ILLINOIS. 



349 



dumb, where gardens, workshops, and schools, 

 contribute greatly to the comfort and improve- 

 ment of this class. The number of pupils ad- 

 mitted, since its organization in 1846, is 682, of 

 whom 271 are now at the school. The expen- 

 ditures for the two years ending December, 

 1868, were $116,350, while $108,604 have been 

 received from various sources. The Institution 

 for the Blind, at Jacksonville, has been in op- 

 eration 20 years; 331 persons have been ad- 

 mitted and provided with instruction and sup- 

 port, and 260 have completed their course and 

 returned home. At the State Eye and Ear 

 Infirmary, 400 patients have received gratuitous 

 treatment in the last two years. A Home for 

 Soldiers' Orphans has been established at Nor- 

 mal, in McLean County, where a farm and 

 substantial brick buildings have been obtained 

 at a cost of $100,000. This institution has 

 under its care about 300 orphans. The appro- 

 priations of the last Legislature for the various 

 charitable institutions of the State amounted 

 to upward of $335,000. 



The number of schools in the State on the 

 3d of September was 10,705 ; the number of 

 school-houses, 10,381 ; male teachers, 8,240 ; 

 female teachers, 10,797 ; number of school- 

 going children between the ages of 6 and 21, 

 826,820; number actually attending school, 

 706,780. The expense of supporting these 

 schools for the year was $6,430,881. 



The Normal University, at Normal, was or- 

 ganized in 1857, and has been, ever since, under 

 the superintendence of the Board of Education. 

 By an act of the Assembly, of February 28, 

 1867, it was declared a State institution, and 

 all the property real and personal, held by the 

 Board of Education in trust for the university, 

 was declared to be the property of the State 

 of Illinois. The school opened in 1857, with 

 47 students, and now there are over 1,000. The 

 current annual expenses of this university are 

 about $25,000, of which $5,000 are paid from 

 tuitions received at the model school, which 

 forms an interesting feature of the institution. 



The donation of 480,000 acres of land by Con- 

 gress, for the aid of a college intended to furnish 

 an education in agriculture and other practical 

 pursuits, was accepted by the State of Illinois, 

 and on the 28th of February, 1867,' an act was 

 approved providing for the establishment of 

 the Illinois Industrial University, and fixing its 

 location at Urbana, Champaign County. Nine 

 hundred and eighty acres of land were given 

 by the county, together with the buildings of 

 the Champaign Institute, and $100,000 in coun- 

 ty bonds payable in ten years, bearing interest 

 at the rate of ten per cent. Over $250,000 were 

 derived from the sale of the scrip representing 

 380,000 acres of the congressional grant of land. 

 The trustees who were charged with the or- 

 ganization of the university chose Dr. J. M. 

 Gregory regent, and in March, 1868, the in- 

 stitution was opened, and has since had a reg- 

 ular attendance of 110 students. The course 

 of study occupies three years, and embraces a 



department of agriculture, a department of 

 mechanical science and literature, a department 

 of military science, and a commercial depart- 

 ment. The department of agriculture includes 

 instruction and practice in the various process- 

 es of husbandry, as well as the study of physi- 

 cal sciences and modern history and languages. 

 In the mechanical department great prominence 

 is given to mathematical studies and mechanics, 

 and a workshop, with a supply of tools and 

 machinery, is at the service of the student. The 

 various branches of military science are taught, 

 and all the students are required to wear a uni- 

 form of cadet gray mixed cloth. A valuable 

 beginning has been made in procuring appa- 

 ratus necessary in illustrating the various 

 branches of study. The practical labors of the 

 students are systematized, and each receives a 

 compensation not to exceed eight cents an hour 

 for the three regular working hours, and 12|- 

 cents for extra hours. The following is a state- 

 ment of a year's expenses at the university, but 

 it is said that any young man can pay his way 

 through by the labors of the year : 



Tuition, room -rent, and incidentals, 



from $34 50 to $39 50 



Board in hall 108 00 to 126 00 



Fuel and lights 10 50 to 1500 



Washing, 75 cents per dozen 10 00 to 15 50 



Total $163 00 $196 00 



The political campaign in Illinois was spirited, 

 but entirely free from disorders. The Demo- 

 cratic State Convention assembled in Rudolph's 

 Opera-House, at the city of Springfield, on 

 the 15th of April. After the convention was 

 duly organized, a Committee on Resolutions 

 was appointed, who, at a later stage of the 

 proceedings, reported a platform, of which the 

 following are the leading features : 



Resolved, That, as ever, we are inflexibly opposed 

 to all measures, the tendency of which is to lead to 

 a consolidation of all power in the hands of the agents 

 of the Federal Government believing, as we do, 

 that the happiness of the whole people, and preser- 

 vation and continuation of our Union as a republic, 

 and its free institutions, depend upon maintaining in- 

 violate the great principles of the equal sovereignty 

 and equality of each and all the States subordinate 

 to the exercise of the just and clearly-granted powers 

 of the Federal Government in all their just rights and 

 constitutional privileges as integral members of the 

 Federal Union. 



Resolved, That, from this declaration, it necessarily 

 results that we are now, have been, and will be un- 

 alterably opposed to all the various measures of the 

 two last Congresses which, under the name of recon- 

 struction measures, and other specious and deceptive 

 titles, seek in effect to extend and perpetuate the 

 power and domination of the present ruling party, by 

 force and fraud, over the people of what should be 

 ten equal States of the Union, and thereby maintain 

 their present iniquitous supremacy ; and, under the 

 guise of military protectors, they have accomplished, 

 in a time of profound peace, what their principles 

 have ever tended to, and which the armed hosts of 

 rebellion failed to accomplish the dismemberment 

 of the Federal Union, and the subversion of our es- 

 tablished system of popular government. 



Resolved, That we regard the Union, to-day, as un- 

 broken as it was confessed to be, by every depart- 

 ment of the Federal Government, after the armies of 



