6

amendments of this House to No. 24, A bill to establish the county of Sac and to define its limits '--in the second with an amendment--in which bill, and amendment, the concurrence of this House is requested.

"And have rejected, on its first reading, bill No. 22, (of this House,) entitled, A bill to license teamsters.'

"The Governor has notified the Council that he did on yester day, approve the following bills, viz:

"An act to organize the county of Calumet, and to lay off the county of Winnebago."

"An act to divide the town of Delevan, and for other purposes.'

"An act to amend an act, entitled, An act relating to the mi litia.' And,

"An act to exonerate the several counties of the Territory from the payment of certain taxes.'”

And then he withdrew.

The question was then taken on agreeing to the amendment of the committee of the whole to bill No. 30, and the ayes and noes being called, were as follows:

Ayes-Messrs. Baldwin, Billings, Blackstone, Bracken, Brunson, Craig, Cruson, Dewey, Jenkins, McGregor, Sholes, Story and Street-13.

Noes-Messrs. Beardsley, Childs, Conroe, Hoyt, Newman, Ray, Shackelford, Shew, Stevens, Sutherland, Wells and Whi ton, speaker-12.

So the House agreed to the amendment of the committee.

On motion of Mr. Wells,

A call of the House was had and the serjeant-at-arms was sent after Mr. Longstreet, who was not in his seat.

After a short time the serjeant-at-arms returned and reported that Mr. Longstreet was unable to attend on account of ill

ness.

On motion of Mr. Sholes,

Ordered, That said bill, No. 30, be laid on the table.

Mr. Sholes, by leave, introduced the following resolution, which was read the first and second time, viz :

No. 14, "Joint resolution relative to the printing of the laws passed at the present session of the Legislative Assembly."

Mr. Ray presented a communication from William B. Slaughter, Secretary of Wisconsin, in answer to a resolution of 31st December last, requiring him to report in what manner he had disbursed the moneys that he has received as fiscal agent of this Territory.

(See Appendix, document O.)

Referred to the committee on claims.

On motion of Mr. Shackelford,

Ordered, That the report of Moses M. Strong, made to this House this morning, be also referred to the committee on claims.

Mr. Dewey, by leave, introduced memorial No. 6, entitled, "Memorial to Congress to extend the jurisdiction of justices of the peace.

Which was read the first and second time.

(The said memorial is contained in the Appendix.)

Mr. Jenkins, agreeably to previous notice for leave, introduced No. 49, "A bill to regulate the mode of petitioning the Legisla tive Assembly."

Which was read the first and second time, and ordered to be printed.

On motion of Mr. Wells,

The House resolved itself into the committee of the whole, Mr. Dewey in the chair, having under consideration the following resolution and bills, viz:

No. 12, "Resolution relating to seals."

No. 37, "A bill to provide for the appointment of agents to demand fugitives from justice, and for issuing search war

rants."

No. 41, "A bill to organize the county of Dodge ;" and,

No. 45, "A bill concerning the duties of clerks of the boards of the county commissioners."

After some time the committee rose, and reported the said bills to the House without amendments, and they were severally order. ed to be engrossed and read a third time.

Mr. Shackelford, from the committee on enrolment, reported the following acts to be correctly enrolled.

Which were signed by the Speaker, viz:

"An act to amend an act concerning justices of the peace.” "An act to prevent the sale of intoxicating liquors to Indians.” On motion of Mr. Baldwin,

The House adjourned.

WEDNESDAY, January 8, 1840.

Mr. Childs, from the committee on engrossed bills, reported No. 12,"Resolution relating to seals."

No. 35, "A bill to amend an act of the Statutes of the Ter ritory of Wisconsin, entitled, An act concerning costs and fees.'"

No. 45, "A bill concerning the duties of clerks of the boards of county commissioners ;" and,

No. 48, "A bill relating to register of deeds of the county of Rock."

On motion of Mr. Brunson,

The following bills from the Council were read the first and se cond time by their titles, viz:

No. 37, "A bill for the relief of insolvent debtors."

No. 40, "A bill for the relief of Joseph R. Brown.'

The Speaker laid before the House the following message from the Executive:

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

Madison, January 8th, 1840.

To the Council and House of Representatives:

I respectfully recommend that provision be made by law, or resolution of the Legislative Assembly, to pay the incidental ex

penses of the organization of the militia of this Territory, such as printing the laws, advertising, postage, and other matters apper. taining to the Adjutant-General's office. Expenses have already been incurred in that department, for which there is no fund created by law for their payment.

Very respectfully,

Your obd't serv't,

HENRY DODGE.

On motion of Mr. Billings,

The said message was referred to the committee on the mili tia.

On motion of Mr. Cruson,

Ordered, That the clerk transmit to the Council the reports and accompanying documents of the committee of public buildings.

Mr. Wells, from the select committee to which the subject was referred, submitted the following report:

The select committee, to which was referred the statement of A. A. Bird, presented to this House yesterday, and the contracts in relation to the establishment of a mercantile house and the erec. tion of a tavern in the city of Madison, have had the subject submitted to them under consideration, and ask leave briefly to report: That from the facts before us, no reason appears why full faith and credit should not be attached to the statements of Mr. Bird; that there can be no doubt as to the genuineness of the contracts, and that they have no evidence before them to induce the belief, nor the slightest reason of any kind to believe that there are any other contracts in existence, between the parties implicated in the report of the majority of the committee on the public buildings.

Mr. Shackelford moved that 250 copies of the report be printed with the staternent of A. A. Bird, and that the oath of Mr. Bird and the report of the committee be appended thereto.

Mr. Conroe, of the said committee, dissented from the report,. and moved that it be laid on the table.

The ayes and noes being called were as followes :

Ayes--Messrs. Beardsley, Brunson, Billings, Conroe, Craig, Cruson, Dewey, Hoyt, Jenkins, Longstreet, Street and Whiton, speaker-12.

Noes-Messrs. Baldwin, Blackstone, Bracken, Childs, McGre gor, Newman, Ray, Shackelford, Shew, Sholes, Stevens, Story, Sutherland and Wells--14.

The question then recurred on the motion of Mr. Shackelford, and the ayes and noes being called, were as follows, viz:

Ayes--Messrs. Baldwin, Beardsley, Bracken, Childs, Conroe, Craig, Cruson, Dewey, Hoyt, Jenkins, Longstreet, McGregor, Newman, Ray, Shackelford, Shew, Sholes, Stevens, Story, Satherland, Wells and Whiton, speaker--22.

Noes--Messrs. Billings and Street--2.

Mr. Beardsley, from the committee to which the subject was referred, made the following report:

The committee to which was referred the petitions and remon strances of the citizens of Rock county, in relation to the seat of justice of said county beg leave to report: That they have had the same under consideration and deem it improper that the House should take any action on the subject. The committee would briefly present their reasons for this conclusion:

1st, Your committee are of opinion that when the seat of justice of any county has been fixed for any considerable length of time, it would be wrong to authorize its removal unless it were clear that a considerable majority of the inhabitants were desirous of the change; otherwise the county scat may be frequently removed at great expense to the people, and to their great incovenience.

2d, It appears from the examination of the petitions and remonstrances that the remonstrants have a large majority over the petitioners; there being of the former one hundred and thirtyfive, and of the latter only seventy-four.

3d, The present seat of justice is within one mile of the geogra phical centre of the county, and will undoubtedly soon be, if it is not now, the centre of population.

In view of these facts, the committee think it inexpedient that