History of Nebraska - Chapters 27-28



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CHAPTER XXVII 
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 1875 -- CONSTITUTIONS COMPARED -- ELECTIONS OF 
1875 -- RISE OF VAN WYCK -- POLITICS OF 1876

   THE sixty-nine members of the constitutional convention were elected 
Tuesday, April 6, 1875. While party distinctions were not strictly 
observed in their selection, the statement that "in every district of the 
state party has been ignored in selecting candidates for delegates to the 
convention" was not sustained by results. It was not difficult for the two 
leading counties -- Douglas and Otoe -- to agree upon an equal division of 
their representation, since they were politically doubtful at elections. 
The Omaha Herald approved the Bee's proposal that seven members from 
Douglas county should comprise three democrats, three republicans, and 
Judge Lake, who at that time could not be accurately classified. The 
conventions of the several parties accepted the plan, but the democratic 
convention recommended Clinton Briggs instead of Judge Lake for the odd 
member and the republicans adopted the recommendation. Two republicans and 
two democrats were chosen for Otoe county, and a like division was made of 
the two members for Dodge. Richardson county conceded one member -- 
Franklin Martin -- of her four to the democrats, and Cass did likewise in 
the person of her distinctively democratic war horse, Jacob Vallery, Sr. 
On the other hand, the safely democratic counties of Cuming, Platte, and 
Sarpy chose members of their political complexion.

   The election of Beach I. Hinman, democrat, of Lincoln county, was a 
concession to fitness, while that of a democratic member for Dixon, and 
also for Seward, was probably due to the chance of politics in those 
uncertain counties. York chose an independent because it was then so 
inclined. All the rest of the members were chosen by and of republicans 
because they had full power so to choose. The convention comprised fifty 
republicans, sixteen democrats, and three independents. Of the rather 
small number of democrats, Brown, Boyd, Calhoun, Hinman, Martin, Munger, 
and Stevenson were well equipped for effective and corrective work. 
Abbott, Boyd, Grenell, Hinman, Kirkpatrick, Manderson, and Maxwell 
assisted in a very important degree in doing the preparatory work of this 
convention by virtue of their service in the convention of 1871. The Omaha 
Bee advocated the election of the delegates by the legislature on the 
ground that stronger men would be chosen by this method than by popular 
election; but the Herald properly opposed that plan. The people no doubt 
chose a convention more nearly representative of their spirit and wishes 
than the legislature would have chosen, and that was more important than 
the mere question of ability. No representative newspaper would now 
suggest delegating a function of that nature to a legislature, because in 
the interim there has been a great increase of self-confidence among the 
people and a great decrease of popular confidence in legislative bodies.

   The convention met on the 11th of May in the hall of the house of 
representatives at Lincoln and was called to order at three o'clock in the 
afternoon by Bruno Tszchuck, secretary of state. Alexander H. Conner of 
Buffalo county was temporary president and Guy A. Brown of Lancaster, 
temporary secretary. The committee on credentials was composed of twelve 
members, one from each senatorial district. John L. Webster of Douglas 
county was chosen for permanent president; Guy A. Brown of Lancaster, 
secretary; Cassius L.

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Mather of Webster, assistant secretary; Phelps Paine of Seward, sergeant-
at-arms; J. W. McCabe, doorkeeper and postmaster; and Edward Bragg, 
Richard Miller, and R. C. Talbot, pages. Abbott, Connor, Gere, Sterns, and 
Robertson were the committee on rules. A committee of twelve members -- 
one from each senatorial district-- was appointed to report the best 
practical mode of procedure. On the second day a committee of five on 
rules reported in favor of adopting the rules of the convention of 1871 
with slight alterations. A committee was appointed to hear evidence in the 
case of the contest for membership from Franklin, Gosper, and Phelps 
counties. Pastors of the city were invited to act as chaplain in regular 
turn without compensation.

   Though a sensible public sentiment and the election as delegates of a 
goodly number of democrats of ability prevented domineering partisanship, 
yet a republican faction organized the convention. Charles F. Manderson 
had a long distance eye on the seat in the United States Senate occupied 
by Mr. Hitchcock, and with the alert purpose of precluding prominence of 
his local rival the senator put forward John L. Webster to contest against 
Manderson for the presidency of the convention. While Webster easily won 
on the general vote, it was ominous for Hitchcock that his representative 
did not get a single vote from Douglas county where all three of these 
ambitious men resided. Reaction of Manderson's defeat probably promoted 
somewhat his subsequent elevation to two terms of the senatorship, while 
his victorious indirect opponent was put off with but one.

   The convention considered three plans of procedure. The first was to 
take the old constitution as a model and through the aid of a small number 
of the committee make such alterations and additions as seemed desirable; 
the second was to work upon the rejected constitution of 1871 in the same 
way; the third to proceed de novo without any specific model. By the first 
two methods most of the work would have been done in committee of the 
whole. The last plan was adopted, chiefly because the larger number of 
committees it involved humored the natural ambition of the members to take 
a conspicuous part in the procedure. The report of the committee of twelve 
on procedure was therefore rejected and that of the committee of five on 
rules proposing thirty-two committees, which should proceed to construct a 
new constitution, was adopted. The reasonable brevity of both the 
convention and the constitution indicate that the difference between the 
two plans of procedure was not of great importance.

   The work of the convention was concluded on the 12th of June and the 
constitution was adopted by the great preponderance of 30,202 votes 
against 5,474 on the second Tuesday the 12th -- of October, which was also 
the day of the general election under the old constitution. The new 
constitution provided that executive officers should be chosen at the 
general election of the following year -- 1876. Those who were elected in 
1874 -- governor, secretary of state, auditor, and treasurer, filled out 
their regular terms, and their successors were chosen at the same time as 
the new officers -- lieutenant-governor, superintendent of public 
instruction, attorney-general, and commissioner of public lands and 
buildings. By provision of the constitution the six regents of the 
university, judges of the supreme, district, and county courts, and 
elective county and precinct officers were chosen at the first general 
election -- October 12th. A district attorney for each of the three new 
judicial districts was also elected at this time, but the tenure lasted 
only until the expiration of the regular term of the three who had been 
elected under the old constitution in 1874. The nine regents of the 
university, elected by the legislature under the old constitution, were 
legislated out of office by the new, but four of them, William Adair, 
Charles A. Holmes, E. M. Hungerford, and Samuel J. Tuttle, were elected on 
the republican ticket at the first ensuing election. Republican 
legislatures had chosen two democrats -- Alexander Bear and James W. 
Savage -- as members of the preceding board; but under the popular 
election system there was no such wholesome principle, and every board was 
solidly partisan until the republicans lost control of the state in 1894.

   The new constitution was about two and

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one-half times as long as that which it succeeded; but it varied but 
little in substance or length, from the rejected constitution of 1871. 
Judged by the original conception of American constitutions -- that they 
should be merely the fundamental basis of the government and of such 
statutory law as might be required in the course of time -- the 
constitution of 1866 was long enough. But the popular distrust of 
representative bodies which has been increasing since that time, as 
evidenced by the increasing length of later state constitutions, by the 
general adoption of direct primary elections, and the growing use of the 
initiative and referendum, was responsible for the incorporation in the 
new constitution of many provisions which otherwise would have been left 
to legislative enactment. The latest state constitution -- that of 
Oklahoma -- illustrates the constantly growing tendency. It is as much 
longer than the Nebraska constitution of 1875 as the latter is longer than 
its predecessor of 1866.

   There is no reason for thinking that any mandate or advice of the 
constitution touching the regulation of railroad business has had any 
appreciable effect upon the legislature which has responded only to the 
mandate of public sentiment. The legislature ought to have passed an 
apportionment bill at the session which just preceded the convention, thus 
saving that body from a distinctively partisan task and the constitution 
from its incongruous and unnecessary bulk. The legislation in the 
constitution is mainly comprised in those two measures. The excess in its 
length over the constitution of 1866, outside those two subjects, is in 
the much greater detail of the provisions for the executive, the 
judiciary, education, and the schedule. This minute attention to detail 
is, however, due to the same motive and spirit which are manifested in the 
legislative features. The only other important new principle incorporated 
into the new constitution was that forbidding special legislation in a 
long list of specified cases and "in all other cases where a general law 
can be made applicable." The section containing this prohibition, with the 
exception of the provision relating to the bonding of municipalities, 
which is added, was copied from the constitution of 1871. The constitution 
of 1866 merely prohibited the passage of special acts conferring corporate 
powers and provided that "corporations may be formed under general laws."

   After all the lands available for such a purpose had been bestowed upon 
railroad companies, the new constitution provided that "lands under 
control of the state shall never be donated to railroad companies, private 
corporations, or individuals." While this was chiefly a response to a 
subjective reaction, perhaps there was expectation that the swamp lands 
scheme would be productive.

   The important incidental changes consisted in the enlargement of the 
legislative, executive, and judicial departments and an increase in 
compensation of members and officers. The offices of lieutenant-governor, 
state superintendent of public instruction, attorney-general, and 
commissioner of public lands and buildings were added to the executive 
department. The salaries of the four executive officers under the 
constitution of 1866 were as follows: Governor, $1,000; secretary of 
state, $600; treasurer, $400; auditor, $800. Under the new constitution 
the salary of the governor, auditor, and treasurer is $2,500; all the rest 
of the executive officers receive $2,000, except the lieutenant-governor, 
whose compensation is twice that of a senator. Under the old constitution 
these officers were not prohibited from receiving fees or other 
perquisites, and it was expected that the treasurer's meager allowance 
would be swelled by interest on loans of the funds in his custody. The new 
constitution prohibits all state officers from appropriating any fees or 
perquisites to their own use. Long continued and wanton disregard of this 
inhibition demoralized the civil service and caused great losses of the 
public funds.

   The number of judicial districts was increased from three to six, with 
a judge for each, and an independent supreme court with three judges was 
established -- an increase over the old regime of three districts and six 
judges. The legislature was authorized to increase the number of judicial 
districts once every four years, after 1880, by a vote of two-thirds of 
its members. The length of the term

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of the judges of the supreme court remains the same as under the old 
constitution. The salary of judges was increased from $2,000 to $2,500. 
There was no provision for county judges in the old constitution.

