FAIR WEATHER
Whether Governor Pillsbury could have been nominated for a fourth term
may be questioned, but when he publicly declined a fortnight before the
Republican convention, it was evident that among the aspirants to the
succession the favorite was the gallant colonel of the Fifth Minnesota,
General Lucius F. Hubbard. The nomination was his on the first ballot.
He brought to the office a ripe experience in legislation and public
affairs and a worthy ambition to promote the public welfare. He was
easily accorded a reëlection in 1882, and, by reason of a change made
in the official year of the state, remained in office a fifth year. It
was a period of marked prosperity, not greatly diminished by the
commercial depression of 1883-84. The population of the state rose from
780,773 in 1880 to 1,117,798 in 1885, an increase of forty-three per
cent. The urban communities had an excessive increase of nearly eighty
per cent.; Minneapolis increased from 46,887 to 129,200. Twelve hundred
and sixty-nine miles of railroad were added.
Governor Hubbard’s interest in organizations and institutions for
promoting the public health, improving the administration of the penal
and charitable institutions, and the relief of superannuated soldiers
was deep and continuous. With his hearty approval the legislature of
1883 enlarged the powers of the state board of health, which had been
in existence for ten years with powers and resources much too limited.
The executive secretary of the board for nearly the first quarter
century was Dr. Charles N. Hewitt, whose conception of the state’s
interest and duty in preserving the health and increasing the physical
efficiency of its members was in advance of his time.
It had been the policy of the state to intrust the care of her penal
and charitable institutions to separate boards of citizens serving
without pay. To secure uniformity of administration and to enable these
separate bodies to profit from one another’s experiences, a state board
of charities and corrections was authorized by law in 1883. To the
working secretary of this board for fourteen years, Mr. Henry H. Hart,
must be accorded high praise for such unstinted and intelligent
devotion to his duties that Minnesota’s institutions of charities and
corrections were accorded a place in the front rank. The state lost one
of her most valuable servants by his deserved promotion beyond her
borders.
Following Governor Hubbard’s earnest advice, the legislature of 1885
established “The State Public School” for neglected children, which
under wise management by different officials has rescued from lives of
crime or dependence many hundreds of homeless waifs. The reformatory
for youthful delinquents and the Soldiers’ Home, commended by him to
the legislature, were established under the succeeding administration.
His repeated recommendation that all moneys coming into county
treasuries should be “covered in” through the county auditor’s office
fell on deaf ears, and that needed reform in our public accounting
still remains to be wrought.
The sanction of the granger laws by the Supreme Court of the United
States had established the principle that states have the
constitutional right to regulate railroads; but Minnesota had not
exercised the right in any vigorous or comprehensive way, partly
because the companies had of their own motion moderated charges,
improved their administration, and shown a disposition to treat the
public with some respect. Still, complaints of extortion, unjust
discrimination, and insolence were frequent, and by many believed to
be well founded. Governor Hubbard in his first two messages urged the
legislatures to take up these complaints and endeavor to frame a
comprehensive statute which should secure to the companies their just
rights and immunities, and at the same time protect the people in
theirs. The result was the railroad law of 1885, chapter 188 of the
session laws of that year. This act, judiciously drawn, met the
purpose of its framers so fully that amendment has been necessary
only in points of detail. The historian at some far-off day will
marvel that in the closing years of the nineteenth century it was
necessary to compel common carriers by law not merely to serve the
public at just and equal charges published in advance, but to provide
common decencies and accommodations in the way of platforms,
waiting-rooms, fire-extinguishers, and toilet-rooms.
Another measure successfully pressed upon the legislature by Governor
Hubbard was that of public state grain inspection. The precarious and
conflicting grades fixed by individual and associated buyers were the
source of incessant dissatisfaction and complaint. Chapter 144 of the
General Laws of Minnesota, 1885, established that system of inspection
and grading since known and approved on both sides of the Atlantic. A
warehouse receipt for a certain quantity of grain of a certain
Minnesota grade became a definite asset. Because grain inspection
necessarily involved the regulation and control of elevators, which in
turn were closely related to railroads, the law placed the control of
the system in the hands of the Board of Railroad Commissioners. The
title of the board was changed to Board of Railroad and Warehouse
Commissioners, and its powers were much extended and fortified.
Annual sessions of the legislature had ceased with that of 1879, but
elections continued to be held annually till 1886, from which year all
United States, state, and county officers have been elected in the
even-numbered years. All state and county terms of office begin on
January 1; the fiscal year begins August 1.
Governor Hubbard called to the important office of state superintendent
of public instruction David L. Kiehle, who, like his predecessor, had
received a clerical education and had had slight experience in school
work, but like that predecessor was able to throw himself unreservedly
into the public school cause. During the seven terms (1881-93) he
remained in office he labored with great fidelity and success to
improve the schools of all grades. Institutes and summer training
schools were promoted and a state tax of one mill was established to
increase the efficiency of the common schools. By an act of 1885 school
attendance was made compulsory for twelve weeks in each year.
In September, 1884, Cyrus Northrop, resigning his professorship in Yale
College, assumed the presidency of the state university, bringing to
the office large knowledge, a ripe experience in education and public
affairs, and a remarkable gift for gaining effective support for
reasonable measures. The president of the university and the state
superintendent of schools being the two working members of the high
school board, such effective operation was given to the “act for the
encouragement of higher education” that high schools in large numbers
heartily took up the desired duty and presently began feeding the
university with students fitted for college work. The university was
thus enabled in 1890 to drop the last of its preparatory classes.
* * * * *
Whatever may have been whispered in political circles, it was general
public expectation that when the legislature of 1883 should come to the
election of a United States senator it would do nothing else than
reëlect William Windom. He had resigned from the Senate in 1881 to
accept a seat in Garfield’s cabinet, but had been reappointed by the
governor after the death of that President. Mr. Windom felt so
confident of his reëlection that he remained at his post of duty in
Washington and did not come to St. Paul until after the discovery by
his friends of an indifference, not to say an opposition, needing his
personal attention. The Republican caucus gave him a unanimous
nomination, but the absence of fifty members was ominous. The election
went to the joint convention of the two houses. After sixteen days of
balloting the choice went to another. The causes of this defeat of the
best man of Minnesota for the place were various. An old political
quarrel in the first congressional district was a cause of no little
disaffection; that Mr. Windom had built a costly house in Washington,
impliedly asserting a permanent hold on the senatorship, furnished
excuse to some; the fact that he had been unwisely praised by admiring
supporters alienated others. Intemperate censure of opponents by a
leading newspaper favoring his reëlection doubtless compacted the
opposition. Mr. Windom was himself convinced that a liberal use of
money was the effective means of his defeat.
President Harrison called Mr. Windom into his cabinet as secretary of
the treasury, for whose duties his industry, his large training in
public affairs and matured judgment fitted him. His life was suddenly
ended on January 29, 1890, by a paralytic stroke coming at the close of
a speech at a banquet in New York city.
* * * * *
On the evening of November 7, 1884, citizens of St. Paul gave a banquet
in honor of General Henry Hastings Sibley, first state governor,
celebrating his arrival at Mendota fifty years before. For the long
series of honors and compliments bestowed on this first citizen of
Minnesota the reader must resort to his biographer. In 1888 the
trustees of Princeton College conferred upon him the honorary degree of
Doctor of Laws, in consideration of “high personal character, scholarly
attainments, and eminent public service, civil, military, and
educational.” General Sibley’s death did not occur until February 18,
1891.