was held at Lincoln May 22d. John McManigal of Lancaster county called the convention to order, but, in the great confusion which arose in choosing between Miles Zentmeyer of Colfax county and Beach I. Hinman of Lincoln county, for temporary chairman of the convention, McManigal lost control and Andrew J. Poppleton of Omaha was obliged to mount a chair in the midst of the assembly and restore order. Zentmeyer represented the Miller-Boyd faction and Hinman the Morton faction. McManigal decided that Zentmeyer was elected by the first vote, taken viva voce. Hinman was elected by a vote of 182 to 96. Poppleton was chairman of the committee on resolutions which demanded vigorous frugality in every department of the government, a tariff limited to the production of necessary revenues and to bear upon articles of luxury and prevent unequal burdens upon labor; and they declared that a fundamental change in the policy of federal administration was imperative. If united, the party would reëlect Samuel J.. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks. The platform ignored state issues. The four delegates at large were elected by the following vote: James E. Boyd, 259; J. Sterling Morton, 241 W. H. Munger, 179; Tobias Castor, 141. James E. North received 103 votes and George W. Johnston, 114. Delegates from the first district elected George P. Marvin and John A. Creighton as delegates to the national convention; second district, Robert A. Batty, A. J. Rittenhouse; third district, Patrick Fahy, John G. Higgins. There was sharp division between the two factions, Morton's home delegates -- from Otoe county -- refusing to vote for Boyd and Boyd returning the compliment. The majority of the delegates were hostile to Morton, as they were again in 1888, when they shut him out from his usual place as a member of the platform committee in the national convention.
   The republican state convention was held at Omaha August 27th, with Charles H. Gere chairman. There was opposition, amounting to "revolt," to the renomination of Dawes for governor, but it was easily overcome before the convention met -- illustrating incidentally the prime advantage for boss rule of the convention over its successor, the primary election plan. The platform declared that "we recognize as a prime necessity for the unification of our party in Nebraska . . . a statute regulating our railroads according to a fixed principle"; and it pointed with satisfaction to "efforts of our party" during the last meeting of the legislature to accomplish this result. This, however, was typical bourbon procrastination which, like French bourbonism before, waited until the inevitable reform came through the shock of inevitable political revolution. The platform commended the efforts of senators and representatives in Congress from Nebraska to secure immediate issue of patents to lands earned by railroads in the state under the national land grants, with the intent that they should be subject to taxation. There was no declaration about money.
   The democratic state convention was held at Omaha September 11th, James E. Boyd, chairman. The convention united with the antimonopolist party in the distribution of the offices, candidates for secretary of state, attorney-general, treasurer, and two presidential electors being conceded to the democrats and the rest to their partners. J. Sterling Morton was for the third time nominated for governor. This unequal yoking together of factions, to each other so notoriously unbelievers, returned to plague Morton when he assailed democratic and populist fusion "on principle" in 1894.
   Dawes received 72,835 votes; Morton, 57,634; James G. Miller, prohibition, 3,075. The republican candidates for the offices of district attorney were elected in all of the ten judicial districts. Among all the monopolies the republican party monopoly was still supreme. The legislative amendment to the constitution was approved by a vote of 51,959 to 17,766. The executive amendment -- for establishing a railroad commission -- was defeated by a vote of 22,297 to 44,488. The contrast between the treatment of these two amendments illustrates the still backward state of interest and intelligence touching the railroad question. The proposition for a railroad commission was at least equally as important as that to extend the session of the legislature. Both amendments lacked a constitutional majority. The

republican candidates for presidential electors received 76,9t2 votes; the democratic candidates, 51,391; prohibition, 2,889.
   The progressive forces united in all of the three congressional districts and by nominating progressive men gained a moral victory. In the first district Weaver, republican, held his place only by the slender margin of 22,644 votes over 21,669 for Charles H. Brown of Omaha. In the second district James Laird's prestige was crippled and the standard majority alarmingly reduced by John H. Stickel's great vote of 17,650 to 21,182 for Laird; and in the third district George W. E. Dorsey was maimed for life by the vote of 20,671 cast for William Neville of North Platte, to 25,985 for himself.
