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THE BREVIER LEGISLATIVE REPORTS.

TENTH VOLUME.

INDIANA LEGISLATURE.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

The House met at two o'clock, p. m., pursuant to adjournment last Friday.

The reading of the minutes, that had been dispensed with for the two proceeding days, was called for.

Mr. BUSKIRK moved ineffectually that the reading of the minutes be dispensed with.

The Clerk proceeded to read the minutes of the first and second day's proceedings of the session.

The journals of Thursday and Friday having been read and authenticated

Mr. BUSKIRK desired to offer a resolution, but the Chair decided that, since the hour for receiving the report of the Committee on employees had been consumed by the reading of the minutes, the report of that Committee would now be in order.

The SPEAKER announced the special order, viz: the consideration of the report from the Committee on Employes and Stationery, with reference to employes of the House, which was read.

Mr. CORY proposed to amend the report by reducing the number of folding clerks from "four" to "two."

Mr. HAMILTON moved that the amendment be laid on the table, but withheld for a statement in support of it by Mr. Cory.

Mr. CORY remarked that he had just been credibly informed that two persons were only required for mailing the entire issue of the daily Journal, and that as the number of papers to be folded for the House would not exceed three or four hundred daily, he felt satisfied that two persons would be found able to do the work.

The yeas and nays were demanded by Mr. Tebbs and Mr. Williams, of Knox, which being ordered and taken, resulted yeas 13, nays 80.

So the motion was not laid on the table.

Mr. VATER proposed to amend the amendment by reducing the number to one. He knew a poor widow's son, who could and would be glad to do the work.

Mr. CORY accepted, and it was agreed to.

Mr. WILLIAMS thought the number of employes reported extravagant--but he gave way for a motion, which was agreed to, that the further consideration of the report be postponed, and that the subject be made the special order for to-morrow at two o'clock p. m.

JOINT CONVENTION--GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION RETURNS--INAUGURATION OF GOVERNOR CONRAD BAKER AND LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR WILL. CUMBACK.

On the motion of Mr. BUSKIRK, it was ordered that the Senate be invited to meet in the Hall of the House of Representatives instanter, in joint convention, under the Constitutional provision for determining the vote cast by the people last October for Governor and Lieutenant Governor of the State of Indiana, and that seats be provided on the right.

Pursuant to the foregoing order, Senators convened in the Hall--the President of the Senate presiding.

The PRESIDENT of the Senate said:

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:It is made the duty of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, by the Constitution of the State, on this day to open and count the votes cast ta the last general election of the State for Gov. and Lieut. Gov. That duty will now be performed. With reference thereto he read the Constitutional provision page: 41[View Page 41]Switch to Image ModeCLOSE Page 41 Article 5, sections 4 and 5 of the State Constitution as follows:

SEC 4. In voting for Governor and Lieutenant Governor the electors shall delignate for whom they vote as Governor and for whom they vote as Lieut. Gov. The returns of every election for Governor and Lieutenant Governor shall be sealed up and transmitted to the seat of government, directed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall open and publish them in the presence of both Houses of the General Assembly.

SEC. 5. The person, respectively having the highest number of votes for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, shall be elected; but in case two or more persons hall have an equal and the highest number of votes for either office, the General Assembly shall by joint ballot, forthwith proceed to elect one of the said persons Governor or Lieutenant Governor as the case may be.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives will now proceed to open and publish the returns for the election of Governor and Lieutenant Governor of the State of Indiana. He was directed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives to say to the Convention that the returns from the county Dubois, and perhaps one or two other counties, not having been forwarded to him, the certified copy there or filed in the office of the Secretary of State would be used in the count.

The SPEAKER of the House of Representatives then proceeded to open and announce the official vote of Indiana for Governor and Lieutenant Gov., cast at the October election 1868, as corrected and comparred in the House of Representatives by General Assembly on the eleventh day of January, A.D., 1869, as follows:

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The aggregate and the results being thus ascertained--

The SPEAKER of the House of Representatives announced the aggregates, results and majorities of the votes cast at the last general election for the gubernatorial offices, and pronounced Conrad Baker elected to be Governor, and Will. Cumback elected to be Lieutenant Governor of the State of Indiana--to serve for the constitutional term of four years, from and after the second Monday in January, A. D., 1869.

Mr. Representative BUSKIRK, submitted a resolution, which was adopted, for a joint committee of two on the part of the Senate, and three on the part of the House of Representatives, to wait on his Excellency Conrad Baker, Governor elect, and Honorable Will. Cumback, Lieutenant Governor elect, and inform them of their election to their said offices.

The PRESIDENT of the Senate appointed Messrs. Buskirk, Dunn and Coffroth, on the part of the House, and Messrs. Wolcott and Clifford, on the part of the Senate, to serve as said joint committee.

The duty of said joint committee having been performed, and the Governor and Lieutenant Governor elect having appeared with escort composed of the members of the joint committee--

The PRESIDENT of the Senate said: Gentlemen, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, elect, being present, the Hon. Robert G Gregory will now administer to them their oath of office.

The Governor and Lieutenant Governor having taken the oath of the Constitution--

The PRESIDENT of the Senate said: Gentlemen, I have the honor to introduce to you, and through you to the people of the State of Indiana, the Honorable Conrad Baker, elected Governor of the State, to serve for four years from the second Monday in January, 1869.

