debate in the house on the 25th of January, in which, for some reason, Governor Cuming was allowed to speak, he said that there had been some misrepresentation regarding his acts which he wished to correct; that he had found, after careful examination of all the census returns, that the greatest population was north of the Platte, and he had given that section representation accordingly. He said the poll books and census returns were free for investigation by members. But the abstract which he certifies flatly contradicts him. In the same debate Mr. Poppleton also alleged that the census returns gave the North Platte the greater population. 
   Deductions from the figures of the first census and the abstract of votes of the first election are contradictory, and according to the vote the governor's apportionment as affecting the two sections was not grossly inequitable.
   The following table gives the actual apportionment of representation to the several counties as made by Governor Cuming -- the apportionment as it should have been, based upon population, and as it should have been, based upon the votes actually cast. The counties which are grouped together correspond approximately to the census districts in which they were situated. The vote taken is that cast for candidates for delegate to Congress:

ANALYSIS OF APPORTIONMENT

   By the census of 1855, taken about ten months after the first one, the population was found to be 4,494, with 1,549 north and 2,945 south of the Platte river. It is probable that in the meantime the relative increase of the North Platte section had been greater than that of the South Platte, on account of the drawing influence of the newly made capital; so that the contention of Governor Cuming that the North Platte section had a greater population than the South Platte not only involved the utter repudiation of his own census, but seems to be inconsistent with the weight of the evidence upon that point. There is no doubt that the vote of Burt county was largely "colonized," since it was known that there was no bona fide population there. And the same machinery that so successfully imported voters into Burt was, not unlikely, quite as effective in the case of Washington and Douglas counties. Governor Cuming disregarded the palpable overcount in Richardson county, and apparently the basis of his apportionment there was not far from correct, since the county showed a population of 299 by the regular census of 1855. If he had eliminated the population of Richardson by the first census -- 851 -- the South Platte would still have been in the lead, according to his census, by about 100.
   The Bugle of Council Bluffs, mouthpiece of the Iowa exploiters of Omaha, in an article scolding the Palladium for its chronic squealing, offers the following justification of Cuming's course:

   We have been a quiet looker-on whilst the struggle for the capital has been going on between four land companies, each sure that their special point was designed by nature for the great western mart, and the capital of a new and important state. Foremost upon this list was Belleview, the proprietors of which loudly claimed the right by precedence, being the earliest settled place, etc. Nebraska City claimed it from being handsomely located, and Winter Quarters by its most central position, whilst Omaha claimed the capital by right of her early industry in making by far the greatest amount of improvements, from being the most populous and convenient place, and as offering the

most conveniences for the coming session of the legislature. Although as yet there has been no improvements or buildings going on at Belleview the town owners have constantly claimed all the advantages, merit and consideration, leaving nothing for Omaha or any other place. Before Mr. Cuming arrived here we knew that he was prepossessed with a conviction that Omaha must be the place for the present seat of government, and at the death of the lamented Governor Burt he had not changed his mind. Consequently he could not have been influenced by unworthy motives in selecting Omaha as the present capital. Finding congenial and equally disappointed parties south of the Platte they have leagued to slander, villify and misrepresent Mr. Cuming abroad, and are making strenuous exertions for his removal from office, by petitions and private letters.
   But the Palladium had pointed out that:

