all over the state. Toward the end of the campaign Morton displeased many of his old time friends by directing most of his energies to lampooning Van Wyck, thus apparently playing the role of tail to Crounse's kite. The nomination of Crounse was a recognition by republicans of the serious antimonopoly inroads into their party, this present help in time of need having been long and consistently opposed to the aggression of railroads. Though, measured by present standards, Crounse was a conservative, yet his appreciably progressive attitude toward the paramount railroad question and Van Wyck's radical advocacy of free silver coinage gave the Bee sufficient excuse for abandoning its old ally. It went so far as to charge him with degeneracy because in the joint debate with Crounse at Beatrice he declared that the republican Congress of 1873, in abrogating free coinage of silver, benefited the "shylocks of Europe" at the expense of the "toilers" of the United States. Crounse was elected by a vote of 78,426; Van Wyck receiving 68,617; Morton, 44,195; C. E. Bentley, prohibitionist, 6,235. On account of his aggressive hostility to Van Wyck, the antimonopolist candidate, Morton's vote was about 2,500 behind the average of his ticket. The republicans lost three of the congressional districts. William J. Bryan, democrat, was elected over Allen W. Field, republican, in the first district; William A. McKeighan, people's independent and democrat, over William E. Andrews, in the fifth district; and Omer M. Kern, people's independent, over James Whitehead, republican, in the sixth district. By rational coöperation among those voters who stood substantially upon the same ground all of the republicans would have been defeated. Americans, long inured to the two-party habit, are slowly -- but surely -- learning to vote for present issues regardless of past names.
   The fifteenth legislature met in the twenty-third session and the thirteenth regular session January 3, 1893, and finally adjourned April 8th, the sixty-eighth day. The senate comprised fourteen republicans, thirteen independents, and six democrats; the house forty-eight republicans, forty independents, and twelve democrats. The republicans of the senate took the honorary office by electing Erasmus M. Correll of Thayer county, temporary president, and the democrats and independents evenly divided the substantial spoils. Three democrats, Babcock of Douglas, Mattes of Otoe, and North of Platte, voted with the republicans, making Correll's total 17. Two democrats, McCarthy of Howard, and Thomsen of Dodge, voted with the independents for William Dysart of Nuckolls county. Hale of Madison, democrat, voted for Mattes. There were three ballots to choose the officer in question, on three successive days. J. A. Sheridan, independent, of Red Willow county, was elected temporary speaker over Church Howe by a vote of 51 to 48. J. N. Gaffin, independent, of Saunders, was elected speaker over Jensen, republican, of Fillmore, by a vote of 53 to 47. The independents took the chief clerkship, also, for Eric Johnson. They allowed the democrats six minor places.
   For eight days beyond his term, pending the revolutionary proceedings of the legislature of 1891 over the contested election case, Governor Thayer held to the executive office at the capitol which, under his orders, was guarded by armed militia. After the canvass of the returns, on the 9th of January, 1891, he applied to the supreme court for a writ of quo warranto to oust Boyd. On granting leave on the 13th, the court intimated to Thayer that in the meantime he had better yield the office to Boyd, whom the legislature had recognized as governor, and on that hint on the 15th Thayer complied with an order of the commissioner of public lands and building to vacate the executive office, whereupon Governor Boyd took possession of it. On the 5th of May the court entered a judgment of ouster against Boyd, on the ground that he was not a citizen of the United States and was therefore ineligible, and Thayer was reinstated.
   It appeared at the trial that Governor Boyd's father, who had come to Ohio from Ireland, took out his first naturalization papers in 1890, after the governor had arrived at legal age. The attainment of citizenship by the father, therefore, did not apply to the son, and the supreme court of the state decided that his.

election was invalid; but an appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States which decided, February 1, 1892, that when Nebraska was admitted as a state, Boyd was a resident and therefore became a citizen by adoption. Justice Maxwell had dissented from the decision of the state court on this ground. On the 6th of February, John L. Webster, Thayer's attorney, sent him a letter which convincingly assured him that he had been actuated by the highest patriotic motives in holding over until it had been established that his prospective successor was constitutionally eligible to fill his official shoes, and that he might now, with safety to the commonwealth, relinquish the post he had so faithfully and conscientiously guarded. In turn, the holdover governor wrote a letter to Boyd recount in the information he had received and proposing to relinquish the office on the following day; whereupon Boyd again became governor on the 8th of February, 1892.
