The 29th Illinois General Assembly was elected in November 1874. The session began on January 6, 1875[1] and adjourned on April 15, 1875.[2] No party had a majority in either chamber. The Republicans had a plurality in both chambers, with 24 members in the Senate and 69 in the House, but control of the chambers was held by a coalition of Democrats, third parties, and independents.
The third parties represented in this session included the Opposition Party, the Independent Reform Party, and the Democratic Liberal Party, which took many of its members (including its leader, former governor John M. Palmer) and positions from the defunct Liberal Republican Party of 1872. All of these parties were organized for the first time in 1874 and disappeared shortly thereafter, their members subsequently becoming Democrats, Greenbackers, or independents.
The three-sided tensions between Democrats, Republicans and reformers led to frequent turmoil during the session, including a violent brawl that erupted in the House when Republican Alfred M. Jones threw a book at Democrat Lewis Plater. Partly due to this climate, fewer laws were passed during this session than any session since the 1830s; amounting to only 118 pages.[2] The expenses incurred by this General Assembly were also commensurately lower, at $221,810—less than half the amount incurred by the preceding 28th General Assembly.[3]
The 204 members of the 29th Illinois General Assembly are listed in the 1875 Illinois Legislative Manual.[4] Because the Manual is not entirely consistent in its labeling of third-party members of the General Assembly, those identified as "Liberal Republican", "Liberal", or "Democratic Liberal" are counted as a single group in the party totals below. Likewise, the one member of the House labeled simply as "Reform" is treated as a member of the Independent Reform Party for the purpose of the totals.
Senate
The Illinois Senate as elected in 1874 contained 51 members, one from each state legislative district. Under the Illinois Constitution of 1870, Senators served overlapping 4-year terms; thus, 26 of the senators in the 29th General Assembly were elected in 1874, the remainder having been elected in 1872. They ranged in age from 30 to 65.[5]
Expenses General Assembly; State Charitable Institutions; State Educational Institutions; Penal Institutions; Horticulture; Geology and Science; Agriculture, Drainage; Roads, Highways, Bridges
Under the Illinois Constitution of 1870, the state representatives were elected by cumulative voting, with each voter distributing three votes among the available candidates. The Illinois House of Representatives as elected in 1874 thus contained 153 members, three from each of the state's 51 districts. However, only 152 members were present for the 29th General Assembly, as Robert Thiem of Cook County failed to make an appearance.[10]
The members of the House were overwhelmingly new; only 32 of them had previously served in the General Assembly.[10] They ranged in age from 26 to 75; nearly half (72) were farmers.[34] Among the 152 seated members, there were 70 Republicans, 41 Democrats, and 41 independents and reformers.
Opposition Party member Elijah Haines was elected Speaker by a coalition of Democrats, independents and reformers, despite lacking the support of some Democrats.[6]
Party composition
As might have been expected, the deliberations of a body composed of elements so heterogeneous and conglomerate as was the house were anything but harmonious. The working of the newly-cemented union between elements so diverse proved anything but satisfactory, even to its component parts.
The Indiana General Assembly is the state legislature, or legislative branch, of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Indiana Senate. The General Assembly meets annually at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis.
The 1874–75 United States House of Representatives elections were held on various dates in various states between June 1, 1874, and September 7, 1875. Each state set its own date for its elections to the House of Representatives before the first session of the 44th United States Congress convened on December 6, 1875. Elections were held for all 292 seats, representing 37 states.
The New Hampshire Senate is the upper house of the New Hampshire General Court, alongside the lower New Hampshire House of Representatives. The Senate has been meeting since 1784. The Senate consists of 24 members representing Senate districts based on population. There are 14 Republicans and 10 Democrats currently serving in the Senate.
Thomas Richard Hudd was an American lawyer from Wisconsin who represented that state for two terms in the United States House of Representatives, as well as serving in both houses of that state's legislature and holding other public offices.
John Winans was an American lawyer and politician in Janesville, Wisconsin. He served one term in the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin's 1st congressional district, and served six years in the Wisconsin State Assembly representing Janesville and central Rock County. He also held several local offices, including two terms as Mayor of Janesville.
