be reached only by changing or abolishing the organic act. When the work was all done, I was complimented by a vote of thanks of the convention for work well performed.18

18 The constitution which had been painstakingly prepared by a convention held in 1871, but which was rejected by a small majority of voters through the hostility of railroad and religious corporations, was used as a model by the convention of 1875. Accordingly most of the sections of the article on education, which was reported by Mr. Walther, chairman of the committee on education, school funds and lands, in the convention of 1875, of which committee Mr. Gwyer was a member, were copied verbatim from the corresponding article of the constitution of 1871. The section in question-fixing a minimum price of seven dollars an acre for school lands-is a literal copy of the corresponding section of the constitution of 1871. Constitutional Conventions, III, 456, 543, 544. It was section 7 of the article on education, which was reported to the convention by Experience Estabrook, as chairman of the committee on education, school funds and lands. Ibid., I, 253, 254. In the convention, Mr. Seth Robinson, a delegate from Lancaster county, moved to reduce the minimum price from seven dollars to three dollars, and the motion was rejected without debate by a vote of 6 ayes to 33 nays; whereupon the section was adopted by a vote of 28 to 12. Mr. Robinson explained his motion as follows:

I will state my reason for this, Mr. President. I believe the legisla. ture raised the price of these lands to seven dollars an acre, and I think they ought to be sold for that price if we can get it, but I would like to allow the legislature after they have sold all they can at that price to have the privilege of putting it down to even three dollars. I know that there are some of the lands in this county that will not sell for twenty-five cents an acre, in section sixteen and thirty-six. Constitutional Conventions, II, 263.

Section 12 of an act of the legislature passed June 24, 1867, to provide for the control of school lands and of the proceeds of their sale, contained this clause:

Provided, That no lands shall be sold for less than seven dollars per acre in addition to the appraised value of the improvements on the land. Laws of Nebraska, third session (special), p. 40.

Thus the seven-dollar restriction on the price of school lands had been incorporated in both statute and constitution long before it was continued in the present constitution. Moreover, the convention of 1875 did not thank Mr. Gwyer for anything he may have had to do toward the protection of school lands or funds, but it did thank him for services as chairman of the committee on engrossment and enrollment. Constitutional Conventions, III, 675.-Ed.

NEBRASKA IN THE FIFTIES

BY DAVID M. JOHNSTON

Soon after Secretary of State Cuming became acting governor of the territory of Nebraska, he issued a proclamation for an election to take place December 12, 1854, to elect one delegate to Congress and twenty-six members of the House of Representatives and thirteen members of the Council. There were four candidates who hoped to represent the new territory in Congress-Bird B. Chapman of Ohio, Hadley D. Johnson of Iowa, Napoleon B. Giddings of Missouri, and myself of St. Joseph. I procured a mule, saddle, bridle and a pair of spurs and thus equipped, in November, 1854, something after the fashion of the knights of old, started to seek my political fortunes in the new territory. Here the issue was the location of the capital. Two places were candidates for this honor, and the waters of the Platte separated the interests and votes of the contestants. As but few voters were living in the territory at this time, the canvass, by common consent, was transferred to the populous settlements on the east bank of the Missouri River in the states of Iowa and Missouri.

My journey along the east bank of the Missouri was a lonely one, but I was cheered and animated by the pleasing fancies of Hope that pictured in the near future the reward of solid greatness and congressional honors. I crossed the

1 Thomas B. Cuming, the first secretary of the territory of Nebraska -not secretary of state-took the official oath on August 3, 1854, at Washington, D. C. According to a provision of the organic act establishing the territory, the secretary became acting governor at the death of Governor Burt, which occurred at half past three o'clock in the afternoon of October 18, 1854. Góvernor Burt took the official oath at Bellevue on October 16, 1854.-ED.

Missouri at a place called Bennet's Ford' and entered the new territory for the first time in November, 1854. Around me spread the silent forest stripped of its foliage, and the dry grass at my feet bore the somber tint of decay. I had traveled but a short distance when I heard the sound of voices from a ravine a few rods away. My mind for a few moments threw off the gloom that had settled upon it, and the prospect for making my first stump speech was at hand. But imagine my surprise and disgust when I found my prospective audience to be a score of Indians feasting on a slaughtered hog. Now I discovered my mistake in not having acquired some knowledge of the Indian language before venturing into the new country.

However, I pushed forward on my patient and jaded mule for old Fort Kearny, and, as I ascended the bluffs that overlooked the Missouri River, I saw to my surprise and pleasure a short distance ahead a log house, which proved to be the dwelling of a white man. I stopped, and the woman of the house invited me in, but to my surprise I again found about a dozen Indians who were seated on the floor, eying with close attention the cookstove in the center of the room. The cheerful fire was very comforting to my chilled limbs, and a frying pan full of meat sent forth an appetizing odor. While the woman, young and sandy haired, was kneading bread at a small table with her back to the stove, an Indian would slip up, snatch a piece of meat from the pan, hide it under his blanket and retire from the house to devour his prize. This was repeated several times by the Indians before the unsuspecting eye of the hostess caught one of them in the very act, with his hand on the meat. In a moment she was in a storm of passion, and springing toward them ordered them out of

2 About 1854 Gideon Bennet established a ferry at Otoe City at or near the present site of Minersville, a station on the Burlington railroad six miles south of Nebraska City. As early as 1849 Otoe City was an important crossing for emigrants to Utah and California. In 1857 the traffic was sufficient to require a steam ferryboat.-ED.

the house. This was a trying time to me, and for a few moments my mind was filled with horrible pictures of Indian barbarities. But the brave little woman stood her ground with firmness, armed with a broom, and at last called on me to help her. I put on a brave front and, with as stern a look as I could assume and in a voice choked with fear, shouted the only Indian word I knew, when to my great astonishment and relief the thieves left the house and retired to their camp a short distance away.