   The eleventh legislature convened in the ninth regular session January 6, 1885. It finally adjourned March 5th, the forty-third day of the session. Lieutenant-Governor Shedd was president of the senate and Church Howe temporary president. The senate comprised twenty-five republicans and eight democrats; the house of representatives, seventy-nine republicans, twenty democrats, and one independent -- William A. Poynter, afterward governor of the state. Allen W. Field of Lancaster county was speaker of this body. The governor's message disclosed that the indebtedness of the state was $499,267.35 -- $449,267.35 in the form of funding bonds due April 1, 1897, and $50,000 in grasshopper relief bonds due March 1, 1885. It appears from the message that the number of students at the State University during the last term was 282 -- at the newly established college of medicine, 54; that a contract had been let to W. H. B. Stout for the erection of the main building of the capitol for the consideration of $439,187.25; that a draft for $500, representing the appropriation by the last legislature toward the Lincoln monument fund, had been sent to Springfield; that in September, 1883, $11,746.67 was received on account of the five per cent sale of federal lands in Nebraska; in June, 1884, $17,495.95, five percent of the proceeds of the sale of the Pawnee reservation; in November, 1884, $485 on account of expenses incurred in suppressing Indian hostilities. In September, 1882, $6,275.89 had been received from Pawnee sales, making a total of $23,770.42. A bill passed both houses of the legislature of 1883 appropriating a half of the sum of $6,275.89 to Thomas P. Kennard, as a fee for collecting the same under an alleged agreement with Governor Furnas; but it failed to become a law because the officers of the two houses neglected to sign it.
   The republican state convention for 1885 was held in Lincoln October 14th. Lorenzo Crounse pressed the election of John M. Thayer for temporary chairman of the convention; but Thayer insisted that he did not desire the office, and Monroe L. Hayward of Otoe county was chosen over him by a vote of 318 to 143. Hayward was retained as permanent chairman. Amasa Cobb was renominated for judge of the supreme court without opposition and Charles H. Gere of Lancaster and Leavitt Burnham of Douglas, were nominated for regents of the University by acclamation. James L. Caldwell of Lancaster was chairman of the committee on resolutions, which were devoted to national questions, except the single declaration that if the act of the last legislature creating a railroad commission with advisory powers for regulation should be found inadequate, then the party stood pledged to sufficiently amend it. A resolution for a prohibition amendment which was innocently introduced was "rejected by an overwhelming vote." A resolution declaring that the tariff on imports ought to be reduced, temerariously introduced by Dominic G. Courtney, "was voted down enthusiastically," in the State Journal's parlance.
   The democratic convention was held in Lincoln October 15th. In the struggle between the Morton and Miller factions, now become chronic and acute, Albert W. Crites of Cass county and of the Miller clan, was elected chairman over Alfred W. Hazlett of Gage, by a vote of 230 to 148. Thomas O'Day of Antelope county introduced a resolution declaring that every democrat had a right to apply for an office and the state committee had no right to dictate or control federal appointments. This was intended as a knock-out for

Morton, who was chairman of the state committee and who had been accused of using his official influence in procuring offices for his friends. But Morton executed a great coup by himself seconding the resolution.
   The republican state convention for 1886 was held at Lincoln September 29th. James Laird of Adams county was temporary chairman and Archibald J. Weaver of Richardson, permanent chairman. On the informal ballot for governor, John M. Thayer received 306 votes; H. T. Clarke, 123; J. B. Dinsmore, 37; Leander Gerrard, 27; John H. MacColl, 47; Thomas Appleget, 13. After this ballot John M. Thurston withdrew the name of Clarke, and Thayer was nominated by acclamation. There had been a general movement in favor of Thayer's nomination, partially due to the sympathy and the friendship of the old soldier element and in part due to the partiality of the corporations for Thayer, who was known to be at least innocuous.