Charles Jonas was a Czech American immigrant, journalist, linguist, and political activist. He was the 16th lieutenant governor of Wisconsin and served in the Wisconsin Legislature, representing Racine County. Later in life, he was an American consul general to Austria-Hungary, and the Russian and German empires.
The following table indicates the party of elected officials in the U.S. state of Iowa:
The 1875 United States Senate election in New York was held on January 19 and 20, 1875, by the New York State Legislature. The legislature, with a Republican Senate and Democratic Assembly, jointly elected Democrat Francis Kernan Senator. Kernan became the first Democrat to represent New York since 1851.
The 1872–73 United States Senate elections were held on various dates in various states, coinciding with President Ulysses S. Grant's re-election. As these U.S. Senate elections were prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen by state legislatures. Senators were elected over a wide range of time throughout 1872 and 1873, and a seat may have been filled months late or remained vacant due to legislative deadlock. In these elections, terms were up for the senators in Class 3.
The 1874–75 United States Senate elections were held on various dates in various states. As these U.S. Senate elections were prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen by state legislatures. Senators were elected over a wide range of time throughout 1874 and 1875, and a seat may have been filled months late or remained vacant due to legislative deadlock. In these elections, terms were up for the senators in Class 1.
The 1890–91 United States Senate elections were held on various dates in various states. As these U.S. Senate elections were prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen by state legislatures. Senators were elected over a wide range of time throughout 1890 and 1891, and a seat may have been filled months late or remained vacant due to legislative deadlock. In these elections, terms were up for the senators in Class 3.
The 1892–93 United States Senate elections were held on various dates in various states, coinciding with former Democratic President Grover Cleveland's return to power. As these U.S. Senate elections were prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen by state legislatures. Senators were elected over a wide range of time throughout 1892 and 1893, and a seat may have been filled months late or remained vacant due to legislative deadlock. In these elections, terms were up for the senators in Class 1.
The Reform Party, also called Liberal Reform Party or People's Reform Party, was a short-lived coalition of Democrats, reform and Liberal Republicans, anti-temperance forces, and Grangers formed in 1873 in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, which secured the election for two years of William Robert Taylor as Governor of Wisconsin, as well as electing a number of state legislators.
The Independent Reform Party, sometimes also known as the Anti-Monopoly Party, was a short-lived political party in Illinois, in the United States. Arising out of the disorder created by the fracturing of the Republican Party in 1872, when the Liberal Republican Party had been created, it was organized on June 10, 1874, in a convention at Springfield. It fielded candidates in that year's elections but disappeared thereafter.
John Moses (1825–1898) was an Illinois judge, politician, banker and historian. His magnum opus was Illinois, Historical and Statistical, published in 1892, which weighs in at more than 1,300 pages and took its author eleven years to complete.
Richard Dewhurst was an English American immigrant, lawyer, judge, businessman, and politician. He served in the Wisconsin State Assembly for four non-consecutive terms over four different decades under four different political party labels ; and was defeated twice when running for election on the ticket of a fifth party, the Democratic.
Michael Johnson was an American farmer from Springdale, Wisconsin, who served as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from Dane County, as well as holding various local offices.
Romanzo Ellis Davis was a farmer, politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He was a member of the Wisconsin State Senate, representing Dane County from 1870 through 1877. He was a Republican, who transitioned to the Liberal Republican faction, and eventually became a Democrat.
The Opposition Party in Illinois was a political label used in 1874, when it was adopted by a coalition of all groups opposed to Republican Party rule in Chicago and Cook County. The Opposition Party opposed temperance laws and the alleged corruption of the Republican machine and incorporated both Democrats and more radical political elements. Several members were elected to the 29th Illinois General Assembly on the Opposition Party ticket in the election of 1874; these included Moses J. Wentworth in the 1st district, William H. Stickney in the 6th district, and William H. Skelly in the 7th district. The coalition was not successful at the local level, and did not appear in subsequent elections.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
