usually prevail on occasions of this kind, is, in our judgment, so palpably bad as to need only to be stated to be apparent to every one. This is, however, not the only objectionable feature to the system. In our investigations in this matter, we find that at many of the points competing for the location, systematic efforts have been made to corrupt the trustees and secure the location by bribery. We find this disposition prevailing to an extent that is at once disgusting and alarming. We desire, in justice to the trustees of this institution, to state, in this connection, that we have had no satisfactory evidence to show that they were corrupted or did receive a money or property consideration for their vote. We desire also to state, that we fully appreciate the great advantage this institution will be to the educational interests of Southern Illinois, and deeply regret that its affairs have been so managed as to preclude the recommendation of additional appropriations by this committee at this time. We next visited Anna, where the Southern Insane Asylum is loca ted. We found the masons at work laying the foundation walls, one of which was almost up to the grade line. There had been no brick laid in the wall, but an examination of brick in the kiln on the ground showed that they are of good quality. The act to locate, erect and carry on this asylum, was approved April 16th, 1869. The commissioners did not select a location until March 29th, 1870, and it will be noticed, by their printed report, that it was on the 14th day of the following July that they awarded the contract for the erection of that part of the building now in process of erection. The progress made with the work is not what we think it should have been, while the expenses for commissioners' per diem, etc., is far above a reasonable proportion of the total amount expended. By referring to the printed report of said commissioners, it will be seen that while there has been only $15,697.03 expended for work and material, there has been expended for commissioners' per diem and expenses the sum of $15,240.06, and for incidental expenses, the further sum of $549.60. There is yet in the treasury, according to their report, $62,000 of the amount appropriated by the act of 1869, and we cannot recommend any additional appropriation until some arrangement is made for a more energetic management of the work. In pursuance of a resolution submitted by Mr. Dwight, of Marion, your committee visited Irvington, where is located the Illinois Agri. -cultural College. This institution was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly, approved February 21st, 1861. By virtue of the act of incorporation, the Board of Trustees, consisting of J. W. Singleton, Thomas Quick, Wm. A. Hacker, Walter Buchanan, B. C. Renois, H. Alexander, Curtis Blakeman, James H. Stipp and Zadoc Casey, were authorized to sell certain lands donated to this State by Congress for seminary purposes. These lands, to the amount of 2,800 acres, were located in Cook and Iroquois counties, and were sold for over $55,000. The interest accruing on deferred payments increased the assets coming into the hands of the trustees to about $66,000. With this fund, 560 acres of land were purchased at Irvington, five miles south of Centralia, on the Illinois Central railroad, at a cost of about $4,000. A frame building was erected on the land, which the trustees claim cost $25,000, but which, in the opinion of your committee, did not cost to exceed $12,000. A frame boarding house was also erected upon the land, near the so-called college build. ing, at a cost, as claimed by the trustees, of $10,000, but which, in the opinion of your committee, should not have cost to exceed one-half that amount. The land was broken and fenced, and has been worked up to this time. One-half the land has been leased to Prof. French, the principal of the college, who, in consideration of the rents, conducts the school and pays all the bills. The remaining lands, consisting now of 260 acres, are leased to private parties, and the proceeds are enjoyed by a portion of the trustees, as their private property. The law incorporating the college authorized and required the trustees to open books for subscriptions of stock to the amount of $50,000. This stock was taken, or a majority of it, by the trustees or their friends, and no part of it was ever paid in, as shown to your committee by one of the trustees. Notwithstanding this fact, the trustees have issued to Mr. Hay (one of the trustees), as his private property, $60,000 of paid up stock in the college. Mr. Hay owns all of the stock and has complete control of the institution, and desires to transfer to the State one half of the lands, being that part upon which the building is located, and retain the other half for his services to the State. But your committee cannot recommend this disposition of the trust. The college, as now constituted, has totally failed to meet the ends for which it was founded. The management has been of the most irresponsible, reckless