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HITCHCOCK
UNITED STATES SENATOR
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541
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was temporary speaker of the house; and George W. Collins
of Pawnee, was elected permanent speaker, over Elam Clark of
Washington county, by a vote of 21 to 16. Upon the
organization of the house, Mr. Doom of Otoe county,
anticipated in a virtuous resolution, though less
sweepingly, what Governor Folk actually did at the session
of the Missouri legislature in 1905, as follows:
Resolved, That all lobby members of this
legislature, who have any business to attend to at home, and
all federal office-holders within the state, who are drawing
salaries from the government, be granted leave of absence
until the 25th day of June, 1871.
That federal officers, holding office in
any other state or territory, be excused from further
attendance upon this legislature.
This was a Hitchcock broadside against
Thayer's platoon of placeholders.
The showing of the state's finances in the
governor's message was still unfavorable. There was a
balance in the treasury, December 1, 1868, of $48,526.92.
The receipts from all sources, up to November 30, 1870, had
been $937,414.97, and the disbursements, including
$315,188.60 expended for public buildings, were $908,055.33,
leaving a balance of $77,886.56; but current funds were
wanting, and the message complained that a large amount of
warrants on the treasury remained unpaid, and they had been
at a discount of ten cents to fifteen cents on the dollar
much of the time during the last two years. This was owing,
it was said, to the difficulty in collecting taxes. The
assessed valuation of property in the state had increased
from thirty-two million dollars in 1868, to fifty-three
million in 1870. The total amount of public lands received
by the state was 727,960 acres. This was exclusive of the
2,643,080 acres of common school lands, of which 72,578
acres had been sold at an average price of $8.93 an acre. Of
the 500,000 acres of public improvement lands, 257,312.71
acres had been awarded to railroad companies as bonuses.
During the past two years 2,382,157 acres
of land had been entered -- 918,081 acres as homesteads and
the remainder as preëmptions. The entries at the
Lincoln land office were 877,129, and at the Beatrice
office, 381,931; at the Dakota City office, 737,176 acres;
and at the West Point office, 385,921. Thus the growth of
the North Platte and that of the South Platte sections were
nearly equal. The Union Pacific railroad company had sold
289,644.42 acres of their land grant in the state -- since
July 28, 1869 -- and the Burlington & Missouri company,
61,303.25 acres. Lincoln lots and saline lands which had
been sold at auction but not taken by the bidders, to the
amount of $74,200, remained in the hands of the
commissioners. This indicates either a remarkable
unreliability of buyers or a very loose way of conducting
the sales.
The movement for encouraging immigration
had been organized under the law passed at the last special
session of the legislature by the appointment of C. C. Smith
of Falls City, William Bischoff of Nebraska City, and Fred
Krug of Omaha, as members of the board of immigration; and
C. N. Karstein of Nebraska City, was chosen as the
commissioner to reside in New York city.
The election of a United States senator is
usually the star play of a legislative session, but in that
of 1871 this special feature was outshone by its more
dramatic impeachment rival. The three principal candidates
for senator were John M. Thayer, who sought reëlection,
Phineas W. Hitchcock, and Alvin Saunders, -- all residents
of Omaha. The twelve democratic members decided in caucus to
vote for Hitchcock, and he owed his election to their
questionable policy. Since they were too weak to conquer
their greatly outnumbering enemy, they would inflict as much
damage as possible by assisting one of the factions to the
defeat of the "regular" candidate.
Regularity was Thayer's standing and
standard virtue, and he was more objectionable to the
democrats than either of the other candidates because he
particularly represented, and was the willing sponsor of the
national administration.
It was charged with truth, that Thayer's
only occupation since he came to Nebraska had been
office-seeking and officeholding, and
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