HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
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being to make Illinois a slave State. The latter report was adopted, but the pro-slavery party in the House lacked one vote of the number necessary to carry the resolution by the constitutional two-thirds majority. What followed has always been regarded as a blot upon the record of the Third General Assembly. Nicholas Hansen, who had been awarded the seat from Pike County at the beginning of the session after a contest brought by his opponent, John Shaw, was unseated after the adoption of a resolution to reconsider the vote by which he had been several weeks before declared elected. Shaw having thus been seated, the resolution was carried by the necessary twenty-four votes. Mr. Hansen, although previously regarded as a pro-slavery man, had voted with the minority when the resolution was first put upon its passage. Hence followed his deprivation of his seat. The triumph of the friends of the convention was celebrated by what Gov. John Reynolds (himself a conventionist) characterized as "a wild and indecorous procession by torchlight and liquor." (See Slavery and Slave Laws.) The session adjourned Feb. 18, having continued seventy-nine days.
FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY. This body held two sessions, the first being convened, Nov. 15, 1824, by proclamation of the Executive, some three weeks before the date for the regular session, in order to correct a defect in the law relative to counting the returns for Presidential Electors. Thomas Mather was elected Speaker of the House, while Lieutenant-Governor Hub-bard presided in the Senate. Having amended the law concerning the election returns for Presidential Electors, the Assembly proceeded to the election of two United States Senators-one to fill the unexpired term of ex-Senator Edwards (resigned) and the other for the full term beginning March 4, 1825. John McLean was chosen for the first and Elias Kent Kane for the second. Five circuit judgeships were created, and it was provided that the bench of the Supreme Court should consist of four Judges, and that semiannual sessions of that tribunal should be held at the State capital. (See Judicial Department.) The regular session came to an end, Jan. 18, 1825, but at its own request, the Lieutenant-Governor and acting Governor Hubbard re-convened the body in special session on Jan. 2, 1826, to enact a new apportionment law under the census of 1825. A sine die adjournment was taken, Jan. 28, 1826. One of the important acts of the regular session