   Under the constitution of 1866 the upper house of the legislature 
consisted of thirteen members and the lower of thirty-nine; but after ten 
years from the adoption of the constitution -- that is, in 1876 --the 
legislature might increase the senate to twenty-five and the house to 
seventy-five members. The new constitution limited the membership of the 
senate to thirty and of the house to eighty-four until 1880, when that of 
the former might be increased to thirty-three and of the latter to one 
hundred. The legislature raised the number of both bodies to the maximum 
at the first opportunity -- in 1881. The provision for compensation of 
members in the new constitution was copied from its predecessor, but at 
the general election of 1886 an amendment was adopted which increased the 
per diem from three dollars to five dollars and the number of days for 
which compensation might be received in any one session from forty days to 
sixty days. The amendment also limits the number of days for which members 
may be paid during their entire term of office to one hundred.

   The State University was organized and, until 1875, governed without 
any constitutional paternalism; but a provision for its government was 
legislated into the new constitution. This unfortunately involves an 
elective board of regents. Members of this important body should have 
special qualifications. Under the convention system these offices were 
often tossed as a salve to some disappointed county or individual without 
due regard to fitness. It is not likely that under the present direct 
primary system the choice will be more discriminating.

   The new constitution designated certain state officers to constitute a 
board of public lands and buildings and another set of such officers for a 
board of education. Under the old constitution the same end was reached by 
legislative enactment.

   The constitution of 1871 hit a juster range of salaries than that of 
1875. The members of the legislature were to receive four dollars a day, 
without limitation of the number of days; the governor three thousand 
dollars a year and all the remainder of the state officers two thousand 
dollars, except that the allowance for the lieutenant-governor is the same 
in both constitutions. It would be difficult at least to overthrow the 
assumption that in 1871 the superior dignity of the governor made his 
services worth a thousand dollars a year more than those of the other 
state officers; but there seems to be no good reason for rating the 
governor, auditor, and treasurer five hundred dollars higher than the 
other state officers in 1875. The attorney-general, for example, is 
probably the hardest worked, and ought to be the ablest, of them all. But 
the convention of 1871 was palpably wiser than its successor in allowing a 
salary of thirty-five hundred dollars instead of twenty-five hundred for 
judges of the supreme court. The salaries of district judges were the same 
under both constitutions, but the convention of 1871 conceded that the 
legislature might well be entrusted with authority to readjust these 
salaries by providing that they should stand as specified in the 
constitution "only until otherwise provided by law," while in the 
constitution of 1875 all salaries are rigidly fixed.

   The convention of 1875 followed that of 1871 by incorporating in the 
constitution that barren formalism which confines the power of introducing 
appropriation bills to the house of representatives. This distinction is a 
mere echo of a constitutional principle which was recognized in England as 
early as the fourteenth century. It was an acknowledgment by the crown, 
grounded in expediency, of the growing self-assertion and power of the 
commons represented in the lower house of parliament. The chief and 
sufficient reason for the rule was that the lords, by virtue of their life 
tenure, were not responsible or responsive to public opinion and therefore 
could not justIy be entrusted with power of taking public money. The 
distinction was then logical and vital, whereas in our state legislature, 
whose members are elected at the same time in the same manner and for the 
same term and from

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the same class, it is an innocuous memory. Indeed, it may well be doubted 
whether the increased expense and clogging of business which flows from 
the mere arbitrary and artificial division of this homogeneous body into 
two segments is offset by its assumed advantages of greater scrutiny and 
deliberation. This dual system is also a projection from a time when class 
distinctions were universally recognized in political organization and 
other social relations.

   The only allusion to the location of the capital in the constitution of 
1866 is a provision that the first state legislature should meet at Omaha. 
The constitution of 1871 provided that the capital should remain at 
Lincoln until 1880, "and until otherwise provided by law designating some 
other place therefor, which shall be submitted to and approved by a 
majority of the electors voting thereon." The present constitution 
provides that the seat of government shall not be removed or relocated 
without the assent of a majority of the electors of the state voting 
thereupon at a general election or elections, under such rules and 
regulations as to the number of elections and manner of voting and places 
to be voted for as may be prescribed by law. Of these two provisions the 
former was probably the safer for Lincoln. It would have been difficult 
for the legislature to settle upon a specific new location and in turn 
still more difficult to procure the assent of a majority; whereas, under 
the present constitution, the legislature might adopt a plan fairer in 
appearance by which all aspirants would be voted upon together at as many 
successive elections as would be necessary to eliminate those having the 
low vote, thus reaching a final contest for a majority between the two 
highest, but only after every other had had a fair chance.

   While the preamble of the constitution of 1866 is not as fine in form 
as that of the federal constitution, yet it is concise and dignified and 
superior to that of the constitution of 1875, which, though commendably 
brief, is clumsy in construction, and that of the constitution of 1871 is 
verbose sermonizing. Probably the worst verbal blemish in the constitution 
of 1875 is the utterly indefensible substitution of "persons" and "people" 
for "men" in a clause adopted from a noble passage of the Declaration of 
Independence. For example: "All persons are by nature free and
independent;" "to secure these rights . . . governments are instituted 
among people"

   Mr. Hascall attempted to perpetuate this vandalism in the convention of 
1871 but was successfully opposed by some of the ablest members. The 
committee on the bill of rights reported it in this bad form, and it 
appears to have passed without protest. Manderson gave much attention to 
the verbal form of this part of the constitution, and as he was a champion 
of the cause of suffrage for women the use of words of common, instead of 
masculine gender no doubt suited his purpose.

   The attempt to improve upon the style of the federal constitution in 
the preamble was no less unfortunate than that of improving the style of 
the Declaration of Independence. Section 24 of the bill of rights, which 
provides that "the right to be heard in all civil cases in the court of 
last resort, by appeal, error, or otherwise, shall not be denied," was a 
characteristic innovation of Maxwell, and it has caused no little expense 
and delay in obtaining justice, without compensating advantage.

   The first democratic convention of 1876 was held at Lincoln, April 
19th. Miles Zentmeyer of Colfax county was temporary chairman and Stephen 
H. Calhoun of Otoe was permanent president. George W. Ambrose of Douglas 
was chairman of the committee on resolutions which demanded the 
prosecution of plunderers of the coffers of the nation; declared that gold 
and silver were the true basis of sound money; demanded return to specie 
payment "as soon as call be done without detriment to the commercial and 
industrial interests of the country"; and called on all political 
committees and candidates in the state to abstain from using money in 
state elections except in payment for printing. The use of money in 
political campaigns, they declared, was a great source of corruption in 
state and nation. This was a prelude to the corrupt practice acts which 
continuing conditions in question have been calling into existence in 
recent years. Dr. George L. Miller of Douglas county, Dr. Alexander Bear 
of Madison, Gilbert B. Scofield of Otoe, Tobias Castor of Saline, V. A.

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Barman of Franklin, and Charles McDonald of Lincoln, were chosen for 
delegates to the national convention. A motion instructing them to support 
Samuel J. Tilden as a candidate for the presidency was laid upon the 
table, though under the leadership of Dr. Miller such instruments were 
unnecessary. A majority of the democrats of the state favored the 
nomination of Tilden, though there was a strong minority in opposition.

   The republican convention for choosing delegates to the national 
convention was held at Fremont, May 23, 1876. The spirit of progress -- or 
rebellion, for social progress involves rebellion -- which in 1872 broke 
out in open revolt, was active in this convention. It was manifested in 
the election of Charles H. Van Wyck as temporary chairman over Amasa Cobb, 
the candidate of the conservatives or reactionists, by a vote of 87 to 77. 
Mr. Van Wyck's address to the convention on assuming the chair was a mild 
beginning of his subsequent career of chronic insurgency. "We know well," 
he said, "the influences that have been at work during the last few years 
to the detriment of the republican party; and we today witness an uprising 
of the people declaring that they have decided to take the power into 
their own hands. This feeling is . . . beginning to raise us into the 
atmosphere of political and financial honesty. The republican party must 
save the nation again. . ." Precisely the "insurgent" song of the present 
hour. The persistent inclination of this aggressive local leader to 
profess reform within the old party was an excuse, if not a justification, 
for the bitter assaults which the leaders of the alliance movement made 
upon him many years later. But in the meantime this insurgent note, 
artfully and persistently repeated, sang him into the United States Senate 
five years later.

   Two sets of delegates sought admission from Douglas county. One of them 
represented the interests of Senator Hitchcock and included Thomas M. 
Kimball, William A. Gwyer, and Isaac S. Hascall; the other represented the 
field of rivals and aspirants for Hitchcock's office, led by Charles V. 
Manderson, Alvin Saunders, Clinton Briggs, and John M. Thurston. Three of 
these eventually realized their ambition, and the other -- Briggs -- was 
an unsuccessful candidate in the next struggle in which Saunders was 
chosen to succeed Hitchcock. Thurston's leadership, which became more 
dominant than that of either of the others of the group, was then just 
budding; but Manderson alone was able to command a second term. The 
convention had no mind to engage in the factional fight over the 
senatorship and so excluded both sets of Douglas county claimants. The 
powerful and pugnacious opposition to Hitchcock in his own county and the 
preponderant strength against him in the convention foretold his defeat at 
the next session of the legislature. It was little more or less than a 
rush of the outs to oust the ins in common political parlance, "dog eat 
dog." The organ at Lincoln denounced the disturbance, which was hurting 
the party, with an unwonted temerity. It was "the Omaha delegation 
nuisance." In a friendly leaning to the incumbent it observed that the 
Hitchcock delegates were "untitled gentlemen," while the hostiles were "a 
galaxy of judges, including the chief justice himself [Lake], an ex-
governor [Saunders], and an ex-general [Manderson], with a private or two 
thrown in." No opposition to James G. Blaine was manifested, and a 
resolution instructing the delegates to the national convention to use all 
honorable means to procure his nomination for president was adopted 
unanimously.

