presentation of memorials asking for bounty lands for Nebraska volunteers, and the same aid for the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad as that accorded to the Union Pacific, and land grants for railroads west from Nebraska City and Brownville. Also for reimbursement of expenses incurred in suppressing Indian hostilities; and for numerous mail routes.

In the first session of the thirty-ninth Congress, of his own motion, he presented bills for the creation and construction of a penitentiary, and for the finishing of the capitol building; asked that internal revenue from Nebraska might be appropriated. To faciliate emigrant travel and secure a western outlet for Nebraska productions, he presented a bill for a wagon road from Columbus to Virginia City, Montana. To save the people from frauds of irresponsible corporations and heartless cormorants he presented and advocated before the appropriate committee a petition for "just and equal laws" respecting interstate insurances. When terror-stricken emigrants fled before the murderous and thieving forays of Arapahoe, Cheyenne, and Sioux, their claims for remuneration and protection were met by an anticipating effort.

With a firm faith in the future of the great west and its commercial demands, the Missouri river ready for heavy transportation, and an indomitable enterprise promising to make the beautiful central prairie state the railroad checkerboard of the nation, he early advocated Omaha and Nebraska City for posts of delivery. Bills for a geological survey and for government buildings at Nebraska City were deemed advisable, in order that concealed treasures might be disclosed, and for the accommodation of United States courts, revenue office and postal department.

In summing up the results of the first session of the thirtyninth Congress, the United States statutes disclose the following state of facts: Bills passed establishing sixteen post routes; for surveying public lands, $25,000 appropriated; for territorial expenses, $26,500; and as much of $45,000 as the secretary of war shall deem necessary to reimburse the territory for ex

penses incurred in the suppression of Indian hostilities in 1864; and for the removal of the surveyor general's office of Wisconsin and Iowa to Plattsmouth, Nebraska. There was also found due and appropriated for Indian tribes in Nebraska, under treaties, over $100,000.

Inasmuch as the closing session of the thirty-ninth Congress, closing Mr. Hitchcock's term, was to be one of three months only, and as the senator and delegate from Nebraska were awaiting admission, but little business was pressed upon the dele. gate; and he returned from the position three days before the end of his term, while the proclamation of the president, extinguishing the taper of the Territory, unveiled the star of the State.

During that second session, however, the record shows the passage of an act allowing an annual appropriation of internal revenue, for three years, aggregating $40,000 for penitentiary buildings, $15,000 for land surveys, and an allowance for a geological survey, with $31,500 for legislative expenses. In his argument before the various house committees on lands, Indian affairs, pensions, claims, post offices, appropriations, commerce, agriculture and territories, as well as in his intercourse with fellow members, he manifested good capacity, liberal acquirements, commendable devotion to duties, with gentility of deportment. From the remembrance of their college days, it was no matter of astonishment when Garfield met him in the house, and subsequently, Ingalls in the senate.

CHAPTER III.

THE STATE GOVERNORS.

GOVERNOR DAVID BUTLER.

David Butler, first governor of the state of Nebraska, was born in the state of Indiana near Bloomington, Monroe County, December, 1829. At that time in the west educational facilities were so very indifferent that farmers' sons were doomed to enter public life, very generally developed more by applicatior to severe toil and the treasures of personal experience, than by technical scholastic culture.

Whether superintendent of a Wisconsin stock farm before of age, or assuming the charge of a large family and an embarassed estate on the death of his father, or coming out of the financial crisis of 1857 with "an inheritance of loss," he was prepared for new ventures and future encounters. Arriving in Nebraska in 1858, still a young man, little did he suppose that in eight years' time he would be enrolled among the executives of states. Engaging in mercantile pursuits in Pawnee City and in raising and dealing in live stock, he was soon established as a persevering and successful man of business. Efficiency and prominence soon marked him for a leader, and prior to his nomination for governor he had served three years in the legislature.

According to the provision of the state constitution, the first session was to convene on the Fourth of July, 1866; and tc this body was delivered the first message of the first governor of the new state. As this period marks an era in our political existence, it may not be inappropriate to present it in full:

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives: In accordance with a time-honored custom, that reaches back to the beginning of our national existence, I assume the