Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/703

WISCONSIN.  capitals; the Legislature met at Madison for the first time in 1838. The next decade was a period of wonderful growth in population. In 1844 at Ripon was founded ‘The Wisconsin Phalanx,’ a communistic settlement organized on the Brook Farm plan. This proved one of the most successful communities of the sort ever attempted. At about the same time a Mormon settlement was planted in Racine and Walworth counties.

In 1847, a bill having passed Congress for the admission of Wisconsin as a State, a constitutional convention was held, but the instrument drawn up was rejected by popular vote. In the following year a second Constitution was prepared, submitted, and adopted and Wisconsin was formally admitted to the Union, May 29, 1848. The extensive German and Scandinavian immigration which began about 1840 increased annually for a dozen years after the admission of the State, and at one time, shortly after 1848, when the revolutionary movements of that year in Europe had driven thousands of cultured Germans to this country, the project was formed of concentrating German immigration in Wisconsin and making it a German State. The early history of the State was marked by scandals in connection with the sale of public lands and the granting of railroad charters, but before the outbreak of the Civil War a better tone pervaded political life. The anti-slavery sentiment in the State was strong, and at Ripon in 1854 began one of the earliest movements which resulted subsequently in the organization of the Republican Party. In the same year occurred the noteworthy rescue of the fugitive slave Grover, at Milwaukee, which resulted in prolonged litigation, one of the most interesting points of which was the development of a pronounced nullification sentiment among the Republican and Free-Soil elements of the population, and which reached its climax when the State Supreme Court decided that the Fugitive Slave Law was unconstitutional in the State. Wisconsin's share in the Civil War was noteworthy. The State furnished a total of 91,379 men, more than the required quota, the ratio being 1 man to every 9 of its inhabitants. In 1871 the northeastern portion of the State was visited by destructive forest fires, and in 1894 the northwestern part of the State suffered from a similar visitation. In 1886 labor riots at Milwaukee necessitated the calling out of the State militia, which came into armed conflict with the mob. The first Republican Governor was elected in 1856, when Coles Bashford was chosen after a bitter contest. Since that time the State has been Republican in every Presidential election except that of 1892. Democratic fusion with the Greenback movement in 1874 resulted in the defeat of the Republican candidate for Governor, since which year, with the exception of 1890 and 1892, when the issue was again complicated by a school law which alienated the support of the Germans, the State has been regularly Republican.

Lapham, Wisconsin (Milwaukee, 1844-46); Smith, History of Wisconsin (2 vols., Madison, 1854); Strong, History of the Territory of Wisconsin (Madison, 1885); Thwaites, Story of Wisconsin (Boston, 1890), in Story of the States series; Legler, Leading Facts in the History of Wisconsin (Milwaukee, 1898); Butterfield, Discovery of the Northwest by Jean Nicolet in 1634 (Cincinnati, 1881); Hebberd, History of Wisconsin Under the Dominion of France (Madison, 1890); Thwaites, Historic Waterways (Chicago, 1888); and publications of the Parkman Club (Milwaukee) and of the Wisconsin State Historical Society.  WISCONSIN, The highest institution of learning in the educational system of Wisconsin, situated at Madison. It was founded in 1838, organized in 1848, and opened for instruction in 1851. In 1865 the attendance was only 304, of which number all but 51 were preparatory students. In 1880 the preparatory department was abolished. The period of rapid expansion began about 1885, the number of students reaching 500 in the college year of 1886-87. In 1903-04 there were 225 on the regular force of instruction, and an attendance of more than 3000 students. The institution is co-educational in all its departments. The College of Letters and Science has been in the past and still is the centre of the institution, about which the technical work has grown up. The other colleges are those of Law, Agriculture, and Engineering. The College of Engineering includes courses in civil engineering, sanitary engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and general engineering. In the College of Letters and Science are included technical courses in commerce, in pharmacy, in pre-medical studies, in home economics, and in music. The graduate work is being developed rapidly, and is organized as a school. The university confers the baccalaureate degree in arts, science, law, and philosophy; the Master's degree in arts and science; the Doctor's degree in philosophy; and the degrees of Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineer. The university grounds, of remarkable beauty, extend for more than a mile along the shores of Lake Mendota. There were in 1903 eighteen large buildings devoted to instructional and investigative work, besides a number of buildings upon the agricultural farm, some of them of considerable size, of which a part are used for instructional purposes. In 1904 the estimated value of the buildings and equipment, exclusive of the grounds and the library 