WISCONSIN. 



time, embracing 415 acts, 16 joint resolutions, 

 and 19 memorials to Congress. 



The most important act of the session was 

 apparently that relating to railroad, express, 

 and telegraph companies in the State of Wis- 

 consin. The main purpose of this law is to 

 correct or repeal former laws which sought to 

 regulate fares and freights of railroads. Such 

 was the case in a special manner with the law 

 commonly known as the "Potter Law," the 

 enactment of which, two years previously, not 

 only aroused so much ill-will in the railway 

 companies operating in Wisconsin that they 

 took an attitude of defiance against the law 

 and openly violated its provisions as mani- 

 festly unjust, unconstitutional, and void, but 

 alarmed those companies also whose lines are 

 located in other States of the Union. 



The new law, while it keeps the railway 

 companies under salutary restrictions to guard 

 the interests of the State and her citizens 

 against arbitrary and unjust exactions, does 

 also amend or repeal the objectionable provi- 

 sions of former laws. A prominent feature of 

 it is the abolition of the former board of three 

 Railroad Commissioners, and the substitution 

 of one such commissioner only, whom the 

 Governor, by and with the consent of the 

 Senate, is required to appoint within ten days 

 from the passage and publication of this act, 

 " and who shall hold his office for the term of 

 two years from the 15th day of February, and 

 until his successor is appointed and qualified." 



STATE SEAL OF WISCONSIN. 



The duties of this officer are specified by the 

 act as follows : 



SECTION 2. The Kailroad Commissioner shall in- 

 quire iuto any neglect or violation of the laws of 

 this State by any railroad corporation doing busi- 

 ness therein, or by the offlcerSj agents, or employes 

 thereof; and shall also, from time to time, carefully 

 examine and inspect the condition of eacn railroad 

 in the State, and of its equipment, and the manner 

 of its conduct and management with relation to the 

 public safety and convenience. He shall also ex- 

 amine and ascertain the pecuniary condition and 

 the manner of financial management of each and 

 every railroad corporation doing business in this 

 State. 



In order to enable him to make the report 

 and return required of him by law, the act in 

 section 3 enjoins " the president, or managing 

 officer, of each railroad corporation in the 

 State, to make to the Railroad Commissioner 

 annually, in the month of October, such re- 

 turns, and in the form he may prescribe, as 

 will afford the information required for his 

 report ; " under penalty of one hundred dollars 

 for every day's willful delay, or refusal of such 

 return, after the 31st day of October. 



This law was enacted after a most vigorous 

 and long-continued struggle, in which almost 

 every member of the Legislature took an active 

 part. It having been passed by the House of 

 Representatives, in which it was first intro- 

 duced, the Senate also, after repeated and 

 excited debates, finally passed it on the 18th 

 of February, by a vote of yeas 20, nays 7. 



Among the sums of money appropriated for 

 different objects by the Legislature of 1876 

 are the following: $25,000 for the publication 

 of the Geological Survey; $1,500 for the State 

 Historical Society ; $20,000 for the Centennial 

 Exhibition; $126,000 for the Northern Hos- 

 pital for the Insane; $84,000 for the State 

 Hospital for the Insane ; $40,000 for the Insti- 

 tute for the Deaf and Dumb ; $18,000 for the 

 Institute for the Blind ; $90,000 for rebuilding 

 the Institute for the Blind; $31,000 for the 

 current expenses of the Industrial School for 

 Boys ; also $15,000 for a shoe-shop in the said 

 school; $27,870 for the current expenses of 

 the State-prison ; and $4,000 for the soldiers' 

 orphans' pensions. 



The Republicans of Wisconsin met in con- 

 vention at Madison on the 22d of February, 

 "to nominate a presidential electoral ticket, 

 and to select twenty delegates to the National 

 Republican Convention to be held at Cincin- 

 nati." 



After organization, the following nomina- 

 tions were reported by a committee appointed 

 for the purpose and by the eight congressional 

 district committees in their numerical order, 

 and all of the reports were unanimously 

 adopted by the convention : 



Electors at large W. H. Hiner, of Fond du 

 Lac County, and Francis Campbell, of Lafay- 

 ette. 



Delegates at large Philetus Sawyer, of 

 Winnebago ; David Atwood, of Dane ; Mark 

 Douglas, of Jackson ; and James H. Howe, of 

 Kenosha. 



The following platform was reported and 

 unanimously adopted by the convention : 



1. The Republicans of Wisconsin, in State Con- 

 vention assembled, in response to the call of the 

 National Union Republican Committee for the Re- 

 publicans of the several States of the Union to elect 

 delegates for their National Convention, send frater- 

 nal greetings to the Republicans in all parts of our 

 beloved land, with the cordial assurances to all pa- 

 triotic citizens who honor the flag of our common 

 country as the emblem of liberty, equality, and fra- 

 ternity, of our earnest desire to see the republic en- 

 ter upon the second century of its prosperous career 

 free from sectional strife or injustice of any name or 



