SOLDIERS' ORPHANS' HOME.

The act of 1865, to establish a home for the children of deceased soldiers, did little more than provide for the appointment of trustees to organize and commissioners to locate the Home. The object of the incorporation was declared to be "to provide a home for the nurture and education, without charge, of all indigent children of soldiers who have served in the armies of the Union during the present rebellion, and have been disabled from disease or wounds therein, or have died or been killed in said service;" but not a dollar was provided to construct proper buildings, or put in successful operation.

The act of 1867 appropriated thirty thousand four hundred dollars, ($30,400,) which Col. Hancock and myself had retained from bounties provided to be paid to enlisted soldiers, who, howeved, deserted before going to the field, and placed in the State treasury, and the additional sum of seventy thousand dollars, ($70,000,) directly out of the treasury, for the benefit of the Home, to be expended under the direction of the trustees, for the purpose of buying grounds, erecting buildings, and for the maintenance and education of soldiers' orphans.

The commissioners located the Home at the junction of the Illinois Central and Chicago & Alton Railroads, at Normal, in McLean county, upon a most suitable and beautiful tract of sixty-five acres, donated for that purpose by the Hon. David Davis, of McLean county. In addition to this tract of land, valued at $12,000, other public spirited and patriotic citizens of McLean county donated, in land and money, $30,220-making a total of $42,220.

Under the management of the Board of Trustees, temporary buildings were provided at Bloomington and Springfield, and the home formally opened in June, 1867. During that year, eighty orphans were admitted. The number has been steadily increasing, until there are at present one hundred and ninety-three in the Home. Matrons and assistants have been selected, and I am happy to inform you, the whole number are suitably provided for in every respect. They have been admitted into the common schools in both cities; they have received the constant and kindly care of the Board of Trustees and the Matron and assistants, and are as happy and cheerful as it is the lot of the orphan to be.

The new building of the Home is a substantial structure of stone and brick, with a basement and three stories, 144 by 72 feet, of plain but handsome architecture, and when completed will comfortably accommodate three hundred children and the necessary officers, matrons and assistants. The trustees report it will be completed and can be occupied during the present month. Its total cost will be, when suitably finished and furnished so as to fully answer the purposes for which it has been constructed, about $100,000. Eighty acres of the land donated havo been sold, and a portion of the money subscribed has been paid; thelarger portion, however, of the donations have not yet been made available.

The late Horatio Ward, a native of New York, at the time of his death a banker in London, by his will bequeathed to the homes for soldiers' orphan children in the loyal States $100,000. As this home has been recognized by the executors of the estate in this country, as coming within the provisions of the bequest, it will ultimately receive a portion of the donation

Before the close of the present year there will be under the protection and guardianship of the State three hundred orphan children in this humane institution. You will be asked for additional appropriations for the next two years for the maintenance, education and care of these children of the State. I am satisfied your honorable body, without any recommendation on the subject, will provide from the Treasury of the State the reasonable and necessary means to continue the home, in its mission of mercy from year to year, until it shall have answered its wise and humane purposes. It is now permanently established, and the people of the State will appropriately show their gratitude and veneration for the noble dead who fell in the defense of our country, the Union and liberty, by affectionately guarding the tender years of their little orphans.

I transmit the reports of the Board of Trustees and specially invite your careful attention to the full details they contain.

In connection with the foregoing subject, I again invite your attention to the report of the executive committee of the Illinois Soldiers' College, at Fulton, which I now have the honor to lay before you and respectfully recall your attention to the law of your last biennial session, passed for the benefit of the class of soldiers educated at that institution.

The reasons which induced me to recommend to your favorable notice the proposition of the Fulton College, to educate all honorably discharged disabled soldiers, in a former message, still appear to me to be sufficient to continue to justify you in granting the necessary appropriations to fully carry out the design then inaugurated, to take care of and suitably provide for the wants of these deserving defenders of our country.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

I have the honor to submit herewith the report of Mr. Worthen, State Geologist. In my last biennial message, it was stated that $10,000 per annum for two years would complete the survey of the State in that time; the amount suggested was appropriated. The report of the State Geologist will now inform you of the gratifying fact that the expectation has been realized, and the survey, in the manner required by law, has been completed. Every county has been carefully examined, and the field work brought to a close. It only now remains to bring together the observations in the field and prepare them for publication.

