OF THE

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OF THE

TWENTY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

OF THE

STATE OF ILLINOIS,

AT THEIR FIRST SPECIAL SESSION, BEGUN AND HELD AT SPRINGFIELD,

MAY 24, 1871.

SPRINGFIELD:

STATE JOURNAL PRINTING OFFICE.

1871.

JOURNAL OF THE HOUSE.

[First Special Session.]

WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 1871.

At a Special Session of the Twenty-seventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, begun and held in the city of Springfield, on Wednesday, the 24th of May, 1871, at the hour of twelve, noon, the Hon. W. M. Smith, Speaker, called the House to order in pursuance of the following proclamation of the Governor:

STATE OF ILLINOIS, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. WHEREAS there exists a necessity for immediate legislation upon the following subjects:

First. To provide for the payment of the expenses of the General Assembly. Second-To fix the compensation of the officers of the Executive Department. Third. To provide for the ordinary and contingent expenses of the State Government.

Fourth.-To fix the salaries of the Judges of the Circuit and other Courts. Fifth. To fix the fees, salaries and compensation of all State, county and township officers, and to regulate the costs and expenses of parties in courts of justice and before judicial and other officers.

Sixth.-To provide for the government, management and control of the State Penitentiary, for the investigation of its financial affairs and business and for the payment of its indebtedness.

Seventh.-To regulate the exercise of eminent domain, and to provide modes for ascertaining the compensation to be paid for private property taken or damaged for public uses.

Eightn.-To make further appropriation for the construction of the new State

House.

Ninth. To investigate the deficiencies in the appropriations for the support of the Hospital for the Insane, at Jacksonville, and the Soldiers' Orphans' Home, and to provide for the payment thereof.

Tenth.--To amend the laws for the assessment and collection of revenue, and to provide for the sale of real estate for nonpayment of taxes or special assessments for State, county, municipal or other purposes.

Eleventh-To facilitate the establishment and completion of public parks, and the laying out, opening and keeping in repair of highways.

Twelfth. To provide for adjusting the accounts of the public binder, and for reprinting the official reports destroyed by fire.

Thirteenth.-The reconsideration of bills passed by both branches of the General Assembly and laid before the Governor, and by him filed in the office of the Secretary of State, with his reasons for withholding his signature therefrom.