The GOVERNOR then standing at the Speaker's table, read the following address to the joint convention:

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Repre-rentatives :

Having so recently addressed you at length, touching the affairs of the State, nothing but a desire to conform to a custom which has always been observed on occasions like the present could induce me to detain you now for a single moment. I desire, through you, to tender the people of the State my grateful acknowledgments for the renewed confidence which it has been their pleasure to repose in me; and the oath which I have just taken in your presence is the strongest assurance which I can offer to them and to you that I intend to support the Constitutions, State and National, and faithfully to perform my duty according to the measure of ability which God has given me. If, in endeavoring to do this, I shall commit errors, I indulge the hope that my fellow citizens, and especially those who have known me the longest and most intimately, will attribute such errors to mistakes in judgment and not to intentional wrong-doing. My political opinions and associations in the past have not been equivocal, and it is not at all probable that they will be ambiguous in the future. They are the growth of years, and are, therefore, a part of myself. But whilst this is so, and acknowledging as I do that I am under obligations of gratitude to my political friends, which I can never repay, I do not forget that I am the servant of the public, and as such owe duties to the entire people of the State, which no party obligations can or ought to be permitted to control.

I desire to express my acknowledgments to those from whom I have so long and radically differed on political questions, for the generally kind and almost uniformly courteous personal treatment which I have received at their hands.

Endeavoring, therefore, to be to my party in every thing which it has a right to exact, I shall always try to remember that there is a common brotherhood, and a common citizen ship, whose claims are above all mere party consideration.

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If my official and personal life shall be such that it can be truthfully said of me, when I am gone, he was an honest and safe magistrate, this, in my judgment, will be a better inheritance for my children, than it would be to have either my contemporaries or those who shall come after me, to say of me, he was a successful politician.

I conclusion, I can only promise that in my efforts to meet the just expectations of the people in the position to which I have been called, whatever may be accomplished by very moderate natural endowments, some experience, a fair share of industry, and a sincere desire to promote the welfare of our beloved State and the happiness of her people, shall be cheerfully done in humble reliance upon the Almighty Ruler and parent of all.

The Governor's address was received with cheers by the convention.

The PRESIDENT of the Senate said: Gentlemen, it now becomes my duty, as it is my very great pleasure, to introduce to you the Honorable Will. Cumback, elected to be Lieutenant Governor of the State, to serve four years from the second Monday in January, 1869.

The LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, standing at the Clerk's table then said:

Senators and Gentleman of the House of Representatives:

It is made the duty of the Lieutenant Governor by the Constitution of the State, to preside over the deliberation of the Senate.

Having little experience as a presiding officer, I am fully aware of the difficulties pertaining to such a position, and I cannot therefore promise you that I will make no mistakes, or that my decisions will always be in accord with parliamentary law. I will promise you that I will try to be impartial, and will endeavor to do equal justice to all alike, and I will ask you to cover all my errors with the broad mantle of a generous charity. Let us all strive to make our official relations mutually agreeable.

From the able and elaborate message of his Excellency the Governor, we are advised that there are many important interests that will claim the attention of the Legislature this session. Let us not shrink from our responsibilities, but with an eye single to the welfare of the people, and impressed with a solemn conviction of our duty to God and our constituents, let us keep our great and growing State in the front rank in all things that constitutes the true greatness and goodness of a State.

It is certainly a matter of congratulation that our State will soon be free of debt. Let us hope that may be done by us, may hasten, and not hinder the early coming of that good time.

Hoping that all we may do, may meet the approbation of those who have committed their important trust to our hands, let us at once enter upon the discharge of our duties.

The PRESIDENT of the Senate then prorogued the joint convention, and the Speaker resumed the chair.

TWENTIETH JUDICIAL DISTRICT.

Mr. COFFROTH from the Special Committee on his court bill [H. R. 1,] asked and obtained leave to report it back to the House; which he did, with sundry amendments thereto.

The bill fixes the time for holding Circuit Courts in the counties of Adams, Wells, Huntington and Allen; and an amendment regulates the times of the Common Pleas in Allen and Huntington counties.

Mr. COFFROTH moved that the amendments be concurred in, and that the bill be put on its passage.

Mr. OVERMYER made a motion to refer the bill and pending amendments to the Committee on the organization of Courts, when that Committee shall be organized.

Mr. COFFROTH stated that the provisions of the bill were to effect only the counties comprising his District; that the special committee, to which the bill had been referred, was composed of Representatives from the counties comprising that District, and as the courts were to be held in a few days, he hoped that there would be no objection to taking action immediately on the report; and asked the member from Jennings [Mr. Overmyer] to withdraw his motion.

Mr. OVERMYER insisted on his motion but it was rejected.

The amendments to the bill were then concurred in, it was passed the second reading, and ordered to be engrossed for the third reading.

RULES OF THE HOUSE.

Mr. WILDMAN, from the Special Committee on rules, reported a recommendation to adopt the rules of the last House of Representatives without alteration, excepting as to the--the rule, which it is proposed to amend so as to authorize the appointment of three additional standing Committees, viz:

A Committee on Roads.

A Committee on Statistics and Emigration.

A Committee on Insurance Companies.

And the Committee further recommend that four hundred copies of the revised rules of the House, together with the State Constitution, and standing Committees of the House be printed for the use of members.

The report was concurred in.

MUNICIPAL POWERS.

Mr. RUDDELL by leave introduced a bil page: 44[View Page 44]Switch to Image ModeCLOSE Page 44 [H. R. 4] for an act to enable cities to aid in the construction of railroads, [May subscribe stock and make donations to railroads running through said cities, or those consolidating with such roads, subject to the restrictions of the 57th section of the General City Corporation Act of March 8, 1867.]

On his motion it was laid on the table till he appointment of the standing Committee on corporations, and then it is to be referred to that Committee.

Mr. ZOLLARS by leave introduced a bill [H. R. 5] for an act to amend the one hundred and third section of the General Practice act in criminal actions, approved June 17, 1852.

It was laid on the table.

Mr. HAMILTON desired to submit a resolution; but--

The House adjourned.