HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
THURSDAY, Jan. 9,1879.This being the constitutional day appointed for the meeting of the Fifty-first General Assembly, the members of the House of Representatives came together at 10 o'clock in the Criminal Court Room of the Marion County Court House and were organized according to law under the direction of the HON. JNO. E NEFF, secretary of state.
The Secretary of State, using the gavel on the speaker's table, said the hour having arrived for the organization of the House of Representatives, all those persons on the floor are requested to arise while the Rev. Dr. Sloss, of the Presbyterian Church, would invoke the blessing of God.
The Clerk was directed to call the roll, members to respond by coming forward and receiving the oath of office, or affirmation, at the hands of Judge Niblack, of the Supreme Court, in the following order:
- Allen - E. Reichelderfer, Monroeville; 0. E. Fleming, Fort Wayne.
- Adams and Wells - Joseph S. Daily, Bluffton.
- Boone - Joseph Davis, Lebanon.
- Brown and Bartholomew - A. D. Galbraith, Burnsville.
- Carroll - Charles E. Scholl, Delphi
- Clay - I. M. Compton, Brazil.
- Crawford and Orange - James F. Stucker, Paoli.
- Clifton - F. D. Caldwell, Killmore.
- Daviess - Samuel H, Taylor, Washington.
- Dearborn - A. Alden. Lawrenceburg.
- Dubois and Martin - Thomas Hart, Shoals.
- DeKalb - Samael Shutt, Auburn.
- Floyd - J. H. Willard, New Albany.
- Fountain - J. Shannon Nave, Attica.
- Franklin - B. H. Flodder, Brookville.
- Gibson - J. Norman Davidson, Owensville,
- Green - A. Humphries, Lynton.
- Hancock - A. C. Handy Greenfield.
- Harrison - D. A. Cunningham, Corydon.
- Huntington - Henry Drover, Huntington.
- Jackson - J. T. Shields, Seymour.
- Johnson - Charles O. Lehman, Edinburg.
- Knox - Henry S. Cauthorne, Vincennes.
- Laporte - A. J. Hoymer, Laporte.
- Lawrence - Lycurgus Dalton, Bedford.
- Madison - S. W. Edwins. Frankton.
- Madison and Henry - Exum Saint, New Castle.
- Marion and Shelby - W. E. English. Indianapolis.
- Marshall - James Conler, Plymouth
- Monroe - B. W. Miers, Bloomington.
- Montgomery - J. Maurice Thompson, Crawfordsville.
- Noble - Jacob Schanch, Ligonier.
- Noble and Elkhart - J . D. Osborne, Goshen.
- Owen - B. Schweizer, Spencer.
- Putnam - Russell Allen, Greencastle.
- Perry - Gustav Huthsteiner, Canneltion.
- Pike - Joseph D. Barker, Petersburg.
- Posey - Russell Blockley, Mt. Vernon.
- Ripley - J. H. Drake - Versailles,
- Ripley, Rush and Decatur - R. Faulkner, Holton.
- Spencer - J. H. Bryant - Rockport
- Sullivan - John C. Briggs, Sullivan
- Shelby - Squire Vanpelt, Shelbyville.
- Starke, Fulton and Pulaski - William Perry, North Judson.
- St. Joseph - Henry Ginz, South Bend.
- St. Joseph and Marshall - T. J. Garrotte, South Bend.
- Tippecanoe - Clarke Baker, Lafayette.
- Vigo - J. N. Kester and R. Vanvalsah, Terre Haute.
- Warrick - John L. Taylor, Boonville.
- Washington - S. R. Mitchell, Beck's Mills.
- Whitley - James B. Tully, Columbia City - 53.
- Cass - Benjamin F, Campbell, Logansport.
- Decatur - John S. Donnell, Greensburg.
- Delaware - Walter Marsh. Muncie.
- Delaware and Jay - J. P. C. Shanks, Portland.
- Elkhart - E. H. Stevens, Goshen.
- Fayette and Union - J. W. Connoway, Connersville.
- Grant - O. P. H. Carey, Marion
- Grant and Blackford - James T. Arnold, Marion.
- Hamilton - T. J. Lindley, Noblesville
- Hendricks - G. W. Snoddy, Danville
- Henry - C. S. Hibbard, Knightstown.
- Howard - Thomas M. Kilkpatrick, Kokomo.
- Huntington and Wabash - Alex. Hess, Wabash
- Jefferson - John M. Golden, Madison,
- Jennings and Scott - Smith Vawter, Vernon
- Jennings - John Overmeyer, North Vernon.
- Kosciusko - E. N. Thayer, Warsaw.
- Kosciusko and Fulton - Arthur C. Copeland, Rochester.
