organization of both Kansas and Nebraska. This bill became a law on May 30, 1854.

Nebraska was to be organized like the preceding Territories. The main interest attached to the fourteenth section of the Act for the Organization of the Territory. This provided that "the Constitution and all laws of the United States which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said Territory of Nebraska, as elsewhere within the United States, except the eighth section of the Act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6, 1820, which being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by the Legislation of 1850, commonly called the Compromise measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of this Act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States."

The first clause of the Act provided that when admitted as a State, "it shall be received into the Union with or without slavery as their Constitution may prescribe at the time of admission."

There were various changes in the boundary of the Territory, part of the territory going to enrich Colorado; other parts were taken by neighbors on the north and west, but in 1863 Nebraska attained its present boundaries.

In 1860, the Nebraska Legislature submitted to the people a proposition to hold a convention and apply for admission as a State. But this proposition for a convention was defeated because the people considered themselves too few and too poor to bear the added expense of a State government.

On the 19th of April, 1864, Congress passed an act to enable the people of Nebraska to form a State government and enter the Union. The Enabling Act provided that sections sixteen and thirty-six in each township should be

granted to the State for the support of common schools; that twenty entire sections of the unappropriated public lands within the State should be granted for the purpose of erecting public buildings at the State capital; that fifty sections be granted for the erection of a penitentiary; seventytwo for the support and use of a State university.

The act provided that on or before the first Monday of May, 1864, there should be an election of representatives, who should assemble on the first Monday of July. This Assembly was authorized to form a constitution and State government with the usual provisions that the constitution should be republican and not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of IndependThis constitution was to be submitted to the people for their ratification or rejection on the second Tuesday of October, 1864.

ence.

The election of members of the convention was not along party lines. The one question was whether the Territory was yet ready for statehood. Those who were opposed to statehood voted for candidates who agreed to vote for an adjournment, sine die, as soon as the organization of the convention was completed. Those who were in favor of statehood voted for candidates who thought that the opportunity should be improved, and that great benefit would come to Nebraska from its admission as a State.

When the convention came together and organization was perfected, a vote to adjourn sine die passed by a large majority. Nothing more was done until the assembling of the legislature of 1865-1866. It was then proposed that the legislature draft a constitution to submit to the people for their adoption. Petitions were presented, though not numerously signed, asking the legislature to do this. On February 4, 1866, the committee reported the result of its deliberation to the council.

The legislature approved the constitution and passed an Act calling for an election to take place June 21st. At that time the voters were to reject or adopt the constitution, and

elect the executive, judicial, and legislative officers for the new State, if the constitution was confirmed.

A very exciting political campaign followed in which the Democratic party attempted to show that there would be an enormous increase in the expense of conducting public affairs, so that immigration would stop, and the people would be ruined by the taxes; that it was not time yet for railroad building, and that this, if it should be undertaken, would entail additional heavy burdens on the farmers. Dire ruin was predicted if statehood came.

The Republicans could point to the very low emoluments which the officers were to receive. The governor was to receive an annual salary of $1000; the secretary of State, $600; the State treasurer, $400; and the State auditor, $800. The members of the legislature were to receive $3 per day and could not receive more than $120 for any session. Again the Republicans argued, there would be no danger of a great debt because the legislature could not authorize the issue of State bonds to the extent of more than $50,000 without the vote of the people. The great benefit in the way of internal development was pointed out, when the State should have the right to grant charters to the railroads. An era of unprecedented prosperity was predicted in case Nebraska became a State.

There were other reasons for this remarkable political activity. National politics entered here and made the election of senators more important than the question whether the people of Nebraska were ready for statehood or not. The Republicans were anxious to admit Nebraska because they believed it to be Republican, and it would, therefore, increase their majority in the Senate by two. The Democrats believed that it was against their political interests, and therefore opposed it. The Republican majority in Congress was so small that the admission of one new State might have important results. The vote was very close, the majority for the adoption of the Constitution being about two hundred.

The legislature met on July 4th and a sharp contest over the election in Cass County broke out. The legislature was in session ten days and elected two United States senators. These senators went to Washington and introduced a bill for the admission of Nebraska. On July 18th a bill was passed admitting the new State, but President Johnson stopped its passage by a pocket veto.

On the reassembling of Congress December 4, 1866, the representatives from Nebraska tried to have the bill for the admission of the State passed. But there had been changes in the political atmosphere at Washington. Johnson's growing alienation from the Republican party which had elected him had reached the point of direct opposition. There was objection to the limitation of the franchise in the Nebraska Constitution to white inhabitants. Finally a bill was introduced in the Senate which provided that the State could be admitted on condition that there should be no denial of the elective franchise or of any other right to any other person, by reason of race or color, excepting Indians not taxed. The bill passed the Senate and House, but was vetoed by the President. It was brought up again on the 5th of December and debated. It was passed by both houses and again the President vetoed it, claiming in his message to the Senate that Congress was attempting in an unauthorized way to regulate the elective franchise by making it a condition that there should be no denial of this franchise to any person by reason of race or color. He called attention to the fact that the Nebraska Constitution was not formed in accordance with the provisions of the Enabling Act, and that the very small majority in favor of statehood suggested that it was very doubtful whether the vote expressed the real wish of the people. He believed also that Nebraska was not yet large or wealthy enough to support the burden of a State government.

The bill was passed over his veto, and on March 1, 1867, he issued a proclamation to the effect that Nebraska was a State of the Union.

CHAPTER XIX

ADMISSION OF THE DAKOTAS AND MONTANA

WHEN the State of Minnesota was organized its western boundary was the Red River of the North and a line extending south from the foot of Big Stone Lake to the north line of Iowa. This left all the country bounded by the Big Sioux and the Red River of the North on the east, and the Missouri on the west outside the limits of any organized State or Territory. This fragment was, by common consent, called Dakota, from the nation of Indians of that name, who claimed possession of the soil.

There was at once a demand for Territorial government. This came, not so much from actual settlers in Dakota, as from those who wished to become land owners there and desired a stable government. At the time, however, the district was practically uninhabited and unknown, although it had been partially explored by Lewis and Clark in 1804 and 1806 in their journeys to and from the Pacific. There were scattered settlers in the Missouri valley and a colony of Scotch emigrants had settled at Pembina in 1812, where there had been since 1780 a French trading post, but beyond this the land was a wilderness.

It was very evident that this condition would not long continue and that the westward migration would soon make populous the fertile plains west of the Red River of the North. This movement began as soon as the first cession