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until 1869, when he was succeeded by George G. Symes.30

To return to the proceedings of the governor and legislature. Meagher was fond of proclamations, and considering that he was only, at the most, acting governor, drew upon himself the ridicule of the opposite party, who dubbed him, in a kind of merry contempt, the Acting One. He had called a third session of the legislature before the governor appointed to succeed Edgerton arrived, October 3, 1866. This was Green Clay Smith of Kentucky, whose coming was without noise, and who assumed the executive office quietly and gracefully. The legislature which had been elected under the apportionment of the previous one, consisting of the maximum allowed by the organic act, namely, thirteen in the council and twenty-six in the lower house,31 met November 5th, and proceeded to enact laws. Governor Smith, in his message, recommended some legislation looking to the establishment of a permanent and healthy system of education, and made some suggestions concerning such a system. He called attention to the debt of the territory, already amounting to $54,000, and to the manner in which the assessments and collections were made. While the assessment roll showed $4,957,274.53 of

30 Decius S. Wade was commissioned chief justice after Warren in 1871, and again in 1875. Knowles was retained two terms. John L. Murphy, commissioned Jan. 27, 1871, Francis G. Servis Sept. 21, 1872, and Henry N. Blake July 30, 1875, were the associate justices down to a comparatively recent period. Con. Hist. Soc. Montana, 326–7.

31 In the council, Charles S. Ragg, A. A. Brown, William H. Chiles, J. E. Galloway, T. J. Lowry, Mark A. Moore, Sample Orr, E. F. Phelps, J. G. Spratt, David Tuttle, E. B. Waterbury, E. S. Wilkinson, G. G. Wilson. Bagg president. William Y. Lovell, F. W. A. Cunningham, C. V. D. Lovejoy, C. C. Menaugh, clerks. J. B. Caven sergeant-at-arms; Henry Catlett doorkeeper. Mont. Jour. Council, 3d sess., 4. In the house, A. E. Mayhew, Ray W. Andrews, C. P. Blakely, I. N. Buck, M. Carroll, T. D. Clanton, John Donegan, A. M. Esler, J. Gallaher, T. L. Gorham, H. Jordan, W. W. Johnson, A. S. Maxwell, J. L. McCullough, Peter McMannus, Louis McMurtry, R. W. Mimms, John Owen, J. W. Rhodes, M. Roach, J. H. Rogers, A. J. Smith, H. F. Snelling, J. B. Van Hagan, J. W. Welch, J. B. Wyle. Mayhew speaker. A. H. Barrett, James K. Duke, Hedges, McCaleb, clerks. O. P. Thomas sergeant-at-arms. William Deascey door-keeper. Mont. Jour. House, 3d sess., 4. McMannus killed a man in 1867, and was soon himself killed. Boisé Statesman, Aug. 3 and 17, 1867.

LEGISLATIVE TROUBLE.

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taxable property, the treasurer's report showed only $20,316.95 paid in taxes from eight counties. The county of Choteau paid no tax, and refused to organize or conform to the laws. The governor recommended the repeal of the law creating the county, thereby throwing it back into Edgerton county, whose officers would do their duty. But the treasurer of Edgerton county had 2 neglected to collect taxes, and left it in debt, when it was amply able to appear solvent. Two other counties, Meagher and Beaverhead, also failed to make any returns, for which evil the legislature was directed to find a remedy. Indeed, with all the legislating that had been done, the affairs of the young commonwealth were in a sad way, and not likely soon to be amended, under the existing practices of the legislature, which, while it affected economy in cutting down the salaries of federal officers, doubled the number of territorial officers, and paid them well for doing their duty ill. Indeed, they did not think twelve dollars a day high pay for making laws which congress might repudiate, but for which the territory had to pay. In addition to the debt, apparent and acknowledged, there was a large amount of scrip outstanding, of which there was no official record. The governor recommended the legislature to inquire into this matter, and the request was complied with, the inquiry resulting in finding the debt of the young commonwealth to be over $80,000. The $20,000 in the treasury was supposed to be applied to liquidation, as far as it went, and the remaining $60,000 was funded at a high rate of in

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32 This was P. H. Read. His excuse was that he had no time to attend to his official duties, being employed in a mercantile house! Virginia and Helena Post, Sept. 29, 1866.

33 The sheriff of Madison county, A. J. Snyder, was indicted for forgery. According to the Helena Republican of Sept. 20, 1866, he was able to escape the consequences of his crime by a free use of money among lawyers. The same paper says, 'We have a police magistrate, McCullough, said to have belonged to a band of guerillas.' The 'left wing of Price's army' was not all in Idaho, although Montana early officials were not so notoriously corrupt as in the sister territory.

