While tobacco has become a leading industry in southern Wisconsin, and will rapidly become a greater, remember that while an individual may, is quite sure, to grow rich from raising it, a nation never will; for the one man's gain is obtained at the cost of his children having taken from them the means of future gain, by robbing the soil; and you are sending off in smoke the fertility of this garden of the world. Remember that there is no other valley of the Rock for your grandsons to possess. Hence I say, raise only the best; handle with care; keep sheep; alternate between clover, roots and tobacco; get all the wood ashes you can, and pray God to forgive you for raising the filthy weed that sends yearly to untimely graves more human beings than does Beer, Wine, Whisk y & Co. combined. If you will continue in the business, cultivate successfully, remembering the better the crop the greater the profit.

On motion of Mr. Henry Marsden, Gen. Bryant was made an honorary member of the association.

On motion, it was decided that the next regular meeting of the association be held at Union Hall, in Edgerton, on the 25th day of May next, at 10 o'clock A. M.

The executive committee appointed a special meeting for April 14th, at 1 o'clock P. M., sharp, for discussion and the transaction of business.

Meeting adjourned.

CONSTITUTION.

ART. I. The name of this organization shall be "The Wisconsin Tobacco Growers' Association."

ART. II. Its object shall be the advancement of the science of tobacco culture, and its preparation for market.

ART. III. Its members shall consist of annual members, paying an annual fee of one dollar; of life members, paying a fee of five dollars at one time; of honorary life members, who shall be distinguished for merit in tobacco culture or kindred sciences, or who shall confer any particular benefit upon the association; and honorary annual members, who ̊ may, by vote, be invited to participate in the proceedings of the society, but who shall not have the privilege of a ballot.

ART. IV. Its officers shall consist of a president, four vice-presidents recording secretary, corresponding secretary, treasurer, and an executive board consisting of the foregoing officers, and such additional members as the 28 W. S. A. S.

association may elect; five of whom shall constitute a quorum at any of its meetings. All officers shall be elected by ballot, and shall hold their office for one year thereafter, and until their successors are chosen, provided that additional members to the executive board may be elected at any regular meeting.

ART. V. The association shall hold annual meetings, commencing on the first Thursday after the first day of January of each year, for the election of officers, for discussion, and for the exhibition of samples of growing or cered tobacco, and such other meetings for discussion and exhibition as the execu tive committee may direct.

ART. VI. This constitution, with the accompanying by-laws, may be amended at any regular meeting, by a two-thirds vote of the members present.

BY-LAWS.

ART. I. The president shall preside at the meetings, and with the advice of the recording secretary, call all meetings of the association, and have a general supervision of the affairs of the society, in conjunction with the ex. ecutive committee. He shall sign all orders upon the treasury for moneys voted by the association.

ART. II. The vice presidents shall act in the absence or disability of the president, and perform the duties of the chief officer.

ART. III. The recording secretary shall record the proceedings of the association, preserve all books and papers belonging to the same, and superintend, with the advice of the president, the publication of its reports. He shall also present a detailed report of the affairs of the association at its annual meeting, and countersign all orders drawn upon the treasury. He shall co-operate with the corresponding secretary in an annual report to the governor of the state.

ART. IV. It shall be the duty of the corresponding secretary, with the advice of the president, to answer communications addressed to the association, and, as far as possible, collect reports from all parts of the Wisconsin tobacco district, as well as other portions of the country, engaged in the growth of Seed Leaf tobacco. He shall, on or before the first of January of each year, make, in co-operation with the recording secretary, an annual report to the governor of this state, of the transactions of the association, together with the quality and probable amount of the tobacco crop raised during the year.

ART. V. The treasurer shall keep an account of all moneys belonging to the association, and disburse the same upon the written order of the presi dent, countersigned by the recording secretary, and shall make an annual report of receipts and disbursements, and furnish the recording secretary with a copy of the same, on or before the first day of the annual meeting. The treasurer elect shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, give good and sufficient bonds for the faithful performance of his duties, subject to the approval of the executive committ e.

ART. VI. The executive board may, subject to the approval of the association, manage all its affairs, and fill vacancies in the board of officers; and three of their number, as designated by the president, shall constitute a finance committee.

ART. VII. It shall be the duty of the committee on finance to settle with the treasurer, and to examine and report upon all the bills or claims against the association, which may have been presented or referred to them.

ART. VIII. No bills or claims against this association shall be paid out of its treasury until they have been examined by the committee on finance, and an appropriation made for the same, by the votes of a majority at a reg. ular meeting of the society.

