NEBRASKA. 



621 



ies at Tripoli, and gained the freedom of three 

 hundred American captives. During the sec- 

 ond war with Great Britain 1812-'15 she 

 made her famous record, beginning with her 

 escape, while under the command of Commo- 

 dore Isaac Hull, from a British squadron off 

 Sandy Hook, in July, 1812. Under the same 

 gallant officer, the victory over the Guerriere 

 was gained on August 19th of the same year. 

 December 18th, the British frigate Java was 

 captured, and in the following year the sloop- 

 of-war Pictou, a privateer, and several English 

 merchantmen were her spoils, while early in 

 1815 the frigate Oyane and the sloop-of-war 

 Levant were made prizes. Since that war the 

 Constitution has been rebuilt and several times 

 repaired. Her flag has floated on every sea, 

 and in a single cruise in the Pacific the old 

 frigite sailed 52,379 miles. She has always 

 been a singularly lucky ship, and in her long 

 career of nearly a century her good fortune 

 was ever remarkable. To enumerate her com- 

 mander!! would be to name nearly all the heroic 

 names in our early naval annals. Preble, 

 Rodgers, Chauncey, Hull, Decatur, Bainbridge, 

 Porter, and Charles Stewart, are among the 

 American commanders who won renown in 

 her. Her last foreign service was a peaceful 

 one carrying American products to and from 

 the Paris Exposition of 1878. Since her re- 

 turn from Europe, the Constitution has been 

 used as a training-ship for boys. 



NEBRASKA. The Sixteenth Legislature of 

 this State convened at Lincoln, and began it 

 biennial session of 1881 on the 4th of January, 

 J. B. Dinamore having been elected President 

 pro tempore of the Senate, and H. H. Shedd 

 Speaker of the House of Representatives. Both 

 of these presiding officers belong, politically, to 

 the Republican party ; about three fourths of 

 the whole legislative body of Nebraska consist- 

 ing of Republican members. The vote for 

 Speaker in the Lower House stood : Shedd, 74 ; 

 J. Holman, his competitor, 8. 



On the 5th of January the re-elected Govern- 

 or, Albinus Nance, was duly inaugurated. 



Among the first business of the session was 

 the election of a Unitsd States Senator to oc- 

 cupy the seat of Mr. Paddock, whose term was 

 to expire on the 3d of March ensuing. The com- 

 petitors for that office were numerous, and each 

 of them was supported by not a few members. 

 At the end the choice was between Mr. Paddock 

 for re-election, and Charles H. Van Wick, a com- 

 paratively new resident of Nebraska, formerly a 

 citizen of the State of New York, and also one 

 of her Representatives in the Lower House of 

 Congress. By the ballot taken in either House 

 on the 18th of January, Mr. Paddock received 

 more votes than were given to any of his com- 

 petitors, but no election was effected. The seven- 

 teenth ballot, taken at the convention of the 22d 

 of January, decided the contest in favor of the 

 new resident, the votes having been Paddock 

 36, Van Wick 68, or nine more than the required 

 majority. 



The satisfactory condition of the State's 

 finances, and her educational and material in- 

 terests, was laid before the reader of the "Cy- 

 clopaedia " in 1880. The progress which Ne- 

 braska has recently made, and her prospective 

 further advance, were summed up by the Gov- 

 ernor at the conclusion of his message in these 

 words : 



At the close of my first official term I review with 

 satisfaction the progress of the State in the develop- 

 ment of its varied resources. Railroads have been 

 rapidly extended toward the frontier, affording addi- 

 tional transportation facilities for new settlements ; an 

 immense area of wild land has been brought into a 

 state of cultivation ; manufacturing interests are utiliz- 

 ing the water-power afforded by our rivers and smaller 

 streams ; enterprising capitalists are developing the 

 coal-fields that are believed to be abundant within the 

 borders of the State, and there are many reasons for 

 anticipating greater prosperity in the not distant future. 



The fact that the rate of taxation for general 

 purposes, which the law of 1879 fixed at two 

 mills on the dollar, was totally inadequate to 

 meet the general expenses of the State govern- 

 ment for the next fiscal term, led to the passage 

 at this session of an act which fixed the general 

 State tax at five mills on the dollar, and the 

 sinking-fund tax at three fourths of one mill. 

 The rate of the last-named tax for 1879 and 

 1880 was five eighths of one mill ; the aggregate 

 amounts of taxable property in Nebraska, as 

 assessed in the said two years, having been 

 $75,359,798.87 and $90,499,618 respectively. 



The remarkable growth of the State in popu- 

 lation during the last decade from 122,993 in 

 1870 to 452,542 in 1880 entitles her to three 

 Representatives in the Lower House of Congress 

 instead of one, as heretofore. A bill to district 

 the State was introduced in the Senate and 

 passed, but was defeated in the Lower House 

 on the last day of the session. Nebraska must 

 thus elect all of her three Representatives in 

 Congress from the State at large, until a future 

 General Assembly divides her territory into 

 districts, or hold a special session of the Legis- 

 lature. A provision of the State Constitution 

 required the Legislature at this session to re- 

 district the State for representation in the Gen- 

 eral Assembly, and to determine the number of 

 members that shall constitute each of its two 

 Houses. An act was therefore passed appor- 

 tioning the State into thirty-one senatorial and 

 fifty-nine representative districts, and defining 

 their respective limits. The act assigns one 

 member to every senatorial district, except the 

 seventh and sixteenth, which may elect two Sen- 

 ators each, and from one to eight members to 

 every representative district, in proportion to 

 its extent and population. In consequence of 

 this apportionment, the members of the next 

 Legislature will be numerically increased in 

 the Senate from 80 to 33, and in the House of 

 Representatives from 84 to 98. 



The State Constitution also authorizes the 

 Legislature, " in and after the year 1880, to in- 

 crease the number of judges of the district 

 courts and the judicial districts of the State." 