   During nine months of his administration there had been a saving in expenses at the hospital for insane of $15,637.48 over expenses of the previous nine months, a difference of nearly twenty per cent. He claimed a large saving for other state institutions and that they could be conducted on an expenditure of sixty-six per cent of the prevailing expenses, exclusive of salaries. He recommended an investigation of all the state institutions. The sum of $38,000 had been expended in the Wounded Knee affair in January, 1891, and a bill for reimbursing the state for this expenditure had passed the Senate of the United States and was pending in the House. A year after the vote of the Newberry freight rate bill he had queried members of the legislature to find out whether they would pass such a reasonable measure as he had recommended in his first message if he should call a special session of the legislature; but he found them still radical, from his point of view. The present board of transportation, he said, had the same right to fix and regulate rates of freight as the Iowa commission, but seldom if ever exercised it. If the board were directly responsible to the people there would be better results. He recommended a choice of presidential electors, except two at large, by the people. Michigan had adopted that plan and the Supreme Court of the United States had sustained it. According to the report of the relief commission, aid had been given in about ten counties and to approximately 8,000 families, averaging five in number, and during four to six weeks. Already $30,000 of the $50,000 appropriated on account of the world's fair at Chicago had been expended -- $16,332.43 for the building -- and he recommended an appropriation of $50,000 more.
   By the act of Congress of March 2, 1891 (Stat. 26, p. 822), all direct taxes levied by the United States under the act of August 15, 1861 (Stat. 12, p. 294), were to be refunded. It appeared from this refunding act that only one tax had been levied, the aggregate for all the states and territories being $20,000,000, and Nebraska's quota thereof, $19,312. The usual allowance of $20,000 for the expenses of the legislative session of 1863 had been offset against the tax and no session was held.

   Governor Crounse delivered his inaugural message January 13, 1893. He found the state enjoying a prosperity rarely equalled in its history. Crops had been bountiful and prices in the main fairly satisfactory. There had been good crops in the former drouth stricken districts. Like his predecessor he made a strong appeal for economy in expenditures. Appropriations for state institutions should be cut to the minimum. The other recommendation was for a firm but wise control of railroads. "Your authority to control these railroads is undisputed, and you will stop short of your duty if you fail to do so, if occasion demands it." He remarked that nearly 70,000 votes had been cast for a ticket resting on a platform which declared that the roads were by unjust rates taking millions of dollars from the people annually.
   Another Newberry bill (H. R. 33), classifying freight and fixing maximum charges was passed at this session, and the board of transportation was authorized and directed to reduce its rates on any class or commodity and to revise classification but not so as to increase rates. Railroad companies might bring suit in the supreme court to show that the rates

were unjust and the court might order the board of transportation to permit the roads to raise rates in amounts fixed by said board but not higher than those charged by any road on January 1, 1893. The bill passed the house, 63 to 30, the nays all republican but three -- Leidigh and Sinclair of Otoe, and Withnell of Douglas, democrats. All the members from Douglas and Lancaster voted no except Ricketts of Douglas, who was absent. A phenomenally strong if not complete control of public sentiment by the railroads in the two large cities of the state seems to be indicated by this vote, which was typical up to this time. The bill passed the senate 18 to 14. The nays comprised three democrats -- Babcock of Douglas, Mattes of Otoe, North of Platte. The other eleven were republicans. The independent members voted solidly in the affirmative. Clarke of Douglas and Everett of Dodge, republicans; and Hale of Madison, McCarty of Howard, and Thomsen of Dodge, democrats, voted aye.
