obtain a separate and 
distinct territorial organization, and your memorialists believe that the 
great distance intervening between the capital and the extreme western 
portion of this territory renders it impracticable to organize counties 
therein, and that a territorial organization is necessary to protect the 
lives and property of the people of that remote region.

   And your memorialists further represent that the gold mines of that 
region, are located in a portion of the territories of Kansas, Nebraska, 
Utah and New Mexico, which renders it expensive to the general government, 
and inconvenient and unsatisfactory to the inhabitants thereof to be 
represented in the legislatures of their respective territories.

   A somewhat reduced number of incorporation and other special acts were 
passed at this session.

   Still determined to get the public printing from the control of the 
democratic secretary, the republican majority, by a joint resolution, 
appointed Edward D. Webster, publisher of the Omaha Republican, and Alfred 
Matthias public printers. But Judge Wakeley decided that under the organic 
act Secretary Morton was the rightful custodian of this business, as he 
had insisted from the time he became secretary. In view of the pending 
change of the national administration, a fierce controversy was raging at 
this time for apportioning the honors and emoluments of the newly 
triumphant republicanism:

   The "irrepressible conflict" rages in the ranks of the republicans in 
this territory at a terrible rate. It is worse than the black tongue among 
the cattle in these parts, which in all conscience is bad enough. The 
leaders are fairly foaming and "slobbering at the mouth." Copperas and 
salt won't save them . . .

   It is a war of individuals and masses. The individuals, the aspirants 
for office, the Daily legislative clique are led by Taylor, Webster of 
Omaha, and some say Matthias of Nebraska City. We are induced to hope that 
the latter has not yet got his foot full in the trap. The masses are led 
by Thayer and Monell of Omaha, and, it is said, Mason, Cavins, and Irish 
of this city. The war was opened in the legislature by the attempt of 
Dictator Taylor to read out of the republican party the "Warhorse of 
Freedom," Gen. Thayer. The general wouldn't stay read out, and proved 
conclusively that Taylor was never fairly in the party. Thayer having 
fairly squelched Taylor, Webster of the Omaha Republican turns upon Thayer 
and attempts to prove that he (Thayer) has always been a democrat. This 
looks a little strange to us who have had many a tilt with the general 
while he was editing the Republican. We remember to have characterized 
that journal under his management as very black. When the moon turns into 
a great big head of green cabbage, and Thayer turns democrat, we'll inform 
our readers. For a faithful portrait of Webster the curious are 
respectfully referred to Thayer's letter to the public.

   The census of 1860 gives the population of the territory as 28,841 -- 
whites, 28,696; free colored, 67; slaves, 15; Indians, 63. Of this total, 
1,761 whites and 4 Indians were in that portion of the territory north of 
latitude 40o and west of longitude 103o; and in that portion bounded on 
the north by latitude 42o, east by longitude 101o 30', south by latitude 
40o and west by longitude 103o. Of the fifteen slaves, 10 were in Otoe and 
5 in Kearney county. Of the counties, Douglas led with 4,305, next came 
Otoe, slightly below her rival, with 4,194; then Cass, 3,369; Nemaha, 3,
097; Richardson, 2,834; Washington, 1,249; Sarpy, 1,199. None of the other 
counties reached a thousand. But Nebraska City still had the satisfaction, 
no doubt keen enough, of out-ranking Omaha with 1,922 against 1,883, 
Bellevue coming next and showing astonishing vitality with 929. No other 
town in the territory reached 500. The population found west of longitude 
103o and latitude 40o, amounting to 1,765, were mainly in the new gold 
mine region at the base of the Rocky mountains, and now a part of Colorado.

   The political event of the summer of 1861 was the biennial contest for 
the seat in Congress, of more than usual interest this time on account of 
the unusual circumstances in which it arose and the ability and prominence 
of the men which Morton's brilliant qualities had attracted to his side. 
W. A. Richardson

Page 308

of Illinois, Daniel W. Voorhees of Indiana, and George H. Pendleton and 
Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio advocated the cause of Morton on the 
floor, and Henry L. Dawes, chairman of the committee on elections, very 
ably conducted the case of Daily. Richardson, who of course had become 
acquainted with Morton while he "had the misfortune to be governor of 
Nebraska," as he said in discussing this case, in urging that he be 
permitted to present his own case to the house, made this confident 
prophecy as to the future of his young protege:

   I know him. I will say of him that of all the young men in the country, 
and I am fa-

[image caption: WILLIAM F. LOCKWOOD Early judge of the third judicial 
district of Nebraska]

miliar with a very great many of them, he has the greatest intellect and 
the most promising future. I pass this compliment upon him. I have known 
him for years, and I have watched him well. Beyond the Ohio river there is 
not a brighter intellect. Gentlemen, you will hear of him hereafter; mark 
my words.

   The organic act of the territory provided that "the manner of holding 
the elections (for delegate to Congress) shall be prescribed by law," and 
that "the person having the highest number of votes shall be declared by 
the governor to be duly elected." The election occurred October 9th. Under 
the law, the governor, the chief justice, and the United States attorney 
for the territory were the canvassing board. They met to canvass the 
returns of the general election on the 2d of November, and on their 
finding that Morton had the highest number of votes Governor Black issued 
a certificate of election in his favor, November 2, 1860. On the 29th of 
April, 1861, the governor issued a certificate in favor of Mr. Daily, as 
follows:

   I, Samuel W. Black, governor of Nebraska, do hereby certify that, at an 
election held in the said territory on Tuesday, the 9th day of October, 
1860, for delegate to congress of the United States for the thirty-seventh 
congress, Samuel G. Daily was duly and lawfully elected delegate to the 
said congress; and whereas, after the canvass of the votes at the said 
election, a certificate of election was given to J. Sterling Morton, he 
having apparently the highest number of votes, having nominally fourteen 
votes more than Samuel G. Daily, the only opposing candidate; and it being 
a fact that one hundred and twenty-two votes were counted to the said J. 
Sterling Morton in what is called the northern precinct of L'eau-qui-court 
county, that being the whole number of votes returned and claimed as cast 
therein at the, election aforesaid.

   And it further appearing conclusively since the date of the said 
canvass and certificate issued to the said J. Sterling Morton, that the 
election in the said northern precinct of L'eau-qui-court was a fraud 
throughout, and should have been rejected and not counted, which would 
have shown a legal majority of one hundred and eight votes in favor of the 
said Samuel G. Daily.

   Therefore, I, Samuel W. Black, governor of Nebraska territory, do 
hereby revoke the certificate of election issued as aforesaid to J. 
Sterling Morton, as delegate to congress to the thirty-seventh congress, 
and do certify that Samuel G. Daily was, according to a fair and just 
count, duly elected as delegate to the thirty-seventh congress of the 
United States for Nebraska territory.

   In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the great 
seal of the territory to be affixed.
Witness my hand at Omaha, this 29th day of April, A. D. 1861.
[L. S.] SAMUEL W. BLACK
.
By virtue of this certificate the clerk of the

Page 309

House, John W. Forney, entered Mr. Daily's name on the roll, and he was 
seated when the House met in special session on President Lincoln's call, 
July 4,1861. In January, 1861, after the alleged frauds in L'eau-qui-court 
and other counties had been thoroughly discussed in the newspapers, 
Governor Black was called as a witness in the contest case instituted by 
Daily, and testified as to his own powers and his action in this case as 
follows:

   The board were unanimously of the opinion that when abstracts of the 
votes cast were transmitted by the county clerk, we could not in any case 
go behind his return to inquire into the legality of the election in any 
precinct or all the precincts of any county, and this decision is 
precisely the same as the decision of the board in 1859, when Mr. 
Estabrook and Mr. Daily were candidates, and in 1857, when Judge Ferguson, 
Mr. Chapman and others, were candidates. Mr. Chapman then insisted that 
the board should go behind the returns of the county clerks, alleging 
fraud, etc., which they refused to do. Two of the board had supported him 
at the election, and it was decided unanimously that under the law of 
February 13, 1857, the governor had no power except to cast up the votes 
transmitted by the several county clerks. The decision of the last board 
was, that notwithstanding certain irregularities in the abstracts of 
returns transmitted by the clerks, still it was our duty to decide in 
favor of the franchise, provided the return seemed to be substantially 
correct.

