MINNESOTA. 



509 



on the 21st of May, instead of the 20th, as by 

 adjournment. 



One of the Senators having proposed the 

 question whether a plea of " not guilty " was 

 to be entered, the President said that Mr. 

 Seeger had by his absence, both in person and 

 by counsel, practically defaulted, and he sup- 

 posed that the case rested with the managers. 

 Upon this the chairman of the Board of 

 Managers said that the accused having re- 

 signed his office, and the Governor accepted 

 his resignation, the case had thereby under- 

 gone a material change; and that in view of 

 these facts the Board of Managers thought best 

 to offer some testimony setting forth the facts 

 referred to, and then submit the question to 

 the Senate ' whether it was expedient to pro- 

 ceed further in the case or not." He then 

 presented certified copies of Mr. Seeger's 

 resignation, and of its acceptance by the Gov- 

 ernor, and asked that they might be rend. The 

 motion was strenuously opposed by a number 

 of Senators, who maintained that the case and 

 the right and duty of the Court to proceed in 

 it, remained the same after the impeached 

 Treasurer's resignation and its acceptance by 

 the Governor, as they were before it. One 

 of them offered the following resolution : 

 " Retolred, That this court will receive no 

 evidence concerning the resignation of Wil- 

 liam Seeger," which, though objected to by 

 several members of the court, was adopted by 

 a vote of yeas 26, nays 10. 



The chairman of the Board of Managers 

 then moved "that William Seeger be found 

 guilty without further proceedings," on the 

 ground that by having failed to file an answer 

 to the impeachment within the time granted 

 him, and by his subsequent non-appearance, 

 he was in contempt of the court ; and chiefly 

 on the ground that in his letter of resignation, 

 a certified copy of which the said chairman 

 introduced as a part of his motion, Mr. Seeger 

 admitted that three of the charges made 

 against him in the articles of impeachment were 

 true, and therefore the plea of gnilty should 

 thereupon be entered. 



The motion was opposed, and one of the 

 Senators offered the following resolution : 



That the motion offered by the Board of Mana- 

 gers, that a plea of guilty bo entered against William 

 Beeger, be denied ; 



which was adopted by a vote of yeas 24, 

 nays 12. 



Before the examination of witnesses could 

 be commenced, counsel for the accused ap- 

 peared before Uie court, and, on being recog- 

 nized as such, said that he desired to enter for 

 William Secger the plea which he held in his 

 hand, and which, by the direction of the Pres- 

 ident, he then read. It is a document signed 

 by Mr. Seeger before a notary public on May 

 22, 1873, containing a literal transcript of the 

 above-cited four articles of impeachment as 

 preferred against him by the House of Repre- 

 sentatives, and under each of the articles he 



entered the plea of guilty "in the manner 

 and form as in said charges and specifications 

 alleged ; " concluding the plea under each 

 charge with the following words: "And he 

 further says that while he committed the sev- 

 eral acts therein charged, the same were done 

 without any corrupt or willful intent." The 

 motion of entering this plea met with decided 

 opposition on the part of the Senators, who 

 affirmed that the second part of the plea ex- 

 cludes the first, in that, if he had no willful 

 intent in committing the act charged, he could 

 not be guilty as he wanted to plead. One 

 among the Senators observed that Mr. Seeger's 

 denial that the acts were wrongfully commit- 

 ted was merely a surplusage in the plea ; and 

 the legal deduction was that the charges were 

 sustained, and the plea of guilty should be 

 entered. This sentiment seems to have finally 

 prevailed, as the proposition of allowing the 

 plea of guilty to be entered being finally put 

 to the vote, it was carried by a majority with- 

 out proportion, yeas 33, nays 4. 



The Senate then proceeded to vote on the 

 four articles of impeachment preferred, with 

 the result that William Seeger was found guilty 

 on all of the four charges, two-thirds and 

 more of those voting having voted affirmative- 

 ly on each of them. 



The judgment of the court was thereupon 

 rendered in the words of the following reso- 

 lution, which after a short debate was adopted 

 by all of the Senators, except one who voted 

 "No:" 



Beiohed, That as the judgment of this Court Wil- 

 liam Seeger be, and lie IB hereby, removed from the 

 office of Treasurer of the State. 



The Senator who had proposed the fore- 

 going resolution, then offered another, purport- 

 ing to disqualify William Seeger from holding 

 office, but stated that he offered it because the 

 rules adopted made it important that such a 

 resolution should be voted upon. Some re- 

 marks were made on this resolution by several 

 Senators, and also by Mr. Seeger's counsel, 

 when it was put to the vote, and rejected unan- 

 imously. 



The court then closed its session by ad- 

 journing sine die. 



The appropriations made by the Legislature 

 of Minnesota at the session of 1873 for public 

 buildings and institutions, and a variety of 

 other objects, were very numerous. 



The snow-storm which occurred in Minne- 

 sota at the end of the first weeks of the year 

 1873, for degree of violence, length of duration, 

 and amount of injury done, especially to ani- 

 mal life, far exceeded any similar event in the 

 past as remembered by the oldest residents. 

 Its fury rose to the highest pitch from the 

 commencement, and continued without sen- 

 sible abatement for more than fifty hours, find 

 was accompanied from beginning to end with 

 so intense a cold as speedily to extinguish life, 

 if not well protected from its impression. Its 

 victims were very numerous, because it fell on 