   The democratic state convention was held at Creighton Hall, Omaha, 
September 6, 1876. W. P. Connor of Fillmore was temporary chairman and F. 
J. Mead of Saunders, permanent president. S. B. Miles of Richardson county 
and Milton Montgomery of Lancaster were vice presidents and Stephen H. 
Calhoun of Otoe was chairman of the committee on resolutions. Endorsement 
of the St. Louis national platform was the main feature of the 
resolutions. They denounced the republican party for arming the Indians to 
take the lives of taxpaying white men and for protecting Indians while 
leaving our white frontier without protection from them. The convention 
nominated for governor, Paren England of Lan-

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[image caption: CHARLES H. GERE Private secretary Governor Butler]

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caster county; lieutenant-governor, Miles Zentmeyer of Colfax; secretary 
of state, Joseph Ritchie of Madison; treasurer, Samuel Waugh of Saline; 
auditor, G. P. Thomas of Burt; attorney general, D. C. Ashby of Franklin; 
superintendent of public instruction, J. M. Jones of Washington; 
commissioner of public lands and buildings, Henry Grebe of Douglas; for 
presidential electors, S. H. Calhoun of Otoe, St. John Goodrich of 
Douglas, M. C. Keith of Lincoln.

   The greenback party held a convention, composed of delegates from 
fifteen of the sixty counties, at Lincoln on the 26th of September. L. 0. 
Barker was chairman and W. H. Morris of Saline county, Allen Root of 
Douglas, J. F. Gardner of Richardson, A. G. Wilson of Cass, Marvin Warren 
of Jefferson, were the members of the committee on resolutions, and J. F. 
Gardner was nominated for governor.

   The republican state convention met at Lincoln, September 26th. Its 
procedure hinged mainly on the senatorial succession, and the anti-
Hitchcock faction elected Turner M. Marquett temporary chairman over 
Charles H. Gere -- who, being editor of a typical party organ of the 
period was therefore ostensibly the friend of the incumbent -- by a vote 
of 144 1/2 to 141 1/2. There was a long wrangle over the temporary 
organization, two sets of delegates from four of the counties contesting 
for seats; so that the nomination of candidates did not begin until the 
third day. After the composition of the convention had been determined, 
Mr. Gere was chosen permanent chairman by acclamation. Up to the opening 
day of the convention Crounse was looked upon as the principal candidate 
for the nomination for member of Congress to succeed himself; but he kept 
out of the contest with the purpose of striving for the senatorship. There 
was a large field of competitors, the first ballot yielding 88 votes for 
Frank Welch of Madison county, 74 for John C. Cowin of Douglas, 36 for 
Charles A. Holmes of Johnson, 26 for Guy C. Barton of Lincoln, 24 for 
Leander Gerrard of Platte, 15 for Champion S. Chase of Douglas. The 
nomination of Welch on the fourth ballot was another anti-Hitchcock 
incident. The withdrawal of Crounse was a misfortune for the state and for 
himself, because he was far more capable than his successor in the House 
and missed promotion to the Senate.

   Claiming that the population of the state was entitled to an additional 
member of the House, Thomas J. Majors of Nemaha county, was nominated as a 
contingent representative. By the census taken in the spring of 1876 the 
population was 257,749, which, though too far below the lawful ratio to 
win another seat in the House, was near enough to inspire ambitious 
politicians with hope that it might do so, and Majors was renominated for 
the contingent honor over William H. Ashby, who suffered the then great 
disadvantage of having worn the losing colors in the sectional war while 
the race of his competitor was expedited by the fact that his colors had 
triumphed. The incumbent executive officers were renominated. The 
nominations for the offices created by the new constitution were, Othman 
A. Abbott of Hall county, for lieutenant-governor; Professor S. R. 
Thompson, then principal of the normal school at Peru, for superintendent 
of public instruction; F. M. Davis of Clay county, for commissioner of 
public lands and buildings; George H. Roberts of Harlan county, for 
attorney-general. The platform demanded that the Union Pacific railroad 
company should make pro rata charges on the basis of its own through 
tariff on all business originating on connecting lines in Nebraska and 
without discrimination as to those lines; and it asked the national House 
of Representatives to admit an additional member from Nebraska on account 
of the "great increase of population since 1870." The convention was very 
stormy and very long, lasting five days.

   The election was merely perfunctory, the republicans winning with 
unhealthy ease -- as they continued to do with increasing unhealthy effect 
upon the body politic until the populist revolution, of 1890. Welch, 
republican candidate for Congress, received 30,900 votes; Hollman, 
democrat, 17,206; Warren, greenback, 3,580; for contingent member, Majors, 
31,467, Dech, 2,832. The greenback

Page 586

party, though small, and its monetary theory unsound, yet represented the 
protesting and progressive element and was the forerunner or nucleus of 
the later triumphant populist uprising. The free silver propaganda was 
close kin to the greenback, and it is a curious fact that after the silver 
leaders at last were obliged to abandon their theory because it died on 
their hands, they took up the green back principle. The national 
democratic platform of 1908 illustrates instinctively this "return of the 
native."



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CHAPTER XXVIII 
BLUNDERS IN PROCEDURE -- DEFEAT OF HITCHCOCK FOR SENATOR --
THE LEGISLATURE OF 1877 -- CAPITAL REMOVAL -- INCREASE IN POPULATION -- 
LEGISLATION AND POLITICS, 1877-1883 -- OMAHA LABOR RIOT OF 1882

   ON the 1st of December, 1876, Governor Garber called the sixth 
legislature elected under the constitution to meet in a special session at 
ten o'clock in the morning of the 5th of that month, and on the 5th he 
called for another special meeting at three o'clock in the afternoon of 
that day. These were the twelfth and thirteenth sessions and the eighth 
and ninth special sessions. The federal statute at that time required the 
electors to meet and cast their votes on the first Wednesday in December 
of the year in which they were appointed; but the state statute provided 
that the vote for representatives in Congress should be canvassed by the 
legislature in joint session and that the vote for presidential electors 
should be canvassed in the same manner. The legislature convened in 
regular session in January, 1877, too late to canvass the electoral vote; 
hence the necessity of a special session for that function.

   The democrats attempted to obtain an injunction against the session, in 
the district court of Douglas county, and James R. Doolittle of Wisconsin 
and Abram S. Hewitt and John Morrissey of New York, came to Omaha to aid 
in this enterprise. But the judge, James W. Savage, dismissed the suit for 
want of equity. The democrats, with the exception of Enyart, Munn, and 
Tomlin of Otoe county, refused to attend the session; but the seven 
republican senators and twenty-five members of the house -- five more than 
a quorum -- were present, and the joint assembly proceeded to canvass the 
returns over the objections of Church Howe, which showed that under the 
law as it stood the canvass of the vote for presidential electors could be 
made only at the regular session in January, 1877.

   After the electors had been chosen, the eligibility of one of them -- 
Amasa Cobb was in doubt, and the afternoon session was called to provide 
against that danger. It proceeded to do so by again electing Cobb under 
the provision of the federal constitution that "each state shall appoint 
(electors) in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct." Senator 
James C. Crawford formally objected to the proceeding for three reasons: 
(1) that the joint. convention has no knowledge of any vacancy in the 
office of elector, and so no power to fill it; (2) that the laws of 
Nebraska, which have never been repealed, require the election of electors 
by the people on the 7th of November; (3) that the joint resolution under 
which it is proposed to appoint an elector is void because it was not read 
at large on three separate days and does not repeal the existing law 
providing for the choosing of electors.

   This expensive and otherwise troublesome incident arose from the second 
blunder of its kind by the legislature. Governor Butler had been obliged 
to call a special session of the legislature just before the election of 
1868 because no provision had been made for the election of presidential 
electors. The act passed at that session provided that the votes cast for 
the candidates for the office of elector should be canvassed in the same 
manner as for candidates for the office of Representative in Congress, 
which, according to the revised statutes of 1866, still in force, was to

Page 588

be done by the governor, the secretary of state, and the auditor, within 
sixteen days after the election. This left ample time for the electors to 
meet for the purpose of casting their votes on the first Wednesday in 
December, according to the act of Congress. But the act of the legislature 
of 1869 governing elections -- which, with the act of 1868 providing for 
the choice of electors, was incorporated in the revision of 1873 -- 
provided that votes cast for candidates for representative in Congress 
should be canvassed by the legislature which, under the constitution of 
1866 and that of 1875, did not meet in regular session until the January 
following the general elections; and the provision of the act of 1868 that 
the votes cast for candidates for the electoral college should be 
canvassed in the same manner as those for members of Congress remained 
unchanged; hence the hurried call for the extra session to canvass the 
vote in December, 1876.

   After Amasa Cobb had been chosen as an elector in the regular way it 
was discovered that no "person holding an office of trust or profit under 
the United States shall be appointed an elector," and that the fact that 
General Cobb was disbursing officer of the treasury department in the 
matter of the construction of the court house and postoffice at Lincoln 
probably made him ineligible. A comedy of errors seemed to monopolize the 
stage. The democrats did their utmost to turn the comedy into tragedy by 
applying for an order in the district court of Douglas county restraining 
the republican electors from meeting and casting their votes on the 6th 
day Of December, on the ground that the votes cast for them at the 
election had not been legally canvassed.

   It seems, however, that the irregularity of 1876 was not as flagrant as 
that of 1872, for there was an attempt to regularize it; but we are told 
that "four years ago the secretary of state and the acting governor, 
James, set the precedent of interpreting the new law as not making any 
change in the old way of canvassing the electoral vote, and opened the 
returns on the day required by act of Congress and canvassed them under 
the old provision," and that "the clause in the law holding that the vote 
for electors shall be canvassed in the same manner as the vote for 
congressman, meant as the vote for congressman was canvassed at that time."

   The seventh legislature convened in the fourteenth session and the 
fifth regular session, January 2d, and finally adjourned February 15, 
1877. George F. Blanchard, republican, of Dodge county, was elected 
temporary president of the senate, receiving 19 votes to 9 for Church Howe 
of Nemaha county. Albinus Nance of Polk county was elected speaker of the 
house, his principal competitor being Dr. Alexander Bear of Madison county.

