Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1874-05-08


articles the first half of April n the States of
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mis-
souri, Ohio and Wisconsin show slight advance
IN corn, oats and hay, and q decline on swine and
potatoes, wheat reIa.ining unchanged.
THE Gene al Conference of the Methodist
Episcopa hurch in the South convened on
the I'd ,isvilIe, KY. An address was sent
to the in Great Britain.
A ROCK (Ark.) speciatof the Sd says
leadin, Drm Democrats of that city had
issued 1dress, taking strong grounds in
favor looks. 1t was thougf5 This address
would have damaging effect upon Baxter's
cause. Brooks army numbered three full
regiments in the field and seversi regiments in
reserve, subject to immediate ORDERS.
4 PARTY of men under Capt. Williams, of
Baxter's forces, on the 4th az ID Judges
Searl and Bennett, of the Arkas.ss Supreme
Court, and brought them to Little Rock, where
they were kept in close confinement 1t was
said they were detained to prevent their hold
ing a session of the court until after the 9TH.
Another fight was momentarily expected in
the vicinity of Pine Bluff.
ACCORDING to the report OF the New Or
leans Relief Committee to the Governor, en-
the 4th, up to that date they had been dis
tributing 10000 rations day to the suffering
in the overfowed districts of the State, and in
their Judgment $4,000 rations would be re-
quired daily for the next sixty days.
THE Committee on Ways and Means, on the
4th, reported on the Sanborn contracts, recit-
ing the circumstances under which they were
executed and the conclusions they had
reached. In the opinion of the committee a
very large percentage, if not all, of the $437,-
600 of taxes collected by Sanborn were not a
proper subject of contract under the law, and
the taxes should and would have been COL
lected by the officers of the Revenue Bureau
in the ordinary discharge of their duties. Re-
ferripg to the conflict of testimony between
the Secretary, Assistant Secretary and the So
licitor of the Treasury, the committee say:
"The disagreements and contradictions given,
respectively, by these gentlemen, as appear
from the testimony, is matter greatly de-
plored by the committee, as by it they are un-
able to fix upon anyone, or anywhere the
responsibility for the maladministratien of
this law; and they look with serious appre
hension upon the apparent efforts of these
gentlemen to transfer the responsibility each
from himself to the other. While the commit
tee, therefore, are unable to determine where
the responsibility rests, they cannot in justice
to themselves ignore the fact that these three
persons deserve severe condemnation for the
manner in which they have permitted this law
to be administered" In view of the facts
presented the committee recommended that the
law Of May s, 1872, be repealed and that the
contracts made Hereunder be revoked and an
nulled. They submitted the draft of bill for
that purpose.
THE Chicago papers of the 5th publish the
opinions of Messrs. B. r. Curtis, of Massa-
chusetts, and VIM. M. Evarts, of New York,
on the constitutionality of the Wisconsin Rail-
road law. These opinions were given in
response to an application by the railroad
companies interested, and are to the effect
that the new law is unconstitutional-Mr
Curtis arguing that the Legislature has
no power to prescribe the remuneration
the railway companies shall receive
for future services; that the laws in
question are invalid for the reason that
they take the property of the citizen
without giving him any compensation there
for; that they indirectly, at least, invalidate
the obligations of contracts, and that the
power to prescribe a schedule of rates for
either does not exist in the Legisla
ture or that it is unlimited, which is, he
would have it, absurd. The substance of Mr..
Evarts' argument is that the law in question
takes the property of individuals without
making any compensation therefor, and that
the provision of the Constitution of the
State of Wisconsin which reserves the right
to repeal or modify the charter of corpora
ton cannot be construed to cover a case of
virtual confiscatiOn.