The Nebraska Territorial Legislature was held from January 16, 1855 until 1865 in

Omaha City Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

Nebraska Territory The Territory of Nebraska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until March 1, 1867, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Nebraska. The Nebrask ...

Major issues

Slavery

In 1854 the

Kansas–Nebraska Act The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 () was a territorial organic act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas, passed by the 33rd United States Congress, and signed into law ...

created the Nebraska Territory, overturning the

Missouri Compromise The Missouri Compromise was a federal legislation of the United States that balanced desires of northern states to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a Slave states an ...

by allowing legislatures of the Nebraska and Kansas territories to determine whether to permit or abolish slavery. Slavery was a contentious issue for the territorial legislature between the creation of the Territory in 1854 and the outbreak of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

in 1861.

State capitol

After serving as the territorial capital for ten years, Omaha City wanted to be the capital of the new state. In 1854 land speculators formed the

Omaha Claim Club The Omaha Claim Club, also called the Omaha Township Claim Association(1954 ''Omaha's First Century''. Omaha World-Herald. Retrieved 7/14/07. and the Omaha Land Company, was organized in 1854 for the purpose of "encouraging the building of a city"Mo ...

as part of a scheme to persuade territory legislators to keep the capital in Omaha. Their aggressive efforts to secure land to give away to legislators led to the platting of

Scriptown Scriptown was the name of the first subdivision in the history of Omaha, which at the time was located in Nebraska Territory. It was called "Scriptown" because scrip was used as payment, similar to how a company would pay employees when regular mone ...

. However, their bid failed, and in 1865 the state capitol moved to

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

Sessions

1855

The new legislature immediately passed the Free Public School Act of 1855, which created free public schools for children across the territory. Positions for a territorial superintendent and county school superintendents to be elected by popular vote were also created. County superintendents were supposed to organize school districts and levy

property tax A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inher ...

es to support schools; however, not every locale levied the taxes or built schools. The first incorporated city in Nebraska,

Nebraska City Nebraska City is a city in Nebraska, and the county seat of, Otoe County, Nebraska, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 7,289. The Nebraska State Legislature has credited Nebraska City as being the oldest incorporated ...

, was granted its charter by a special act in 1855. In 1855, the

imposed their will on the territorial legislature, forcing the passage of a territorial law granting per settler, they doubled the federally imposed limit of .

1856

In January 1856, the territorial legislature chartered the

Bank of Florence The Bank of Florence was a wildcat bank located in Florence, Nebraska Territory. It originally operated for three years in the 1850s, and another bank adopted the name and location in 1904. Today the building that housed the bank is the Bank o ...

, which failed three years later.

1857

On February 11 the territorial legislature gave permission to a group of citizens to found the University of Nebraska at

Saratoga, Nebraska Saratoga Springs, Nebraska Territory, or Saratoga, was a boom and bust town founded in 1856 that thrived for several years. During its short period of influence the town grew quickly, outpacing other local settlements in the area including Omaha ...

. However, when they did not complete the task of meeting in Saratoga and establishing a campus within one year they lost their permission to charter.

1858

In January, 1858 a group of representatives illegally moved the territorial legislature to

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

following a violent outburst at the capitol building. After repeatedly being dogged out of voting on the removal of the capital from Omaha, a skirmish pitted representatives from

, Florence, and other communities to convene outside of Omaha. Despite having a majority of members present for the vote to remove the capital and all agreeing, the "Florence Legislature" did not succeed in swaying the Nebraska Territory governor. The capital remained at Omaha until 1867 when Nebraska gained

statehood A state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory. There is no undisputed definition of a state. One widely used definition comes from the German sociologist Max Weber: a "st ...

1860

In early 1860 the territorial legislature authorized a special election to consider forming a state constitution, which did not pass.

1864

The territorial legislature had a variety of powers, including granting every incorporated town or city its charter, which lasted through the 1864 session, when the first general incorporation act was passed and signed by the governor.

1866

Six years later, on January 9, 1866 the territorial Governor

Alvin Saunders Alvin Saunders (July 12, 1817November 1, 1899) was a U.S. Senator from Nebraska, as well as the final and longest-serving governor of the Nebraska Territory, a tenure he served during most of the American Civil War. Education Saunders was bo ...

urged the Legislature to consider statehood.

Municipal incorporations

The territorial legislature had the sole power of incorporating every municipality throughout the territory until 1864. A number of incorporations existed only on paper and were never actually settled. In 1864, the first general incorporation act was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor which allowed county commissioners to incorporate towns.(1912) ''Bulletin.'' Issues 2. Nebraska State Legislature. p. 7.

References

External links

"Nebraska as a Territory,"
''History of the State of Nebraska,'' Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1882.

"History of Nebraska State Government Organization"

Bibliography

* Berens, C. (2005) ''One house: The Unicameral's progressive vision for Nebraska.''

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Unive ...

. {{Pioneer Omaha Nebraska Territory Former territorial legislatures of the United States 1854 establishments in Nebraska Territory 1865 disestablishments in Nebraska Territory