   The principal event of the session was, of course, the election of a 
senator of the United States. As the popular preference for candidates for 
this office is now expressed at primary elections in most of the states, 
the formal election is merely perfunctory, a saving of much time and 
distraction over the old method. On the first joint ballot, Phineas W. 
Hitchcock, the incumbent, received 27 votes; Alvin Saunders, 14; Clinton 
Briggs, 12; Lorenzo Crounse, 12; George B. Lake, 3; Charles F. Manderson, 
4; Theron Nye, 3. The opposition cast 25 votes for James W. Savage, 
democrat. On the first ballot taken the next day -- January 18th -- 
Saunders received 45 votes; Hitchcock, 36; Savage, 26. On a second ballot, 
taken after a brief adjournment, Saunders was elected, receiving the 
entire republican support and of ten independents -- 88 in all.

   Only one United States senator from Nebraska -- Manderson -- has gained 
two full terms. Tipton had a desperate struggle for reëlection after his 
very short initial term of two years, and all the rest have been put out 
after one term. The charges that Thayer had been put off with only a 
fractional term by bribery were kept alive during the service of his 
successful competitor and probably caused his defeat. Mr. Hitchcock 
evidently attributed his misfortune to the bribery accusation.

   In the sensational campaign thirty-two republican newspapers actively 
opposed Hitchcock's reëlection, twenty-six were neutral, and


Page 589

only thirteen positively supported him. At that period no one politically 
unfriendly to railroads could attain an important political office, and 
probably no one not positively friendly to them ever did. But there seemed 
to be enough truth in the complaint that Hitchcock was over-friendly to 
them, even in that heydey of loyalty -- largely pass-inspired -- to make 
it an effective aid to the bribery scandal and the inevitable disappointed 
office seekers. Charged with these poisons and driven home by the restless 
and relentless Rosewater, the sting of the Bee was destructive.

   Another formidable attempt to remove the capital from Lincoln -- the 
last until 1911 -- was centered in the house. On the final vote the bill 
received 36 affirmative, and 37 negative votes. Twenty-three of the thirty-
six supporters of the measure were from the North Platte section. Of the 
eight members from Douglas county, three voted aye, three nay, two not 
voting. When "Jack" MacColl, introducer of the bill, was a candidate for 
governor in 1896, this incident had apparently not been quite forgotten.

   A report of the secretary of state upon the census showed that increase 
in the population of Nebraska from 1855 to 1860 was 542 per cent; from 
1860 to 1870, 327 per cent; from 1870 to 1876, 109 per cent. An exhibit 
accompanying the report gave the population in 1874 as 223,657; in 1875, 
246,280; in 1876, 257,747. The enumeration from which these aggregates 
were compiled was made by precinct assessors under the law of 1869, and it 
is therefore unlikely that they are reliable; but they at least served as 
basis for comparison. According to the federal census the population was 
452,402 in 1880. The constitution of 1875 provides for an enumeration 
every ten years, beginning in 1885. The direction was complied with that 
year and the population was found to be 740,645, but it has been 
disregarded ever since.

   The laws passed at this session were not as numerous nor as important 
as those of subsequent sessions. The so-called Granger cases, originating 
in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin, which established the principle that 
railroad rates could be controlled by legislation, were decided this year 
but not in time to stimulate legislation along that line. The only acts 
affecting railroads passed at this session were an amendment strengthening 
the law of 1876 making railroads liable for the value of stock killed in 
transit; another requiring railroad companies to keep stock cars clean; 
and another making taxes on the roadbed, right of way, depots, sidetracks, 
ties, and rails a perpetual lien thereon, and declaring such property 
personal for the purpose of taxation and collection of the tax. A bill (H. 
R. 77) to fix the liability of common carriers receiving property for 
transportation was indefinitely postponed in committee of the whole; House 
Roll 254, to require railroads in Nebraska to "pro rate" with one another, 
was safely buried in the commitee on railroads of which Loren Clark, whom 
the Omaha Bee afterward made famous or infamous by its attacks upon him 
for corporation subserviency, was chairman. This committee recommended the 
indefinite postponement of a house resolution directing the committee to 
inquire into the expediency of regulating freight and passenger rates, for 
the reason, as stated, that the committee was informed that the senate was 
about to report a bill of that nature. Such a bill was introduced into the 
senate, where it was indefinitely postponed in committe of the whole by a 
vote of 18 to 8.

   The most important bills passed at the session were as follows: An act 
prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors within three miles of a place 
where any religious society was assembled for religious worship in a field 
or woodland; providing that the principal and interest of the grasshopper 
bonds of 1875 should be paid out of the state sinking fund; repealing the 
act of 1875 creating a state board of immigration; regulating the manner 
of proposing amendments to the constitution and submitting them to 
electors; providing for township organization; creating a commission for 
three members to revise the general laws of the state; authorizing the 
supervisors of each road district and supervisors to be appointed by 
mayors of cities to require

Page 590

each able-bodied male resident between the ages of sixteen and sixty years 
to perform two days' labor, at such time and place and in such manner as 
should be deemed most efficient in the destruction of grasshoppers. If it 
should appear that two days' labor would be insufficient, the supervisors 
might require a greater number of days, not exceeding ten. No compensation 
was provided for such work, and any person refusing to perform it was 
liable to a fine of $10 with costs of suit. Further enactments were for 
establishing the board of public lands and buildings and defining its 
duties; offering a bounty of $1 for every wolf, wildcat, and coyote 
killed, to be paid by warrants drawn by the auditor upon the state 
treasurer. A joint resolution was passed requesting members of Congress 
from Nebraska to attempt to procure such legislation as would provide for 
the appropriation of the proceeds of the sale of public lands in the 
several states devastated by grasshoppers to be used in payment of 
bounties for their destruction. A preamble and joint resolution was passed 
which recited that the state had materially suffered from frequent and 
continued invasions of hostile Indians for the past twelve years and 
asking that the control of Indian affairs be transferred to the war 
department for more efficient and economical administration. Another joint 
resolution recited that the federal census of Nebraska taken in 1870 
failed to show the actual number of people in the state; that there had 
been a rapid increase of population since that time, that the state census 
of 1875 showed a sufficient population to entitle the state to two members 
of Congress, and asking that an additional member be awarded. A joint 
resolution was passed reciting, "That the records of the impeachment and 
removal from office of David Butler, late governor, be and the same are 
hereby expunged from the journals of the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the 8th session of the legislature of Nebraska."

   J. Sterling Morton and Dr. George L. Miller worked together in politics 
during the greater part of their long political activity; but during the 
decade of 1880-1890 and until the new leader, Bryan, with his new, or, 
rather, more vitalized, doctrines conveniently but superficially called 
Bryanism, arose in the early part of the next decade, when they made 
common cause against him, they were the leaders of two mutually hostile 
factions of the democratic party. Their differences were mainly due to the 
overweening ambition for leadership and the domineering personal temper or 
temperament of both, though Miller was inclined to Randall protectionism 
while Morton was a radical free trader, and their railroad affiliations 
were not always identical. Morton, moreover, after his recovery from his 
greenback lapse, grew more "sound" on the money question than Miller. As 
early as 1877 a quarrel between them was noticed, ostensibly over a puff 
in the Herald of Dan. Voorhees, whom Governor "Blue Jean," Williams had 
recently appointed to succeed Oliver P. Morton, deceased, as United States 
senator. Morton pointed out that the Herald had formerly called the 
budding statesman a wind-bag and other impolite names which Miller always 
freely drew for editorial use from his full-stocked vocabulary. Morton 
himself had been alike impolite to "the tall sycamore of the Wabash," who 
was too much bent on "doing something for silver," but stuck to it while 
Miller took it back.

   The republican state convention for 1877 was held at Lincoln, October 
10th. It was called to order by Charles H. Gere, chairman of the state 
committee; James W. Dawes of Saline, was temporary and permanent chairman, 
George L. Brown of Butler, temporary secretary, and Daniel H. Wheeler of 
Cass, permanent secretary. George B. Lake of Douglas county, was nominated 
for chief justice of the supreme court on the second formal ballot. The 
convention, for some reason not apparent, did not want a platform, and the 
usual motion for the appointment of a committee on resolutions was 
defeated by a vote of 119 to 131. James W. Dawes was pitted against Edward 
Rosewater for member at large of the state committee and was victorious by 
a vote of 171 to 82. This incident was indicative of the relative standpat 
and insurgent strength in the party. Self-

Page 591

contained and subservient reactionaries did not dream, much less see, that 
eventually they must bow to their ascendant Nemesis whom they now 
contumeliously spurned. Rosewater was to have his day, and a great day it 
would be. A delegate from Douglas county offered a resolution of sympathy 
with the laboring classes for their manly defense of their rights "during 
the recent attempt of capital to oppress labor." It was supported by 
Rosewater, opposed by Gere, and tabled by the convention of course. The 
standpat mouthpiece characterized it as "Rosewater's communistic 
resolution" and declared that the Douglas delegation was composed chiefly, 
if not entirely, of men who bolted the organization last fall, their chief 
object being to destroy Judge Briggs, "a man who for a time had got in bad 
company."

   On the 26th of October E. A. Allen, chairman, and S. V. Burtch, 
secretary of the democratic state committee issued a statement that as 
"only a judge of the supreme court and two regents of the university were 
to be nominated," they deemed it inexpedient to hold a state convention. 
The committee had unanimously passed a resolution urging the State Bar 
Association to nominate a candidate for the judgeship; but the association 
having declined to act on its suggestion, the committee urged all 
democratic county organizations to put the name of John D. Howe upon their 
tickets and support him at the polls. As a matter of course the lawyers, 
who were usually ambitious politicians and perforce, perhaps, members of 
the dominant party, could not afford to listen to a proposal to divide 
official honors and emoluments with the minority party so long as their 
own party was strong enough to safely monopolize them. Even recent 
repeated attempts, stimulated by the present comparatively strong and 
growing independence of partisanship, have failed to unhorse the 
pernicious custom of the partisan choice of judicial officers which was so 
firmly seated in those inauspicious times.

