562 



NEBRASKA. 



Under this provision Judge Hascall, Presi- 

 dent of the Senate, assumed the executive 

 authority, and immediately, February 18th, 

 issued a proclamation, calling an extra session 

 of the Legislature. 



Members of both Houses assembled under 

 this call, but Governor James, having in the 

 mean time returned to the State, revoked the 

 proclamation, and, the Supreme Court having 

 sustained his right so to revoke, the extra ses- 

 sion came to an end on the 22d of February. 



There was great activity during the year in 

 the extension of existing railroads and the 

 projection of new lines. No question excited 

 greater or more general interest throughout 

 the State than the controversy between Oma- 

 ha and Council Bluffs, regarding the terminus 

 of the Union Pacific Railroad, which finally 

 resulted in the triumph of Council Bluffs. The 

 location of the terminus was important as de- 

 termining the point of transfer of freight and 

 passengers, and as carrying with it the supply 

 and repair shops and other industries con- 

 nected with the running of a great railroad. 

 This controversy caused much acrimony on 

 both sides of the Missouri River, and led the 

 Legislature of Iowa to pass a law, the design 

 of which was to compel all railroads, having 

 their terminus on the boundary of that State, 

 to make all transfers of freight and passengers 

 within the State. This act was regarded by 

 Nebraskans as aimed directly at the inter- 

 ests of their State, and excited so much indig- 

 nation that a convention, numerously attended 

 by the most substantial citizens of all parts of 

 the State, assembled at Lincoln on the 27th 

 of March, to protest against the action of 

 Iowa, and to devise such measures as might 

 seem practicable to protect and further the in- 

 terests of the State in this important particular. 

 The following resolutions were among those 

 unanimously adopted, and may be taken as 

 fairly expressing the sentiment of Nebraska: 



Resolved, That the act of the Legislature of Iowa, 

 prohibiting railroads in that State from transferring 

 freight and passengers to connecting roads, except 

 within its limits, is an assumption of power " to 

 regulate commerce among the several States," vested 

 by the Constitution of the United States exclusively 

 in Congress. Under such assumed right, any State 

 in the Union could go further, and prohibit any trans- 

 fer on its own soil of freight and passengers to be 

 carried beyond the limits of the State, and could 

 forbid railroads of adjoining States from entering 

 into its territory to take freight and passengers out 

 of it. Thus the entire inter-State commerce, busi- 

 ness, and travel of the country may, by the factious 

 and arbitrary legislation of any State, be halted at 

 its boundary lines, compelled to submit to vexatious 

 interruptions and unjust exactions, or be totally in- 

 terdicted. 



Resolved, That this unprecedented and unconstitu- 

 tional action we denounce as arbitrary and arrogant, 

 and the effort of the Legislature of that State to ag- 

 grandize Iowa at the expense of her sister State, and 

 make Nebraska as a mere tributary province, should 

 not be submitted to without indignation, reproof, and 

 determined opposition. 



Risolverl, That, in view of this hostile legisla- 

 tion, we call upon our capitalists and business-men 

 to take immediate measures for the construction and 



early completion of a line of railway from the south- 

 ern to the northern boundary of the State, to the 

 end that the trade and business of our State, as well 

 as the commerce to the west of us, may find, its way 

 to and from the South and East. That these recom- 

 mendations are not made in any retaliatory spirit, 

 but solely for the purpose of suggesting to our peo- 

 ple a way by which they can easily avoid paying 

 the tribute and bearing the burdens which are sought 

 to be imposed upon us. That a committee be at 

 once appointed, composed of representative men, to 

 visit the city of St. Louis, and lay before the Board 

 of Trade the enterprise, and procure, if possible, 

 the assistance of the people of that city, and of the 

 State of Missouri, and of their capitalists and rail- 

 road corporations, in aid of the construction of said 

 road. 



In accordance with the eighth resolution, a 

 committee was appointed, which visited St. 

 Louis and conferred with the business-men 

 of that city in regard to a railroad to connect 

 directly that city with Nebraska; and subse- 

 quently a committee of citizens of St. Louis and 

 Kansas City, Mo., and Leavenworth, Kansas, 

 visited Lincoln, but nothing practical has yet 

 resulted. 



Tiie political campaign was opened by the 

 choice of delegates in the spring and early 

 summer, to attend the National Conventions 

 at Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. 

 The delegates to the last-named convention 

 were instructed to vote for Greeley and Brown. 



The Liberal Republican and Democratic 

 Conventions, for the nomination of State offi- 

 cers, assembled at Lincoln, on the 28th of 

 August. A committee of conference was ap- 

 pointed by each, which the next day reported 

 as follows : 



Your committee of conference met with a like 

 number of gentlemen from the Liberal Convention, 

 at seven P.M., on the 28th instant, and, after a very 

 amicable discussion of the best methods to secure 

 success, jointly submitted and passed the following 

 resolutions : 



Resolved, That we, the Liberal Republicans of Ne- 

 braska, in convention assembled, dp unite upon the 

 principles adopted at the Cincinnati Convention, and 

 ratified by the Convention at Baltimore. 



Resolved, That we consider the following a just and 

 fair apportionment of the elective officers in the 

 State, to wit: That the Liberal Republicans shall 

 nominate the Congressman, the Secretary of State, 

 the State Treasurer, the State Auditor, one district 

 judge, and one State-prison inspector, and the Dem- 

 ocrats shall nominate the Governor, the Chief-Jus- 

 tice, one district judge, and the Attorney-General. 



Resolved, That each convention nominate parties 

 for the offices assigned to each by the conference 

 committee, and, immediately after" the nominations 

 have been made, each convention shall send a list of 

 the same to the other convention, asking, if the 

 nominees be acceptable, that they be ratified ; after 

 which the two conventions shall meet in Represent- 

 ative Hall, in joint convention, when the entire ticket 

 shall be read, and, if acceptable to the delegates 

 present, they shall be declared the unanimous choice 

 of the joint convention. 



Resolved, That the joint convention shall appoint 

 one State Central Committee. 



This report having been unanimously adopt- 

 ed by both conventions, they convened in joint 

 session, and the following nominations were 

 ratified: For Governor, H. C. Lett; Chief- 

 Justice, James M. Wool worth ; Associate Jus- 