- Lake - T. S. Fancher, Crown Point.
- Lagrange - O. B. Taylor, Lagrange.
- Marion - W. W. Herrod. J. W, Gordon, J.B. Conner, C. B. Robinson, Indianapolis.
- Miami - Albeit C. Bearss, Peru.
- Miami and Howard - G. I. Reed, Kokomo.
- Newton and Benton - James M. Rodman, Fowler.
- Parke - Robert Keliy, Rockville.
- Porter - S. Skinner. Valparaiso.
- Randolph - Enos L. Watson, Winchester.
- Rush - George B. Sleeth, Rushville.
- Steuben - Ezekiel Brown.
- Tippecanoe - Edward Robinson, Lafayette,
- Vanderburgh - John S. Hopkins and J. W. Messick, Evansville.
- Wabash - Jesse Arnold, Wabash.
- Wayne - Nathaniel Harlan, Richmond; J. A. ' Thornburg, Jacksonburg.
- Warren - A. R. Owen, Willlamsport - 39.
- Vermillion - James Osborne, Rockville.
- Jasper and White - George H. Brown, Rensasalaer - 2.
- Hamilton and Tipton - Wm. W. Rooker, Noblesville.
- Ohio and Switzerland - J. D. Works, Vevay.
- Morgan - N. S. Majors, Martinsville.
- Montgomery and Parke - Archibald Johnson, Ladoga.
- Hendricks and Putnam - W. Wimmer,Greencastle - 5
- Clarke - W. B. Carter, Jeffersonville - 1.
The SECRETARY then called for nominations for Speaker.
Mr. WILLARD nominated the Hon. HENRY S. CAUTHORNE, of Knox County.
Mr. HERROD nominated the Hon. JOHN OVERMEYER, of Jennings County.
Mr. CARTER nominated the Hon. JOHN D. WORKS. of Ohio and Switzerland Counties.
The vote was as follows: HENRY S. CAUTHORSE received 55 votes, JOHN OVERMEYER 38 votes, and. JOHN D. WORKS 4 votes.
The SECRETARY, after reading the result of the vote, declared HENRY CAUTHORNE Speaker of the Fifty-first General Assembly of the State of Indiana, the oath of office being administered by Judge NIBLACK.
The SPEAKER said:
GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES -- I return yon my heartfelt thanks for the distinguished honor you have conferred upon me in electing me to the honorable and responsible position of presiding over your deliberations during the present session At the very threshold of entering upon the official duties thus confided to me I promise you that no effort shall be spared on my part to discharge them in a manner alike satisfactory to you and honorable to myself, I shall summon to my aid all that there is in me of ability, energy and untiring devotion.
It was the remark of a Roman consul, in an early period of that celebrated Republic, that a most striking difference was observed in the contrast of candidates for offices of power and trust before and after obtaining them. But I promise you that it shall be my constant endeavor to conduct myself whilst I occupy the chair and hold the symbol of official authority in this House as to fulfill the just, expectations you entertained in thus honoring me, or which I may have held out as inducements to determine your action. Standing, as I now do, in the presence and in hearing of the electors whose generous suffrages have placed me in this position, I can, without fear and consistently with truth, look them in the face and declare, without a blush, that I have resorted to no methods to secure it inconsistent with honor and integrity. In an effort to gratify an ambition flattering to the mind of every man above a groveling disposition, I have said or done nothing which I now have any just cause to regret, which I would be prompted by any worthy motive to conceal, or which is in the least inconsistent with the most strict and rigid rules of honorable and fair dealing.
I freely confess to you that it is with fear and trembling that I approach the discharge of the duties devolved upon me as your presiding officer. I feel this moment in my heart that I am wanting in the necessary elements to enable me to discharge them properly and efficiently. I can only assure you, gentlemen that I shall do my best to please you and discharge my duty, and shall rely in a great measure upon your generous forbearance, and respectfully request your co-operation and advice in enabling me to forward and execute your will and pleasure. I am conscious, and am not backward in confessing that there art upon the floor of the House those whose knowledge and experience are far superior to any acquirements of my own, whose advice is confidently expected and will always be heeded. I flatter myself that I am not among the number of those who lay claim to perfection or object to criticism, but on the contrary, ever hold myself open to correction,and covet it when administered in a proper spirit. I wish you gentlemen to distinctly understand that I do not imagine or claim that I am the master of this House, but freely acknowledge I am only its servant. To use the language of Mr. Leuthal, a former Speaker of the House of Commons, "I have neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here."