   Mr. Pendleton, after quoting this testimony in the debate, said:

   And upon the following page of this printed record, when he is called 
upon to explain the grounds upon which the board of canvassers acted in 
counting the returns of L'eau-qui-court county, he justifies their action 
upon the ground that neither the governor alone nor the board of 
canvassers had any authority to go behind the papers that were placed 
before them, authenticated by the hand of the clerk and the seal of his 
county; and that he must have issued the certificate to Morton, and could 
not possibly have issued it to Daily.

   The following remarkable affidavit which is given with the running 
comment of Mr. Voorhees as he presented it in his speech shows when and 
how the second certificate was issued:

   I hold in my hand the affidavit of Mr. Pentland, which will show the 
character of this case in its legitimate colors. It is as follows:

"District of Columbia, City of Washington, ss:
   "I, Andrew W. Pentland, formerly resident of the territory of Nebraska, 
but more recently connected with the army of the Potomac, upon my oath 
depose and say: I am a relative of Samuel W. Black, formerly the governor 
of Nebraska; that I was at his house in Nebraska City one day in May last, 
after he (Black) had been removed from the governorship of Nebraska, and 
Alvin Saunders had been appointed and had arrived in Nebraska, and had 
gone to Omaha --"

   That was after Governor Black's term of office had expired, after he 
had ceased to be governor of Nebraska --

   "And that at the private residence of the said Samuel W. Black, at 
Nebraska City, in the month of May, 1861, in the presence of Samuel G. 
Daily and Samuel W. Black, I copied for the said Black and Daily a 
certificate of election to congress which he (Black) then and there in my 
presence and in Daily's presence, did sign and give to Mr. Daily, first, 
however, sticking upon the said certificate a green wafer, which had been 
under the great seal of the territory;"

   I would not vote for any man, I care not what else he would present in 
the case, who would bedaub and defile his title deed by a transaction of 
this kind --

   "And the said certificate was made by date to appear to have been 
issued some time previous, and by Black in his executive capacity of 
governor of Nebraska.
   "Furthermore this deponent is willing to go before the committee of 
elections for the House of Representatives of the thirty-seventh congress, 
and be examined and cross-examined upon all the above subject-matter.
"A. W. PENTLAND.
"Sworn and subscribed to before me this 4th day of March, A. D. 1862.
"F. I. MURPHY, J. P. [L. S.]"

   Ah, this is not evidence, say the committee. Why not? Under the 
resolution I have quoted from the extra session, it is clear, legitimate, 
and proper evidence. But further, if that would not do, Mr. Morton offered 
to bring the witness himself before the committee in proper person. That 
was refused, and it is to be observed here that it was not for the want of 
proper notice.

   But by the 7th of May, 1862, Mr. Daily was able to produce another 
affidavit from Pentland, dated the 30th of April, 1862, in the course of 
which he declared:

Page 310

[image caption: Henry A. Koenig was an early miller, lumber man, and 
banker of Grand Island, Nebraska]

Page 311

I said, in my affidavit of the 4th of March, that I copied said 
certificate some time in May last, after he (Black) had been removed from 
the governorship of Nebraska, and Alvin Saunders had been appointed. I am 
now quite certain that it was on the 9th of May, 1861, four days before 
Governor Black removed from the territory. But by saying that it was after 
he had been removed from the governorship of Nebraska, I did not mean to 
be understood that he was not then the governor, for I am certain he was; 
I only intended to say that it was after his removal so far as the 
appointment of Governor Saunders removed him; but he was the governor up 
to the time he left the territory, as Governor Saunders had not yet been 
qualified, nor entered upon the duties of his office -- in fact, I think 
he arrived at Omaha on the 12th, and Black left on the 13th of May. The 
original of the certificate was in Governor Black's handwriting, and was 
not very legible, and the paper was rumpled. I put the same date in the 
copy as was in the original, and placed a green wafer on it that had been 
under the seal. Governor Black had such wafers in his possession, and used 
them when necessary to facilitate business, as his residence was fifty 
miles from Omaha City, the capital of the territory.

   But an important change in this facile affidavit-maker's fortunes 
changed his point of view and materially affected his memory. Mr. 
Richardson explained Pentland's change of attitude thus:

   One or two days after Morton had offered to introduce Pentland as a 
witness before the committee, the sitting delegate recommended the 
appointment of that witness as a clerk in one of the departments here. I 
ask the clerk to read the letter of the secretary of the interior.

   The clerk read as follows:

Department of the Interior,
"April 22, 1862.
   "Sir: In reply to your letter of the 21st instant, I have the honor to 
inform you that Mr. A. W. Pentland was appointed a temporary clerk in the 
General Land Office, the 15th March, 1862, on the recommendation of Hon. 
S. G. Daily, of Nebraska territory. There are no papers on file in the 
department in behalf of Mr. Pentland.
"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"CALEB B. SMITH,
"Secretary of the Interior.
"HON. W. A. RICHARDSON,
"House of Representatives."

   Continuing, Mr. Richardson said:

   If you will examine the date of Pentland's affidavit, and the 
appointment of Pentland by the Secretary of the Interior, upon the 
recommendation of the sitting delegate, you will find that they occurred 
within two or three days of each other.

   Mr. Pendleton put this severe construction on Black's action:

   I will not inquire into the arguments which changed the opinion of the 
governor, nor into the motives of the change. But having seen what was 
done, I was not surprised to find the sworn testimony of a witness brought 
before the committee for cross-examination, showing that this second 
certificate was issued after the man had ceased to be governor of 
Nebraska; that it was issued from his private residence, although dated at 
the executive chamber; that it was issued from Nebraska City, although 
dated at Omaha; that it was verified by an impression of the seal of the 
territory, which had been fraudulently taken from a paper on which it had 
originally been rightly put, in order that it might be more fraudulently 
put on this false and spurious certificate . . . The second certificate 
was issued in face of the only legal count had. I submit to gentlemen 
whether they ever heard that one member of a court consisting of three 
could, at his own residence, in his own chamber, of his own motion, review 
and reverse the decision that had been made by the whole court? And yet 
that is what the governor of Nebraska attempted to do in this case -- no, 
not the governor, he had ceased to be governor then -- but the gentleman 
who had been governor.

   As to the seal placed on the Daily certificate Mr. Voorhees said:

   I hold in my hand the certificate brought here by the sitting delegate. 
It was before the committee. I would submit it to any sworn jury of twelve 
men whether it does not bear upon its face the evidence of forgery. I will 
submit it to any fair-minded man in the House whether it is not a forgery, 
not in the name, but a forgery in the seal. I do not ask you to take my 
assertion, for I have here the evidence. The paper bears upon itself the 
evidence that the great seal of the territory of Nebraska has been forged 
and stuck on with the finger, not by the legal stamp. The paper has not 
the mark of the iron upon it, which constitutes the seal.

   Mr. Dawes himself testified to the culpa-

Page 312

[image captions: CHARLES A. SPEICE, COLUMBUS. JOHN CARRIGAN, BLAIR. THOMAS 
F. HALL, OMAHA. MANLEY ROGERS, FREMONT]

Page 313

bility of Black in giving the second certificate:

   I said in the House last July . . . what I am willing to state 
anywhere, that after the governor of Nebraska had given one certificate to 
the now contestant he had no authority to give another.