Three thousand copies of the third volume have been published as required by the act of your last session, and have been distributed as required by law. To put directly in the hands of the people all the matter collected in the last two years, will require the publication of three more volumes, similar in quality and size to those already published. I recommend that the necessary appropriation for this purpose be made.

PARIS EXPOSITION OF 1867.

The act of February 5, 1867, appropriating seven thousand dollars ($7,000) to defray the expenses of placing on exhibition the contributions from the State to the French Universal Exposition of 1867, requires the commissioner appointed by the Governor to represent the State at the Exposition, to make a full report thereof to the present General Assembly. The Hon. John P. Reynolds, who was

chosen Commissioner, has made a full and most interesting report upon the subject. It gives a history and description of the various articles collected and placed on exhibition from this State; an account of how each was disposed of or exchanged for articles from other nations, and of the premiums and medals awarded upon them, and much other special and carefully collected information. It is presumed our farmers, merchants and manufacturers will be much interested in studying the report, which will be laid before you.

ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE AND REPORTS.

The office of Adjutant General was fully organized by the act of February 2, 1865. Previous to that time, its arduous and complicated duties had been discharged by General Allen C. Fuller, under an imperfect organization. By that act the rank of Brigadier General was conferred upon the Adjutant General; the office of Assistant Adjutant General, with rank of Lieutenant Colonel created; a seal given and full powers conferred to render it effective in aiding the State to do her full service in suppressing the rebellion. It contains all the military records of the State, of great value, preserved in substantial books; all our regimental, national and battle flags; the trophies of war won by our soldiers. The full record and brief history of every officer and private soldier the State furnished are amongst its archives, and important military and historical facts relating to the part Illinois bore in the war of rebellion, to be carefully preserved and perpetuated.

Under the joint resolutions of the last General Assembly, 2500 copies, of eight volumes each, of its reports, prepared by Gen. I. N. Haynie, late Adjutant General of the State, have been published and partially distributed. They embrace the name, residence, date of enrollment, muster, discharge or death of every officer, soldier and marine of this State in the military and naval service of the United States during the late war, and other important military information.

On the 21st day of May, 1867, the office became vacant by the death of General I. N. Haynie, then Adjutant General of the State. I did not believe the public interest required the vacancy to be filled by another appointment. The duties of the office were therefore imposed upon Colonel E. P. Niles, Assistant Adjutant General, who had long been on duty in the office and who had proven himself fully competent for, as he was deservedly worthy of, the trust confided to him. He alone remains in the office. All the clerks were long since discharged, and its duties substantially brought to a close. I do not believe the office ought to be discontinued, as contemplated by the act of 1865. Some one must have the custody of its valuable records and preserve the flags and trophies deposited there; besides, the War Department is constantly appealing to it for information about Illinois soldiers, and the slumbering military spirit of our volunteers occasionally seeks its assistance in the organization of independent military companies.

I think the law should remain upon the statute, but be so amended as to unite with it, under the management and control of one person, the ordnance office and all that pertains to it. The pay should be materially decreased, to correspond with the light duties hereafter required; the rank is perhaps not material.

I recommend that such a modification of the law be made during the present session. I present herewith the reports for 1867, and 1868, from this office, and Vol. I-3

respectfully invite your attention to them. They present a financial statement of its operations for the last two years; a history of the sixth installment of the claims of the State against the United States and the arguments to sustain them, addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury.

CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES-MILITARY STATE AND CLAIM AGENT.

Colonel H. D. Cook was appointed Military State Agent in March, 1865, under the law passed at the regular session of that year. After his duties closed in the field, I assigned him to duty in Washington city, to attend to the collection of the claims of our soldiers against the United States. He has been kept on duty there constantly up to the commencement of the present year. Under instructions from me he closed the office on the 31st day of December, 1868. His report, to be laid before you in a few days, and to which I respectfully invite your attention, will briefly inform your honorable body of the transactions of the agency under his charge from March 1, 1865, to December 31, 1868.