   Judge Lake had flirted too much with various parties to be wholly 
acceptable to the stalwart republicanism of that day; and so the State 
Journal was willing to quote from the free lance Lincoln Globe a severe 
stricture upon his candidacy. There was much complaint, the Globe 
declared, about Lake's nomination. Ten years of incumbency was enough and 
many wanted a new man. Besides, Briggs had probably missed the nomination 
by a miscount in the convention and Lake's managers would not consent to a 
recount. He was not a man of decided ability, falling below Gantt in that 
respect, and his written opinions fell below the standard, "contributing 
for him his full share of much bad law confessedly contained in the 
Nebraska reports." This was the opinion of "the able members of the bar." 
While on the bench he had been a constant candidate for the United States 
senatorship and for a seat in the lower house of Congress; and in 1868, 
failing to get the nomination of the republican party, he accepted one 
from its political opponents and ran against the regular republican 
candidate, John Taffe, in the meantime "remaining upon the bench against 
all precedent, so as to be sure of an office in any case." The Globe 
thought that the bar association would nominate Briggs or Wakeley.

   Lake received 25,569 votes against 15,639 cast for Howe, his democratic 
opponent. That palpable republican dissatisfaction with Lake's nomination 
should not have been manifested in a greater defection in his support at 
the polls is explained by the unquestioning party loyalty which would 
still accept or tolerate argument of this sort: "Politically the 
republicans of Lancaster county should vindicate the honor of the old flag 
. . . Republicans of Lancaster county, stand by your guns and vote 
straight as you shot, and let the cry of 'bloody shirt' dismay those only 
who got their shirts crimsoned in the ranks of disloyalty and secession." 
More directly vital to the interests of the party organs, there would be 
no danger of annoying inquiry into fat public printing subsidies or other 
public matters of practical import, so long as public attention could be 
diverted by such inspiring appeals to a paramount patriotism.

   A large element of the republican party at this time favored the 
restoration of free coinage of silver. The State Journal, which led in the 
movement, ardently supported the

Page 592

Bland bill -- which had passed the House -- restoring the old dollar of 
412 1/2 grains as an unconditional legal tender for debts, public and 
private," and insisted that it must pass the Senate without amendment. 
This was the same radical principle which all the leading republican 
newspapers of the state, including the Journal, violently asailed William 
J. Bryan for promulgating about fifteen years later. On the 12th and 16th 
of January, 1878, mass meetings were held in Lincoln in the interest of 
free coinage. Harvey W. Hardy was president of the meetings and Allen W. 
Field secretary. Lorenzo W. Billingsley offered a set of drastic 
resolutions about the crime of '73, for restoring free silver coinage and 
declaring that if President Hayes should veto the Bland bill our 
representatives in Congress ought to endeavor to pass it over the veto. 
Turner M. Marquett, Oliver P. Mason, Charles H. Gere, S. B. Galey, John L. 
McConnel, John B. Wright, and President Hardy, all republicans, and 
comprising most of the party leaders of the capital city, favored the 
resolutions. Only Nathan S. Harwood and Genio M. Lambertson opposed and 
favored a gold standard. Harwood advocated a resolution in favor of the 
coinage of silver dollars equal in value to gold dollars; and he opposed 
the Bland bill because it was not honorable to pay debts in depreciated 
money. In reply to the assertions of the resolutions and the other 
speakers that the silver dollar was fraudulently demonetized in 1873, he 
pointed out that the provision for its coinage had long been obsolete when 
it was formally dropped from the statutes. John I. Redick of Omaha, who in 
a few years won a reputation for changeful opportunism -- not always or 
necessarily an unwise or discreditable tendency -- was for the 
resolutions, of course. An amendment declaring for the repeal of the 
specie resumption act, presented by C. H. Gould and pressed by L. C. Pace, 
was defeated, it would seem inconsistently. Harwood and Lambertson were 
among the earliest and most positive advocates of the gold standard in the 
great struggle for free coinage of silver which began about 1890.

   The republican state convention for 1878 was held at Lincoln, October 
1st. It was called to order by James W. Dawes, chairman of the state 
committee, and Monroe L. Hayward of Otoe county was temporary and 
permanent chairman. There were contesting delegations from Custer, 
Douglas, Franklin, Gosper, Lincoln, and Madison counties. Amasa Cobb, who 
had been appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Daniel 
Gantt, May 29, 1878, was nominated for judge of the supreme court by 
acclamation; and Edward K. Valentine was nominated for member of Congress 
on the fourth formal ballot. The informal ballot gave Lorenzo Crounse 110 
votes; Valentine, 90; Oliver P. Mason, 25; and other scattering support; 
the third formal, Crounse, 125; Valentine, 131; George. F. Blanchard, 36; 
Joseph C. McBride, 6; Mason 1. Thomas J. Majors was nominated for the 
short term, to fill the vacancy left by the death of Mr. Welch in 
September. Albinus Nance of Polk county was nominated for governor on the 
third formal ballot. The platform declared that "elections shall be free 
in the south"; with some deference to President Hayes's inclination; 
squinted toward re-form of the civil service; denounced a gratuitous 
assumption that damages inflicted on the property of southern states by 
the war might be paid from the national treasury; declared that the ample 
power of Congress must be exerted to guard against extortions of corporate 
capital; saw signs of reviving business; insisted that the greenback 
should be made as good as honest coin; approved the Bland bill for coining 
standard silver dollars and restoring their legal tender character, but 
declared that coinage should be free and that the thirty million trade 
dollars then in circulation should be made legal tender; denounced the 
recent attempt of democrats to steal the presidency; protested against a 
proposition to withdraw public lands west of the one hundredth meridian 
from homestead, preëmption, and timber culture; demanded that, as soon as 
practicable. Indians now within our border should be removed to the 
territory set apart for their use.

   Edward Rosewater characteristically convulsed the convention by 
introducing a resolution which declared that the recent decision of the 
Supreme Court of the United States that

Page 593

the Union Pacific bridge across the Missouri river was a part of the main 
line of the road implied that the special bridge toll of ten dollars for 
each car of freight and fifty cents for each passenger was contrary to the 
spirit of the charter granted by the United States to the Union Pacific 
company, was unjust and oppressive, and that the question should be 
clearly defined by an act of Congress and the bridge rate reduced to that 
charged on the rest of the line. The resolution was hotly opposed, John M. 
Thurston leading the attack, and S. B. Galey and W. H. Ashby assisting. 
James Laird, William J. Connell, and others supported it. But Nebraska 
politics was not yet ripe for definite, much less drastic, anticorporation 
declaration such as this, and the resolution was defeated by a vote of 127 
to 84. Charles O. Whedon, following his penchant for sardonically marrying 
incongruities, offered an amendment as follows: "Resolved, that it is an 
outrage for the ferry companies at Plattsmouth, Nebraska City, and 
Brownville to charge $10 per car for transferring cars across the Missouri 
river." This was added to the Rosewater resolution as an amendment and 
fell with it. As reported in the Daily State Journal, October 4th, Mr. 
Whedon "argued that the Union Pacific railroad had a right to fix the 
amount of the toll exactly as much as a. man has a right to fix the price 
of a bushel of potatoes he has for sale." The radical change of attitude 
toward the relation of transportation companies and the state is 
illustrated by the fact that in the year 1911 Mr. Whedon is an "insurgent" 
or "La Follette republican"; which means that he holds to the right and 
duty of the public, through commissions or legislatures, to absolutely fix 
railroad rates. The irrelevancy of the Whedon resolution lay in the fact 
that the Union Pacific railroad was largely a giant creature of the people 
who, therefore, participated in its management through the agency of the 
federal government, while the ferries in question were at that time 
regarded as simply private concerns.

   The democratic state convention was held at Lincoln, September 25th. A 
majority of the convention was chiefly bent on effecting fusion with the 
greenback party and of emulating the republican devotion to unstable 
money. A majority of the committee on resolutions, comprising Frank P. 
Ireland, James C. Crawford, James E. North, George E. Pritchett, James R. 
Gilkeson, and A. J. Smith, reported a conservative plank in favor of 
carrying out the resumption act and of a currency convertible into coin at 
the will of the holder. Their platform included, almost of course, a 
declaration against the protective tariff. The two dissenters -- James G. 
Megeath and Nat. W. Smails -- offered a minority plank demanding the 
postponement of resumption until the needs of the country admit it, the 
restoration of silver to the position it occupied before it was 
fraudulently demonetized, the abolition of the national bank system, and 
the substitution of greenbacks for the bank notes, opposing any further 
sale of bonds for resumption purposes and insisting that the public debt 
should be paid according to the original contract. This report was adopted 
in preference to that of the majority by a vote of 69 to 53. The platform 
also denounced republicans for defrauding the nation of a president justly 
elected, and because they had "squandered the public lands, robbed the 
school funds, wasted the public money in rotten contracts for rotten 
public buildings, and levied a tax of half a million dollars a year for 
ten years to enrich favorites and feed imbeciles in office." It declared 
for "the liberty of individuals unvexed by sumptuary laws" and "against 
any and all protective tariffs." The convention nominated candidates as 
follows: For member of Congress, long term, J. W. Davis; short term, Dr. 
Alexander Bear; governor, W. H. Webster of Merrick county; lieutenant-
governor, F. J. Mead; secretary of state Benjamin Palmerton; auditor, E. 
H. Benton; treasurer, S. H. Cummins; superintendent of public instruction, 
S. L. Barrett; attorney-general, Stephen H. Calhoun; superintendent of 
public lands and buildings, Joseph McCreedy; judge of the supreme court, 
John D. Howe. Dr. George L. Miller was named in the convention for 
governor and J. Sterling Morton for member of Congress, but it was 
inclined to a

Page 594

new deal, and the monetary principles of these two veterans had become 
rather too hard to yield to greenback fusion.