   The hardships and injustice that Morton suffered from Black's fraud 
upon him were expressed by Voorhees:

   By an unjust, certainly by an unreflecting, vote of the House, Mr. 
Daily was allowed to take his seat as sitting member; and the man who came 
here with his certificate -- as good as yours or mine, or that of any man 
on this floor was turned from the bar of the House and compelled to 
contest his way back to this Hall, or abandon his clear and legal right to 
a seat. Now, starting with a proposition of this kind, I generally find, 
in my transactions with men, that nothing fair follows such a beginning. 
That is my experience.

   Not the least source of Morton's mortification and hardship was the 
fact that the issuing of the second certificate was concealed from him 
until he went to take his seat at the special session of Congress in July, 
1861, eight months after he had received his own certificate and four 
months after his term of office had begun. Said Mr. Dawes. "The gentleman 
came here with a certificate from the governor precisely like our own, wit 
out any intimation from anybody that he was not entitled to take the seat."

   Following is Morton's own, account of this part of the case:

   On the morning of the 4th of July last I arrived here to take my seat 
in this House. I had been duly and legally certificated a member of this 
House. I had no more suspicion or thought that any other person than 
myself would be sworn in as delegate from Nebraska than you, Mr. Speaker, 
had that some other person than yourself would be qualified to represent 
your district from the state of Pennsylvania . . . Six months or more 
after the canvassing board had awarded the certificate of election to me, 
and Governor Black had issued it; three months after the death of Chief 
Justice Hall, whom the law of the territory made a member of the board of 
canvassers, and who had acted in that capacity, and concurred in the award 
of the certificate to me; nearly two months after the term of my office as 
delegate in congress began, (that is, after the 4th of March, and 
ostensibly on the 29th of April, 1861), Samuel W. Black, without notifying 
the district attorney, without a recount of the votes, without notice to 
me, without the authority of law or precedent, secretly, fraudulently, and 
perfidiously issued a pseudo certificate to Mr. Daily, and attempted to 
revoke mine without notifying me. He did this because he hated, and 
desired to injure me. It was the vengeance of an assassin and a coward 
wreaked upon one who had, by loaning him hundreds of dollars, saved 
himself and family from shame and mortification, saved even their family 
carriage from public auction at the hands of the sheriff. Mr. Black owed 
me money, and he became indignant because I, after he had enjoyed for 
three years the use of a few hundred dollars, which he had borrowed to 
return in three days, pressed him for payment. He owes that money yet, 
though I may possibly reach a part of it as follows:


" SHERIFF'S SALE
"J. STERLING MORTON
     vs.
"SAMUEL W. BLACK.
   "Notice is hereby given, that by virtue of a special execution to me 
directed, from the clerk of the district court of Otoe county, Nebraska 
territory, against the goods, chattels, land, and tenements of Samuel W. 
Black, defendant, in favor of J. Sterling Morton, plaintiff, I will offer 
at public sale, to the highest and best bidder on Saturday, the 17th day 
of May, A. D. 1862, at the hour of ten o'clock, A. M., all the right, 
title, and interest of the said defendant in and to the following 
described property, to-wit:

   "The north half of the northwest quarter of section thirteen; and the 
east half of the south half of the southwest quarter of section twelve, 
township seven, range nine, east; and south half of the northeast quarter 
of section twenty-six, town seven, range thirteen, cast of sixth principal 
meridian, Otoe county, Nebraska territory.
   "Sale to take place on said day in front of the door of the room where 
the last term of the district court was held in Nebraska City, Otoe 
county, Nebraska territory.
"Given under my hand, this 11th day of April, A. D. 1862.
"GEORGE W. SROAT,
"Sheriff of Otoe County, Nebraska Territory.

   It can not be that the House of Representatives would become the 
coadjutor of an individual in his pursuit of revenge, and I am

Page 314

therefore confident that, could I have been allowed time at the beginning 
of the extra session, I could have prevented the swearing in of Mr. Daily 
upon his fraudulent certificate, and I might now show that Black's avarice 
and malice were jointly gratified by the issuance of the second 
certificate.

   Daily admitted that Black had requested him to say nothing about the 
issuance of the second certificate. "He said he was hounded by this man 
Morton who had a debt against him upon which he would stop his property 
and prevent him from going away." But Daily stated further that after he 
had arrived at Washington, and doubtless filed his own certificate and had 
his name entered on the roll, he gave the fact out to the newspapers that 
he had a certificate. Daily's version of the story of obtaining the 
certificate is as follows:

   Governor Black and I, at his solicitation, not mine, went to the city 
of Omaha -- Governor Black's residence was at Nebraska City, fifty miles 
from Omaha -- and there, at the seat of government, Governor Black made 
out this certificate to me, which I took to my attorney, Judge Conkling, 
and asked him whether I should accept it or not. He advised me not to 
accept it. I then went to my other attorney, Mr. Lapp, and asked him. He 
advised me to accept it, saying that it could do no harm, and perhaps it 
might do good. He said it was good and right in law. I therefore told 
Governor Black that I would accept the certificate. Governor Black took 
the certificate and put it into his pocket and started for home. For some 
reason, he got off the boat before he got home. In a day or two he came 
home. I went then to him and asked him for the certificate. He delivered 
it to me, but said it was so rumpled and such a poor handwrite (being his 
own hand) that it should be copied, and he gave it to Pentland, his clerk, 
to copy it. Pentland copied it, gave it to Black, and Black took from his 
desk a blank seal which had been stamped, and which he had in his house at 
Nebraska City, and attached it to the certificate, and then gave the 
certificate to me. He was then still acting governor of Nebraska territory.

   In the discussion before the House, at a special session in May, 1862, 
Richardson strongly urged that a great wrong had been done Morton in 
allowing Daily to be seated at the last session on his fraudulent 
certificate and that the wrong should be righted by acknowledging Morton's 
prima facie right to the seat now; and at the regular session, in a 
powerful speech, Voorhees took the same ground. But Dawes, while admitting 
the invalidity of the certificate on which Daily bad been seated in July, 
1861, had no mind to yield the advantage to a hostile partisan, and 
insisted that the case should be decided on its merits; and though the 
time for the regular notice had passed, Morton was permitted to take 
testimony as contestant. Daily had proceeded to take testimony as 
contestant after he had obtained the concealed certificate. Morton, 
however, refused to open up the case extensively at that late day, knowing 
that if he did so the term would expire before the decision could be 
reached. The case was heard in May, 1862, at the regular session. The 
principal effort of Dawes on the part of Daily was to throw out 122 votes 
from a northern precinct of L'eau-qui-court county, which had been counted 
for Morton. On this point Mr. Voorhees said:

   Well, the sitting delegate has held the seat here for nearly a year, as 
we have demonstrated, wrongly, and by an invalid title, and a ruse of that 
kind deceived nobody. His object was to throw open the whole question 
again, and prolong the controversy, and thus obtain another year's lease 
upon his mileage and per diem and a seat in this House, upon this paper 
which should be the object of the scorn and hissing of every honest man 
within the sound of my voice. The offer was resisted, and General Todd was 
not allowed to be called as a witness, except upon conditions that would 
inflict still further wrong.

   Mr. Voorhees then read an affidavit made by Herman Westermann which 
recited that he had employed W. W. Waford and Jacob Heck as witnesses on 
Daily's behalf to prove that the 122 votes in question were fraudulent, 
and that he had paid Waford $100 and fleck $50 for this testimony. Mr. 
Pendleton argued strongly against throwing out this vote, but Dawes 
insisted that it had been proved fraudulent and the recommendation of the 
committee was adopted by a vote of 69 to 48, and Morton lost his seat.

