392 



ILLINOIS. 



rious departments of the government. The 

 total amount expended upon it is $3,432,216.- 

 68, and a new appropriation will be required 

 to finish it. 



The militia of the State has heen greatly in- 

 creased during the year, and now consists of 

 5,145 men, constituting one brigade of seven 

 regiments, three battalions, and eight detached 

 companies, or 85 companies in all. These or- 

 ganizations are altogether voluntary and inde- 

 pendent. 



The" crop reports of the year show that there 

 were 8,935,686 acres of corn, with a prospec- 

 tive yield of 251,066,311 bushels. The es- 

 timated area of hay-meadow was 2,518,750 

 acres, yielding 3,895,974 tons, of an aggregate 

 value of $24,449,057. The total value of hogs, 

 on May 1st, was $8,934,647. 



The political canvass of the year was opened 



by the Independent or Greenback party, which 

 held a convention at Decatur in February, and 

 nominated Lewis Stewart, of Kendall County, 

 for Governor. It also appointed delegates to 

 the National Convention of the party, and put 

 in nomination candidates for presidential elec- 

 tors. 



The Republican State Convention was held 

 at Springfield, on May 24th. It appointed del- 

 egates to the National Convention at Cincin- 

 nati, nominated candidates for presidential 

 electors, adopted a platform, and put a State 

 ticket into the field. The following were the 

 nominations for State officers : For Governor, 

 Shelby M. Cullom, of Sangamon County ; for 

 Lieutenant-Governor, Andrew Shuman, of 

 Cook ; for Secretary of State, George H. Har- 

 low, of Tazewell ; for Auditor of Public Ac- 

 counts, Thomas B. Needles, of Washington ; 



CHICAGO BEFORE THE FIRE. 



for State Treasurer, Edward Rutz, of St. Clair ; 

 for Attorney-General, James K. Edsall, of Lee. 

 The platform adopted was as follows : 



The Eepublican party of the State of Illinois, 

 through its delegated representatives assembled in 

 this, the one hundreth year of the existence of the 

 republic, proclaims the following as the foundation 

 principles of its faith and practice : 



1. That the doctrine of the inherent sovereignty 

 of man leads to a republican form of government, 

 as that form furnishing the surest guarantee of im- 

 partial protection to property, liberty, and life ; that 

 our fathers having affirmed the equality of rights of 

 all men, regardless of condition or nationality, and 

 that affirmation having been, after the lapse of nearly 

 a century, embodied as a part of the Constitution of 

 the United States, it should be enforced by what- 

 ever statutory or executive instrumentality may be 

 necessary to insure its vitality. 



2. That the policy of leniency by the Eepublican 

 party toward the people recently in rebellion against 

 Federal authority having resulted in the death by 



violence of at least 5,000 Unionists, white andblack, 

 since the commencement of the ^resent policy of 

 reconstruction ; also, in placing in power in the 

 Lower House of Congress a political party domi- 

 nated by ex-Confederates.; and finally in relegating 

 back into the control of disloyal whites nearly every 

 State reconquered to Federal authority by Federal 

 arms it is the duty of the Executive branch of the 

 Government to extend especial care over. Union men 

 throughout all the South, so that American citizen- 

 ship there shall be in name, at least, what it is not 

 now in fact as secure as it is in foreign lands and 

 upon foreign seas. 



3. That as the three amendments to the Consti- 

 tution of the United States which may be accepted 

 as the crystallization of the blood of brave men 

 require Federal statutes for their enforcement, so, 

 too, in their turn, Federal statutes require a Chief 

 Executive whose public life is a guarantee of the 

 alacrity and fidelity with which he will discharge 

 these great public trusts. 



4. That the credit of the General Government, 

 under Eepublican administration, having appreci' 



