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CHAPMAN FERGUSON CONTEST
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277
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and lasting three days. Mr. Furnas, president of the
first board of agriculture, gives the following account of
this important function:
Last week we attended the first
Territorial Agricultural and Mechanical Fair at Nebraska
City. The result of this, not only the first Nebraska
Territorial Fair, but the first Territorial Fair ever held
in the United States, was most gratifying. It was a perfect
success, when we take everything into consideration. The
times are hard, and many at a distance felt that they could
not incur the expense of attending. The regular steamboat
packets were all out of order -- one sunk, and the other
fast on a sand bar -- and going to and fro in that way cut
off; we are in the midst of election excitement, and
everybody thinking and talking politics. Taking everything
into consideration, we repeat, the result was all the most
sanguine friends of the enterprise could expect . . .
The exhibition of stock, farm products,
mechanism, works of art, etc., were creditable indeed. Of
course there was not that variety to be found in the county
or state fair in the states. What there was, however, was
unsurpassed anywhere. The attendance on the last two days
especially was large -- all classes were there, from the
chief executive to the humblest citizen.
The records show that neither the
president nor the orator of the occasion was a pretender,
but that both had experimental knowledge of agriculture. Mr.
A. D. Jones, of the board of agriculture, in his invitation
to Morton to deliver the address, assures him that he is
eminently qualified to edify an audience of practical
agriculturists by reason of his position as a successful
agriculturist," and in the list of premiums awarded we find
these entries: Blooded horses, J. S. Morton, best stallion
over four years old, $4; and again, best stallion for
draught over four years old, $10; and still again, best
Suffolk boar, one year old, $5; and President Furnas is
credited with three first premiums for Devon cattle. But the
most notable feature of the fair was, or rather is, the
address by J. Sterling Morton. It was delivered, as
President Furnas states in his introduction of the speaker,
"from the improvised rostrum of a farm wagon, placed in the
shade of this native oak tree." The address is important
because it is a history of the first eventful formative five
years of the territory -- a remarkably realistic and lucid
history by an active, keen-eyed participant in the events he
pictures -- and because it brings us for the first time face
to face with a notable figure of the commonwealth. In his
exaltation of the home builder the young man of twenty-seven
forecasts a leading characteristic and channel of influence
of his maturer manhood. The closing, or prophetic part of
the address discloses the ability to "see straight and
clear" and to believe accordingly, while others, of only
ordinary vision, doubted or disbelieved.
CHAPMAN-FERGUSON
CONTEST. The regular biennial contest
over the election of delegate to Congress was decided in
favor of Ferguson, February 10, 1859, by a vote in the House
of Representatives of 99 to 93. As in the Bennet-Chapman
contest, the elections committee had reported in favor of
seating Chapman, the contestant, by a vote of 6 to 2. The
majority found that the total vote of Florence, as returned
by the canvassers, was 401, of which Ferguson had received
364 and Chapman 4, and that this vote should be thrown out
entirely, insisting that it was greatly inflated, and that a
year later it was only one-third as large -- 159. Making
some additional changes in minor precincts, they gave
Chapman a majority of 376. The minority consented to throw
out only 15 votes, which had been received at Florence after
the hour for closing the polls, and, contending that only
159 votes had been counted by the canvassers for Florence,
gave Ferguson 34 majority. The territorial board of
canvassers had given Ferguson 1,654 and Chapman 1,597. While
the final vote does not show a division along party lines,
yet there was a leaning toward Ferguson on the part of the
most pronounced republicans, and on the part of the leading
democrats toward Chapman. The three famous Washburne
brothers - Elihu of Illinois, Cadwallader of Wisconsin, and
Israel of Maine -- already all republicans, voted to seat
Ferguson; and Israel, who, with Boyce
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