I desire to say further in this connection that upon taking this chair and assuming the duties of the presiding officer of the House of Representatives, I lay aside all partisan feeling, and shall only be guided and controlled by the rules and usages of parliamentary law as I understand them, I now claim to be and shall endeavor to act as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and not of any particular part or parcel thereof. It will be my duty and my pleasure to give all the members of this House an impartial and attentive hearing. I shall make it my special duty to observe attentively all the proceedings that transpire in this hall, and shall endeavor to hear every word that is uttered by any member on this floor, for the purpose of maintaining and preserving order and decorum, and of promptly checking in its incipiency any infraction of them.
In the eye of the law every member of this House is the peer of his fellow, and all stand on a perfect level and equality. Whatever difference may exist in the acquirements, knowledge, natural gifts or social standing of one member as compared with another, as the representatives of free and equal constituencies you all are entitled to the same privileges and are all equal the one with the other. I an aware that in this Assembly to-day there an many members who come here for the first time, to perform the highest and most honorable civil duty,that of representing free and enlightened constituency, and which may on that account be restrained by a natural diffidence to enter upon the discharge of new and untried performances. But I desire to say to all such that it will be my especial care and effort to deal with you in such a manner as to inspire confidence and give courage and self possession, and to lay the foundation for this treatment I desire to assure you that you can not, on your part, in any duty you will have to perform, suffer greater embarrassment than your humble servant now feels in entering upon the discharge of his own.
I also desire to have it understood that in the appointment of all committees of the House it will be my aim and purpose to so frame them as to make them efficient, and the work to be accomplished by page: 5[View Page 5] by them pleasant and agreeable to the members composing them, being conscious the same will be properly performed and discharged only when it, conforms to their wishes and tastes. In the committee room all the work of legislation is planned and carved out, and the success of the session depends in a great measure upon their being constituted to the satisfaction of their members. I shall endeavor to form these committees of members conversant and friendly to the different, subjects with which they shall have to deal. In order to do this, I shall expect, and now request, the co-operation and advice of the members of this House. All parties represented on the floor shall have a full and fair representation according to their strength, and I now here publicly request information from all such sources as to their wants and desires in the premises.
We are, gentlemen, gathered together from all parts of the State, and for the most part we come together as strangers to each other, But it is my desire and I hope I shall have the pleasure of forming the personal acquaintance of every member of the House, I hope that at every member will feel disposed to reciprocate my feeling in this regard, and will have no hesitancy in approaching me for this purpose. I may to some appear reserved, but I assure you, gentlemen, it arises from a natural diffidence, which clings to roe notwithstanding the fact, from professional and official employments, I have had frequent occasion to appear on public occasions.
We have met gentlemen to discharge a sacred trust reposed in us by our constituents, and it behooves us on every principle that can stimulate human action to do all in our power to discharge if in a proper manner. You represent a civilized, energetic and progressive population, rapidly advancing in all the avenues of material wealth and development, which has given an increased impetus to the arts. Ingenuity is written on every object that greets the eye around us. No object is too low and none too lofty for the comprehension of our people. Its impress is written, on the humble spinster wheel with its single flyer, and on the lofty factory of 10,000 spindles. It improves the wheat fan; it constructs the cotton gin and reforms the plow; it gives power to the loom and force to the iron mill; it stalks up the current of the waters in a steam car; it mounts the lofty billow of the ocean against wind and tide in the steam ship; its magic power imprints a volume in an hour on the steam press; it flies a thousand miles a second on the telegraph. These are the evidences of the thrift and contrivances of the people whose continued material, social and moral prosperity and advance depends largely upon the prudence and wisdom of the legislation that will be originated and matured in this General Assembly.
And, gentlemen, will you bear with me a moment whilst I call your attention to the character and capabilities of the great State, whose best interests are committed to your care and keeping. Everything in our great and growing State tends to dilate the heart, to send it upward in gratitude to a fatherly God; to send it outward in kindness to the brotherhood of man. The sky itself takes dimensions of grandeur tilted to the glorious scope of empire which it overhangs. Nowhere is the calm more divinely fair: nowhere is the storm more awfully sublime; nowhere does the sun shine forth with a more fearless beauty. Health lives in the breeze, and plenty comes teeming from the soil. Broad dominions, to be measured in leagues only by a scale of hundreds, snatch imagination from every belittling influence. There are ocean lakes in which, kingdoms might be buried and leave on the surface no ripple of their graves; rivers that sweep over half a world; cataracts eternal and resistless, that hymn forever the omnipotence which they resemble; mountains that stretch into the upper light and mock from their snow-crowned pinnacles the clouds and the thunders that crash below." Of such a country we form an integral part, and the very heart and center thereof. Indiana has a school fund the most princely of any State in the Union, and a system of common schools which brings within the reach of every child the possibility of an education sufficient for all the wants and purposes or social and business life. Indiana has a net work of railroads unsurpassed by any State in the Union, which consolidates and binds together with ties of iron the people of the State in one grand and united whole. Indiana is rich in all the elements of material wealth, which only needs development to advance and elevate her position among the sister States of the Union. All these great and ; diverified interests are committed to your fostering care, and by judicious and proper legislation may be greatly advanced and benefit, as oy a contrary course they may be retarded and defrauded. The people of the State expect of you that all the interests of the State will be properly cared for, and will sustain you in all needed legislation to accomplish this purpose, It is true you assemble in a time of great prostration of business and financial and commercial distress; and while it is right and proper that strict and rigid economy should be manifested and preserved in all appropriations, yet your constituents will expect and sustain you in all appropriations for educational, executive and judicial purposes sufficient for a healthy and proper administration of these varied interests. And while economy, retrenchmenty and reform should be your aim, I beg leave to remind you, in the language of a former distinguished seaker of this House, that parsimony is neither wise, good economy nor substantial reform.
