Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-04-29
LEGISLATIVE sUMMAKY.
Special Correspondence of the Gin. Gaz.
CoIrupUrc n A nriI {,

} part of the day, Monday, but only q
: very few members were present, and nC
business of Importance was transacted
! TUEsDAY.-The Senate, Tuesday
passed House bill authorizing County
Commissioners TO double the present
rates of taxation for general revenue
and for building purposes; which is,
therefore, now law.
Mr.. Biggs introduced the bill drawn
up by Mr.. Ferguson, enabling Cincin-
natl. to issue bonds for building the
Southern Railroad; which was immedi-
lately read the second time. and referred
to the Judiciary Committee.
4 The Senate passed its own bill for dis
cOuraging the Introduction of Texas OF
Cherokee cattle, and to provide COM
Ipensatlon for damages caused by their
Introduction.
! II. B. 470, intended to amend the
Bounty act so as to provide bounty for
veteran volunteers not credited upon
the quota of any township, was defeated
the majority of the Senate considering
such Legislation unnecessary.
Another Senate bill was passed, re-
ducing the salary of the Railroad Com
missioner from S4 900 to So, 900.
Nothing of note occurred i'll the
House.
w hC -CHdlC, " cuutS-
day morning, took up the General Tax
bill, and spent the entire forenoon con-
sidering its first three sections.
/ This bill consists of eighty-seven Sec
tions, covering lS6 pages, and is another
OF those great works of arrangement,
improvement and codification which
the public spirit of the Senate has un-
dertaken, and which the patient and
selt-sacrificing industry of some of its
members has enabled it to PERFORM
There are three of these grea5 codes
the municipal, the tax and the crimi-
nal. The object sought to be accom-
plished in each is really beneficient, and
L doubt not that the whole is reasonably
well done. Here and there it will per-
haps be found that partisan ideas and
individual idiOsyncrasies have crept
into them, and will not finally be
eliminated by either House; but such, if
they exist, will prove but as handful
of chaff in bushel of wheat.
During the day, the President laid
before the Senate the nomination OF
John S. Newberry, of Cuyahoga county,
af Chief GeOlogist, under the law pro-
viding for /. geological survey of the
State. Mr.. Newberry's confirmation
will meet with opposition on the ground
that being Professor in Columbia Col
lege, New York, he is not a resident of
Ohio.
The Senate spent the rest of the day
III considering the motion of MIR. Rex,
to so amend the journal of the Senate as
to make it read that the Morgan Raid
Claim bill failed to pass on the 10Th of
March. This bill, it will be remembered,
received 10 votes, the number necessary
to pass an ordinary bill, but the Consti-
tntinn nf nhin r hirn
vote of the General Assembly to allow
claim the subject matter of which was
not provided for by pre-existing law. 1t
is held that the Morgan Raid Claims
are of just that nature, and that 25
votes therefore, were necessary to pass
it through the Senate. The question
was first argued upon point of order,
as to the power of the Senate to correct
its journal after the lapse of so long a
time; but this was settled Wednesday
evening by decision of the President
| (Lieut. Gov. Lee that the body had a
right to correct its journal at any time
during the session.
The House yirtuously resolved to meet
hereafter at 8 A. NJ. and 2 P. NJ. each
day.
A resolution was adopted requiring
the Beard of Public Works to investi- |
gate the alleged damages sustained by
the people of West GAINESVILLE ON account
of the State dam near there; also to in
quire into the condition of the Hooking !
Canal, several of the locks upon which |
are reported as impossible.
An immense amount of work has |
been spent upon Mr.. Gaston's bill, de-
fining the powers. privileges and duties |
of railroad companies in Ohio; but it
failed to pass, on the final test receiving |
put IS votes. or Is less than a constitu- |
tional majority. The bill was prepared |
by Railroad Commissioner Wright, and
although it contained many good things
had also considerable rubbish, and ere.
ated no enthusiasm in the mind of any
body. The House courteously consented |
to reconsider the vote by which it was
lost, and to let it lie on the table: but it /
will never get upon its feet again. /
The House passed appropriate resolu-
tiOns in reference to the death of Hon.
Isaac G. Peunisten, of Pike county, after |
listening to eulogies upon his services
and character; and then, in respect to
his memory, adjourned. a-a
THURsDAY.-The Senate, Thursday
morning, concurred with the House in
fixing the time for sine die adjournment
at 10 A. NJ. on Tuesday, May 4,
The remainder of the forenoon session
was spent by the Senate in discussing
Mr.. ReX's motion to correct the journal
in reference to the passage of the Nor
gan Raid Claims bill; and it was finally
defeated by the following vote:-Ayes
IL. Nays-19.
The Senate DECIDES, therefore, that
only 10 votes were necessary 10 pass the
bill, and, if that decision is correct, the
measure (having previously passed the1
Housed is now law. Il
In the afternoon tn > Senate took up
the proposed Reform Schools for Girls,
the question being whether the State
should take one hundred acres of naked /;
land, and locate the institution at
Painesville, in Lake county,; or giUe
S55, 900 for one hunsired and eighty nine
acres of land, forty of which are under
cultivation, afive-acre garden, hundreds
of fruit trees, and buildings that cost h
S42, 900, and locate it at White Springs,
III Delaware county. No such bargain
was ever offered to the State as the lat
teri Yet, strange to say, eleven Senators
voted for Painesville. Nearly all of+
them, however, are from the region of
country bordering upon the lake shore, II
and these may be excused on the ground
of locality. ess !,
The House adopted q resolution to h
furnish copies of Swan and Sayler's Re-
vised Statutes to the Mayors ofcities and
Incorporated Villages. .-s -..-..
The Central Lunatic Asylum bill was
taken up, aud, gfter a brief debate, pass
ed, under the operation of the previous
question-65 to 81. The bill had passed i
the Senate, but was amended in the /,
House so as 10 provide for The erection
ola new building upon the old site, with
the use OF all the Old material than can
be made available; while the cost OF The
whole is limited to SiQ0, 600 and the ac-
eonmodations 10 four hundred patients
The House afterwafd debated until
the Hour ofadjournment The bill offered