WISCONSIN. 



WOODWARD, BERNARD B. 727 



quate and convenient outlet for the- vast 

 products of the Northwestern States. A con- 

 vention for the discussion and adoption of 

 measures to secure this improvement was held 

 in October at Portage, which was attended by 

 delegates mostly from Wisconsin, Iowa, and 

 Minnesota. It was the opinion of the conven- 

 tion that this important improvement should 

 be undertaken by the General Government, and 

 that Congress should be memorialized to that 

 end. Of the series of resolutions adopted, the 

 following are the most important : 



Resolved, That a water route, by which the steam- 

 boats of the Mississippi Eiver can run to the harbors 

 and unload into the vessels of the great lakes, is a 

 public necessity. 



Resolved, That, as it has been shown by Government 

 surveys that such, route can be made through the 

 Fox and Wisconsin Eivers, the original policy of our 

 Government to make them public highways shall be 

 carried out. It subtantially pledged itself to do this 

 when it kept the control of those streams by the act 

 which admitted Wisconsin as a State into the Union. 



Resolved, That, as the late surveys made by the 

 General Government show that the cost of uniting the 

 Mississippi Eiver with the great lakes by a steamboat 

 channel will not greatly "exceed four millions of 

 dollars, which is not as much as the saving such 

 route would make in each year in the carrying-trade 

 of the Northwest, it would be great injustice and 

 gross wrong to put off this great work. 



Resolved, That, as the Erie Canal, with its con- 

 tracted channel, its numerous and small locks, the 

 slow movement of its boats, with horse-power, which 

 cannot exceed thirty-six miles in twenty-four hours, 

 has, with these great drawbacks, kept down freight- 

 charges, it is therefore clear that a river route, with 

 a few large locks, which can be navigated by steam- 

 boats moving one hundred and fifty miles in twenty- 

 four hours, would protect the Northwestern States 

 from unreasonable charges or dangerous combina- 

 tions. 



Resolved, That the great and growing commerce 

 of the Erie Canal, in the face of the greatest compe- 

 tition in our country, shows that water routes are 

 demanded. Without them, the values of many 

 coarse productions are lost, as they cannot be carried 

 to market otherwise. Eailroads, by giving activity 

 to the business of the country, and by filling it with 

 population, have made water routes necessary to 

 meet the varied commercial wants of a great and 

 prosperous community. 



Resolved, That the want of the Northwest is cheap 

 transportation ; that this can only be secured by a 

 water route which all have a right to use, with their 

 own vessels, upon equal terms, thus giving the pub- 

 lic the benefits of free competition. 



Resolved, That the Committee on Memorial be 

 authorized to add to or incorporate in the memorial 

 to Congress, prepared under the direction of the 

 convention at its Prairie du Chien session, statistics 

 upon the comparative cost of the Wisconsin and 

 Fox Eiver route, the channels by rail, and the other 

 projected water routes; upon the distances which 

 the value of Western products will bear transporta- 

 tion at present rates ; and upon such other questions 

 as, in the conduct of their investigations, shall be 

 deemed important. 



Resolved, That the Legislature of Wisconsin be 

 requested to make terms with the Green Bay and 

 Mississippi Canal Company, by which, in the event 

 of an appropriation by Congress, the rights and 

 franchises of said company be surrendered to the 

 General Government or to the State. 



The session of the Legislature this year was 

 one of the shortest on record, having extended 



from the early part of January to the middle 

 of March. The most important measures 

 adopted were the ratification of the fifteenth 

 amendment to the Constitution of the United 

 States by a vote of 15 to 11 in the Senate, and 

 62 to 29 in the House ; the proposed amend- 

 ments to the State constitution authorizing 

 the abolition of the grand-jury system, the 

 increase of the salary of the Governor to 

 $5,000, and of the Lieutenant-Governor to 

 $1,000 per annum, and the establishment of 

 the township system of school government. 



Matthew H. Carpenter was elected to the 

 United States Senate for the full term com- 

 mencing March 4, 1869. The appropriations 

 for the various State institutions amounted to 

 $275,000. 



During the year the dome to the State capi- 

 tol has been completed, at a cost of $90,828.05. 

 The total cost of the capitol to the present 

 time is $541,447.93. 



The question as to the power of the Legisla- 

 ture to raise money, or authorize it to be 

 raised, by taxation, for the purpose of granting 

 aid to railroad companies, was decided by the 

 Supreme Court of this State, which holds that 

 the Legislature does not possess that power. 

 This principle of law was at issue in a recent 

 case, where the citizens of Fond du Lac County 

 had voted to give the Sheboygan Railroad 

 Company county bonds to aid in the construc- 

 tion of a railway from Sheboygan to Fond du 

 Lac. The court held that "though a railroad 

 company may be, as to its capacity to assume 

 and exercise in the name of the State the 

 power of eminent domain delegated to it, so 

 far a public or quasi public corporation, yet in 

 all its other powers, functions, and capacities, 

 it is essentially a private corporation, not dis- 

 tinguishable from any other of that name or 

 character." It was added, however, that 

 cities, counties, and towns, had the power to 

 subscribe for stock in railroad companies, and 

 levy a tax to pay for such subscriptions, pro- 

 vided the road be situated in or pass through 

 the corporate limits of the municipality to be 

 taxed; the court affirming that "the city, 

 county, or town, is directly interested and 

 benefited by the money expended in the 

 work, the same being a matter of public con- 

 cern, and it is upon this principle, and this 

 alone, that the taxation in that class of cases 

 can be sustained." 



WOODWARD, BEKSTARD BOLINGBEOKE, F. 

 S. A., Librarian to her Majesty at Windsor 

 Castle, and an industrious antiquarian and 

 author, born at Norwich, England, May 2, 

 1816 ; died in London, October 12, 1869. His 

 father was an eminent geologist and antiquary, 

 author of several very valuable geological 

 works, and the son inherited in some measure 

 his father's tastes. Mr. B. B. Woodward re- 

 ceived his early education in Norwich, and 

 entered when yet a youth the banking-house 

 of Messrs. Gurney at Great Yarmouth. He was 

 at this time devoting considerable portions of 