ART. IX. This association shall have a scal, to be kept by the president or recording secretary.

OF THE ORDER OF BUSINESS.

ART. X. The following crder of business shall be observed at all meetings of the executive committee:

1. Reading the minutes of the preceding meeting.

2. Reading the minutes and reports of the standing committee.

3. Reading the minutes and reports of the finance committee.

4. Report of the auditing committee.

5. Report from special committees.

6. Communications from the secretary.

7. Communications from members of the committees.

8. Unfinished business.

9. Miscellaneous business.

This order of business may be suspended, however, at any time, by vote of a majority of the members present.

AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS BEFORE THE WISCONSIN PIONEER ASSOCIATION.

BY HON. GEORGE B. SMITH.

Wisconsin has had an eventful history. It is claimed that, as early as 1634, only fourteen years later than the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, and long before the settlement of William Penn at Philadelphia, John Nicolet, a daring Frenchman, had visited what is now Green Bay, with a view to smoke the pipe of peace with the Winnebagoes. It is certain, that as early as 1665, the Jesuit missionaries commenced at La Pointe, on Lake Superior, their work of Christianizing the Indians. It is also certain that in 1669, their missionary labors began in the vicinity

of Green Bay, Wisconsin was also the great highway over which the first explorers passed, in search of the Mississippi river and the unknown sea. In the year 1673, Louis Joliet, with Father Marquette, passed up the Fox river from Green Bay, and down the Wisconsin river, in search of the Father of Waters. On the 17th of June of that year, they discovered it, at the mouth of the Wisconsin river, near where now stands Prairie du Chien.

These men, especially Father Marquette and others, came to this wild and lonely region mainly to bring religion and civilization to the Indians; incidentally they came on a voyage of discovery. There was another, and in many respects a greater than these, who came to explore in the interest of conquest and commerce. I refer to La Salle, who, as early as 1680, with his little party and his faithful and famous friend, Tonty, discov ered the Mississippi river still further south, in what was then called the Illinois country, now the state of Illinois. Afterwards, he followed the river to the Gulf of Mexico. This man of wonderful enterprise, wondrous foresight and iron energy, even then dreamed that the valley of the Mississippi might, in his time, become what it is now the garden and glory of the world. Still later, and all the way down to the time when it was finally owned and occupied by the United States, Wisconsin continued to have a remarkable and eventful history, until it was finally organized into a separate territory in 1836, when the people then here were invested with the great American boon of self-gov

ernment.

From 1671 to 1763, a period of 92 years, Wisconsin was under the government of France; from 1763 to 1796, a period of 33 years, it was governed by Great Britain, although the latter, in 1783, had ceded her claim to the United States. From 1796 to 1800, it was under the government of the United States as part of the territory northwest of the river Ohio; for nine years, from 1800 to 1809, it was under the territorial government of Indiana; from 1809 to 1818, it was governed by the territory of Illinois, and from 1818 to 1836, it was under the territorial government of Michigan. Thus it will be seen that for a period of 165 years, the territory which now comprises this magnificent state was the mere foot-ball of nations, states and territories.

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a

Since Wisconsin came under the government of Illinois territory, it has had a somewhat curious, as it had before a remarkable, history. In the year 1784, on the 1st of March of that year, and in less than one hundred days after the evacuation of this country by the British army, Thomas Jefferson reported to the Continental Congress, with the concurrence of his committee majority being from the southern states his celebrated ordinance for the government of all the territory ceded or to be ceded by individual states to the United States, * section 5 of which provided: "That after the year 1800 of the Christian era, there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said states, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted to have been personally guilty." *** Sixteen members voted for and seven against this ordinance, on a test vote, but the requisite majority of states not voting for the ordinance, it failed. It will be observed that this proposed ordinance embraced all of the states thereafter forever to be admitted into what was then denominated the confederacy. Afterwards, on the 13th of July, 1787, two months before the adoption of the constitution, and something like a year before its ratification by nine states the requisite number to make it the constitution of the United States that celebrated ordinance. "for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio," introduced by Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, was passed by the Continental Congress. Article 6 of this ordinance is in substance exactly like article 5 in the one introduced by Mr. Jefferson, which I have already quoted, with a proviso in relation to persons owing service who should escape from any of the original states. By this ordinance, all officers of the territories had to be appointed by congress. After the adop tion of the constitution of the United States, and on the 17th of August, 1789, congress amended this ordinance by providing that all such officers should be appointed by the president of the United States; in all other respects the ordinance of 1787 stood as the organic and paramount law for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio.

This ordinance of 1787, so familiar to all of the early settlers of