   It would be idle to pass positive opinions upon the charges of 
irregularity and fraud in

Page 315

the votes of L'eau-qui-court, Buffalo, Pawnee, and Richardson counties 
under conditions where fraud and irregularity were regular and normal. 
There was enough taint of fraud and irregularity in Buffalo and L'eau-qui-
court to give color to the act of a hostile partisan House in ousting 
Morton, just as there was enough fraud and irregularity shown in Pawnee 
and Richardson counties to have justified the House, if it had been 
democratic instead of republican, in seating Morton. It is doubtful if 
human skill and judgment, however honest, could ever have arrived at a 
true solution of this question on its merits. The only safe position to 
take in the case of almost any election contest in early Nebraska is that 
of Lord Melbourne, who, disappointed in not receiving the order of the 
garter, promptly decided that, "There's no damned merit in it." And yet 
Morton's right to the seat in the first instance was based on grounds so 
strictly regular and so strong that to deprive him of it was clearly a 
gross outrage; and the evidence adduced would not have warranted ousting 
him. In course of the hearing in the House there was much expression of 
disgust because contests from Nebraska were the regular thing, and Daily 
made the misstatement that every delegate election since the organization 
of the territory had been contested, This is not true of the first 
election. But the perfidy of the second certificate affair is 
unquestionable, and, considering the general character of Black, 
inexplicable. Men still living, who were his friends and companions at 
that time, esteem him as a man of warm and generous impulses and a 
magnetic and attractive personality, genial and affable towards his 
friends but bitterly resentful against his enemies. The reply to a charge 
of the Nebraska City Press that the reported vote from L'eau-qui-court 
county "was a "base, palpable, infamous fraud"; that if it was so Governor 
Black knew it, "and knowing it he is a perjured villain for not refusing 
the certificate to Morton," was no less unassailable than savage.

   By this perfidious, stealthy trick Morton lost his last opportunity to 
gratify a long cherished ambition to become a member of Congress; for 
after that republicanism and then populism became so strong that there was 
no chance for a democrat as he counted democracy. And yet should it not be 
counted as fortunate for Morton that fate -- or, what was the same thing, 
his lack of the gift or vice of prudent acquiescence necessary to 
political success -- kept him out of the pitfall of political place? By 
force of ability and character he constantly maintained a position of 
great prominence in Nebraska, and in later years

[image caption: WILLIAM PITT KELLOGG Third chief justice of Nebraska 
territory]

was a national figure, while many of his successful rivals in politics, 
that is, in office-getting, lived a brief day of notoriety and then passed 
into normal insignificance. Mr. Daily, like most men who ventured far upon 
the uncertain sea of politics at any early age, was prominent for a few 
years after this contest, and then felt constrained to accept the office 
of deputy collector of customs at New Orleans, under the notorious ex-
chief justice of Nebraska, William Pitt Kellogg, where he died in 
September, 1864. This Kellogg is now remembered as the famous trainer of 
the J. Madison Wellses, the Andersons, the Eliza Pinkstons, and other 
jugglers in the remark

Page 316

able feat of "returning" the vote of Louisiana in 1876 so that it should 
elect the republican presidential electors, and defeat the republican 
state ticket with 7,000 more votes than the electors; and before he had 
left Nebraska the Omaha Republican had credited him with ample craftiness 
for this formidable feat, Dundy pursued Morton relentlessly in this 
campaign, as he had previously promised to do; and while his aid was not 
necessary to secure the inevitable defeat of Morton, his devotion to Daily 
laid the foundation for his long career upon the federal bench for the 
territory and the state. He was the object of much contemptuous 
animadversion on the part of Morton's champions in the House for the 
anxious part he took in the contest; and while Morton on the whole 
controlled his tongue with skilful discretion, yet it seemed as if there 
was only the more venom to spare for every allusion to his relentless 
enemy. "Dundy," said he, "is one of the ablest journeymen witnesses in the 
world and his style, as a practical and pointed evidence-giver, 
admirable." In another part of his statement of his case to the House, a 
paragraph given up to Dundy is one of the severest philippics ever spoken.

   Daily, while no match for Morton's cultivation and brilliancy, yet 
conducted his part in the controversy with ability, readiness, and skill, 
though often provoking laughter by his unlettered manner and method. When 
Voorhees flayed him for turning on his benefactor Black, for his 
copperhead politics, he, in undertaking a retort, remarked: "It is said in 
the Scripture that,
        'While the lamp holds out to burn
        The vilest sinner may return.'"

   And when Lovejoy interjected, "I feel bound to interfere in behalf of 
Scripture," Daily quickly retorted, "It is a good doctrine and ought to be 
there if it isn't. I have read Watts and the Bible so much together that I 
sometimes mistake one for the other."

   Mr. Loomis of Connecticut offered a resolution providing for the 
payment to Mr. Morton of the usual compensation without mileage from July 
25, 1861, to May 7, 1862 -- the period covered by the second trial or 
contest on its merits. Mr. Frank of New York objected that the custom of 
over-liberal allowance for contestants had grown into an abuse; and Mr. 
McKnight of Pennsylvania said that where the delegate came from a far 
distant state or territory the mileage was enormous, and a contestant 
ought to be satisfied with it and not to expect any salary. Inquiry showed 
that Mr. Morton had already received from the beginning of his term, March 
4, 1861, to July 25, 1861, the first session, $1,180.40 as salary and $1,
508 as mileage -- $2,688.40 in all. After a sharp discussion the 
resolution passed by a vote of 61 to 58. This second allowance was about 
$2,300. During the debate over the merits of the contest Daily had accused 
Morton of receiving $300 more in mileage than he himself had received.

   It appeared that for this second session Daily had received $75 less 
mileage than was paid to Morton for the first session, but Robinson of 
Illinois accused Daily of deceit and misrepresentation as follows: "He has 
evidently endeavored to create the impression that he had only drawn the 
amount of mileage as read at the clerk's desk (for the present session). 
He drew for the 36th Congress $2,160 for each session. He now draws $1,
433.60, which the committee on mileage has compelled him to take. At the 
last session he drew $2,100 mileage on his own motion." In the course of 
the debate Daily had charged Morton with "disloyalty," at that time a 
grievous accusation, and Mr. Blake of Connecticut said, "I have a 
communication here in which Morton's loyalty is impeached and I want the 
House to know it," but the House did not receive the communication.

   Governor Black's character and fine gentlemanly qualities were highly 
regarded by his associates, and his part in this transaction is perhaps 
the old story of the compensating weakness so often associated with 
strongly developed emotional and sentimental qualities, and which often 
make their possessors popular and the most successful leaders of the 
crowd. And perhaps this gallant soldier's seemingly servile acquiescence 
in Buchanan's subserviency to the destructive madness of the slave 
oligarchy was due to an overween-

Page 317

ing or exuberant sense of loyalty which, in a noble cause, inspired him to 
noble deeds.

   Governor Black left the territory May 14, 1862, for his old home, 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he was born in 1818, and on his arrival he 
raised the Sixty-second regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers. On the 27th 
of June, 1862, he was killed in the battle at Gaines' Mill while leading 
his command in a desperate charge. The last letter of public import which 
he wrote in Nebraska illustrates the grace and eloquence which 
characterized his utterances. Thought of his tragic but glorious fate, so 
soon to end his career, lends peculiar interest and pathos to the closing 
words of this letter written to friends at Nebraska City, where he had 
resided since coming to Nebraska, declining the invitation to a farewell 
banquet to be given in his honor:

   On the morrow I shall start to Pennsylvania to stand there, as here, 
very close to the flag that she follows. I think I shall recognize it as 
the same which has always waved, and always will wave over the heads of 
her strong and brave battalions. It is a goodly flag to follow, and 
carries a daily beauty in its folds which makes all others ugly. But 
forgive me, I have altogether digressed when I meant only to thank you, 
and say, farewell.

   The change of administration in the spring of 1861 was the sunrise of a 
long day for the republicans, and the sunset which ushered in an equally 
long night for the antipodal democratic politicians of the territory.