   A state greenback convention held at Lincoln on the 14th of August 
nominated a ticket of which the candidates for member of Congress, 
auditor, treasurer, attorney-general. commissioner of public lands and 
buildings, and judge of the supreme court were the same as those of the 
democrats. There was no essential difference between the democratic and 
greenback money planks, and the only appreciable difference in the 
republican plank was its friendliness to national bank currency as well as 
greenbacks and a demand for the convertibility of greenbacks into coin; 
but the virtue of the demand for a coin basis was repudiated by the 
radical demand for unlimited free coinage of debased silver.

   The fusion of democrats and greenbackers was effective enough to alarm 
the dominant party and did not fall far short of defeating it. Cobb, 
candidate for judge of the supreme court, received 28,956 votes against 23,
191 cast for Howe. Nance, republican candidate for governor, received 29,
469 votes while the opposition divided its support, giving Webster, 
democrat, 13,473, and Todd, greenback, 9,475. All of the other opposition 
candidates for state offices received the fusion vote. Valentine, 
republican candidate for member of Congress, received 28,341 votes; Davis, 
democrat and greenback, 21,752; Dr. Alexander Bear, national, 110.

   The eighth legislature convened in the fifteenth session and the sixth 
regular session, January 7th, and finally adjourned February 25, 1879. The 
senate comprised eighteen republicans, five democrats, two greenbackers, 
and five nationals. The democrats were Charles H. Brown and C. V. 
Gallagher of Douglas county, D. T. Hayden of Otoe, Lewis Ley of Stanton, 
George A. Stone of Richardson; the greenbackers, P. W. Birkhauser of 
Richardson, J. H. Grimm of Saline; the nationals, William B. Beck of Burt, 
T. A. Bunnell of Saunders, John A. Cuffy of Washington, J. A. McMeans of 
Jefferson, O. P. Sullenberger of Dixon. Of the fifty-five members of the 
house thirty-six were republicans, nine democarts [sic], six greenbackers, 
two independent republicans; not designated, two. Charles P. Mathewson, 
republican, of Madison county, was elected speaker.

   Among the enactments of this legislature was a provision that "all 
impeachments of state officers shall be tried before the supreme court," 
except that judges of the supreme court should be tried by all the 
district judges. Nance county was formed, its territory comprising the 
Pawnee reservation. Saline lands described as follows were set apart for 
the use of a Nebraska hospital for the insane: n. e. 1/4 sec. 4, t. 9 n., 
r. 6 cast 6 p. m.; s. w. 1/4 sec. 34, t. 10, r. 6. The excess of the state 
moneys on hand over $100,000 was to be invested in United States four per 
cent bonds. The sum of $100,000 was appropriated out of the sinking fund 
to pay off that amount of the state funding bonds. A fish commission was 
created to consist of three members whose term of office should be three 
years. No salary was provided for the commissioners, but their expenses 
should be paid to an amount not exceeding $500. A bounty of $2 was 
provided. for the taking of wolves, wildcats, and coyotes whenever any 
county should vote to give such bounty. By the law of 1877 $1 was to be 
paid by the state for each animal killed. By the law of 1879, $7,500 was 
provided for payment of bounties under the law of 1877. The contract for 
leasing convict labor at the state penitentiary to W. H. B. Stout, made 
September 22, 1877, was extended six years from October 1, 1883. Under the 
conditions of this law Stout was to build for the state 240 stone cells 
before October 1, 1883. He was to receive forty-five cents a day for each 
convict for the first three years of his lease, and forty cents a day for 
the second three years. All that part of the Omaha and Winnebago 
reservation not included in Cuming or Burt counties was attached to Dakota 
county for judicial and revenue purposes. It was provided that counties 
must pay $3.33 an acre for six rows of trees planted along half section or 
north section lines east and west and cared for not less than five years. 
A general election law provided that one judge of the supreme court and 
two regents of the

Page 595

university should be elected in 1879 and every two years thereafter, for a 
term of six years. Judges of district courts should be elected in 1879 and 
every four years thereafter; state officers and members of Congress, in 
1880 and every two years thereafter; county officers, in 1879 and every 
two years thereafter; one county commissioner in 1879 and one annually 
thereafter. At the general election immediately preceding the expiration 
of the term of a United States senator, electors might express by ballot 
their preference for his successor. It was provided that county treasurers 
should be eligible to office for only two consecutive terms. The sum of 
$75,000 was provided for building the west wing of a new capitol. The sum 
of $10,000 was appropriated for establishing and maintaining a reform 
school at Kearney, provided that the city should donate to the state a 
site for the same comprising not less than 320 acres.

   Memorials and joint resolutions were passed asking Congress to extend 
the provisions of the acts of 1850 and 1855, relative to swamp and 
overflowed lands, to Nebraska and other new states; to transfer the Indian 
bureau to the war department, "believing it will give greater protection 
to our exposed settlers," and be less expensive; to place the Santee Sioux 
Indians on the old Ponca reserve recently vacated by the Spotted Tail 
band, only six miles distant from the lands held by the Santee in Knox 
county, which were seized by the interior department after being settled 
upon and cultivated by citizens of that county. A memorial set forth that 
incursions of hostile Indians east of Fort Robinson had recently resulted 
in the loss of several lives and much damage to property; and senators and 
representatives from Nebraska were asked to urge upon the war department 
the establishment of a military post in that part of the state. Congress 
was asked to repeal that part of section 640, revised statutes of the 
United States, 1873-1874, under which railroad corporations operating 
within the state removed cases between such corporations and citizens from 
state to federal courts. Application was made for indemnity for school 
land sections in the Otoe and Pawnee reservations. The members of Congress 
from Nebraska were asked to oppose the payment of southern war claims. The 
attorney-general of the state was instructed to proceed by suit or 
otherwise to collect moneys loaned out of the permanent school fund in 
1870 and 1871 and to report to the next legislature the condition of each 
case.

   In his message Governor Garber reported as outstanding ten per cent, 
ten years grasshopper bonds of 1875 to the amount of $50,000 and eight per 
cent funding bonds of April, 1877, to the amount of $549,267.35. Of these 
bonds $123,000 had been sold to the highest bidder at $1.07, and the 
balance was invested in the permanent school fund. The governor reported 
that "for some time past the outer walls of the capitol have been 
considered unsafe. Last October architects were employed to examine the 
building, and they pronounced the north wall in danger of falling." It was 
rebuilt at a cost of $777.98. The time was not far distant when a new 
building must be erected. The governor recommended that citizens of 
Lincoln should be reimbursed for their expense in replacing the foundation 
of the university, but this just request was ignored.

   The commission appointed under the law of 1877 to revise the statutes 
of the state reported to the legislature of 1879 that they had prepared a 
new school law, a new revenue law, and a new railroad law. According to a 
statement made by John H. Ames, a member of the commission, the 
legislature, fearing that a comprehensive report might not be upheld by 
the courts, adopted only a small part of the work. The legislature of 1877 
not comprehending the magnitude of the work involved expected a full 
report of it the following fall. The members of the committee worked two 
years, each receiving compensation of only $1,500.

   The republican state convention for 1879 was held at Omaha October 1st. 
The convention was called to order by James W. Dawes, chairman of the 
state committee. Monroe L. Hayward of Otoe county was temporary and 
permanent chairman. Amasa Cobb of Lancaster county was nominated for judge 
of the supreme court by acclamation. In present-

Page 596

ing his name John M. Thurston said that Hayward's friends had pressed his 
candidacy for the office against his wishes. John L. Carson of Nemaha 
county and Joseph W. Gannett of Douglas, were nominated for regents of the 
State University. Charles H. Gere was a strong competitor of these 
nominees. William M. Robertson of Madison county was chairman of the 
committee on resolutions. The platform omitted reference to silver and 
congratulated the country on the successful resumption of specie payment, 
insisting that its credit and promises must be kept as good as gold. A 
ruby "bloody shirt" plank was inserted. There must be no concessions to 
unrepentant rebels, and fear of the treasonable utterances of rebel 
brigadiers in Congress was expressed, and protection of votes in the South 
was demanded. There were pleasing signs of returning prosperity which had 
been waited for since 1873.

   The greenback convention was held in Lincoln October 2d. Allen Root of 
Douglas county was chairman of the convention and L. C. Pace of Lancaster 
county was an active member. John Saxon of Jefferson county was nominated 
for judge of the supreme court, and Thomas Gibson of Douglas and J. H. 
Woodward of Seward, for regents of the State University. Delegates were 
present from fifteen counties. Captain W. H. Ashby of Gage county, at one 
time or another an ardent member of every one of the parties, was 
chanticleer of this convention.

   The democratic state convention, held in Lincoln, September 9th, 
nominated Eleazer Wakeley of Omaha, for judge of the supreme court and 
Alexander Bear of Madison county and Andrew J. Sawyer of Lancaster, for 
regents of the University. Stephen H. Calhoun of Nebraska City was 
chairman of the committee on resolutions, which complained that the 
republican administration made treaties with the Indians only to violate 
them, thus turning the enraged savages loose on unprotected settlers. They 
denounced, also, the republican policy of keeping a standing army to 
intimidate voters in the South. The platform lacked specific declarations 
as to state affairs. The Daily State Democrat -- September 12th, approved 
the policy of leaving a declaration on the motley question to the next 
national convention -- not a sound precept.

   The democratic convention for electing delegates to the national 
convention was held at Columbus, April 1, 1880. Dr. George L. Miller still 
adhered to the fortunes of Samuel J. Tilden and strongly favored his 
remoination [sic]. General Victor Vifquain, editor of the Daily State 
Democrat, was opposed to this course and had a strong following. At the 
Lancaster county convention, held March 30th, to choose delegates to the 
state convention, the supporters of Tilden were defeated. It was estimated 
that about three-quarters of the delegates at Columbus favored the Miller-
Tilden combination. The 257 votes in the convention were divided among the 
leading aspirants for delegates to the national convention as follows: J. 
Sterling Morton, 211; Dr. George L. Miller, 200; J. W. Pollock, 188; James 
E. North, 157; F. A. Harmon, 127; Richard S. Molony, 131, and they were 
declared to be the choice of the convention. From motives of policy, 
instructions for Tilden were not forced, as J. Sterling Morton and some 
others of the delegates were not primarily for him. The fact that a 
special train for carrying delegates to this convention left Lincoln at 8 
o'clock in the morning, March 31st, and ran to the terminus of the Lincoln 
& Northwestern railroad, from which passengers were taken in carriages the 
remainder of the distance to Columbus -- eight miles -- illustrates the 
incomplete condition of the capital city's railway connection at this time.