   The platform avoided state issues and was a studied and specious condemnation of the democratic national administration. A minority report by Charles H. Van Wyck, condemning the state railroad commission and demanding its abolition, was rejected by a majority of over a hundred and fifty. A resolution condemning the commission, offered by Edward Rosewater, was safely referred to the committee of which Charles H. Gere was chairman. The then usual plank in praise of Irish home rule, Gladstone, and Parnell was inserted in the platform. A resolution favoring the submission to the people of an amendment to the constitution prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or importation of spirituous, malt, or vinous liquors was adopted, after a very hot debate, by a vote of 341 to 189.
   The democratic convention was held at Hastings October 7th. It was called to order by James E. North, chairman of the state committee. General Milton M. Montgomery of Lancaster county was temporary chairman and Frank Martin of Richardson, permanent chairman. The convention was completely in the hands of the Boyd-Miller faction. G. E. Pritchett of Douglas county was chairman of the committee on resolutions which denounced prohibition and sumptuary laws; insisted that the next legislature should pass laws abolishing the present oppressive freight rates and unjust discrimination, and that Congress should give the interstate commerce commission such power as to "relieve the people of the agricultural states from the thralldom of railroad monopoly." The expression of sympathy for Gladstone, Parnell, and the Irish people in the struggle for home rule which was to be inserted in many subsequent platforms of both parties was begun in this one. James E. North, of Columbus, was nominated for governor by acclamation. There was a factional fight in the convention over the manner of choosing a state committee and a mild obeisance to the Cleveland admonition against offensive partisanship in a letter sent by Stephen H. Calhoun. He had been appointed collector of internal revenue, and so, out of respect to the president's views, he had refrained from attending the convention.
   The twelfth legislature met in the tenth regular session January 4, 1887, and finally adjourned March 31st, the sixty-second day of the session. The senate comprised twenty-five republicans and eight democrats; the house, seventy-one republicans, twenty-eight democrats, and one independent. George D. Meiklejohn of Nance county was elected temporary president of the senate and N. V. Harlan of York was speaker of the house.
   Governor Dawes stated in his message that the $50,000 relief bonds which matured March 1, 1885, had been paid from the sinking fund, leaving a state indebtedness of $449,267.35 in the form of twenty-year eight per cent bonds maturing April 1, 1897, and incurred before the restriction of the indebtedness to $100,000 in the constitution of 1875. One hundred thousand dollars of the original amount of these bonds had been paid. The assessed value of the state in 1885 was $133,418,699.83, an increase of $9,802,812.98 since 1884. In 1886 it had increased to $143.932,570.51. The rate of taxation for state purposes for 1885 was seven and twenty-nine fortieths mills and in 1886 seven and five-eighths mills on each dollar of valuation. A census was provided for in the act of Febru-

ary 9, 1885, which appropriated the sum of $50,000 therefor. The work had been done under the superintendency of George B. Lane, the total cost being $39,774.35, of which the federal government paid $34,759.12 for prompt and accurate reports, leaving $5,015.23 as the actual cost to the state. There is irony in the statement of the governor that, "The original returns of enumeration and other original reports have been deposited for safe keeping in the office of the secretary of state as required by law." These reports were subsequently burned by carelessness or otherwise, so that there is no record of their important data available except fragmentary statements in the newspapers.
