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WHITNEY, ASA. 



WISCONSIN. 



Bishop of Illinois, and, on the death of Bishop 

 Chase, became bishop, September 20, 1852. 

 Here he soon became a rigid constructionist, 

 very conservative and exceedingly High Church 

 in his doctrines, and was drawn into some bit- 

 ter controversies in his diocese in consequence. 

 Bishop Whitehouse visited England in 1867, 

 and preached the opening sermon before the 

 Pan- Anglican Council held at Lambeth Palace. 

 During his visit he was treated with marked 

 attention, and received degrees from both the 

 Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He was 

 an accomplished scholar, an eloquent preacher, 

 and earnest defender of 'his Church. He dis- 

 charged efficiently his episcopal duties,, claim- 

 ing no exemption because of his advanced 

 years. His views were accorded great weight 

 in the Council of Bishops, and generally fa- 

 vored conservatism. 



WHITNEY, ASA, an American inventor, 

 engineer, manufacturer, and philanthropist, 

 born in Townsend, Mass., December 1, 1791 ; 

 died in Philadelphia, June 4, 1874. His early 

 education was scanty, but every opportunity 

 was diligently improved. He learned the 

 blacksmith's trade, then became a machinist, 

 worked for several years in Swanzey, N. H., 

 Brattleboro, Vt., and Brownville, Jefferson 

 County, N. Y., in the production of cotton- 

 mill and saw-mill machinery, and at the latter 

 place owned and ran for a time a cotton-mill. 

 In 1831 he became master-machinist, and in 

 1833 Superintendent of the Mohawk & Hud- 

 son Eailroad, and remained in the latter posi- 

 tion, except for one year, till the close of 1839, 

 when he resigned, and the next year was 

 elected Canal Commissioner of New York. 

 In 1842 he removed to Philadelphia, and was 

 the partner of the celebrated M. W. Baldwin, 

 in the manufacture of locomotives, until 1846, 

 when he withdrew, to start the manufacture 

 of car-wheels on a new plan of annealing 

 which he had invented. He commenced this 

 in 1847, and carried it on till his death, his 

 sons being associated with him. His works 

 were so extensive that, for many years, he has 

 made 75,000 to 80,000 car-wheels per annum, 

 using 12,000 tons of the best-selected iron, 

 and 4,000 to 5,000 tons of coal, and employing 

 200 to 250 men. His car-wheels are acknowl- 

 edged to be the best made. He was, in 1846, 

 President of the Morris Canal Company, and 

 invented a series of inclined planes for their 

 boats to pass elevations, the motive-power of 

 which was derived from turbine wheels driven 

 by the waste-water of the canal. In 1859 he 

 was President of the Eeading Eailroad, and his 

 management of it was very successful. By his 

 will he bequeathed $50,000 to found a profess- 

 orship of Dynamical Engineering in the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania, and $37,500 to other 

 local benevolent objects. 



WISCONSIN. The railway companies 

 whose lines traverse this State in every direc- 

 tion have for many years been complained of 

 by her people, who charged them with unjust 



discriminations and exorbitantly high rates for 

 the transportation of passengers and merchan- 

 dise. The charters covering the whole length 

 of these lines within the borders of Wisconsin, 

 except for the road running from Milwaukee 

 to Prairie du Chien, which was chartered by 

 acts of her Territorial Government in 1847 

 and 1848, have been granted to the respective 

 companies by acts of her Legislature under 

 the present constitution, which was adopted 

 by her as a State in 1848, and which contains 

 the following provision : 



Corporations may be formed under general laws, 

 but shall not be created by a special act, except for 

 municipal purposes and in cases where, in the judg- 

 ment of the Legislature, the objects of the corpo- 

 rations cannot be attained under general laws. All 

 general laws, or special acts, enacted under the pro- 

 visions of this section, may be altered or repealed 

 by the Legislature at any time after their passage. 

 (Art. XL, Section 1.) 



The complaints of the people seem to have 

 remained unheeded by the railway companies 

 concerned, to whose notice they were repeat- 

 edly brought. On March 11, 1874, the Legis- 

 lature enacted a law respecting these roads, 

 entitled. " An act relating to railroad, express 

 and telegraph companies in the State of Wis- 

 consin, classifying railroads and freights, limit- 

 ing and fixing the compensation to be charged 

 for the transportation of freights and passen- 

 gers, and providing for the appointment of 

 Eailroad Commissioners." 



The act distributes all the railways operat- 

 ing within the State into three classes A, B, 

 and C : the first including " all the railroads in 

 Wisconsin now owned, operated, managed, or 

 leased, either by the Milwaukee & St. Paul 

 Eailroad Company, the Chicago & Northwest- 

 ern Eailroad Company, or the Western Union 

 Eailway Company ; " the second, " all the 

 railroads, or parts of railroads, owned, oper- 

 ated, managed, or leased, by the Wisconsin 

 Central Eailway Company, and the Green Bay 

 & Minnesota Eailway Company ; " the third, 

 " all the other railroads, or parts of railroads, 

 in the State." It then fixes the maximum 

 rates which each of the roads, or their classes, 

 are severally allowed to charge for the trans- 

 portation of passengers and merchandise. 

 These rates, whose difference is said to have 

 been regulated by taking into consideration 

 the character of the country run upon, and 

 the amount of business transacted by the rail- 

 roads respectively, are as follows : 



With regard to passengers, the compensation 

 per mile for the transportation of any person, 

 with ordinary baggage not exceeding one hun- 

 dred pounds, is fixed at three cents for class 

 A, three and a half cents for class B, and four 

 cents for class C. For children of the age of 

 twelve years and under, one-half of the said 

 rates, respectively, is allowed. As to freights, 

 the act distributes merchandise into four gen- 

 eral classes, and subdivides it into seven spe- 

 cial classes, which latter are therein enumer- 

 ated in a detailed schedule, with their respec- 