   The republican convention for electing delegates to the national 
convention was held at Columbus, May 19, 1880. There was a very heated 
controversy in the convention between the Blaine and Grant factions, which 
in the election for delegates divided, nearly two-thirds being against 
Grant.

   Though the preponderating sentiment probably favored Blaine and was 
certainly decidedly anti-Grant, the convention formally refused to 
instruct delegates to support the favorite. Though the progressive and 
reactionary cleavage between the two factions was not uniform, yet the 
Blaine partisans as a rule

Page 597

represented a progressive element, as will appear by an inspection of the 
names of the candidates. Senator Paddock was, quite strangely, for Grant. 
When Garfield became president there was rather a petty controversy 
between Senator Paddock and Senator Saunders along this line. Saunders 
supported Garfield in the row with Conkling over the New York appointments 
and thereby won an advantage over Paddock in Nebraska appointments. When, 
however, Saunders procured the appointment of St. A. D. Balcombe for 
United States marshal, Paddock retaliated by defeating his confirmation.

   The republican state convention was held at Lincoln, September 1st. 
Charles A. Holmes of Johnson county was temporary and permanent chairman. 
George W. Collins of Pawnee, John M. Thurston of Douglas, and James Laird 
of Adams, were nominated for presidential electors. Edward K. Valentine of 
Cuming was nominated for Congress by acclamation, and Thomas J. Majors of 
Nemaha, was nominated for contingent member of Congress. All of the state 
officers excepting the auditor, commissioner of public lands and 
buildings, and superintendent of public instruction, were renominated by 
acclamation. The commissioner and the superintendent of public instruction 
were dropped because they had been in the customary two terms, and 
Leidtke, the auditor, was defeated on account of charges against him for 
retaining insurance fees. John Wallichs was nominated in his place, A. G. 
Kendall for commissioner, and W. W. W. Jones for superintendent of public 
instruction. James W. Dawes was retained as chairman of the state 
committee. The platform declared that national sovereignty is the 
fundamental principle upon which the perpetuity of the nation rests; that 
the principle of home rule as enunciated by the democratic party was but 
the cautious expression of the Calhoun doctrine of state's rights; 
denounced the seizure of the polls by democratic officers in Alabama; 
congratulated the state in its general prosperity and rapid increase of 
population and wealth; pledged the party to the support of such 
legislation by Congress and the state legislature as might be necessary to 
effect a correction of the abuses and prevent extortion and discrimination 
in charges by railroad corporations; and appealed to war democrats to join 
with republicans "in defense of national integrity and the nation's 
purse." There was an incipient recognition of the now rather obtrusive 
railroad issue but expressed only in glittering generalities. The alarmist 
part of the declaration was still depended upon as a blind to real home 
issues. William McAllister of Platte county innocently introduced a set of 
resolutions favoring an expression of the preference of voters for 
candidates for the office of United States senator, in accordance with the 
provisions of the constitution and the law of 1879 applicable thereto. The 
resolution was laid on the table by a vote of 294 to 77.

   The democratic state convention was held at Hastings, September 29, 
1880. Frank P. Ireland of Otoe county was elected temporary chairman and 
Nat. W. Smails of Dodge, temporary secretary. The temporary organization 
was made permanent. James I,. Boyd of Douglas county, Victor Vifquain of 
Saline, and Beach I. Hinman of Lincoln, were chosen as candidates for 
presidential electors, Boyd receiving 219 votes; Vifquain, 180; Hinman, 
133. Robert R. Livingston of Cass county was nominated for member of 
Congress and Thomas W. Tipton of Nemaha, for governor, receiving 190 votes 
against 40 for Robert A. Batty, of Adams. Stephen H. Calhoun of Otoe was 
nominated for lieutenant-governor; Dr. George W. Johnston of Fillmore, for 
secretary of state; D. C. Patterson of Wayne, for auditor; Frank Folda of 
Colfax, for treasurer; E. H. Andrus of Buffalo, for commissioner of public 
lands and buildings; Dr. Alexander Bear of Madison, for superintendent of 
public instruction; and George E. Prichett of Douglas, for attorney-
general. In the mutations of local factions which peculiarly affected the 
two most prominent democratic leaders, Dr. George L. Miller was left at 
home this time but J. Sterling Morton was prominent in the convention. 
Charles H. Brown, and James Creighton of Omaha, vigorously opposed the 
nomination of Tipton for governor because he was not a full-fledged demo-

Page 598

crat, but they were overwhelmingly overruled. At the election of 1880 
Valentine, republican candidate for member of Congress, received 52,647 
votes; James E. North, democratic candidate, 23,634; Allen Root, 
greenback, 4,059. For governor, Nance, republican, received 55,237; 
Tipton, democrat or fusion, 28,167; 0. T. B. Williams, greenback, 3,898. 
Thomas J. Majors, candidate for contingent member of Congress, had no 
opposition and received 52,985. The republican candidates for district 
attorney in all of the six districts were elected. It was a republican 
clean sweep of about two to one.

   The ninth legislature convened in the sixteenth session and the seventh 
regular session January 4, 1881, and finally adjourned February 26th, the 
fortieth day of the session. By a provision of the new constitution the 
house of representatives comprised eighty-four members and the senate 
thirty until the year 1880, when the legislature was authorized to fix the 
number, which should not exceed one hundred in the house and thirty-three 
in the senate. The, senate comprised twenty-seven republicans and three 
democrats, the latter being John D. Howe and George W. Doane of Douglas 
county and Thomas Graham of Seward. Edmund C. Carns, lieutenant-governor, 
was president of the senate, and John B. Dinsmore of Clay, temporary 
president. The members of the house comprised seventy-five republicans, 
eight democrats, and one independent. H. H. Shedd, of Saunders county, was 
speaker. The legislature at this session adopted the maximum number for 
each house.

   The struggle for the United States senatorship, though significant, was 
not sanguinary like the last against Hitchcock; but it was like the last 
in having the field, including the Bee, against the incumbent. While 
Beatrice was Senator Paddock's actual or nominal residence, he was for 
business and political purposes regarded as the son of Omaha, and so as a 
Union Pacific rather than a Burlington man; Van Wyck, according to his 
territorial location, was counted pro-Burlington. Notwithstanding that the 
Burlington had become more important and politically stronger since the 
last senatorial election when the Journal favored Hitchcock, yet its 
interest and habit lay in the support of the powers that were, so it 
mildly upheld Paddock. Evidently the South Platte organ did not then 
apprehend what an anti-monopoly archangel was being entertained unawares 
in Van Wyck. The first joint ballot yielded Paddock, 39; Archibald J. 
Weaver of Richardson county, 15; Van Wyck, 13; judge Elmer S. Dundy of 
Richardson, 12; Oliver P. Mason of Lancaster, 9; George W. Post of York, 
8; John F. Kinney of Otoe, democrat, 8. There was no material change in 
the result of the ballots until the seventeenth, by which Van Wyck was 
elected with 68 votes, Paddock holding 36, Kinney 4, and 4 going to 
Governor Albinus Nance. The total membership of the legislature was 114 -- 
the senate containing 30 members, the house 84 -- and 112 voted, so that 
57 were necessary to a choice. Sixty-three of Van Wyck's supporters were 
republicans, so he was not dependent for success upon the four democrats 
and one independent who voted for him on the last ballot. Franse of Cuming 
and Lehman of Platte voted for Paddock on the last ballot. The contest 
being the usual Nebraska spectacle of the field against the incumbent, Van 
Wyck, partially because he was the most positive political figure of the 
field, and partially because he was in closest touch with the incipient 
insurgency of the time, was the most practicable instrument for the main 
operation. Besides, Burlington politics had the advantage of Union Pacific 
in its more homespun quality. This was victory number two for the Bee.

   Van Wyck brought ripe political experience to his highest office. He 
was a member of the House of Representatives from the tenth district of 
New York in the 35th, 36th, 40th, and 41st congresses -- from 1859 to 
1863, and from 1869 to 1871. He came to Nebraska in 1874 and settled in 
Otoe county as a putative farmer. He at once plunged into politics in the 
new field, and was a member of the constitutional convention of 1875, and 
of the state senates of 1877 and 1879. He did not long survive his 
political end, dying at Washington October 24, 1895. He was at least the 
most conspicuous, and one of the most useful

Page 599

of all Nebraska's federal senators, and, up to that time, in practical 
statesmanship the ablest. As his term progressed he became obtrusively 
aggressive on behalf of tariff reform and corporation control. While he 
could not make much practical impression on the stone wall which 
capitalism in Congress then presented against assaults on its prerogative, 
yet he effectually stirred up an aggressive antimonopoly temper, 
especially in his adopted state. Of course, in the circumstances, 
opprobious epithet was the principal weapon used against him, demagogue 
being the common name and "Crazy Horse" the less polite specific one. But 
what moving appeal to the masses is not demagogic? Demand governs supply 
in politics as in all ordinary business; and until intelligent thinking, 
sincerity, and honesty have spread apace demagogy will be an important 
attribute of statesmanship. The Gladstones, McKinleys, Roosevelts, Bryans, 
La Follettes are masterful leaders chiefly because they are masters of the 
art of demagogic appeal, though they may be more sincere and especially 
more chaste and gentlemanly about it than was Van Wyck. For he was 
uncomely in every aspect. His body was ill-proportioned, his movements 
awkward, his voice raucous, his smile disenchanting; yet unusual physical 
and mental force, a firm grasp of the vital issue and aggressive courage 
in its presentation were perhaps advantageously manifested through those 
unlovely media to the peculiar constituency he must affect. In short, his 
principles, arguments, and methods anticipated those of our present 
"progressive" leaders; and since he persistently and consistently 
presented them, and at first out of season, the charge of insincerity or 
demagogy is secondary if not inconsequential: That Van Wyck and Rosewater 
were wise in preferring to achieve reform through the overhauled machinery 
of the old party rather than risk it to a necessarily very crude new 
machine, at least cannot be disproved. A considerate view of political 
cause and effect discloses that, whatever his insincerity and 
inconsistency, on the whole, Van Wyck deserved well of his Nebraska 
constituency.