   A bill (H. R. 138) was passed authorizing the supreme court to appoint three commissioners to assist the court under such rules as it should adopt. Their term of office was fixed at three years and no two of them should be members of the same political party. It was enacted that the professors of botany, geology, chemistry, and entomology, in the State University, should be called state botanist, state geologist, etc. The sum of $35,000 was appropriated for the expense of a commissioner-general and employees for the World's Columbian Exposition with authority for the governor to appoint the commissioner-general at a salary of $2,000; combinations for fixing prices on commodities were prohibited; the bringing of persons or associations into the state for police work was prohibited and every undersheriff or deputy was required to be a resident of the state. This much mooted law, directed against the Pinkerton system, which is still in force, passed the house by a vote of 72 to 1, Van Duyn, republican, of Saline county, voting nay. It passed the senate 19 to 12.
   There was an exciting contest over the senatorial election, William V. Allen, independent, being chosen on the twenty-eighth day of the session and by the eighteenth joint ballot, receiving 70 votes to 59 for Algernon S. Paddock. All of the 53 independents and all of the 18 democrats, except Farrell, who did not vote, supported Allen on the successful ballot. All of Paddock's supporters were republicans. Kyner of Douglas voted for Paul Vandervoort; Ricketts of Douglas, for Crounse, and Clarke of Douglas did not vote. Allen received only one vote on the fourteenth ballot and one on the fifteenth. On the sixteenth he received 65 and the same number again on the seventeenth. Paddock had 32 votes to begin with and for thirteen ballots his strength varied from 20, the lowest, to 33, the highest. His nearly full republican support on the last ballot was merely a compliment to incumbency, the die of defeat having already been cast by the opposition compromise on Allen. On the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth ballots John M. Thurston received 61 votes, within one of the total republican strength and within three of victory. John H. Powers, candidate for governor on the independent ticket of 1890, received the full independent vote on most of the ballots up to the thirteenth, when for three ballots it was given to William L. Greene of Buffalo county. Powers had 1 additional vote on four ballots and Greene 3 -- 56, in all -- on one ballot. The highest votes received by other prominent candidates were, J. Sterling Morton, 6; James I,. Boyd, 5; William J. Bryan, 8; Thomas J. Majors, 13.

   The disclosures of the impeachment proceedings and kindred prosecutions showed that republicans would have chosen the wiser as well as the better part if they had voluntarily undertaken their own neglected house cleaning instead of waiting for it to be forced upon them by their enemies. The Bee's insurgency in the next state campaign was virtually an acknowledgment of this mistake. A resolution was passed to employ three lawyers, one of each political party, to be chosen by the members of the several parties in the house. The republicans selected Stephen B. Pound; the independents, William L. Greene; the democrats, Eleazer Wakeley. Judge Wake-

ley declined to serve, and George W. Doane was appointed in his place. Barry, independent, of Greeley county; Van Housen, democrat, Colfax; Lockner, republican, Douglas, were appointed a committee on impeachments. A resolution for the impeachment of John C. Allen, secretary of state; Augustus R. Humphrey, commissioner of public lands and buildings; George H. Hastings, attorney-general, and John E. Hill, treasurer, passed the house unanimously.
   A resolution that articles of impeachment against the executive officers above named for misdemeanor in office be prepared and presented to the supreme court was passed by a vote of 127 to 4. Those voting nay were Cooley, republican, of Cass county; Kyner, republican, Douglas; North, democrat, Platte; and Rhea, republican, Seward; the articles against Hastings were adopted by a vote of 95 to 24; against Humphrey, 92 to 5; against Allen, 87 to 4; against Hill, 95 to 9. Barry, independent; Colton, republican; and Casper, democrat, were appointed a committee to employ attorneys and prosecute the impeachment. The articles of impeachment against the four executive officers named, who constituted the board of public lands and buildings, were confined to charges of fraud which had been perpetrated at the state penitentiary and at the hospital for the insane at Lincoln. Article 1st, against George H. Hastings, attorney-genera], for example, recited that at the twenty-second session of the legislature $40,000 had been appropriated for the construction of a cell house at the penitentiary. The first specification alleged that Charles W. Mosher controlled the labor and service of the convicts in the penitentiary under a contract with the state and during the year 1891 and until February 1, 1892, he employed William H. Dorgan as his foreman and superintendent to take charge of said convicts; that the board of public lands and buildings, well knowing that said Dorgan was the agent of Mosher, employed him as the agent and superintendent