Second ballot. Higgins, 30; Irwin, 22; King, 14; McArthur, 2. The fourth ballot was not recorded, but Higgins was declared elected. On the ninth of December, a permanent organization was made, Edward King, of Ross, being elected Speaker, and the rest of the temporary organization being made permanent. There was one contest in the House. Hugh Glenn, an elector of Hamilton county, contested the right of Elijah Hayward to a seat, on the ground that he had not fulfilled the constitutional requirement by paying a State or county tax within the year. The committee found that Mr. Hayward had paid a tax of five dollars assessed by the Court of Hamilton county against attorneys, physicians and surgeons, which tax was required to be paid into the State Treasury, and while there might be some doubt as to the validity of the law, he had nevertheless complied with its requirements. He was declared eligible to the seat. The election of a United States Senator, to succeed Benjamin Ruggles, was the most animated so far in the State's history. The two Houses met on the twentieth of January, 1827, and took fifteen ballots as follows: The joint resolution convening the two Houses in joint session for the purpose of electing a Senator, made no provision for a second session, and when the joint session dissolved, it became necessary to call them again in session. On the twentyseventh of January, the Senate adopted such a resolution, which the House concurred in, and the joint session again convened and balloted as follows: 1 bal. 2 bal. 3 bal. 4 bal. 5 bal. 6 bal. 7 bal 8 bal. 9 bal. Mr. Ruggles having received a majority of three of all the votes cast, was declared elected to his third full term of six years. The two Houses in joint session on the fifteenth of December, 1826, and the twenty-second of January, 1827, elected the following officers: Auditor of State-Ralph Osborn. Keeper of the Penitentiary-Nathaniel McLean. State Librarian-Zachariah Mills, and the following Associate Judges: George Adams, Darke; Abner Ayers, Knox; Anthony Banning, Knox; John Barnes, Pike; Benj. Beadle, Hocking; Wm. Christmas, Stark; James Clark, Stark; Asa Cowles, Geauga; James Curry, Union; James Fenner, Miami; Wm. Fithian, Champaign; Wm. Gabriel, Union; Elijah Hatch, Athens; Wm. B. Hedges, Mercer; Isaac Houseman, Madison; Elisha W. Howland, Sandusky; John Hubbard, Geauga; Daniel Kerr, Geauga; Daniel Milliken, Butler; John McCulloch, Harrison; James McGibney, Knox; Alson Norton, Marion; Wm. Oldfield, Scioto; Wm. Patterson, Richland; Nathaniel Pritchard, Lawrence; Elkanah Richardson, Portage; W. M. Riddle, Richland; Wm. Runckle, Champaign; Jacob Smith, Crawford; James Smith, Champaign; James Steele, Montgomery; James B. Webster, Fayette; John Wilson, Miami; Enos Woodruff, Hamilton. The act of December 28, 1826, declared more explicitly the meaning of the act of January, 1827, attaching a part of the sixth and seventh ranges of townships to Jefferson county. The act of January 22, 1827, detached certain territory from Clark and attached it to Madison, and detached an equal amount from Madison and attached it to Clark, for the purpose of rectifying a boundary line. The act of January 29, 1827, declared the north and south lines of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga and Lorain as extending due north from the shore of Lake Erie to the northern boundary line of the United States. The act of January 29, 1827, established the boundary line between Madison and Union counties. The act of January 29, 1827, attached all that part of Medina county west of the sixteenth range of townships together with township four in range sixteen of townships, to Lorain; that part of township six, in sixteenth range belonging to Lorain, to Cuyahoga; township three, in sixteenth range to Medina, and more clearly defined the western boundary of Portage county. The principal legislation of the session was of a local and special character outside of appropriations and fiscal measures previously noted. OFFICIAL DIRECTORY, 1827-1828. Governor-ALLEN TRIMBLE. Secretary of State-JEREMIAH MCLENE. Treasurer of State-HENRY BROWN. Auditor of State-RALPH OSBORN. Supreme Judges-PETER HITCHCOCK, CHAS. R. SHERMAN, CALVIN PEASE, JACOB BURNET. State Printer-JOHN BAILHACHE. Adjutant General-Wм. DOHERTY. TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATIVE SESSION, 1827-1828. Met December 3, 1827. Adjourned February 12, 1828 When the Senate met at 10 A. M., December 3, 1827, it organized temporarily by electing Samuel Wheeler, of Geauga, Speaker; David Collins, Clerk, and Horace Wolcott, Sergeant-at-Arms, which organization was afterward made the permanent one. There were two contests in the Senate. George Jackson, Robert Fulton and Levi Whipple, electors of Muskingum county contested the right of John Hamm to a seat, on the ground of irregularity in the returns. He was seated. William Lowry, an elector of Jefferson county contested the seat of Humphrey H. Leavitt, on the ground that he held the office of prosecuting attorney when elected. The Senate found that he had subsequently