After eating dinner with my hospitable hostess I continued my journey to Fort Kearny and arrived there without further adventure. I stayed all night with a Major Downs who had been in the regular army, in the old

3

For accounts of the career of Hiram P. Downs see Nebraska State Historical Society, Transactions and Reports, I, 38-41; Watkins, History of Nebraska, I, 224; ibid., II, 168. Downs held various military offices, the highest that of lieutenant colonel of the First Regiment Nebraska Volunteers, organized in 1861. The Nebraska City News, January 18, 1862. August F. Harvey, editor, explains and defends the resignation of Lieutenant Colonel Downs in the following somewhat partisan fashion:

Some anxiety having been manifested to know the reason of Lt. Col. Downs' resignation, we state what we know of the matter. When the Regiment was organized, it was upon the distinct understanding, expressed in a letter from Mr. Secretary Cameron, that the Regiment was not to be ordered out of the Territory. Many of the officers and men repaired to the rendezvous, leaving their private business unsettled, with the expectation of having an opportunity to return and arrange their personal affairs, before going into active service. This was especially the case with Lt. Col. Downs.-When the order came to go to Missouri, (an order obtained mainly through the anxiety of Col. Thayer to show himself,) Lt. Col. Downs, went with the 1st battalion; and he did not even have time to visit his family, much less to attend to any business. After six months of active service in the field, during which the Lt. Col. did not leave the regiment scarcely a day, and during which he bore, in fact, the responsibilities of the reputation of the regiment, he asked for a leave of absence, so that he could visit his family and arrange his private matters. The leave was denied him, and the only alternative left, whereby he could save his personal business from ruin, was for him to resign. His resignation was tendered for these reasons. The Lt. Col. as a brave soldier, has not sought to shirk any duties towards the Territory, his country or flag; and stands ready as ever to answer the call of the first or defend the honor of the last.

His friends are endeavoring to procure for him a commission as Brigadier General. Through experience, and ability, he deserves it, and we hope the President will appoint him. We should be glad to see him in a position where he may have for himself all the credit which attaches to a faithful and able performance of a soldier's duty.

blockhouse which he had converted into a hotel, and this, with the dismantled fort and five or six other buildings, constituted the town, which under the name of Nebraska City had recently been started by S. F. Nuckolls and some others. Next morning I met a few friends and showed

The continuous occupation of what is now the site of Nebraska City began late in May, 1846, with the arrival of General Stephen W. Kearny and his command of one company of the First Dragoons and one of the First Infantry, with orders to establish a military post at the place then called Table Creek. The ground for the buildings was at once laid off and the plans for them decided upon. But the war with Mexico having been declared on the 13th of the same month, the dragoons left for Fort Leavenworth on the 30th, and the other company arrived there on July 13. Furthermore, by about the first of June the war department had decided to abandon the enterprise altogether and establish a substitute post immediately on the route to Oregon, which was done in May, 1848. Suspension of the work at Table Creek was ordered on June 22, 1846. But before Captain W. E. Prince and his company, the First Infantry, left Table Creek they built the blockhouse and one or two other buildings. Captain Prince left these buildings in the custody of a caretaker. On September 15, 1847, Lieutenant Colonel Ludlow E. Powell's battalion of Missouri Mounted Volunteers arrived at the abandoned post and remained there until April 28, 1848, when it proceeded on its way to establish new Fort Kearny. On or about February 1, 1854, Charles H. Cowles, who be. came a member of the Council of the first Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Nebraska, and two others, Green and Johnson by name, agreed at Linden, Missouri, forthwith to establish a town on the former site of old Fort Kearny and to name it Nebraska City. Cowles went at once to carry out the design and, finding Sergeant Hiram P. Downs in custody of the fort of two or three buildings, of the old post, gained his permission to squat on the premises by taking him as a partner in the enterprise instead of Johnson. There had been no regular military reservation made, so that the proposed town site belonged to the Oto Indians until March 15, 1854, when they ceded to the United States all their lands west of the Missouri River, excepting a reservation on the Blue River. But the president did not confirm the treaty until June 21, and it took a long time for news of the ratification to reach the Indian agent. In the meantime Stephen F. Nuckolls had bought an interest in the proposed town, and afterward other partners were taken in. The city of Nebraska City was not legally established until the Legislative Assembly passed the act of incorporation, March 2, 1855. The war department had forbidden settlement by whites upon the Oto lands, so the town site scheme was dropped; but Cowles had erected a dwelling house for himself and a