of the state to superintend on its behalf the construction of said cell house; that Dorgan in rendering his accounts from time to time to the state board of public lands and buildings for the labor of said convicts charged the state with the sum of $1 a day for each convict whereas, in the contracts made by Dorgan in behalf of Mosher to individuals, firms, or corporations, he let the said convict labor at the rate of forty cents a day and that the board of public lands and buildings should have procured said labor for the construction of the cell house at the same rate of forty cents. Specification 2d charged that the board of public lands and buildings from time to time paid over to Dorgan as the agent of the state large sums of money in advance of his procurement of material or expenditure of labor for which the money was to be paid. Specification 4th, charged Dorgan with having expended a part of said funds of the state for material which was not needed or used in the construction of the cell house. Specification 1st of article 3, charged that the board of public lands and buildings let the contract for a supply of coal required for the use of the hospital for the insane at Lincoln, for the quarter commencing April 1, 1890, to the firm of Betts, Weaver & Company; that said firm furnished under the contract for the month of April, 1890, coal to the amount of 336,000 pounds and no more, but rendered an account for 438,000 pounds and that the board of public lands and buildings approved the fraudulent account. Specifications 2d and 3d, made similar allegations of startling discrepancies between the amounts allowed to the same firm and the amounts actually furnished. Specification 4th, charged that in the month of July, 1890, the Whitebreast Coal Company of Lincoln actually furnished to the hospital for the insane 250,000 pounds of coal and no more, but made an account for 720,000 pounds, which the board allowed.
   There was a general investigation of the administration of the state institutions in response to charges of corruption and mismanagement. A committee of eight, four from the house and four from the senate, and comprising members of all political parties, reported unanimously that the death of Powell, a convict at the penitentiary, "was the direct: and proximate result of cruel and inhuman punishment inflicted upon him." The com-

mittee found from the evidence that "the punishment in vogue in the Nebraska state penitentiary for many years has been inhuman, barbarous and cruel in many cases," and gave revolting details in illustration of this charge. A committee of seven members of the house, comprising three independents, two democrats, and two republicans, was appointed to investigate the administration of the penitentiary. The committee's unanimous report found gross corruption and mismanagement.
   A committee of the house, consisting of G. A. Felton and Austin Reiley, independents, and C. D. Casper, democrat, found a still worse state corruption, if possible, in the administration of the hospital for the insane at Lincoln.
   The committee of the house to whom the penitentiary contract between the state and William H. Dorgan and Charles W. Mosher was referred, requested the opinion of William Leese, attorney-general, as to its validity, and they were informed by that officer that the act of 1879, which undertook to extend the contract with W. H. B. Stout, and that of 1887, to extend the contract to Mosher, assignee of Stout, were both invalid. Thereupon the committee reported unanimously that in its opinion the contract was null and void and recommended that the state take charge of the plant, prison, and grounds. The house adopted the report. A motion of Jensen of Fillmore county, that this action of the house be referred to the senate with the request that that body should concur was also adopted; but the senate appears to have smothered the report. The house committee appointed to investigate the management of the permanent school fund reported that "the state has lost large sums of money in the form of interest which would have accrued to the temporary school fund, the exact amount of which has not been computed by your committee." The committee recommended that action be brought against Hill, ex-state treasurer, to recover the money so lost. This report was signed by two of committee, the third member refusing to concur.
   Steven and Casper, of the committee "to investigate the charges of improper use of or offers of money to influence the votes of members of the legislature in the matter of the election of United States senators," reported that offers of money were made to eight members for the alleged purpose of so influencing their votes, and in the opinion of the committee the offers were made with corrupt intent. McKesson of Lancaster county made a minority report in which he said that Krick and Soderman, members of the house, were guilty of soliciting corrupt offers of money for their votes; that W. A. Dungan, sergeant-at-arms, was guilty of making false statements as to the corruption of members and ought to be removed from his office; and that R. B. Thompson, "who unblushing tells of offers made by him, is deserving of the contempt of his fellowmen, and I only regret that suitable punishment cannot be meted out to him."