   That Nebraska exhibited true western enterprise and contributed her 
full quota in the appalling siege of Washington for the spoils of office, 
which was incident to the first advent into power of a great party under 
our even then colossal spoils system, and had been quick to exact from 
President Lincoln, as early as March 26, 1861, the removal from office of 
so ultra-patriotic a soul as Governor Black, we have the testimony of Mr. 
Thompson, editor of the republican Plattsmouth Herald, in a letter to his 
paper, written from the national capital, February 25, 1861:

   Cicero once said that Rome contained all the bilge-water of the ship of 
state. Washington, at this time, seems like a vast reservoir into which 
all the political sewers of the continent are emptying their filth. There 
are, doubtless, very many great and good men here (besides ourself) -- 
patriots, statesmen, divines -- yet, if Gen. Scott's battery of flying 
artillery were to open a running fire on the crowded thoroughfares of the 
city to-morrow, we fancy the country would be benefited rather than 
injured by the indiscriminate massacre of the pestilential crew . . . W. 
H. Taylor of Nebraska City is our room-mate. Among the Nebraskans are: 
Webster, Paddock, Hitchcock and Meredith, of Omaha;

[image caption: SAMUEL W. BLACK Fourth governor of Nebraska territory May 
2, 1859, to May 11, 1861, and associate justice of the supreme court of 
Nebraska in 1857]

Irish, Taylor, Cavins, and one or two others of Nebraska City; Elbert of 
Plattsmouth; and several whose names we have forgotten, from various parts 
of the territory.

   To which the delighted Nebraska City News appends: "Shoot away, General 
Scott!"

   By the middle of June the deposed outs were disposing themselves as 
follows:

   Some of our readers may wish to know where and what the well abused 
late govern-

Page 318

ment officials of this territory are doing. Gov. Black is in command of 
the western division of Pennsylvania troops. He is rampant for the Union.

   Secretary Morton, now delegate in Congress, is at present raising corn, 
cabbage and "some pumpkins" on his farm one mile west of this city.

   The talented and facetious Judge Hall, chief justice, is in his grave. 
(Died at Bellevue, February 13, 1861.) After life's fitful fever, he 
sleeps well. The judge was learned in the law, and was altogether the 
wittiest, and raciest on a story of any man in the western country.

   Judge Wakeley is still at his post of duty. The man who declared the 
American Union

[image caption: JAMES WILSON COLEMAN Soldier and early sheriff of Otoe 
county, Nebraska]

"a failure" has been appointed to succeed him, but we think will not hold 
court just yet.

   Judge Miller is still on duty. A man by the name of Milligan has been 
appointed in his place, we believe, but will not be apt to officiate right 
away.

   Ex-Marshal Moore is at his home in Kentucky. He is too good a fellow, 
it seems to us, to be a secessionist, though of his exact position on the 
great question we are not at present informed.

   Andy Hopkins, former register of the land office in this city, is 
waging a gallant fight with his vigorous pen, on Eric's shores, for the 
Union in its integrity.

   E. A. Des Londes, former receiver in the land office in this city, has 
an appointment in the Confederate army, and is at the city of Richmond.

   Rivalry between republican leaders became intense as high honors and 
emoluments came within reach; and one faction, including the Omaha 
Republican and the Nebraska City Press and W. H. Taylor undertook to read 
Thayer out of the party; but he has managed to outlive most of his rivals, 
both politically and physicially [sic]. Consistency is not a high merit, 
but only the few distinctively original men will flout it, and only the 
very strong leaders of men may flout it with impunity. The Herald, 
therefore, paid a compliment to Thayer's superior prudence when it said: 
"He rides one horse and sits the animal badly."

   Alvin Saunders, of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, succeeded Black as governor, 
May 11th, and Algernon S. Paddock, of Washington county, Nebraska, 
succeeded J. Sterling Morton as secretary of the territory, May 18th. 
About the same time William F. Lockwood of Dakota county and of the 
Elyria, Ohio, trinity -- Judge E. Wakeley and Bird B. Chapman being the 
other two -- was appointed judge of the third judicial district, 
succeeding his former fellow-townsman who had been reappointed shortly 
before the close of Buchanan's administration. The democrats being out 
now, raised the same cry of carpet-bag appointments against the 
republicans which the latter had dinned in democratic ears during the 
whole period of their incumbency, and the disappointed republicans joined 
lustily in the protest. As Governor Saunders appeared to be only a boarder 
in the territory for some time after assuming his office, he was 
sarcastically assigned to the carpet-bag class: "Gov. Saunders, of Mt. 
Pleasant, Iowa, is in Nebraska on a visit. He arrived at Omaha on last 
Wednesday."

   The outbreak of the Civil war affected Nebraska as a frontier 
settlement, and notwithstanding that Governor Black was in daily 
expectation of turning over his office

Page 319

to his successor, he felt that conditions were such as to require him to 
issue an order for all volunteer military companies to report forthwith -- 
those of the First brigade to Major-General Thayer and those of the Second 
brigade to Brigadier-General Downs.

   It will be seen that the legislative act of 1856 was followed in this 
order, and that two of the generals elected by the legislature under the 
act were recognized as still in office, though the original attempt at 
organization had not been successfully prosecuted. Brigadier-General L. L. 
Bowen of the Second brigade, or South Platte division, had gone to 
Colorado where he was an unsuccessful candidate for the legislature in 
1861. On the 30th of April, Governor Black issued a proclamation 
recommending the organization of military companies throughout the 
territory on account of "the withdrawal of United States troops from some 
of the forts of Nebraska and the disturbed condition of the country." 
These companies were not required to report to the regular military 
organization.

   The right view of the case is presented by his excellency in his 
proclamation. His action had, however, rather been anticipated by the 
people. Already there are four full companies organized in this city. 
Omaha, we believe, has an equal number already organized; and the other 
towns in the territory have generally effected similar organizations. We 
trust these companies will at once be supplied with arms. We don't believe 
there will be anybody "hurt" if the territory is armed; but it is best to 
prepare for war in times of peace . . . Nebraska is abundantly able to 
take care of herself, with or without the protection of the administration 
at Washington.(4)

   But on the 28th of the following August this First Nebraska regiment, 
under the command of Colonel John M. Thayer and Lieutenant-Colonel Hiram 
P. Downs, left Nebraska for active service in Missouri.

   On the 18th Governor Saunders issued the first proclamation for the 
territory calling for volunteers for the Civil war as follows:

   Whereas, The president of the United States has issued a proclamation 
calling into the service of the United States an additional volunteer 
force of infantry cavalry to serve for a period of three years, unless 
sooner discharged; and the secretary of war having assigned one regiment 
to the territory of Nebraska, now, therefore, I, Alvin Saunders, governor 
of Nebraska, do issue this proclamation, and hereby call upon the militia 
of the territory immediately to form in different companies with a view of 
entering the service of the United States, under the aforesaid call. 
Companies, when formed, will proceed to elect a captain and two 
lieutenants. The number of men required for each company will be made 
known as soon as the instruc-

[image caption: NANCY JANE COLEMAN Wife of James W. Coleman]

tions are received from the war department; but it is supposed now that it 
will not be less than seventy-eight men.

   As soon as a company has formed and has elected its officers, the 
captain will report the same to the adjutant general's office.

   Efforts are being made to trample the Stars and Stripes, the emblem of 
our liberties, in the dust. Traitors are in the land busily engaged in 
trying to overthrow the government of the United States, and information 
has been received that the same traitors are endeavoring to incite an 
invasion of our frontier by a savage foe. In view of these facts I invoke 
the aid of every lover of his coun- 

(4. Nebraska City News, May 11, 1861.]

Page 320

try and his home to come promptly forward to sustain and protect the same.

