devious course which they necessarily pursued, so delayed them that they did not reach Madison until the 10th of June.

Notwithstanding all these and other embarrassments, they made such progress that they were able to lay the corner stone of the capitol on the 4th of July, but by the end of the year 1837, the only progress made was the erection of the walls of the basement.

PETER HILL ENGLE was the acting and active member of the committee appointed to select and purchase a library for the use of the Territory with the money ($5,000) appropriated by Congress for that purpose. In the performance of that duty he went to the eastern cities, where he could best execute his mission as well as consult his colleagues. Before the 1st of July he returned to Burlington with a wellselected assortment of valuable books, the selection of which was approved by Senators CLAYTON and LINN and Delegate JONES who were associated with him on the committee.

The books were delivered to JAMES CLARKE, who had been appointed librarian, and who opened and arranged them in a convenient and handsome style in a commodious room procured for that purpose. The library cost nearly the whole amount appropriated for its purchase and contained about twelve hundred volumes of law and miscellany, about two-thirds of which were law books, including valuable state papers, and the remainder standard miscellaneous works.

The event of the year 1837, which had a more marked effect upon the business of the whole country than any other, was beyond question the suspension of specie payment by nearly all the banks throughout the whole country in the months of May and June. The effect was as visible in Wisconsin as elsewhere, although it had as yet no banks organized and in operation. Its tendency was to check immigration to a considerable degree and to affect injuriously for a time the prosperity of those who had already established themselves in their new homes.

But the recuperative powers and energy of the indefatigable pioneers of the new Territory could not long be restrained as was demonstrated by the successful progress which they soon exhibited.

The second session of the first Legislative Assembly of the Territory convened at Burlington on the 6th day of November, 1837.

Some changes in the membership of both Houses had taken place since the adjournment of the first session; in the Council by resignation and in the House of Representatives by death as well as resignations.

In the Council, HENRY S. BAIRD, a member from Brown county, resigned, and on the first day of the session the certificate of JOSEPH DICKINSON was presented as his successor, and he was admitted to the seat.

The seat of Mr. DICKINSON was contested by ALEXANDER J. IRWIN, on the ground that Mr. DICKINSON was postmaster at Green Bay. On the 21st the seat was declared vacant by the Council, and it was resolved that ALEXANDER J. IRWIN is entitled to the vacant seat, and the Sergeant-at-Arms was directed to proceed forthwith to Green Bay, and inform Mr. IRWIN of the action of the Council, which he did, and on the 26th of December, more than a month afterward, Mr. IRWIN appeared and took the seat.

This result he regarded as retributive justice, he having at the previous session been deprived of his seat as member of the House, on the same ground, although he had resigned his office before the commencement of the session.

Mr. VINEYARD, one of the members from Iowa county, did not take his seat until the 18th of January, two days before the adjournment of the session.

In the House of Represensatives, the seat of Col. HOSEA T. CAMP, a member from Dubuque county, was rendered vacant by his death. On the 5th of March he was returning to his home, a short distance from Dubuque, in the night, on horse-back, when the horse fell, threw him and caused his death.

A. W. MCGREGGOR, who resided opposite Prairie du Chien, and for whom the town of McGreggor was named, was elected to fill the vacancy which Col. CAMP's death created.

Gen. ALBERT G. ELLIS, a member of the House from Brown county, resigned his seat and CHARLES C. SHOLES was elected his successor.

Messrs. JAMES H. LOCKWOOD and JAMES B. DALLAM, the two members from Crawford county, both resigned their seats, and that of the first was filled by JEAN BRUNETT, and of the last by IRA B. BRONSON.

The Council was organized by the election of ARTHUR B. INGHRAM of Demoines county, president, and GEORGE BEATTY of Mineral Point, secretary.

In the House ISAAC LEFFLER of Demoines county was elected speaker and JOHN CATLIN of Madison, chief clerk.

The Governor's message was delivered in person on the second day of the session to the two Houses assembled in the Representatives' Hall. It was marked by those features of sound, practical, common-sense which pervaded all his official utterances as well as his official acts.

In recommending to the Legislature to memorialize Congress to pass a pre-emption law, he said

"Land was the immediate gift of God to man, and from the earliest history of the world was designed for cultivation and improvement, and should cease to be an object of speculation. The just and proper policy of the government would be to reduce the price of the public lands and sell them to the actual settler alone. The public domain would be sold in a short period of time. Indian wars would cease to exist. The frontiers would be settled by a brave and hardy race of men who would be a barrier to Indian encroachment, and there would be no necessity of maintaining military posts for the protection of our frontiers."