   The legislature authorized a recount of the vote on the legislative amendment to the constitution which resulted in counting it in. The counties of Arthur, Grant, McPherson, and Thomas were constituted. The act providing a charter for metropolitan cities, meaning Omaha, flouted the important principle of home rule by giving to the governor the appointment of four members of the fire and police board, the mayor being the fifth member, ex officio. The "Nebraska Industrial Home" was authorized, the government to be under trustees of the "Woman's Associate Charities of the State of Nebraska," and $15,000 was appropriated for the site and buildings. A "Bureau of Labor, Census and Industrial Statistics" was established, the commissioner to receive a salary of $1,500 a year. "An Asylum for the Incurable Insane of Nebraska" was established at Hastings on condition that not less than 160 acres of land should be donated for the purpose; and $75,000 was appropriated for buildings. "The Nebraska State Board of Pharmacy" was established to consist of the attorney-general, Secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, and commissioner of public lands and buildings. The Office of the state inspector of oils was established, carrying a salary of $2,000.

   The act of 1885 fixing classified passenger rates at three cents, three and one-half cents, and four cents per mile was amended by establishing a general rate of three cents a mile. This was an important manifestation of a vital public opinion touching railroad legislation. An act was passed abolishing the board of railroad commissioners and establishing a "board of transportation." The Hatch bill, a law of Congress which appropriated $15,000 a year for carrying on experiment stations, was accepted on behalf of the State University; and the organization of the university battalion was styled "University Cadets."
   The republican state convention for 1887 was held at Lincoln October 5th. Luther W. Osborn of Washington county was temporary chairman and George D. Meiklejohn of Nance county, permanent chairman. Judge Oliver P. Mason; in his characteristic vein, presented Samuel Maxwell for judge of the supreme court and he was nominated on the first ballot. Dr. B. B. Davis of Red Willow county and Dr. George Roberts of Knox, were nominated for regents of the University. H. C. Andrews of Buffalo county was chairman of the committee on resolutions. The platform expressed confidence in the existing board of transportation, but favored an elective commission. It declared that it was grossly unjust that Nebraska should pay higher rates of transportation than Iowa, Minnesota, and Dakota. There were no other declarations on state questions. The usual approval of the struggle for Irish home rule was expressed and Omaha was favored for the next republican national convention. A resolution introduced by Oliver P. Mason declaring that if the state supreme court should decide that the legislature had not conferred upon the board of transportation power to fix maximum freight charges the governor ought to call a special session for the purpose of doing so was debated fiercely until daylight when it was defeated by a vote of 280 to 244. A prohibition submission resolution was rejected also.
   The democratic convention was held at Omaha October 11th. Miles Zentmeyer of Colfax county was temporary and permanent chairman. Thomas O'Day of Antelope county was nominated for judge of the supreme court and Fred L. Harris of Valley and J. M. Slicker of Hitchcock, regents of the University. The platform approved Cleveland's ad-

ministration; made a somewhat hazy declaration in favor of tariff reform; called for stringent legislation against railroad discrimination, demanding that "higher rates for freight and passengers must not be tolerated in Nebraska than are charged in other states similarly situated." As in the republican platform, there was a sympathetic declaration for Gladstone, Parnell, and Irish home rule. The last prison contract bill passed by the legislature was condemned, as also Governor Thayer for signing it. The platform was drafted by O'Day of the committee and George E. Pritchett of Omaha. The republican ticket was successful at the election. Maxwell received 86,725 votes; O'Day, 56,548; Joseph W. Edgerton, labor candidate, 2,653; E. S. Abbott, prohibitionist, 7,359. Republican candidates in the twelve judicial districts were all successful except two in the third -- George W. Doane and Eleazer Wakeley, democrats, being elected.
   The republican state convention for 1888 was held at Lincoln August 23d. Judge Aaron Wall of Sherman county was elected temporary chairman, receiving 395 votes against 273 cast for A. E. Cady of Howard county. The temporary organization was made permanent. Governor Thayer was renominated without opposition, and a resolution favoring the submission of a prohibition amendment to the constitution was carried by a vote of 378 to 197. Lucius D. Richards of Dodge county succeeded Meiklejohn as chairman of the state committee. The declarations of the platform were almost all devoted to national questions, among them a denunciation of capital organized in trusts -- but it professed to approve the acts of the railway commission and promised to carry out the correction of all evils. The repeated approval of the railroad commission by republicans was self-stultifying because the general want of public confidence which was soon to result in its abolition wag all along apparent. The democratic national administration was denounced "for its effort to destroy the bimetallic system of currency and restore the single gold standard for the sole benefit of importers and money lenders."