and incompetent character. The trustees have kept no accounts or books, and have failed to make any exhibit of the receipts and expenditures of the institution. The valuable seminary lands of the State have been squandered, and no satisfactory account can be given of the disposition of their proceeds. The property now owned by the college is worth not to exceed $25,000. It cost the State $66,000, or rather 2,800 acres of equally as valuable lands. In view of all the facts, your committee would recommend the adoption of the following joint resolution: "Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring herein, That the Governor be authorized to direct the Attorney General to take such legal measures as may be necessary in order to dissolve the trust created by the act incorporating the Illinois Agricultural College, to place the property in the hands of a receiver, and to secure the rights of the State in the premises." It appears from evidence before your committee, that only two of the trustees, Messrs. Hay and Quick, have had anything to do with the management or organization of the Agricultural College. Some of the trustees have been dead several years, and cannot be held responsible for the mismangement of the institution. All of which is respectfully submitted. W. C. WATKINS, Chairman. JOHN W. HEAFIELD, JEREMIAH DAVIS, WM. B. HUNDLEY, J.G. PHILLIPS. Speaker of the House of Representatives: I have the honor to transmit to you, to be laid before the House of Representatives, the memorial of a number of citizens of the State, who claim to be creditors of the State Penitentiary. It will be seen, upon reading the memorial, that no attempt is made therein to state the separate amounts due or claimed to be due to the individuals or firms whose names are thereto appended, but that the memorialists claim to represent an aggregate of demands against the Penitentiary, exceeding the sum of one hundred and sixty thousand dollars; and they also insist that the credits referred to were extended to the Penitentiary in good faith, that the delay in the payment of these demands " has become burdensome, oppressive and damaging to them," and they ask that steps be taken to provide for the immediate payment of the amounts due them. I have no official information of the precise amounts due to any of the memorialists, nor of the consideration for which these respective debts were created, but am informed, unofficially, that several of the claims amount to some thousands of dollars, and I can understand the great inconveniences, if not positive loss, to which they may be subjected to by longer delay in payment. It appears, from the reports from the Peuitentiary, that on the 1st day of December, 1870, there were debts against the prison to the amount of about $332,000, and in my annual message I expressed the opinion that such debts, referring to debts contracted by the Commissioners of the Penitentiary, for feeding and clothing the convicts, and for tools, machinery, fixtures and materials, must be paid by the State. The only doubt that can exist as to the duty of the State to pay off and discharge these debts, grows out of the provision of the constitution that prohibits contracting of debts against the State without authority of law, and that absolutely forbids the payment of debts contracted without lawful authority. * By the 4th section of "An act to provide for the management of the Illinois State Penitentiary at Joliet," approved June 28th, 1867, the Commissioners therein provided for are directed to take possession of the Penitentiary, "and to make all necessary provisions for the feeding, clothing, guarding and safe-keeping of the convicts." By the 16th section of the act, it is provided that "the warden shall attend to the fiscal concerns of the Penitentiary, under the direction of said commissioners, and shall use his best endeavors to defray all the expenses of the Penitentiary by the labor of the convicts. He shall act under the direction of said commissioners in making contracts for the employment of the labor of the convicts, and for furnishing the necessary supplies for their support, and in purchasing such raw material as may be required to be manufactured by convict labor." By the 25th section of the same act, the commissioners are authorized "to contract for provisions, clothing, medicines, forage, fuel and other supplies for the Penitentiary." Under the circumstances therein mentioned, and by the 33d section, the commissioners, if unable to lease the labor of the convicts as contemplated by the act, are authorized to procure, on behalf of the State, all necessary tools, machinery and fixtures "for the carrying on of such mechanical and manufacturing business" in the Penitentiary, "and to purchase all necessary unmanufactured material, so as to keep the convicts employed." The general and extensive authority conferred upon the commissioners and the warden to contract and make purchases on account of the Penitentiary, seems to be subject to no restriction or limit. |