Twice before I have appealed to the General Assembly to recognize his services at Washington, and although no act was passed authorizing him to remain on duty there, I continued to feel it a duty to our soldiers to continue the agency. He has received from the treasury one hundred dollars per month for his services. The expenses of clerk hire, room rent, fuel, stationery, etc., have been paid from the contingent fund to be expended under the direction of the Governor.

As military agent he has settled 4,761 claims of our soldiers, and has collected and sent to them gratuitously $507,831 74; but about one hundred claims remained on hand the 31st day of December last unsettled. In the same time he has received 19,118 letters from, and sent 20,064 letters to soldiers in reference to the settle. ment of their claims for extra pay, bounties and pensions. The total expenses of the agency, from December 31, 1865, to December 31, 1868, including salary, has been $10,960 25, or a fraction under two per cent. upon the amount collected by the State, and sent to her soldiers without one cent of expense to them. Is not this a satisfactory result, and does it not deserve the approval of your honorable body. In addition, however, to his services as military agent, I required him to attend to the collection of the claims of the State against the United States for expenditures on account of the war. I found an unsettled and disallowed balance of about $83,000 of the fourth installment of the State, when I came into officeIt was exceedingly difficult to find proofs and furnish explanations satisfactory to the treasury department to get this balance or any part of it allowed. I required Colonel Cook to return here and make a thorough examination, by personal investigations of the sources, character and justness of the items, suspended and disallowed. In the meantime, a new, the fifth installment for expenses, amounting to $55,000, was prepared under my direction, as it was believed the right of the State to re-imbursement for the expenditures incurred for the general government, not before presented on account of items of this, the fifth installment, was clear.

During the year 1867, Col. Cook succeeded in securing a recognition of thę just. ness of the fifth installment, and collected on this account over $50,000, and of the suspended and disallowed items of the fourth installment, over $46,000—making a total of $97,309 72 that year collected and paid into the State treasury.

Considering the amount of labor and the zeal and ability he has exhibited in securing to our treasury these old and overlooked accounts, I thought I would be justified in paying Col. Cook something like a fair return for his services, and from the contingent fund paid him 2% per cent. commissions on that amount.

Upon consultation with the Auditor and Adjutant General, and after a careful consideration of the whole subject, I directed Gen. Haynie, in August, 1867, to make up and present the sixth installment, consisting of the following general items:

For discount on bonds sold by the State to raise war funds .
Covered by abstracts A, B, C, D, E, F and I.............

For interest paid on war fund......

Total.....

$282,605 00

244,916 89

200,507 03

8078,028 82

I would not be justified in this communication in going over the grounds and arguments upon which it is believed these claims are equitably and justly supported. They were carefully prepared, and inclosed with the last installment, to the Secretary of the Treasury. By my direction, copies of the argument to support each item were made a part of the report of the Adjutant General to your honorable body for 1867, to which I again invite your careful attention.

I am much gratified in being able to inform you that the treasury department has recognized the justness of a portion of the sixth installment. Through the persistent and able management of Col. Cook, there has been collected, and was paid into our treasury on the 28th of December last, $136,345 81 of this installment-making a total of collections by the state agent in the last two years of $233,655 53; all of which has been paid into the ordinary revenue fund for the current expenses of the state government.

On the installments presented, there is a balance claimed to be due the State of $583,818 74.

The joint resolution of 1865 authorized the Governor to appoint an agent to proceed to Washington for the purpose of procuring and paying into the State treasury all moneys due from the general government to the State of Illinois, in organizing, arming and equipping, clothing, subsisting and transporting United States troops, but made no provision for the payment of his salary or expenses. Such services are too important to go unrequited. As Col. Cook has received nothing for his services in collecting the last amount of $136,345 81, I trust a reasonable compensation may be appropriated for this purpose during the present

session.

Some legislation by Congress may be required to enable the State to recover the whole amount of the sixth installment, and of the suspended and disallowed balance; in all $583,818 74. A large portion, however, may be secured if provision shall be made for keeping in the service of the State, at Washington, a competent agent to look after and press the collection of these claims. They ought not be abandoned or lost sight of. Unless, however, special attention shall be given to the matter, the State may ultimately lose the larger portion of her just and equitable demands upon the National Treasury.

I therefore recommend the passage of a law to provide for appointing a financia agent to take charge of and collect all claims of the State, made or to be made growing out of the late war.