   The democratic convention was held at Lincoln August 29th. Matt Miller of Butler county was temporary and permanent chairman. John A. McShane was nominated for governor by acclamation and was pressed into acceptance much against his own wishes. A large element of the convention preferred that he should become a candidate for Congress again. Andrew J. Sawyer of Lancaster county was chairman of the committee on resolutions. The platform declared that the state was overrun by a band of Pinkerton detectives who intimidated peaceful citizens; that republicans were responsible for this abuse and laws preventing it were demanded. The Mills tariff bill was approved, and Laird and Dorsey, members of Congress, were denounced for voting against free lumber and free salt. The regular Parnell and Gladstone plank was inserted. In the Herald's phrase, "The anti-prohibition plank elicited a roar of approval that made several republican auditors perceptibly shiver." The platform demanded reform of railroad rates; attacked the republican creature known as a "trust"; favored an elective railroad commission and arbitration of labor disputes. In the campaign the Omaha Herald made the most of the temporary lapse of the republicans to prohibition. It declared that "there are twenty-five thousand people in Nebraska driven here by the prohibition which threw a pall over the prosperity of Iowa. There are five thousand of these people in Omaha alone." These were of the thriftiest and most law-abiding class. "In the hope of catching the prohibition vote the republicans of Nebraska have consented to the exact course which was the initial step in Iowa. . . They think there is no danger that a sumptuary law will result, but there is." The vote for republican candidates for presidential electors was about 108,000; for democratic candidates about 80,500. John M. Thayer, republican candidate for governor, received 103,983; John A. McShane, democrat. 85,420; George E. Bigelow, prohibitionist, 9,511; and David Butler, labor candidate, 3,941.
   The thirteenth legislature met in the eleventh regular session January 1, 1889, and

finally adjourned March 30th, the sixty-seventh day. The senate contained twenty-seven republicans and six democrats. Politics was nominally clean-cut in this legislature, there being no hybrid factions; but it was the result of a calm which preceded the storm soon to break. A diminishing number of democrats was ominous of the real alignment of 1890. George D. Meiklejohn, lieutenant-governor, was president of the senate, and Church Howe, temporary president. The house contained seventy-nine republicans, twenty democrats, and one union laborite. John C. Watson of Otoe county was speaker.
   Governor Thayer, in his message, alluded to the opposition, expressed by Attorney-General Leese in his report, to the passage of the pending bill in Congress to extend the time for the payment of the debt of the Union Pacific railroad to the United States. The only fair method was to declare the company insolvent and sell the road, and the state of Nebraska should control it. The governor of course opposed this view in a long argument. He recommended the adoption of a constitutional amendment for an elective railroad commission, declaring that rates in Nebraska must be no higher than in Kansas, Iowa, and other states, and that the commission should have full power over the question of rates. He had appointed two democrats and two republicans as members of the Omaha fire and police commission, A great line and cry had been raised against them by bad elements and the city, council but they had given the city the best force and police government it had ever had. The supreme court had sustained the law. The counties of Box Butte, Grant, Perkins, Rock, and Thomas had been organized during the last two years. Banner, Deuel, Scott's Bluff, and Kimball would complete their organization by January 15th. The reactionary spirit of this legislature as well as the ominous fact that there was a strong minority in it determined upon effective railroad legislation, is illustrated by the tone of a resolution offered by Senator Isaac M. Raymond and its fate at the hands of the senate.
