penses incurred in the suppression of Indian hostilities in 1864; and for the removal of the surveyor general's office of Wisconsin and Iowa to Plattsmouth, Nebraska. There was also found due and appropriated for Indian tribes in Nebraska, under treaties, over $100,000.

Inasmuch as the closing session of the thirty-ninth Congress, closing Mr. Hitchcock's term, was to be one of three months only, and as the senator and delegate from Nebraska were awaiting admission, but little business was pressed upon the delegate; and he returned from the position three days before the end of his term, while the proclamation of the president, extinguishing the taper of the Territory, unveiled the star of the State.

During that second session, however, the record shows the passage of an act allowing an annual appropriation of internal revenue, for three years, aggregating $40,000 for penitentiary buildings, $15,000 for land surveys, and an allowance for a geological survey, with $31,500 for legislative expenses. In his argument before the various house committees on lands, Indian affairs, pensions, claims, post offices, appropriations, commerce, agriculture and territories, as well as in his intercourse with fellow members, he manifested good capacity, liberal acquirements, commendable devotion to duties, with gentility of deportment. From the remembrance of their college days, it was no matter of astonishment when Garfield met him in the house, and subsequently, Ingalls in the senate.

CHAPTER III.

THE STATE GOVERNORS.

GOVERNOR DAVID BUTLER.

David Butler, first governor of the state of Nebraska, was born in the state of Indiana near Bloomington, Monroe County, December, 1829. At that time in the west educational facilities were SO very indifferent that farmers' sons were doomed to enter public life, very generally developed more by applicatior to severe toil and the treasures of personal experience, than by technical scholastic culture.

Whether superintendent of a Wisconsin stock farm before of age, or assuming the charge of a large family and an embarassed estate on the death of his father, or coming out of the financial crisis of 1857 with "an inheritance of loss," he was prepared for new ventures and future encounters. Arriving in Nebraska in 1858, still a young man, little did he suppose that in eight years' time he would be enrolled among the executives of states. Engaging in mercantile pursuits in Pawnee City and in raising and dealing in live stock, he was soon established as a persevering and successful man of business. Efficiency and prominence soon marked him for a leader, and prior to his nomination for governor he had served three years in the legislature.

According to the provision of the state constitution, the first session was to convene on the Fourth of July, 1866; and tc this body was delivered the first message of the first governor of the new state. As this period marks an era in our political existence, it may not be inappropriate to present it in full:

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives: In accordance with a time-honored custom, that reaches back to the beginning of our national existence, I assume the

privilege of addressing the first senate and house of representatives, chosen by the popular will, since Nebraska was elected to take her rank as one of the sovereign states of the Union. The position in which we stand to-day is peculiar to our national economy, and affords an instructive comment upon the character of our institutions and their adaptation to the needs of a progressive people. While in a territorial condition, we have, necessarily, been dependent upon the general government for social and civil protection, for the appointment of our executive and judicial officers, and for annual appropriations to defray the expenses of a territorial government. Now that the rapid increase of our population and the proportional development of our resources have given us sufficient strength and stability to dispense with the temporary guardianship afforded by the Organic Act while passing our minority in the family of the Union, we propose, quietly and peaceably. in accordance with numerous precedents afforded by other states, and in response to the invitation extended to us by an act of Congress of 1864, commonly called the Enabling Act, to take upon ourselves the responsibility of state government.

The auspices under which we ask, at the door of Congress, for admission into the Union, are extremely favorable to our future happiness and prosperity. The tide of immigration, checked for a season by the disturbing influences of the great civil war, is again pouring with increased momentum over the western banks of the Missouri, and now, although a year has scarcely elapsed since the close of the rebellion, our population has probably increased one-third; our prairies have been taken up with unexampled rapidity by enterprising settlers, and herds of cattle and fields of luxuriant grain change, as if by magic, the solitary wilderness to the appearance of civilization.

The question of state government, as it has been submitted to the people, has not been sprung precipitately upon them. No exception can with propriety be taken to the manner in which it has been brought before them. It has been thoroughly discussed; first by the territorial legislature that drafted the constitution, then by the press and by the people at large, and the result of the vote upon the state constitution evinces that a majority of the people of Nebraska deliberately prefer the rights and privileges appertaining to a state to the more imperfect organization of a territory. The objection to the admission of Nebraska by Congress, on the ground of a scanty population, cannot be urged with any appearance of consistency. At