The pay of a legislator, under the organic act, was $4 per day. Zabriskie's Land Laws, 868.

terest for the tax-payers of the future to pay. Even this was not all, there being over $28,000 due the members of the second and third legislatures, which they had voted themselves.

Governor Smith recommended that instead of asking for a mint, as was talked of, congress should be petitioned for an assay office. A surveyor-general was very much more needed 35 than a mint, if county boundaries and private land claims were to be correctly established. Another good suggestion of Smith's was the adoption of the civil code of California, by which the bar and courts of Montana would have the experience of many years of legislation under similar circumstances, and the opinions of the supreme court of the United States on questions likely to arise. As I have before said, this suggestion was carried out, although not by this legislature. Public buildings being still wanting, he recommended that congress be asked for means to erect those absolutely necessary for the preservation of the public archives, and auditor's and treasurer's books, and the safe-keeping of convicted felons.36 They were also advised to labor in behalf of the Northern Pacific railroad, to convince the national legislature of the great benefit of such a highway to the whole northwest territory, and especially to Montana.

35 Solomon Meredith was commissioned surveyor-general of Montana April 18, 1867. He was instructed to make the initial point of the surveys at Beaverhead rock, named by Lewis and Clarke. Lewis and Clarke's Journal, 257. But this not being convenient, the starting-point was fixed at a limestone hill 800 feet high, near the mouth of Willow creek, between that stream and Jefferson river, 12 miles from the three forks of the Missouri. The base line was run 30 miles east and 34 miles west from this point, and the standard meridian 42 south and 60 miles north from it in 1867, * De Lacy, being draughtsman in the office of the sur.-gen., corrected his map by the survey. Tri-Weekly Mont. Post, Nov. 16, 1867. Orville B. O'Bannon was appointed register, and George McLean receiver, of the land-office. Meredith was succeeded in 1869 by Henry D. Washburn, who was followed in 1871 by John E. Blaine, who gave place in 1874 to Andrew J. Smith. The registers following O'Bannon were Lorenzo B. Lyman, Addison H. Sanders, William C. Child, and James H. Moe. The receivers after McLean were Richard F. May, Solomon Star, and H. M. Keyser, down to 1875.

36 Congress appropriated in 1866, for a penitentiary, $40,000 out of the internal revenue, to be collected annually for three years; this being the first appropriation for territorial buildings in Montana. Cong. Globe, 1866–7, app. 180; Virginia Montana Post, Feb. 23, 1867.

SEAT OF GOVERNMENT.

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The seat of government, located at Virginia City when that was the centre of the mining population, was already coveted by other towns, centres of other rich mineral districts, and by the inhabitants of counties centrally located with reference to the whole territory. The legislature of November 1866 settled the question, so far as they were concerned, by removing the capital to Helena.37 The organic act required a vote of the people upon the final location. of the seat of government, and other events were to occur which would nullify their action.

37 Montana Jour. House, 3d sess., 165, 176, 271, 319.

CHAPTER IV.

POLITICAL HISTORY.

1866-1886.

SPECIAL LEGISLATION-ALL MADE NULL BY CONGRESS-USEFUL LAWS-THE CAPITAL QUESTION-PARTY ISSUES-THE SEVERAL LEGISLATURES— GOVERNOR ASHLEY-GOVERNOR POTTS-NEWSPAPERS-RAILWAY LEGISLATION THE RIGHT-OF-WAY QUESTION-TERRITORIAL EXTRAVAGANCE -NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY-LOCAL ISSUES-RETRENCHMENT AND REFORM.

HAVING discharged the onerous duties of his office for a few months, Governor Smith returned to the states, and Meagher again came to the front. Once more he proclaimed a special session of the legislature, the motive of which was that a law had just been passed by congress and approved by the president convening the 40th congress on the 4th of March, whereas the election law of Montana, which fixed the day of general election on the first Monday of September, would leave the territory without a delegate from March until September. Not that a delegate had ever been of much service to the country, but that it was imperative the office should be filled. The proclamation therefore called upon the legislature to convene at Virginia City on the 25th of February, 1867, for the purpose of altering the election law so as to provide for the election of a delegate without loss of time, "as well as for the adoption of such other alterations and amendments as, under the present circumstances of the territory and the nation at large, it may appear expedient to enact."1

1 Virginia Montana Post, Feb. 23, 1867.

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