Bellevue gazette. [volume] (Bellevue City, N.T. [i.e. Neb.]) 1856-1858, 1857-02-05

fELLOW--SQuATTERS OF II IHIRn
HousE:
Another year has passed. Three hun
drcd and sixty-five days, with their hours
Of toll and moments of pleasue, have come
and gone since | last had the pleasure OF
addressing the assembled wisdom of the
Territory. In you, gentlemen, | recog-
nize the utile and ornate representatives
Of an enlightened and edekated constitu-
ency. Your faces beamiug with the trun-
scendant radiance of genius and intellect,
assure me that from the Legislative branch
of the government of the Territory, the
Executive may expect aid aud assistance
of the most valuable kind.
Since we last met here together, the
royal purity Of our great Democratic party
has expanded and spread itself, in the
triumph of principles over factions, until
to-day there remains not a single trace of
black and hideous fanaticism to maj the
harmony and prosperity of the Union.-
The commercial effects of Democratic
triumphs is always indicated by a rise in
the price of corn wllIskey, plug tobacco,
flannel shirts brogan boots and bibles.
No citizen of Nebraska can cast his OPP
teal %luminaries over the plains and prai-
ries of our beautiful territory, without the
involuntary exclamation, Lots is riz,'
escaping from his lungs, with the force
and sprightliness of a gopher from his hole
or a buck from the thicket.
A comparison between Kansas and
Nebraska, shows the latter Territory in a
most conspicuous and favorable light. In
dustry and thrift, prosperity AMI wealth,
abound here while there, poverty and
sloth, crime and miserJ, are gathered
around the hearth of the squatter, and
stalking, gaunt, haggard and terrible,
over her praries.
And now, though my natural modesty
would forbid it, and my retiring disposition
shrink from it, | am, by the exigencies
and emergencies Of the occasion, COM
PEELED to lay before you the true cause of
this glorious contrast, this political antithc-
sis. The true cause, gentlemen, is found
in the official capacities of the men whom
Pierce and Providence have ordained to
be your executive and judicial directors.
Your Governor dislikes to intrude his acts
and character upon your time and patience
yet he nust, in Justice TO himself, say, hat
he has performed his duties with an en-
ergy and impartiality, and a Just apprecia-
ton of right, which in olden times would
have immortalized u sovereign, or canon
lied a saint.
As in building a coRY HOUSE, it is ne
cessary to lay the foundation in hard
cement, and put tin pans on the tops of
corners to keep out %maranding vermin-
such as rats, gophers, and lizards so in
rearing your laws, and founding the fu-
ture government of a great State, it will
be necessary to lay your laws in the hard
cement of brains and moral motives, in
order hat those human Observation-Disclosures,
%loafers, horse thieves and politIcians-may
not crawl over into our Territory and rob
our people.
And now, | would,-haying elaborated
your morals, recommend 10 you for your
careful consideration a Revenue Law. In
carrying the government through all Its
labyrinthine ~windings and diabolically
circuitous ramifications, | have often found
myself cramped and disabled pecuniarily,
by a negation of funds in the Treasury.
At times, even, TO such an extent has ii
been depleted, that l have for days and
days refrained from smoking segars, and
also from the use of all beverages ranging
higher than five cents per glass. | do
not refer to my self-denial egotistically,
but solemnly and mournfully, ~sorrowing
at the drinks which | found not when ]
was athirst. And | have no hesitanCy in
recommending to you that a tax be levied
of one mill on each drink taken in the
Territory at a public bar. BY a careful
calculation, based upon my own experience
and. observation, and that of the Secretary,
| have ascertained that a tax of this kind
will provide a revenue of seven hundred
dollars, six cent and two mills per day
including Sundays. This law, too, while
ii would give aldermanic proportions "a
the Territorial purse, and dignity to your
Executive, would also induce temperance,
virtue and happiness throughout the land,
1t is therefore earnestly recommended to
your candid and unbiased deliberations.
And now | come TO consider the use
importance, and benifcence of a we'll
regulated system Of schools, BY a care.
full perusal of the Police Gazette, | have
found, that, ten out of every eleven for
geries, which recently have startled the
bulls and bears of Wall street from theiI
golden slumbers, were committed by mer
who could neither read nor write. have
further ascertained that horse thieves are
seldom able to read the rewards which
are offered for them, and thus are igno
rant of the esteem aud high estimation il
whish they are held by the public.
would then recommend a memorial 10 Gov
Slade, Of Vermont, for an immediate ship
ment to Nebraska of fifteen hundre,