   Goss of Douglas and Gerdes of Richardson, of the committee to investigate charges that money had been used in relation to insurance legislation, found that corrupt influence of members had been attempted, but unsuccessfully. The committee appointed to investigate the bill presented by Shilling Brothers for merchandise furnished to the state of Nebraska found that the firm had made a gross overcharge and recommended that the sum of $1,870.88 be allowed for the bill instead of $2,314.48, the amount claimed. The committee to investigate charges of the improper administration of the institute for feeble-minded youth at Beatrice was able to make a report that was relatively unique, inasmuch as it gave Superintendent A. T. Armstrong of the institute, a clean score for his management.
   Four of the accused men were indicted under the charge of corrupt dealing with the hospital for the insane. Nova Z. Snell had been elected county attorney of Lancaster county in 1890 on the democratic and independent ticket and the prosecutions were begun under his adiministration (sic). In the meantime, at the beginning of 1893, he was succeeded by William H. Woodward; but Governor Crounse appointed Mr. Snell and the law firm of Reese & Gilkeson -- Judge M. B. Reese and J. R. Gilkeson -- to assist in the prosecution of this class of cases. Gorham F. Betts was con-

victed and sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. He escaped, however, with a few months in the Lancaster county jail because the county attorney failed to make out in due time a bill of exceptions on the appeal of the case to the supreme court. The other persons indicted were tried and were acquitted. although the evidence against them was nearly the same as that upon which Betts was convicted. The special attorneys for the state complained that the county attorney hampered them in the trial of these cases and that they were unable to procure proper jurymen. It happened that the Betts & Weaver business had been sold before Betts was tried, and their successors in the business furnished yard sheets which showed conclusively that car loads of coal which had been charged to the asylum and paid for were really run into the private yard of Betts & Weaver and sold as their private property.
   The impeachment case against John E. Hill, ex-treasurer, and Thomas H. Benton, exauditor, was dismissed on the ground that the defendants had retired from office in January, 1893, the power of impeachment conferred by the constitution upon the legislature extending only to civil officers of the state and could not be exercised after such officers had become private persons. The case against Attorney-General Leese was dismissed on the same ground, and also upon the ground that the managers of the impeachment had, without constitutional authority, changed the articles which had been presented by the legislature. The case against George H. Hastings, attorney-general, John C. Allen, secretary of state, and Augustus R. Humphrey, commissioner of public lands and buildings, was also decided rather upon a technicality than upon the general facts. Two of the judges, Norval and Post, held that where an official act for which an officer is impeached results from a mere error of judgment or ommission of duty without the element of fraud, it is not impeachable although it may be highly prejudicial to the interests of the state. Impeachment, the majority of the court held, is essentially a criminal prosecution, hence the guilt of the accused must be established beyond a reasonable doubt. Justice Maxwell dissented from the decision of the majority, holding that the duties of the members of the board of public lands and buildings in passing upon the accounts in question were not judicial. He held that the rule of the majority in this case would have protected the notorious Boss Tweed from prosecution.
   Judge Maxwell also observed that Dr. W. M. Knapp, superintendent of the asylum, testified that he did not believe the amount of coal charged had been delivered, and yet he approved vouchers for the full amount.
   Judge Post, while agreeing with Judge Norval in the theory which protected the defendants from prosecution, was unsparing in his denunciation of the transactions which were the subject of the impeachment. He said in reference to the coal bills at the asylum: "The overcharge for the first three months of the respondents' term of office which the legislature failed to detect was 2,020,000 pounds, while for the remaining nine months, according to the specification, it is less than twice that amount. It is not contended that negligence of the legislature, however gross, would excuse the wilful disregard of duty by the respondents. . ."
   He said again: "It appears further that Dorgan, the superintendent, rendered a bill for their (convicts') labor at $1 per day during all of said time (when they were laid off.) He attempts to justify his action by reference to a custom to charge subcontractors for the labor of convicts from the time of their assignment unless sick or disabled. This explanation merely proves the wisdom of the scriptural saying that one cannot serve two masters. Dorgan was appointed to employ laborers by the day and to make time contracts for labor."
   George W. Doane of Omaha, Stephen B. Pound of Lincoln, William L. Greene of Kearney, and Genio M. Lambertson of Lincoln, were counsel for the state in the impeachment proceedings.