   Done at Omaha, this 18th day of May, A. D. 1861.
ALVIN SAUNDERS.

   It was thought improbable that troops would be ordered from this 
sparsely settled, unprotected frontier for active service in the East, 
especially when there were thousands of men already refused by the 
government; but it was deemed probable that the design was to garrison the 
forts from which the United States troops had been withdrawn. "This 
territory cannot well spare 1,000 troops, coming as they would from the 
productive classes, mechanics and men who work for a living." The still 
straitened condition of territorial affairs is reflected by a "military 
gentleman" thus:

   Our military organization is a most difficult question. Were there now 
a sudden emergency demanding the transportation of a few hundred men any 
material distance north, south or west, I do not believe that we could 
procure on the credit of the territory the horses, wagons, provisions and 
ammunition that would be necessary for the purpose, much less to supply 
them for many days in the field.

   So heavy are our taxes pressing upon the people that I do not suppose 
that anyone would for a moment contemplate increasing them; while to 
effect anything for military purposes would be to demand a very large 
increase.

   We cannot anticipate our future resources. A very slight increase of 
our debt would prostrate our credit utterly; our territorial warrants 
would be worthless, and bonds could not be sold, I fear, at any price.

   The present harvest has just shown us that there are scarcely hands 
enough, even with the aid of machinery, to secure our crops. Yet if we can 
do anything it will be to spare the men, provided their families are 
supported in other words that they are paid. . .

   If the U. S. Government would arm, equip, subsist and pay a proper 
number of men to be placed, say 300 at Fort Kearney to move along our 
frontier, 100 at Brownville or some point in that vicinity, and 100 up 
toward L'Eau Qui Court, they would constitute a sufficient guard for the 
present, and with an efficient organization of our militia could be re-
enforced, whenever required.

   But the U. S. must foot the bill -- we are, I conceive, utterly unable 
to do it.(5)

   The anxieties and terrors of the Civil war for a time subdued the petty 
feelings and strifes of partisanship, and it was announced that "the 
republican and democratic central committees which recently convened at 
Omaha, after full consideration very wisely determined upon the 
inexpediency of drawing party lines this fall." There was a prevailing 
sentiment that there were no party questions, only the question of loyalty 
or disloyalty to the Union. William E. Harvey, a democrat, was elected 
auditor over Stephen D. Bangs, a republican, and Augustus Kountze was 
elected treasurer without opposition. The call to arms made many vacancies 
in the council, and William F. Sapp of Douglas county was elected to fill 
the vacancy caused by the resignation of John M. Thayer; C. Blanchard of 
Sarpy, in place of Silas A. Strickland; John McPherson from Nemaha and 
Johnson, in place of Thomas W. Tipton, and Samuel M. Kirkpatrick from 
Cass, Dodge, and Otoe, in place of Samuel H. Elbert. The other nine 
members held over from the previous session.

   The eighth session of the general assembly opened December 2, 1861. 
John Taffe, republican, of Dakota county, was chosen president of the 
council, receiving seven votes, his democratic opponent, David D. Belden 
of Douglas, receiving four votes. Robert W. Furnas of Nemaha county was 
elected chief clerk. Party lines were not drawn in the choice of speaker 
of the house, and Alfred D. Jones of Douglas county, was chosen on the 
sixth ballot, receiving thirty-one votes against five for Milton W. 
Reynolds of Otoe and one for Barnabas Bates of Dakota. George L. Seybolt 
of Cass county was elected chief clerk. Among the names of other officers 
of the house familiar to present citizens of Nebraska are those of Isham 
Reavis of Richardson, enrolling clerk, and Joseph J. Imhoff of Otoe 
county, fireman. Turner M. Marquett was the youngest member of the council 
and Robert M. Hagaman, who, as county clerk of L'eau-qui-court county, 
laid the foundation for keeping J. Sterling Morton out of the Congress of 
the United States by rejecting the 

(5. Nebraska Advertiser, October 3, 1861.)

Page 321

election returns from the northern precinct of that county in 1860, was, 
it was said, the youngest and also the handsomest member of the house. 
John Taffe of Dakota county, president of the council, and subsequently 
delegate to Congress, and an Omaha journalist, was a native of Indiana and 
thirty-three years of age. "While there was at least an equal amount of 
assembled talent; a greater degree of sobriety and 'good looks'; more 
sociability and general good feeling . . . we are constrained to assert 
that we witnessed at no previous session such an exhibition and exercise 
of downright contrariness."(6) For the first time in the history of the 
territory the republicans were in the saddle in both the executive and 
legislative departments. And such were the impetus and the inertia of the 
Union sentiment and the cohesive power of the passions and spoils of war, 
that, no matter what the shortcomings or the trespasses of this war party, 
it could not be unhorsed for a quarter of a century to come.

   Governor Saunders in his message reiterated the oft-told tale of the 
providential preparation of the Platte valley for a railway to the 
Pacific, and added that "the intelligent and far-seeing telegraph company 
have made this discovery already, and have located their Pacific line and 
staked out the very route where they expect soon to be followed by this 
great highway of commerce." He states that the valuable salt springs of 
Saline and Lancaster counties, with the adjacent lands, have been reserved 
from sale by the general government, and recommends that Congress be 
memorialized to place these lands under the control of the legislature, or 
that Congress pass some law authorizing the springs to be worked under the 
control of the government. He states further that the secretary of the 
interior has recently decided that school lands may be leased for the 
support of the public schools, and advises legislation to that end, in 
case the legislature is of the opinion that a revenue might be derived 
from them. It appears from the report of the auditor that the indebtedness 
of the territory has now reached $50,342.98, represented by $16,000 in 
bonds and $34,342.98 in warrants. The governor points out that the capitol 
is still uncompleted and that neither legislative hall is ready for use, 
and recommends that the legislature ask Congress for an appropriation 
sufficient to fit the legislative halls for occupancy. The governor 
informs the legislature that "experience has shown that an agricultural 
community cannot prosper without a safe medium of exchange," and without 
stopping to elucidate the rather remarkable economic implica-

[image caption: BRUNO TZCHUCK Pioneer of Sarpy county, secretary of state, 
and acting governor of Nebraska]

tion that other than agricultural communities might thrive on an unsafe 
medium of exchange, he soundly advises that "nothing but gold and silver, 
and the paper of well-guarded and strictly specie-paying banks should be 
tolerated," -- in an agricultural community.

   The auditor points out that because warrants draw ten per cent interest 
and bonds only seven, many prefer the warrants; and

(6. Nebraska Advertiser, January 23, 1862.)

Page 322

[image caption: J. P. Becker was an early Nebraska miller in Colfax county]

Page 323

yet the latter are worth only thirty-five or forty cents on the dollar. 
This officer reminds the legislature that he has often urged the passing 
of regular appropriation bills specifying certain sums for particular 
purposes, and he again presses his recommendation so as to form some check 
upon the issue of warrants.

   The legislation of this session consisted of sundry amendments to the 
codes and to other general laws. The other enactments comprised the repeal 
of that part of the refunding law limiting its application to warrants 
presented on or before December 1, 1861; an act assigning the new 
republican judges appointed by President Lincoln to the several 
districts -- Chief Justice William Pitt Kellogg to the first, Associate 
Justice Streeter to the second, and Associate Justice Lockwood to the 
third; an act providing that property to the value of one hundred dollars 
belonging to any person who should maintain an acre of grapes in a good 
state of cultivation and in a single tract, should be exempt from 
taxation, and for an exemption of a valuation of fifty dollars for each 
additional acre of grapes; an act attaching all territory lying west of 
the first guide meridian to the first judicial district; an act to 
encourage the growth of wool; and an act to resurvey the saline lands in 
Lancaster county. The law to encourage the growth of sheep was as follows: 
"All sheep not to exceed five hundred in number are hereby exempted from 
forced sale on execution and taxation." How this gracious concession was 
to be distributed among the various sheep owners if there should happen to 
be more than five hundred of the favored animals in the territory is left 
to conjecture after the fashion of so much of the territorial legislation. 
The preamble of the law for the resurvey of saline lands recited that 
"certain lands in the southern portion of Lancaster county, known to be 
the richest saline lands perhaps in the world, have been entered at the 
United States land office in Nebraska City by private individuals by 
virtue of a conspiracy with the United States surveyor," and that the 
general land office had recalled the patents for these lands and ordered 
an investigation.