This session of the Legislative Assembly was not marked by any events of peculiar interest. The Governor, in his message, recommended, as he had at the previous session, a codification of the laws, but nothing was done in that direction, except to provide, by resolution, for the printing, as an appendix to the pamphlet laws of the session, of one hundred and twenty-five acts specified by their titles, selected from those then in force. The provisions of this resolution, however, were never complied with.

The whole number of acts passed at this session was one hundred and six.

Of these, eighteen related to the laying out and organization of counties, locating county seats, and to town, village and city organization; ten to the establishment of eighteen different seminaries and universities; nine to the location of roads; and thirty-six to the general conduct of the public affairs of the Territory. There were also passed thirty-two private acts, of which one was to incorporate a bank at Prairie du Chien, which was disapproved by Congress and never went into effect; six to grant divorces, all of which took effect immediately after, and some, perhaps, before their passage.

Of the public acts, the two most important were the act providing for taking another census, and the act abolishing

imprisonment for debt, which relic of barbarism had continued in force, by operation of the laws of Michigan, upon the organization of the Territory. Among the eighteen universities and seminaries established was the "University of the Territory of Wisconsin" at Madison, to which Congress was by joint resolution urged to make an appropriation of $20,000 in money, and two townships of land. The money was not appropriated. But on the 12th of June, 1838, Congress made an appropriation of the amount of land asked for, which was the fundamental endowment of that noble University, whose spacious buildings now adorn the capital of our state, and whose facilities and capacity for educating its youth reflect much credit upon those who have manifested so great an interest, and such untiring perseverance in promoting its welfare.

It was at this session that an act was passed "to incorporate the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal Company," which contained, among other things, an authority to the company to apply to Congress for an appropriation in money or lands to aid in the construction of its works. In pursuance of this authority application was made, and an appropriation obtained in June, 1838, of the odd-numbered -sections on a belt of territory five miles in width on each side of the line of the proposed canal. This grant of land, if it had been judiciously managed, would have produced a fund adequate for the construction of a canal connecting Rock River with Lake Michigan, which would have been followed, no doubt, by slack water navigation on Rock River, providing a cheap means of transit to market of the bulky agricultural products of the extensive and fertile valley of Rock River, and of other parts of the state and of Illinois. But instead of the blessing it might have been, it proved a curse and a blight upon the early prosperity of the Territory, owing mainly to the antagonisms which grew up between the officers of the canal company and the territorial officers entrusted with the disposition of the lands. granted by Congress, and of their proceeds, and to the conflicts between the beneficiaries of the land grant and some of the leading politicians of the times.

It is intended to devote the last chapter of this work exclusively to the history of the Milwaukee and Rock

River canal and its incidents, and therefore it is not necessary to say more in this connection.

On the 20th of January, 1838, in pursuance of a resolution adopted on the 17th, the Legislative Assembly adjourned to meet at the same place on the second Monday of June.

CHAPTER XIX.

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1838.

The second session of the first Legislative Assembly which commenced in November, 1837, was extended twenty days into January, 1838, but to preserve the continuity of its proceedings, they were all referred to in the last chapter.

For the same reason the proceedings of the second session of the 25th Congress, which commenced on the first Monday of December, 1837, so far as they affect Wisconsin, will be collated in this chapter.

The 24th of February of this year will ever be memorable as that upon which was enacted one of the most heartrending tragedies that ever resulted from the barbarous practice of duelling. It was the sacrifice of the life of Hon. JONATHAN CILLEY, a member of the House of Representatives from the State of Maine, in an "affair of honor" with Hon. Wм. J. GRAVES, a member from the State of Kentucky.

This duel derives its interest for the people of Wisconsin from the fact that Hon. GEORGE W. JONES, then the delegate in Congress from Wisconsin, was the "friend" and second of Mr. CILLEY in the terrible tragedy, which is a sufficient reason for giving a detailed account of the events which led to, and the circumstances which attended the fatal meeting.

JAMES WATSON WEBB was the editor of the New York Courier and Enquirer. In a discussion in the House on the 12th February, Mr. CILLEY was reported in the Globe, while speaking of the Courier and Enquirer, to have made remarks to the following effect: He knew nothing of the