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 by a feverish activity in railway construction (the mileage in the state being increased from 1953 to 5407 m. in the ten years), and by an extraordinary rise in land values, urban and rural. Farm-land prices were raised to a basis of maximum productiveness when the best interests, especially of the western section, demanded steady growth based on average crop results under average conditions. The early ’nineties were marked by an economic collapse of false values, and succeeding years by a painful recovery of stable conditions.

The Democratic and Republican parties were first effectively organized in opposition, as parts of national bodies, in the territorial campaigns of 1858. Till then there were practically only Democratic factions; after 1861 the Republicans held the state securely until 1890. After about 1890 the national tendencies towards a re-alignment of political parties on social-economic issues were sharply displayed in Nebraska. This was in the main only an indication of the general (q.v.), but this found in Nebraska special stimulus in large losses (almost $900,000) suffered by the state from the negligence and defalcation of certain Republican officeholders. Following 1890 the “Fusion” movement—the fusion, that is, of Populists, Democrats and (after 1896) of Silver Republicans—was of great importance. The only year in which these elements carried the state against the Republicans for presidential electors was in 1896, when William J. Bryan of Lincoln was their presidential candidate; although the state delegation of representatives and senators in Congress was for a time divided. The Fusionists practically controlled the state government from 1897–1899; they held the legislature from 1891–1895 and from 1897–1899, the supreme court from 1899–1901, and the governorship and executive departments from 1895–1901; they elected a Democratic governor also for 1891–1893; but he was not of the true Fusion type, and vetoed a maximum railway freight-rate bill, although his Republican successor approved one. The year 1891 was the most feverish political year of this period. Apart from these temporary Fusion successes the Republicans have always controlled the state.

The governors of Nebraska have been as follows:—

 NEBRASKA CITY, a city and the county-seat of Otoe county, Nebraska, U.S.A., situated on the high W. bank of the Missouri river, about 40 m. below Omaha. Pop. (1880) 4183; (1890) 11,494; (1900) 7380 (882 foreign-born); (1910) 5488. It is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Missouri Pacific railway systems. A railway and wagon bridge spans the Missouri. The city is the seat of the state Institute for the Blind (1875), and has three public parks and a public library. The city is a distributing centre for a beautiful farming region, the trade in grain being especially large. In 1900 Nebraska City ranked third among the manufacturing cities of the state, the manufactures including canned fruits and vegetables, packed pork, flour, oatmeal, hominy, grits, meal, starch, cider-vinegar, agricultural implements, windmills, paving bricks, concrete, sewer pipe, beer, over-alls and shirts. It is one of the oldest settlements of the state. The first “old Fort Kearney” was established on the site of Nebraska City in 1847, but was abandoned in 1848, and the fort was re-established farther W. on the Platte river (see ). Otoe county was organized in 1855, and the original Nebraska City was incorporated and made the county-seat in the same year. This city, together with Kearney City, incorporated in 1855—adjacent to the first “old” Fort Kearney—and South Nebraska City, were consolidated by the legislature into the present Nebraska City in 1858. (Twelve other city “additions” and so-called “towns,” all within or closely adjacent to the present city, were in existence in 1857.) Nebraska City was for some years the largest city of the state. In 1858 it became the headquarters of a great freighting-firm that distributed supplies for the United States government among the army posts between the Missouri river and the Rocky Mountains; in seven months in 1859 this one firm employed 602 men, used 517 wagons, 5682 oxen, and 75 mules, and shipped 2,782,258 ℔. of freight. Nebraska City was the initial point of several roads, parts at one time or another of the “Oregon,” “Old California,” and “Great Salt Lake” trails. (See (State): History.) Nebraska City became a city of the second class in 1871 and a city of the first class in 1901.  NEBUCHADREZZAR, or, king of Babylon, the  of the Greeks. The first and last are nearer to the original name as it is found on the cuneiform monuments, viz. Nabu-kudurri-usur, “Nebo, defend the landmark.” Nebuchadrezzar seems to have been of Chaldean origin. He married Amuhia, daughter of the Median king, according to Abydenus, and in 605 defeated Necho at Carchemish, driving the Egyptians out of Asia and annexing Syria to the Babylonian empire. In the following year he succeeded his father Nabopolassar on the Babylonian throne,