342 



ILLINOIS. 



ILLINOIS. On the 5th of January the Legis- 

 lature assembled at Springfield, the political 

 complexion being 



Senate. House. Joint Ballot. 



Republicans 18 53 76 



Democrats 7 27 



Republican majority 11 31 42 



On the 13th of January, General John M. 

 Palmer, the Governor-elect, was inaugurated 

 as the fourteenth Governor of the State, to 

 serve for four years, that being the duration 

 of his term of office. 



The Legislature, as one of its first important 

 acts, passed a bill providing for a general con- 

 vention to revise the constitution of the State, 

 the people of the State having by their votes 

 demanded such action. 



The legislation of the session was very heavy, 

 over two thousand bills and joint resolutions 

 being passed and submitted to the Governor for 

 signature. Of these, by far the greater part were 

 private bills; of the others, the greater pro- 

 portion were acts of incorporation and railroad 

 bills. Much time was taken up in investigating 

 the manner in which the work upon the new 

 State-house had been performed, and in pro- 

 viding for its continuance. 



The Canal and Kiver Improvement Bill ; the 

 bill to repeal the act by which seven per cent. 

 of the gross earnings of the Illinois Central 

 Eailroad were paid as taxes to the State ; the 

 appropriations for State charitable and reform- 

 atory institutions; the bills in reference to 

 the Chicago harbor and lake front, and the 

 " Texas Cattle Bill," took up a large amount 

 of time. The action taken in each case will 

 appear below. 



On the 5th of March the fifteenth amend- 

 ment to the Constitution of the United States 

 was submitted to the Legislature, and was rati- 

 fied by the following vote: 



Yeas, 

 Nays. 



Senate. 

 . 17 



. 7 



52 



Majority 10 25 



On Thursday, the llth of March, the Legis- 

 lature took a recess until the 14th of April, to 

 give the Governor an opportunity to examine 

 over 1,500 bills awaiting his signature. April 

 14th the Legislature reassembled, when the 

 Governor returned over sixty of the bills, with- 

 out approval, among them the bill for the en- 

 largement of the harbor of Chicago, and giving 

 the entire lake front to the city. 



Among the acts which became laws were an 

 act to provide for building a soldiers' monu- 

 ment at the National Cemetery, near Mound 

 City ; an act for the improvement of the Illi- 

 nois and Michigan Canal from lock fifteen to 

 its junction with Illinois River ; and an act ap- 



propriating $25,000 to the Douglas monument 

 at Chicago. 



"The Canal and River Improvement Bill " 

 approved by the Governor, and entitled, u A bill 

 for an act to amend an act entitled an Act 

 for Canal and River Improvements," approved 

 February 28, -1867, when put upon its final 

 passage, received a very decided majority in 

 both Houses, the vote in the House being sixty- 

 one to nine in its favor. 



The amended act fixes the number of Canal 

 Commissioners at three, whose term of service 

 is limited to two years. The appropriation is 

 limited to $400,000, and no more; and the 

 'commissioners are strictly confined and re- 

 stricted to the surveys contemplated in the 

 original act, and to the construction of one 

 lock and one dam in the Illinois River, as men- 

 tioned in section ten of said act, and to dredg- 

 ing out the mouth of said canal at La Salle, 

 between the lower lock and the river. More 

 than this, the commissioners are forbidden to 

 commence the construction of the lock and 

 dam, or improvement of the Illinois River, as 

 provided for in section ten above referred to, 

 unless they shall first ascertain from the esti- 

 mates of at least two competent engineers, 

 separately made, that the same can be com- 

 pleted for a less sum of money than is appro- 

 priated by the said act to wit : $400,000, in- 

 cluding all incidental expenses. And the com- 

 missioners shall not, under any circumstances, 

 or under any claim of right, under any law, 

 take, or attempt to take possession of, or in 

 any manner interfere with, the Illinois and 

 Michigan Canal, or the tolls or revenues 

 thereof. 



" The Texas Cattle Bill," providing for the 

 exclusion from the State of cattle from those 

 sections of the country where the Texas cattle- 

 disease had been prevalent, became a law, but 

 during the summer, on a trial of a case under 

 its provisions in the Bellville Judicial Circuit 

 Court, the decision was that the law was " re- 

 pugnant to that clause in the Constitution of 

 the United States which gives to Congress the 

 right to regulate commerce between the States." 

 The judge who rendered the decision said: 



The act prohibits the bringing of, not diseased, but 

 Texas or Cherokee cattle into this State. This is 

 equivalent to prohibiting Louisiana sugar, South 

 Carolina rice, Georgia cotton, or Massachusetts boots 

 and shoes. It would hardly be doubted that an act 

 excluding any of those products would be declared 

 to be unconstitutional. It was undoubtedly intended 

 by the framers of pur national Government that free 

 trade should obtain among and between the several 

 States, and for that reason the power of regulating 

 commerce between the States was committed to the 

 control of Congress exclusively. Texas would have 

 no motive or interest in remaining in the Union if 

 any other State could exclude her products at pleas- 

 ure. This view is not incompatible with the right 