   The counties of Buffalo, Hall, Kearney, and Lincoln were constituted a 
new representative district; the territory known as Jones county was 
attached to Gage for the purpose of taxation. The name of Green county was 
changed to Seward, and Calhoun to Saunders. The first organization of Holt 
county was legalized and also the acts of the county commissioners of 
Platte and L'eau-qui-court in 1861. Gage and Jones counties were attached 
to the council district of Richardson and Pawnee, and that part of Polk 
county north of the Platte river was joined to Platte county for election, 
judicial, and revenue purposes.

   Two sets of resolutions favoring the prosecution of the war for the 
Union were adopted by the house on motion of Reynolds, democrat, of Otoe 
county. A joint resolution was adopted requesting the secretary of war to 
station two companies of federal soldiers on the Missouri border to 
protect loyal citizens from depredations of "secessionists and traitors in 
Missouri, and of those residing in their own midst." During the months of 
January and February, 1862, great excitement was caused in the 
southeastern counties by lawless acts of jayhawkers. Though there was an 
inclination in the North Platte section to belittle these disturbances, 
Governor Saunders issued the following proclamation:

   Whereas, It has been represented by many good and loyal citizens of 
this territory, that lawless bands of armed men, styling themselves 
"Jayhawkers," are committing depredations in the southern portion of the 
territory -- stealing horses, robbing stores and houses, and threatening 
the lives of many of our citizens.

   Now therefore, I, Alvin Saunders, governor of the territory of 
Nebraska, do hereby command all bands or companies of men, leagued 
together. for the purpose aforesaid, or for other unlawful purposes, 
within this territory, to immediately disband and return to their homes, 
or at least to leave the territory; and in case they, or any other parties 
are hereafter found within the limits of the territory engaged in acts of 
robbery, or in any way disturbing the peace of our citizens, all the 
powers of the territory both civil and military, will be brought to bear 
against them, and if taken such severe punishment as justice de-

Page 324

mands will be executed without fear or favor. Given under my hand and the 
great seal of the territory, at Omaha, this 2d day of January, A. D. 1862.
By the governor,
ALVIN SAUNDERS [L. S.]
Algernon S. Paddock,
Secretary of the territory.

   The press was crowded with communications discussing the subject, which 
show that the settlers were between the fires of alleged union, as well as 
secessionist lawbreakers. A part of one of these communications reveals 
the conditions:

   Pawnee says we are between two fires -- that of secessionists and union 
jayhawkers! Well, I think we can stand all such fires. We are able to put 
down jayhawking, and if Secesh shows his head on this side of the river, 
we will put him down too . . . I would inform Pawnee that those self-
styled union jayhawkers have deceived a great many good people. They have 
made them believe that they were only stealing from rebels, which is not 
the fact.

   A league of citizens was formed at Nebraska City for protection against 
these marauders, and over two hundred citizens, members of the league and 
divided between the two political parties, signed the following oath:

   I solemnly swear that I will bear true allegiance to the United States, 
and support and sustain the constitution and laws thereof, that I will 
maintain the national sovereignty, paramount to that of all states, county 
or confederate powers, that I will discourage, discountenance, and forever 
oppose secession, rebellion and disintegration of the federal union, that 
I disdain and denounce all faith and fellowship with the so-called 
confederate armies, and pledge my honor, my property and my life to the 
sacred performance of this my solemn oath of allegiance to the government 
of the United States of America. We further pledge our lives, our property 
and our honor, to protect each and every member of this league in person 
and property, from all lawless marauders.

   Two alleged jayhawkers, arrested in Johnson county, were brought to 
Nebraska City, where one was shoved under the ice of the frozen Missouri 
river, and the other was released and then followed and shot dead. The 
local journal virtuously denounces these acts as murders and then 
virtually upholds them in the following whimsical style:

   Catch a jayhawker or anybody else in the act of stealing your horse, 
shoot or hang him with all convenient dispatch; but don't do it unless you 
are sure, beyond peradventure of a doubt; your own or the belief of any 
other man, is not sufficient warrant to take the life in punishment of any 
person, no matter how much against him public opinion or appearances may 
be. Every scoundrel has a right to his life, until well-known and proven 
facts show that he deserves to lose it. And then, if life is to be taken, 
let it be done openly, in daylight, by some one having authority -- a 
committee appointed by a public meeting. Executioners so authorized, and 
doing such a duty, need not be troubled about their responsibility -- for 
that rests with the people -- and if the people, in pursuing such a 
course, act dispassionately and upon direct proof, they will be able to 
bear the brunt of all blame.

   But don't let us have any more persons -- jayhawkers, and horse-thieves 
included -- chucked under the ice. It is murderous, unwarrantable, and 
very cold.

   But that cold-blooded tragedy was the culmination of the era of 
lawlessness, and soon after it was announced that "jayhawking is about 
played out in Kansas and Nebraska," General Hunter "having taken decided 
steps in his department."

   The Bellevue palliative -- a memorial for a $40,000 penitentiary to be 
located there was repeated. On the breaking out of the Civil war the 
Indians were quick to see their opportunity for mischief, and the 
legislature asked Congress to authorize the governor to raise five 
companies of soldiers, to be paid and equipped by the United States, for 
protection against "the various tribes of Indians whose propensities to 
molest and destroy have been increased by reason of neglect on the part of 
incompetent and, in instances, traitorous agents, who have heretofore had 
charge of them." The memorial recited that the territory was without arms 
for defense against this danger or the means to buy them.

   An attempt was made at this session to pass an apportionment bill on 
the basis of the last vote for delegate for Congress, and later, when the 
result of the United States census

Page 325

became known, on the population as therein determined; but. North Platte 
interests were able to defeat the measure. There was bitter complaint of 
the inequity of existing representation in the legislature. According to 
the census the North Platte section contained only 8,478 people against 18,
031 in the South Platte; and by distributing the population of the 
frontier districts between the two sections partisans of the southern 
section counted 10,824 for the North Platte and 18,012 for the South 
Platte, a difference of 7,188. This controversy showed that there had been 
no real abatement of the sectional spirit:

   There is no avoiding a sectional contest for congress next fall. Let 
South Platte stand by her own men, and if we have a session of the 
legislature next winter, let the members of the same south of the Platte 
elect as officers her own men. This is the doctrine . . . . Omaha is a 
great place, but her greatness consists in selfishness and concentrated 
meanness.

   The territorial conventions of both political parties met at Omaha on 
the 20th of September. There had been much profession on both sides of a 
desire to ignore partisanship in the nominations and strike a single war 
and union key-note; and even the nomination of the same candidate by both 
conventions was advocated. In the Republican convention there was a fierce 
contest for the nomination for delegate to Congress, and Mr. Daily did not 
succeed in winning it until the forty-fifth ballot. His contestants were 
Dr. Gilbert C. Monell of Douglas county, John Taffe of Dakota county, and 
William H. Taylor of Otoe county.

   John Q. Coss, who recently died at Bellevue, where he was then living, 
was president of the democratic convention, and J. M. Woolworth, chairman 
of the committee on resolutions, lived until a few years since at Omaha, 
where he then resided. The platform adopted by the convention is doubly 
interesting as indicative of the sentiment of the democrats in those early 
days of the Civil war, and as the product of a man who was to become an 
eminent lawyer and citizen of the state.