    The doors of the Mission are open to receive the legislature, if it is called here, and we hazard our reputation upon the assertion that equal accommodations can not be offered elsewhere in Nebraska before the 8th day of January, 1855. This house was built under difficulties such as had disappeared long before Omaha was thought of; most of the lumber having been sawed by no other aid than hand labor. Now according to the principles upon which our anxious neighbor thinks ought to control the location of the capitol, it would be located here.
   Governor Cuming did not issue his proclamation convening the legislature at Omaha until December 20th, but the Bellevue contingent had anticipated his recreancy (sic) to their cause some time before, and a gathering of citizens there on the 9th of that month to further the interests of Bellevue in the capital contest, which Cuming attended, was turned into an indignation meeting. At this meeting Governor Cuming is quoted as saying that he had made up his mind two weeks previously to locate the capital at Omaha, but owing to attempts improperly to influence him in favor of that place he had changed his mind and was then in doubt. But if Bellevue would nominate a candidate for the council and two for the house, pledged to sustain his administration and not to attempt to remove the capital from the place of his selection, he would give Bellevue a district by itself, otherwise that nervous aspirant would be included in the Omaha district and be swallowed up by it. The Omaha Arrow, published at Council Bluffs by residents of that place, and which was also the actual residence of Governor Cuming, announces, November 3d, that "the work on the State House here goes briskly on. It will be ready for the accommodation of the body for which it was intended before the middle of next month"; and on the 10th of November that, "the contractor of the State House assures us the building will be ready by the first of December." Even if Governor Cuming himself, at Bellevue, had lost faith in his intention to locate the capital at Omaha, his Council Bluffs neighbors had not, and they kept pushing their preparation for it to perfection.
   These Bellevue people either considered that they had no chance, and could afford to play the role of indignant virtue, or they were very poor generals; for by responding to the governor's finesse they might have had three militant members directly representing them in the contest in the legislature. Put they threw dissimulation to the winds, and Mr. A. W. Hollister insisted that he had seen the original of a compromising letter, apparently written by Cuming, and which in some unexplained way had come into possession of his enemies, and he was certain of its authenticity.
   At this juncture Governor Cuming, in a fierce passion left the meeting and thereby placed upon Bellevue the perpetual seal of "the deserted village." Mr. Hollister then proceeded to aver that Major Hepner, Indian agent, would swear to the genuineness of the signature to the letter, and to spurn with contempt the propitiatory offering of the governor. Stephen Decatur and Silas A. Strickland followed in a like intense and grandiloquent strain of indignant patriotism and offended virtue, in which rather more than due rhetorical justice was done to "the

tyrant Charles the First" and to "the great charter of our own liberties."
   Soon followed mass meetings in many places in the South Platte district for the purpose of denouncing Governor Cuming. The meeting for Pierce county was held December 15th, at Nebraska City, and it passed resolutions charging Cuming with "seeking only his own aggrandizement, with neglecting to reside within the limits of the territory but keeping the actual seat of government in a foreign city," and that he "is no longer worthy or capable of discharging the duties that have accidentally devolved upon him, and his longer continuance in office would be an insult to the people of the territory." The resolutions invited the citizens of the territory to meet in delegate convention at Nebraska City, December 30th, "to select some suitable person to recommend to the president of the United States for appointment to the governorship of this territory." The climax of the proceedings of the convention was a resolution commending the people of Bellevue "for their Christian forbearance toward Governor Cuming in not offering him personal violence for as gross an insult by him as could be offered by a tyrant to a free people, in refusing to give them a separate district and allowing them to elect members of the legislature, unless they would pledge themselves to elect such men as he should dictate."
   A meeting for a like purpose was held at Brownville in Forney county, December 12th, and another at Bellevue, December 28th. In this meeting the two Mortons, destined to long careers in the territory and state, took important parts. Thomas Morton was chosen chairman, and J. Sterling Morton, one of the three delegates to the territorial convention. Here the latter performed his first public act in the commonwealth which was to be distinguished as the scene of his public activity for near half a century, and where his personality was to be impressed on the institutions and the life of the people. Mr. Morton was as prompt in taking this active part in public affairs as he was afterwards ceaseless in pursuing it. Only three weeks before this meeting the Palladium contained the following modest but, in the light of subsequent events, important notice:

   This gentleman, formerly associate editor of the Detroit Free Press, and lady arrived at Belleview on the 30th ult., where they intend to settle. Mr. Morton is a man of ability and an able writer, and having had the good sense to select one of the most beautiful locations for his residence as well as one of the most strongly fortified points, in a political view he will no doubt be an important acquisition to the territory and to this community.

   Nevertheless, within only two months, this most strongly fortified political point yielded to the siege of the Omaha forces, and was so completely razed that Mr. Morton was prompt to evacuate it and take a new position at Nebraska City, which he occupied with distinguished courage, enterprise, and honor for forty-seven years.
   By a previous notice in the Palladium it appears that Mr. Morton himself had visited Bellevue on the 13th of November. The old settler is only able now to point out the approximate site of the log cabin which was the home of the young couple, married somewhat less than a year, when they left with the ebbtide of Bellevue's fortunes for the more promising location.
   In the delegate convention at Nebraska City, held December 30th, five counties -- Cass, Douglas, Forney, Pierce, and Richardson -- were represented by nineteen delegates; and of course the Douglas county delegates, Stephen Decatur, J. Sterling Morton, and Geo. W. Hollister, were all from Bellevue. J. H. Decker of Pierce county (speaker of the house in the legislature which retreated from Omaha to Florence in a subsequent capital controversy), was chairman, and Geo. W. Hollister of Bellevue and A. M. Rose of Pierce county were secretaries. Mr. Morton was chairman of the committee on resolutions, and this first of-