ILLINOIS. 



511 



.two Houses with respect to the time of adjournment, 

 the Governor shall have power to adjourn the General 

 Assembly to such time as he thinks proper, provided it 

 be not a period beyond the next constitutional meeting 

 of the same. 



Whereas, I fully believe that the interests of the State 

 wiL be best subserved by a speedy adjournment, the 

 past history of the present Assembly holding out no 

 reasonable hope of beneficial results to the citizens of 

 the State, or the army in the field, for its further con- 

 tinuance ; 



Now, therefore, in view of the existing disagree- 

 ment between the two houses in respect to the time of 

 adjournment, and by virtue of the power vested in 

 me by the Constitution aforesaid, I, Richard Yates, 

 Governor of the State of Illinois, do hereby adjourn 

 the General Assembly, now in session, to the Satur- 

 day next preceding the first Monday in January, A.D. 

 1865. 



Given at Springfield, this 10th day of June. A.D. 

 1863. KICHARD YATES, Governor. 



After the reading of this message, the minor- 

 ity or Administration party withdrew from the 

 House, thus leaving the majority, or Opposition, 

 without a quorum. Being rendered powerless 

 for the further transaction of business, the ma- 

 jority entered upon the records a protest 

 against the action of the governor, and infor- 

 mally left their seats. Gov. Yates was elected 

 in November, 1860, for a term of four years. 

 The Assembly, and one half the Senate, thus 

 adjourned, were elected in November, 1862. 



The Supreme Court of the State consists of a 

 chief justice and two judges, and the matter 

 came before that hody in four cases, designated 

 " mandamus cases, as follows:" 



Four cases, in various forms, were pending, the ob- 

 ject of which was to obtain a decision establishing the 

 legal existence of a corporation called " the Wabash 

 Railroad Company;" and they were prosecuted by 

 those in the interest of the supposed corporation. 



Whether the supposed corporation had a legal ex- 

 istence depended upon whether a bill of the last ses- 

 sion of the Legislature to incorporate it had become a 

 law ; and this, in one view of the case, depended upon 

 another fact, namely : whether that session continued 

 ten days, Sundays excepted, after the 10th day of 

 June, when the bill went to the Governor for his 

 action thereon. The records upon which the parties 

 submitted the case admitted, in effect, the following 

 focts: 



That on the 10th of June the Governor issued his 

 proclamation adjourning the session that thereupon 

 there ceased to be a quorum in either house. That on 

 the 10th and llth the pay-rolls of the session were made 

 out under the supervision of the two houses, certified 

 to by the respective Speakers of Senate and House, 

 transmitted to the Auditor for payment of the mem- 

 bers, and that the members generally went before the 

 Auditor, receipted the pay roll, received their pay and 

 departed for their homes. That from the llth to the 

 23d of June, the halls of the two houses were vacant 

 and locked, the members having departed to their 

 homes without any indication of intention to return, or 

 to resume legislation, and that on the 233 two sen- 

 ators met in the Senate hall, and three representa- 

 tives in the hall of the House, and assumed legislative 

 powers by, among other things, meeting and on the 

 morning of the 24th adjourning the session to January, 

 1864. 



Under the Constitution, a less number than a 

 quorum two thirds may adjourn from day to day 

 and compel the attendance of absentees, but a quorum 

 only can exercise the powers of a General Assembly. 



A memorandum of the decisions was made by 



the judges and properly filed, which was as fol- 

 lows : 



The People on the relation of Keyes vs. The Auditor 

 of Public Accounts and the People on the relation of 

 Harless vs. The Secretary of State. A peremptory 

 mandamus in the above case is refused, Judges Walk- 

 er and Breese holding that the proclamation of the 

 Governor, acquiesced in by the General Assembly, 

 terminated the session on the 10th day of June. Sep- 

 arate opinions will be filed early in January next. 



December \\th, 1868, 



For the action of the Assembly, by a vote of 

 47 to 13, relative to the order of Gen. Burnside, 

 suppressing the Chicago "Times" newspaper, 

 see FREEDOM OF THE PEESS. 

 . At this session, the Legislature elected "W. 

 A. Eichardson a senator in Congress. The 

 vote was : for W. A. Eichardson, 66 ; Eichard 

 Yates, 37. 



The number of State banks is twenty-five, 

 the securities of which are : Illinois, 6 per 

 cent., $974,660; United States 5's, $8,000; 

 North Carolina 6's, $2,000; total, $984,600. 

 Circulation, September, 1863, $833,146. Six 

 National Banks were established in 1863, viz. : 

 1 at Cairo, capital, $50,000 ; 1 at Chicago, cap- 

 ital, $250,000 ; 1 at Monmouth, capital, $50,- 

 000 ; 1 at Danville, capital, $50,000 ; 1 at La 

 Salle, capital, $50,000 ; 1 at Eock Island, capi- 

 tal, $100,000 ; total, $550,000. 



The number of public schools in the State 

 at the close of 1862 was 9,811, the' number of 

 scholars 516,037, and the number of persons in 

 the State between five and twenty-one years of 

 age, 613,014. The amount paid for teachers' 

 wages was $1,315,686. The amount of the 

 school fund was $4,973,842. The number of stu- 

 dents in the Normal University was 291. There 

 is a State institution for deaf mutes at Jackson- 

 ville, having about 240 pupils; also an insane 

 hospital at the same place, having 302 patients; 

 also an institution for the blind, having 64 pupils. 



The number of men furnished by the State to 

 the army up to the beginning of 1863, was as fol- 

 lows: infantry, 119,404; cavalry, 16,917; ar- 

 tillery, 3,999 ; total, 140,320. No draft for men 

 was made during the year, and the quota of the 

 State was completed by volunteers. The lib- 

 erality of the State in furnishing men and pro- 

 viding for them has been great. 



A novel plan was adopted for the supply of 

 the city of Chicago with water. It consisted 

 in constructing a tunnel some distance under 

 the bed of Lake Michigan for some miles from 

 the shore, by which pure water could be ob- 

 tained. The plan contemplates the sinking of 

 octagonal cribs eighty feet in diameter, with 

 central spaces, say thirty feet in diameter, leav- 

 ing an average of twenty-five feet thickness to 

 the crib around the shaft. In the central space, 

 protected by the crib from the action of the 

 waves, it proposed to sink iron cylinders nine 

 feet in diameter, by the pneumatic process. 

 The outmost shaft would be constructed with 

 reference to its becoming the inlet for the wa- 

 ter. The others might be removed to such a 

 depth as not to interfere with navigation. 