   An appropriation of $1,000 was made to furnish a block of Nebraska 
stone to be placed in the Washington monument at the city of Washington, 
the stone to bear a coat of arms of the state and such other inscriptions 
as the board of public lands and buildings might consider appropriate. 
Extension of time to September 1, 1882, for the construction of the west 
wing of the capitol was granted. One hundred thousand dollars was 
appropriated for building the east wing, and an option for furnishing 
plans and specifications at one and one-half per cent of the contract 
price was given to William H. Wilcox, architect of the west wing.

   The Slocumb act was perhaps a more progressive and effective license 
law than any that had preceded it. The legislature of 1877 appropriated 
$10,000 to be expended on a revision of the general laws of the state, and 
John H. Ames of Lincoln, Alexander H. Conner of Kearney, and Stephen H. 
Calhoun of Nebraska City, were appointed commissioners to do the work. The 
time allowed for completing the revision -- to January 1, 1878 -- was too 
short. They began the work May 15, 1877, and reported it to the 
legislature of 1879. The task of revising the license law was allotted to 
Mr. Ames, so that he was the author of the Slocumb act which was passed 
substantially as he drafted it. The most important departures from 
preceding laws of its class consisted in giving licensing boards 
discretionary power to grant license "if deemed expedient," thus 
explicitly recognizing and establishing the local option principle, and 
the increase of the license fee which tended to greatly reduce the number 
of saloons. The Slocumb law required a minimum fee of $500 except for 
cities with a population of over ten thousand in which the minimum is $1,
000; whereas the old law required a minimum fee of $25 and a maximum of 
$500 except for incorporated cities and towns which might require an 
additional sum of not more than $1,000. By the Slocumb law there is no 
restraint as to the maximum amount of the fee which is left to the option 
of the several municipalities. Under the high minimum license it has been 
impracticable to es-

Page 600

tablish saloons outside of incorporated towns where they are under direct 
police surveillance. The high degree of adaptability of the law is 
illustrated by the fact that no important changes were ever made in it. In 
1897 a law was passed giving incorporated villages and towns the right to 
direct popular local option. The only important addition to the Slocumb 
law is the act of the legislature of 1909 limiting the open hours of 
saloons from seven o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock in the 
evening.

   The republican state convention for 1881 met at Lincoln, October 5th. 
It was called to order by James W. Dawes, chairman of the state committee. 
George H. Thummel of Hall county, was temporary and permanent chairman, 
and Datus C. Brooks, editor of the Omaha Republican, was chairman of the 
platform committee. Samuel Maxwell was nominated for judge of the supreme 
court on the first ballot, receiving 253 1/2 votes, against 86 1/2 for C. 
J. Dilworth, 39 for 0. B. Hewitt, and 15 for Uriah Bruner. L. B. Fifield 
and Isaac Powers were nominated for regents of the State University, and 
James W. Dawes was chosen for chairman of the state committee, receiving 
275 votes against 136 cast for Charles 0. Whedon. Though this was the off 
year in national politics the platform wholly ignored state questions but 
eulogized Garfield and Arthur.

   The democratic state convention for 1881 was held at Omaha, October 
13th. William H. Munger of Dodge county was nominated for judge of the 
supreme court, and S. D. Brass of Adams and Dr. Alexander Bear of Madison 
for regents of the State University. The platform declared for free trade, 
honest money, economical and efficient administration of state and 
national affairs, and for the amendment of the so-called Slocumb law or 
else its unconditional repeal.

   The ninth legislature convened in the tenth special session May 2, 
1882. It finally adjourned May, 24th, the thirteenth day.

   Governor Nance, in his message to the legislature, stated that the 
session had been called for the purpose of apportioning the state into 
three congressional districts; to amend the act of March 1, 1881, 
regulating the duties and powers of cities of the first class; to assign 
the county of Custer to some judicial district; to amend the law entitled 
"Cities of the second class and villages"; to provide for the payment of 
expenses incurred in suppressing the recent riots at Omaha and protecting 
the citizens of the state from domestic violence; to give the assent of 
the state to the provisions of the act of Congress to extend the northern 
boundary of the state of Nebraska; to provide for the expense of the 
special session. There was legislation upon all of these propositions.

   The governor said that the act of Congress approved February 25, 1882, 
authorized the election of two additional representatives in Congress, to 
which the state was entitled under the census of 1880. He recited that on 
the 9th day of March he was officially notified by Mayor James E. Boyd, of 
Omaha, that a formidable riot was in progress in that city and he was 
requested by the mayor to furnish a military force to protect the people 
of Omaha from mob violence, the civil authorities being powerless. On the 
same day he received a telegram signed jointly by the mayor and sheriff of 
Douglas county alleging that the civil authorities were powerless to 
protect peaceful laborers and that United States troops were absolutely 
necessary to restore order. Another despatch of the same purport was 
signed by a large number of business men of Omaha. Thereupon the governor 
at once placed the Nebraska National Guards under orders to be held in 
readiness for duty, and he made a formal requisition upon the president of 
the United States for troops to aid in suppressing domestic violence. The 
president responded to the requisition of the governor and, on the morning 
of the 11th of March, a force of United States troops and state militia, 
numbering about 600 men, reached Omaha and were placed under the mayor's 
orders. On the arrival of the troops, laborers who had been compelled by 
an infuriated mob to abandon work, resumed it. "The rioters, were overawed 
by the unexpected display of military force but were not subdued. For 
several days their riotous demonstrations con-

Page 601

tinned and the troops, both state and national, were subjected to every 
form of insult and abuse. The final restoration without great loss of life 
was largely due to the forebearance of the soldiers under the most 
exasperating circumstances. Gradually the violence of the mob subsided and 
the troops, being no longer required, were withdrawn." The governor highly 
commended the soldierly conduct of the Nebraska National Guard which was 
under the command of General L. W. Colby. Moore of York offered a 
resolution declaring that it was dangerous to the peace and welfare of the 
state to establish the precedent of making appropriations to pay the 
expense of calling out troops without making careful inquiries as to its 
necessity and instructing the committee on ways and means to make careful 
inquiry as to the cause of the late labor riot in Omaha and the necessity 
of calling out troops to establish peace. The resolution was adopted. The 
committee on claims, to whom the resolution was referred, reported that 
the riot was of a dangerous character and required military interference. 
A communication. from Mayor Boyd stated that in his opinion 500 policemen 
could not have protected men at their work and the result showed that 500 
militia could scarcely more than maintain their ground, and unless the 
regular federal troops had been present there would have been a bloody 
collision between the rioters and the militia. In a communication to the 
committee, Governor Nance said that the mob had driven laboring men from 
their work on the Burlington & Missouri railroad grounds, severely 
injuring some of them, and laborers at the smelting works had been 
compelled to join the rioters. Many business men in the city were 
terrorized by threats of a boycott, and the city was in subjection to the 
will of the mob. The governor insisted that it was necessary to employ 
military force to stop lawless proceedings and to enforce the right of 
every individual to work.

   The trouble centered in a strike for better wages by laborers on a 
large grading enterprise in the grounds of the Burlington & Missouri 
railroad company at Omaha, but it sympathetically extended to other 
industries. All reasonably conducted attempts to improve labor conditions 
by methods of this kind are now regarded as legitimate, the vexatious 
question turning on the distinction between fair and unfair methods. It is 
significant that the Omaha papers excepting the Bee, the Lincoln Journal, 
and the state government were distinctly biased in favor of the railroad 
company, the Bee alone giving the other side a hearing. That the labor 
side was probably guilty of improper violence is another phase of this 
very grave and perplexing question.

   The committee of the house appointed at the regular session to 
investigate charges of bribery and corruption, found that in regard to the 
charge against J. C. Roberts, member of the house from Butler county, 
there was a conflict of testimony, Lieutenant-Governor Carns testifying 
that during the sixteenth session, Roberts, who was chairman of the house 
committee on railroads, made demand upon him [Carns] for the sum of $5,000 
to procure his [Roberts's] influence upon the subject of railroad 
legislation. Roberts, on the other hand, testified that Carns approached 
him and offered him $5,000 if he would use his influence as a member of 
the house to assist the railroad companies. The testimony of both men was 
partially corroborated, but the committee was unable to decide which of 
the two was telling the truth. The committee said that if the allegation 
of Carns was true, then Roberts was guilty of a criminal offense against 
the laws of the state, and that if the allegation of Roberts was true then 
Carns had been guilty of gross impropriety in neglecting to report the 
whole transaction to the house at the time of its occurrence and therefore 
deserved the censure of the house.

   The testimony adduced was voluminous and tended to incriminate both the 
accused men as well as others incidentally. Franse of Cuming county, 
offered a resolution declaring that the charges against Roberts were not 
sustained. McShane of Douglas offered a substitute as follows:

   WHEREAS, From said testimony it appears that Honorable E. C. Carns, 
Lieutenant Governor of the state of Nebraska, acted in the ca-

Page 602

pacity of bearer of a proposition between the high contracting parties; 
and,
   WHEREAS, Said J. C. Roberts, according to his own testimony, did not 
indignantly resent the said proposition and report to the house; therefore 
be it
   RESOLVED, That the said Hon. E. C. Carns, Lieutenant Governor of 
Nebraska, and Hon. J. C. Roberts, member of the House of Representatives, 
have merited the solemn censure of this House.

   McShane's substitute was lost by a bare majority of 31 to 32. After 
many dilatory motions had been disposed of the report of the committee as 
amended by Franse, finding that the charges were not sustained, was agreed 
to.