tax the lands or property of the United States in that State. At the said election the voting shall be by ballot, and by endorsing on his ballot, as each voter may be pleased, "Proposition accepted," or "Proposition rejected." Should a majority of the votes cast be for "Proposition accepted," the President of the United States, as soon as the fact is duly made known to him, shall announce the same by proclamation; and thereafter, and without any further proceedings on the part of Congress. the admission of the State of Kansas into the Union upon an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever shall be complete and absolute; and said State shall be entitled to one member in the House of Representatives in the Congress of the United States until the next census be taken by the Federal Government. But should a majority of the votes cast be for "Proposition rejected." it shall be deemed and held that the people of Kansas do not desire admission into the Union with said constitution under the conditions set forth in said proposition: and in that event the people of said Territory are hereby authorized and empowered to form for themselves a constitution and State government, by the name of the State of Kansas, according to the Federal Constitution, and may elect delegates for that purpose whenever, and not before, it is ascertained by a census duly and legally taken that the population of said Territory equals or exceeds the ratio of representation required for a member of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States; and whenever thereafter such delegates shall assemble in convention, they shall first determine by a vote hether it is the wish of the people of the proposed State to be admitted into the Union at that time; and, if so, shall proceed to form a constitution, and take all necessary steps for the establishment of a State government, in conformity with the Federal Constitution. subject to such limitations and restrictions as to the mode and manner of its approval or ratification by the people of the proposed State as they may have prescribed by law, and shall be entitled to admission into the Union as a State under such constitution, thus fairly and legally made, with or without slavery, as said constitution may prescribe. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That for the purpose of insuring, as far as possible, that the elections authorized by this act may be fair and free. the Governor, United States District Attorney, and Secretary of the Territory of Kansas, and the presiding officers of the two branches of its legislature, namely, the President of the Council and Speaker of the House of Representatives, are hereby constituted a board of commissioners to carry into effect the provisions of this act, and to use all the means necessary and proper to that end. And three of them shall constitute a board; and the board shall have power and authority to designate and establish precincts for voting or to adopt those already established; to cause polls to be opened at such places as it may deem proper in the respective counties and election precincts of said Territory; to appoint as judges of election at each of the several places of voting three discreet and respectable persons, any two of whom shall be competent to act; to require the sheriffs of the several counties, by themselves or deputies, to attend the judges at each of the places of voting for the purpose of preserving peace and good order; or the said board may, instead of said sheriffs and their deputies, appoint at their discretion, and in such instances as they may choose, other fit persons for the same purpose. The election hereby authorized shall continue one day only, and shall not be continued later than sundown on that day. The said board shall appoint the day for holding said election, and the said governor shall announce the same by proclamation; and the day shall be as early a one as is consistent with due notice thereof to the people of said Territory, subject to the provisions of this act. The said board shall have full power to prescribe the time, manner, and places of said election, and to direct the time [within] which returns shall be made to the said board, whose duty it shall be to announce the result by proclamation, and the said Governor shall certify the same to the President of the United States without delay. SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That in the election hereby authorized, all white male inhabitants of said Territory, over the age of twenty-one years, who possess the qualifications which were required by the laws of said Territory for a legal voter at the last general election for the members of the territorial legislature, and none others, shall be allowed to vote; and this shall be the only qualification required to entitle the voter to the right of suffrage in said election. And if any person not so qualified shall vote or offer to vote, or if any person shall vote more than once at said election, or shall make or cause to be made any false, fictitious, or fraudulent returns, or shall alter or change any returns of said election, such person shall, upon conviction thereof before any court of competent jurisdiction, be kept at hard labor not less than six months and not more than three years. SEC 4. And be it further enacted, That the members of the aforesaid board of commissioners, and all persons appointed by them to carry into effect the provisions of this act, shall, before entering upon their duties, take an oath to perform faithfully the duties of their respeсtive offices: and, on failure thereof, they shall be liable and subject to the same charges and penalties as are provided in like cases under the Territorial laws. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the officers mentioned in the preceding section shall receive for their services the same compensation as is given for like services under the Territorial laws. The vote in the Senate, on agreeing to the Conference Committee's Report, stood-yeas, 30; nays, 22; as follows: YEAS. Messrs. Allen, Bayard, Benjamin, Bigler, Biggs, Bright, Brown, Clay, Davis, Evans, Fitzpatrick, Green, Gwin, Hammond, Houston, Hunter, Iverson, Johnson (Ark.), Johnson (Tenn.), Jones, Kennedy, Mallory, Mason, Polk, Pugh, Sebastian, Thomson (N. J.), Toombs, Wright, Yulee. NATS.-Messrs. Broderick, Cameron, Chandler, