The political standing of the Legislature is as follows: Republicans Democrats... Independents. Republican majority........... NOVEMBER 8.-Chief Justice Chase writes to Samuel N. Wood: "I am glad to read such favorable accounts of the county with which you have done me the honor to associate my name." NOVEMBER 8.-Rev. Pardee Butler visits Topeka. -Excitement in Butler county; Vigilance Committee make arrests; Jack Corbin and Lewis Booth were hung; James Smith shot and killed. On the night of December 2, Mike Drea, Wm. G. Quimby, Dr. Morris, and his son, Aleck Morris, were hung, near Douglas. They were horse thieves and murderers. Adjutant General Whittaker went to Eldorado, with arms, and ordered the militia of the county to be called out, but afterwards countermanded the order. NOVEMBER 10.-Conference of the United Brethren, at Lecompton. NOVEMBER 24.-The Germans of Kansas collect and send to the Fatherland, $5,762.25, for the relief of sick and wounded soldiers. NOVEMBER 30.-Expenditures of the State for the year: DECEMBER 6.- Fourth annual session of the State Horticultural Society, at Manhattan. Officers elected: President, Wm. M. Howsley, Leavenworth; Vice President, B. F. Mudge, Manhattan; Secretary, George C. Brackett, Lawrence; Treasurer, S. T. Kelsey, Pomona; Trustees, C. H. Cushing, Leavenworth, James Christian, Lawrence, S. S. Hougham, Manhattan. DECEMBER 12.-The report of Adjutant General Whittaker gives the following table showing the number of persons drawing pensions from the United States at the office of C. B. Lines, Agent at Topeka: "The claims allowed by the second and third Boards of Commissioners (appointed for the purpose of auditing the Price Raid claims of 1864, and the Indian expedition under Major General Curtis, in July and August of the same year), up to September 1st, 1869, are as follows: "In addition to this amount allowed by these Commissioners, there have been audited by special committees of the Legislature, and by the Auditor and Treasurer of State, claims for services amounting to six thousand seven hundred and one dollars and thirteen cents ($6,701.13.) This will make the total amount of this debt five hundred and forty-seven thousand two hundred and eighteen dollars and eleven cents ($547,218.11.) "The State has assumed five hundred thousand dollars of this debt, leaving the balance unassumed. I would therefore respectfully suggest that your Excellency recommend the assumption of this balance, by the State, of forty-seven thousand two hundred and eighteen dollars and eleven cents ($47,218 11.) "The State has also expended for the protection of her frontiers three hundred and forty-six thousand dollars ($346,000), making the grand total of indebtedness eight hundred and ninety-three thousand two hundred and eighteen dollars and eleven cents ($893,218.11), which ought to be paid by the General Government."-Report of Adjutant General Whittaker. DECEMBER 15.-The following is copied from the Report of Superintendent McVicar: "By a recent ruling of the Hon. J. D. Cox, Secretary of the Interior, dated August 16, 1870, all rights of the State to sections sixteen and thirty-six on the Osage Trust Lands are denied. The Secretary says: 'The lands embraced in the second article of the Osage Treaty of September 29th, 1865, are required to be sold in trust for the benefit of the Indians. The United States acquired no beneficial interest in them, and in no sense can they be considered public lands. The State, therefore, has acquired no right through the United States to any part of said lands, and is not entitled to equivalents for such of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections as may be disposed of to pre-emptors.' "It seems strange that the Secretary should rule that the State has acquired no right through the United States to any part of said lands, when the joint resolution of Con gress, approved April 10th, 1869, expressly provides, 'That the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections in each township of said lands shall be reserved for State school purposes.' But the point on which the Secretary seemed to base his decision is, that the trust lands are not public lands, and therefore do not come within the provisions of the act of admission, in accordance with which the joint resolution grants the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections. By this technical construction and decision, the State is deprived of nearly 200,000 acres of school lands on the trust tract, or about one million dollars of permanent school fund. It remains with the Legislature to determine what measure, if any, can be taken to test the rights of the State in the premises." . "The Diminished Osage Reserve embraces a tract of country thirty miles wide, north and south, by over two hundred miles east and west, and extending along the south line of the State from the west line of Labette county to the western boundary of the Osage Reserve. After two years and more of varied fortunes, commencing with the notorious 'Sturges Treaty,' and followed by amended bills and supplements to bills, this tract was finally opened to settlement by virtue of section fifteen of the Indian Appropriation Bill, approved July 15, 1870, which provides that the lands of the Osage Indians in Kansas, including the trust lands north of the Diminished Reservation, 'shall be opened to settlement after survey, excepting the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections, which shall be reserved to the State of Kansas for school purposes.' The bill is silent in regard to questions that will probably arise soon. A large portion of these school lands on the Diminished Reserve, and the best of them, were settled upon prior to the passage of the act, and prior to survey, while the lands were in possession of the Indians. The bill does not open the lands to settlement until after the survey, which in the case of the Diminished Reserve has not yet been made. What then are the rights of the State in case of school lands already settled upon within the Diminished Reserve, and which will be settled upon before the survey can be made?" "Owing to a reaction in the public mind in regard to the disposal of the Indian Reserves, there has been added to the common school endowment of the State during the past four years, by acts of Congress, approved April 10, 1869, and July 15, 1870: In Labette county.............. In Neosho county........ On Diminished Osage Reserve.. Total............. 22, 408 acres. 20, 480 acres. 177,777 acres. 266, 666 acres. 7,404 acres. 494,755 acres." This year ends the second term of Superintendent McVicar, one of the ablest and most valuable men the State has had in any public office. DECEMBER 15.-Senator Pomeroy writes from Washington to Robert Bonner, of the New York Ledger, restating his previous restatement. He now says the article was written by an amanuensis. Mr. Bonner gave Mr. Pomeroy $200 for the article, and publishes a receipt, every word of which "is in the handwriting of the distinguished Senator." DECEMBER 16.-The M. K. & T. R. W. is laying track west of Fort Scott, and east of Parsons. -The Lawrence Journal says that during the past two years the K. P. R. W. has sold 700,000 acres of land, for $2,000,000. The Swedish colony, in Saline county, has taken 22,000 acres; the Scotch colony, in Dickinson county, 47,000 acres; the English colony, in Clay county, 32,000 acres; and the Welsh colony, in Riley county, 19,000 acres. DECEMBER 17.—Attempt in Leavenworth to recover the right of way through the city, granted to the Leavenworth, Atchison and Northwestern Railroad Company. -Jefferson county has seventy-nine school houses. DECEMBER 20.-Atchison is lighted by gas. |