In conclusion, I beg leave to assure you, gentlemen, that I shall do all in my power to make the present session of this House pleasant and agreeable to each member thereof, so that a recollection of it will be ever cherished by one and all, and fondly hope that your deliberations may culminate in such legislation as shall satisfy and gratify your constituents and that your work may be so approved and indorsed by them as to give a just cause to be proud that we were members of it.
It is not my province or the line of my duty, gentlemen, to make any suggestions or recommendations as to the needs of the various matters of State care and concern, or the necessary appropriations that will be required at your hands for these various purposes. Upon these matters his Excellency, the Governor, will, in due time, convey to you in his biennial message the proper and necessary information.
The organization of the House was then completed by the election of Mr. WEBSTER DIXON, of Jackson County, as principal clerk Mr. THOMAS E. MAYS, of DeKalb County, assistant clerk, and DAVID B. WILSON, of Shelby County, doorkeeper.
Mr. WILLARD offered a resolution, which was adopted, that the Senate be informed of the organization of the House.
Mr. CALDWELL offered a resolution, which was adopted, that the meetings of this House shall be at 9 o'clock a. m. until further ordered.
Mr. OVERMEYER offered a resolution which, was adopted, that, the rules governing the last Honse of Representatives shall govern page: 6[View Page 6] this House, and that a committee of five be appointed to report rules next Monday.
And then came the adjournment until 2 o'clock p. m.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Mr. HUMPHRIES offered a resolution, which was adopted, appointing a committee of two to inform the Governor that the House was ready to hear any communication from him that he might desire.
NEW PROPOSITIONS.
The following described bills were introduced and read a first time:
By Mr. LEHMAN. [H. R. 1], appropriating the sum of $120,000 for the expenses of this General Assembly.
By Mr. NORMAN. [H. R. 2], regulating the interest on money. [6 per cent.]
By Mr. ENGLISH. [H. R. 3], for the assessment of real property in the year 1879, and every five years thereafter, with reference to the amount owned on the first day of April of the current year,
By Mr. EDWINS, [H. R. 4], regulating interest on money.
By Mr. STEVENS. [H. R. 5], to amend sec. 1 of an act regulating the number of grand jurors, approved March 13. 1875.
By Mr. STEVENS. [H. R. 6] an act to provide for the appraisement of all real property in 1879
By Mr. COMPTON. [H. R. 7], an act regulating the working of coal mines, and authorizing liens for work therein.
By Mr. CALDWELL. [H. R. 8], regulating interest on money.
By Mr. STEVENS. [H. R. 9],'an act to regulate the setting of corner stones or monuments in public roads or highways.
By Mr. REED. [H. R. 10], to exempt claims and interests of the wives, children and dependents of members of Masonic, Odd Fellows and other charitable instiutions.
By Mr HESS, [H. R. 11], to amend an act of March 3, 1877, authorizing Boards of County Commissioners to construct gravel roads.
By Mr. SHIELDS, [H. R. 12], to legalize the incorporation of the city of Seymour.
By Mr. OVERMEYER. [H. R. 13], to amend section 172 of an act prescribing the manner of impanneling petit jurors, approved March 20, 1852.
By Mr. REED. [H. R. 14], to amend section 1 of an act to provide for the incorporation of public cemeteries.
By Mr. LEHMAN. [H. R. 15], to legalize the election held in the year 1878, in the town of Edinburg, and to legalize the acts of its officers.
Mr. LEHMAN offered a resolution authorizing the doorkeeper to furnish a copy of the revised statutes for the use of members during the session - then to be returned.
After amendments and an hour of debate the resolution was laid on the table.
Mr. LEHMAN offered a resolution, which was adopted, inviting the Senate to a joint session to-morrow at 2 o'clock p. m. to hear the address of his excellency, the Governor.
The House then adjourned.