   The sentiment of the convention was decidedly in favor of nominating J. 
F. Kinney as candidate for delegate to Congress; but A. J. Poppleton hotly 
opposed Kinney, charging him with recreancy to the Democratic party in 
retaining the office of territorial judge in Utah under the Republican 
administration, and that he was a non-resident. Kinney kept himself well 
in hand, and made a judicious speech, insisting that he had not lost his 
residence in Nebraska, that his family were still living at Nebraska City, 
and that it was no offense to continue to hold the office in question, 
especially since he had gone to Washington and offered his resignation to 
President Lincoln, who persistently refused to accept it. On the first 
regular ballot Judge Kinney received all the votes of the convention 
except the ten from Nemaha county, which were cast for Mr. Poppleton.

   We have other testimony that the resolution complimentary to Colonel 
Thayer, which it is said in the proceedings of the convention was 
rejected, was in fact adopted by that body, and the republican convention 
held the same day passed a similar resolution. The contest in the 
convention was the old Omaha fight over again. The Douglas delegation had 
seceded when they found that Poppleton's nomination for delegate to 
Congress was impossible, and the Nebraskian, the Omaha democratic organ, 
opposed Kinney, a resident of the hated Otoe county, on the ground that 
Daily was more satisfactory to Omaha. A. J. Hanscom, "formerly a democrat, 
and one of the big guns of Douglas county," was quoted as saying that he 
was "an Omaha man and nothing else," that he "went only for Omaha in this 
campaign," and supported Daily "because he has pledged himself to work for 
Omaha." Like the blind or the deaf, whose other senses, by reason of the 
defect, become the more acute, so Daily, unlettered in all other respects, 
was almost superfluously schooled in the devious arts of practical 
politics. In his campaign against Morton -- the original leader and 
consummate partisan of the South Platte -- he had been able to persuade 
the democratic organ of southeast Nebraska, the Advertiser, to his support 
on the ostensible ground of standing for South Platte interests; and now, 
discerning that he

Page 326

[image captions: COLONEL GEORGE ARMSTRONG Omaha pioneer. MRS. JULIA EWING 
ARMSTRONG Wife of Colonel Armstrong. ROLLIN M. ROLFE Pioneer of Otoe 
county. NEDOM B. WHITFIELD Pioneer of Nemaha county]

Page 327

had become in some sort shelf-worn in his home district, and the election 
returns from the leading South Platte counties confirmed the clearness of 
his vision, he gained an offset by cajolery of the North Platte. 
Specification as to Daily's new alliance with the North Platte were 
furnished:

   When we heard three weeks ago that the Pacific railroad bill, (in which 
a point at or near the mouth of the Platte river was named as the initial 
of a branch through the territory), had passed the House, we said we 
wanted the bill to become a law whether we got a branch South of the 
Platte or not. This was upon the understanding that southern Nebraska was 
to have an equal chance in the selection of the route, with North Platte
. . .

   But it seems that we are to have no showing at all. The two 
incorporators to represent Nebraska in the organization of the company are 
two of the bitterest North Platte men who could have been named --Dr. 
Monell and A. Kountze -- both of them residents and property holders in 
Omaha and speculators in the paper towns along the North Platte route to 
the mountains. Northern Nebraska with 9,000 residents, taxable property 
amounting to only $3,000,000, and capacity for a population all told, of 
less than 400,000, has two incorporators, while southern Nebraska with a 
population of over 19,000, taxable property of nearly $5,000,000, and a 
capacity of sustaining upwards of 1,000,000 men, women and children, is to 
have no voice in the organization of the company . . .

   When "Skisms" wrote a letter, dated the 17th of September, 1860, 
pledging himself to procure an appropriation of land from congress to 
build a railroad west from Brownville, he did so with a view to securing 
the vote of Nemaha county. That letter was intended for Nemaha county 
circulation, and he got the vote. He made similar secret pledges in Cass 
and Otoe counties. Hon. William H. Taylor, and the rest of his stump-
speakers, endorsed them -- promising all things in his name. In these 
three counties Daily got majorities.

   Now what does he do? He not only violates every pledge he then made; 
but his own personal vanity assuring him that he owns South Platte, by 
giving the "Omaha clique" the whole voice in the preliminary organization 
and location of the Pacific railroad connection through the territory.

   Notwithstanding that the opposition showed that Daily had not, during 
three sessions, obtained a single appropriation for public works in the 
territory, and had purposely, it was charged, failed to obtain an 
appropriation for finishing the capitol which was "going to ruin" through 
neglect, and the fact that W. H. Taylor and O. P. Mason, the two leading 
republicans of Otoe county, opposed him, his superior campaigning 
qualities pulled him through with a majority of 136. Daily had, and 
doubtless deserved the reputation for being the best campaigner, among 
republicans at least, in the territory, and this year his strident and 
magnetic denunciation against "this yer slave oligarchy" was particularly 
effective. There was the usual charge of frauds in the elections in 
Richardson county; and of Falls City, home of Dundy, Daily's political 
manager, and whence he was to emerge presently, through Daily's reciprocal 
favor, as associate justice of the supreme court. The News said:

   Falls City is the headquarters of the Daily clique in the territory, 
and we were prepared for gross illegality, but we confess not to the 
extent that present reports indicate. The ninth month regiment has figured 
prominently in the campaign, government officers promising democrats 
positions if they would support Daily. We doubt not at least one hundred 
men have been subsidized by assurances of the appointment of colonel of 
the regiment.

   But for the first time since the first election in 1854 the contest was 
not carried to Washington.

   The direct or war tax of $19,312 levied upon the territory by the 
federal government in 1861, modest as the sum seems in the eyes of the 
children of the squatters, was a cause of great solicitude to them in 
their still impecunious condition. At the urgent request of the people, 
preferred in various ways, Congress credited the territory with this tax 
in lieu of the usual appropriation of $20,000 for the expenses of the 
legislative session. There was accordingly no session in 1863, though 
there had been no authoritative expression of public sentiment on the 
subject, and members were chosen generally at the fall election. Omaha was 
of course loth to forego the financial and other profits of a legislative 
session, but the Republican was the only newspaper

Page 328

in the territory which did not advocate its omission. It seems odd to 
people of the present day that but a generation ago it was deemed a 
hardship or sacrifice to forego a session of the legislature, especially 
as in the meantime annual sessions have been generally

[image caption: WILLIAM HARTFORD JAMES Second governor of the state of 
Nebraska]

discarded by the public judgment, and even biennial meetings are by no 
means in high favor. William E. Harvey, democrat, was reëlected auditor; 
and Augustus Kountze, "a conservative republican," was elected treasurer 
of the territory in 1863. The Nebraskian announced the candidacy of both 
without nomination by a convention.

   In the meantime the grim business of war had taken the place of 
partisan politics, largely, in the public mind. There was much solicitude 
and controversy as to the ability of the territory to defend itself 
against border ruffianism on the south and Indian depredations along the 
whole western border, and strong opposition to sending the First regiment 
out of the territory. The resignation of Lieutenant-Colonel Downs of the 
First regiment is explained on such grounds:

   When the regiment was organized it was upon the distinct understanding, 
expressed in a letter from Mr. Secretary Cameron, that it was not to be 
ordered out of the territory. Many of the officers and men repaired to the 
rendezvous, leaving their private business unsettled. When the order came 
to go to Missouri, an order obtained mainly through the anxiety of Col. 
Thayer to show himself, Lieut. Col. Downs (brigadier general under the 
volunteer organization act of 1856) went with the first battalion, and he 
did not even have time to visit his family.

   Constant depredations soon vindicated this fear and protest; and in the 
summer of 1864 the regiment was sent back to Nebraska for service against 
the Indians.