Page 47

WISCONSIN TERRITORY.
on Monday, December .io, 1838, Isaac E. Crary, member from Michigan, announced
to the chair
of the house of representatives that Doty, was in attendance as delegate
from Wisconsin Terri-
tory, and moved that he be qualified.  Jones, the former delegate, then rose
and protested
against Doty's right to the seat, claiming that his (Jones') term had not
expired. The basis for
his claim was that under the act of 1817, a delegate must be elected only
for one congress, and
not for parts of two congressional terms; that his term as a delegate from
Wisconsin did not
commence until the fourth of Marbh, 1837, and consequently would not expire
until the fozirth
of March, 1839. The subject was finally referred to the committee of elections.
This com-
mittee, on the fourteenth of January, 1839, reported in favor of Doty's right
to his seat as dele-
gate, submitting a resolution to that effect which passed'the house by a
vote of one hundred and
sixty-five to twenty-five. Whereupon Doty was qualified as delegate from
Wisconsin Territory,
and-took his seat at the date last mentioned.
     On the 8th of November, Andrew G. Miller was appointed by Martin Van
Buren, then
 president of the United States, associate judge of the supreme court, to
succeed Judge Frazer,
 who died at Milwaukee, on the i8th of October. During this year, Moses M.
Strong succeeded
 W. W. Chapman as United States attorney for the Territory.
     On the 26th day of November, 1838, the legislature of the re-organized
Territory of Wis-
consin-being the first session of the second legislative assembly-met at
Madison. Governor
Dodge, in his message, recommended an investigation of the banks then in
operation, memorial-
izing congress for a grant of lands -for the improvement of the Fox river
of Green bay and the
Wisconsin; the revision of the laws; the division of the Territory into judicial
districts; the
justice of granting to all miners who have obtained the ownership of mineral
grounds under the
regulations of the superintendent of the United States lead mines, either
byý discovery or pur-
chase, the right of pre-emption; and the improvement of the harbors on Lake
Michigan.
     The attention of th'is Legislature was directed to the mode in which
the commissioners of
public buildings had discharged their duties There was an investigation of
the three banks
then in operation in the Territory-one at Green Bay, one at Mineral Point,
and the other at
Milwaukee. A plan, also, for the revision of the laws of the Territory was
considered. A new
assignment was made for the holding of district courts. Chief Justice' Dunn
was assigned to the
first district, composed of the counties of Iowa, Grant and Crawford; Judge
Irvin to the second,
composed of the counties of Dane, Jefferson, Rock, Walworth and Green; while
Judge Miller
was assigned to the third district, composed of Milwaukee, Brown and Racine
counties- includ-
ing therein the unorganized counties of Washington and Dodge, which, for
judicial purposes,
were, when constituted by name and boundary, attached to Milwaukee county,
and had so
remained since that date. The legislature adjourned on the 22d of December,
to meet again on
the 2ist of the following month. "Although," said the president
of the council, upon the occasion
of the adjournment, "but few acts of a general character have been passed,
as the discussions and
action of this body have been chiefly confined to bills of a local nature,
and to the passage of
memorials to the parent government in behalf of the great interests of the
Territory; yet it is
believed that the concurrent resolutions of the two houses authorizing a
revision of the laws, is a
measure of infinite importance to the true interests of the people, and to
the credit and charac-
ter of the Territory."
    Tbe census of the Territory having been taken during the year 1838, showed
a population
of 18,13o, an increase in two years of 6,447.
  The second session of the second legislative assembly commenced on the
twenty-first day of
January, 1839, agreeable to adjournment. The most important work was the
revision of the laws
which had been perfected during the recess, by the committee to whom the
work was intrusted,
47