resigned the position and seated him. The Governor's message was devoted to internal improvements, the encouragement of domestic manufactures and the promotion of education. He also presented the first report of the Trustees of the Deaf Mute Asylum, giving in outline the plan for instituting the same and erecting the necessary buildings. The voters within the Virginia Military District decided, by a vote at the polls in October, to sell the Military School Lands within the district, and apply the pro ceeds to the maintenance of schools. The Canal Fund Commissioners reported that they had negotiated a third loan of $1,200,000 six per cent. bonds, payable after 1850, on which a premium of $71,506.67 was paid by the lenders. The Canal Commissioners submitted their report showing the progress of the work and giving the receipts and expenditures in detail. The total number of free white male persons twenty-one years and over was reported by the Auditor as 145,745. On the sixth of May, 1827, the State Treasury was entered and robbed of $12,657.98, of which $11,627.66 was subsequently recovered, leaving the actual loss, $1,030.33. Treasurer Brown asked the Legislature to investigate the robbery, and the committee found him blameless, and attributed the robbery to the unsafe condition of the treasury vault, and insufficient safeguards, and recommended that the treasurer be acquit of the loss and allowed $46.50 by him expended in apprehending the thief and recovering the money. The name of the thief is not of record. On the first of February, 1828, the House and Senate as a body, attended the funeral of James W. Lathrop, a member of the House from Stark county, which took place from the hotel of Mr. Browning. Afterward suitable resolutions were adopted by the two Houses. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. KING, EDWARD, Speaker. RICHMAN, EVERT, Clerk. PIKE, BENJAMIN, Sergeant-at-Arms. Pro tempore organization. Speaker, Edward King, Ross; Clerk, Evert Richman; Sergeant-at-Arms, Benjamin Pike. This organization was made permanent on the eighth of December. Contests, as follows, were disposed of: Samuel Crull contested the seat of Isaac Bonsor, from Pike, Scioto and Lawrence, on the ground that all the votes cast for him had not been returned. The House found this to be true and unseated Bonsor, giving Crull the seat from the district Robert H. Culbertson contested the seat of William Fielding, of Miami, Shelby and Allen, on the ground of irregularity in the election returns. The House confirmed Fielding's right to the seat. James H. Godman was admitted to a seat in the bar of the House as a reporter for the Ohio State Journal and Gazette, and Samuel Bigger to a like position for the same paper. A memorial from Bushrod Washington, President of the American Colonization Society, with reference to the colonization of emancipated negroes in Liberia, was transmitted by the Governor to the two Houses and were favorably reported on by them, and the scheme recommended to the philanthropic public, Mr. Nye, from the Committee on Judiciary, made a report on the subject of imprisonment for debt, expressing the opinion that it was inexpedient to change the law in that regard. By the act of January 5, 1828, Allen county was attached to Mercer for judicial and financial purposes. By the act of January 21, 1828, Hancock county, already erected, was organized. The county seat is Findlay. By the act of January 18, 1828, the line run by Levi Phelps, in the year 1820, between Madison and Union counties, was declared to be the true boundary line between them. And by the act of February 4, 1828, the line between Delaware and Union counties was established under the direction of Silas G. Strong. The legislative work of the session was almost entirely of a special, local or personal character. During the session, the two Houses met in joint convention and elected the following officers: State Printer, John Bailhache, on the fifth ballot, his competitors being Philo H. Olmsted, James B. Gardiner, Horton Howard and David Campbell. Keeper of the Penitentiary, Nathaniel McLean, and the following Associate Judges: Thomas Adams, Miami; Timothy Baker, Huron; Eli Baldwin, Trumbull; Peter Bell, Hamilton; Turner G. Brown, Guernsey; Jacob D. Deitrick, Fairfield; Abraham Huff, Hancock; Thomas Johnson, Coshocton; John Kincaid, Adams; John Knox, Butler; John Kryder, Stark; Wm. McKinnis, Hancock; James McPherson, Logan; Neil Nye, Meigs; Isaac Osborn, Richland; Edwin Putnam, Muskingum; Ambrose Rice, Wood; Thomas Rogers, Gallia; Wm. Skinner, Guernsey; James Stephenson, Jackson; Samuel Williamson, Cuyahoga; Ebenezer Wilson, Hancock. OFFICIAL DIRECTORY, 1828-1829. Governor-ALLEN TRIMBLE. Secretary of State-JEREMIAH MCLENE. Treasurer of State-HENRY BROWN. Auditor of State-RALPH OSBORN. Supreme Judges-JOSHUA COLLETT, PETER HITCHCOCK, HENRY BRUSH, CALVIN PEASE. State Printer-JOHN BAILHACHE. Adjutant General-SAMUEL C. ANDREWS. TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATIVE SESSION, 1828-1829. Met December 1, 1828. Adjourned February 12, 1829. |