   Laws were passed constituting Hooker and Thurston counties; changing the liquor license law so as to give the board of fire and police commissioners of cities of the metropolitan class and an excise board in cities of the first class -- more than 25,000 and less than 80,000 -- power to grant licenses instead of "corporate authorities" under the old law; interpolating section 20, chapter 50, making the possession of liquors without license a presumption that they are kept to be sold against the law; and section 21 providing that at a hearing the magistrate might order the destruction of the liquors. Section 22 provided that after the defendant should be acquitted on a hearing the liquor should be returned to him, but if found guilty he should pay a fine and costs and a reasonable attorney's fee. Other laws were to compel trains to stop at crossings; for a bounty of one-cent a pound for sugar manufactured in the state from beets, sorghum, or other sugar canes or plants grown within the state; taxing sleeping and dining cars used within the state but not owned by corporations within the state; appropriating $5,000 for beautifying the capitol grounds, to be expended under a landscape gardener; constituting the first Monday in September a holiday known as "Labor Day." Three amendments to the constitution were submitted; one providing for the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor, another to increase the number of judges of the supreme court from three to five, and the third fixing the salary of the judges at $3,500 and of district judges at $3,000. Senate File 9, submitting an amendment providing for an elective board of railroad commissioners, and Senate File 238, for an appointed board, were merged, the merger -- S. F. 238 -- providing for three commissioners to be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate, for a term of two years. It passed the senate by a vote of 28 to 1, but it got no farther than the second reading in the house, where it was indefinitely postponed with all senate files on the last day of the session.
   The prohibition amendment was as follows: "The manufacture, sale and keeping for sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage are forever prohibited in this state, and the legislature shall provide by law for the enforcement

of this provision." It passed the senate by a vote of 21 to 11, and the house by 60 to 38. Thus democrats were solidly on the negative side and republicans were seriously divided -- which portended defeat. Cady offered an additional proposition as follows: "The manufacture and sale and keeping for sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage shall be licensed and regulated by law." This was carried by a vote of 58 to 40; and in the senate by 23 to 10; substantially the same members who had voted for the original proposition sustaining it. Whichever part of the dual amendment might be adopted would be section 27, article I of the constitution.
   Charles F. Manderson was elected United States senator on the first separate ballot, receiving 76 votes in the house against 21 for John A. McShane and one for J. Sterling Morton; and 27 in the senate against 6 for McShane.
   The republican convention for 1889 was held at Hastings October 8th. J. W. Bixler of Lincoln county was temporary and permanent chairman. The question whether instructions of a county convention that its delegates should fill vacancies should overrule a proxy -- shutting out Patrick O. Hawes of Douglas -- raised pandemonium in which Bixler collapsed, Church Howe taking his place. T. L. Norval of Seward county was nominated for judge of the supreme court over Manoah B. Reese by a vote of 545 to 269. Charles H. Morrill of Polk and J. L. H. Knight of Custer, were nominated for regents of the University. Lucius D. Richards was retained as chairman of the state committee. The platform contained no reference to state issues and was composed of glittering generalities referring to corporations.
   The democratic convention was held at Omaha October 15th. Andrew J. Poppleton was temporary and permanent chairman. John H. Ames of Lancaster county was nominated for judge of the supreme court and W. S. McKenna of Adams and E. W. Hess of Platte, for regents. Dr. Luther J. Abbott of Fremont unjustly attacked Senator Manderson for drawing a pension and yet being able to get a nice insurance policy from a leading company. J. Sterling Morton was chairman of the platform committee and William J. Bryan was also a member of it. The resolutions denounced the protective policy of the republican party as hostile to the interests of a purely agricultural commonwealth; protested against appropriations to irrigate desert lands, there being already enough arable land to glut the home market for nearly all farm products; denounced the sugar bounty law of the last session of the legislature; declared that there should be no substitution of land or money for private corporations and declared that a well regulated license law was the best solution of the liquor question.
   A union labor convention endorsed John H. Ames, democratic candidate, for judge of the supreme court, and nominated William Blakely and Omer M. Kem for regents of the University.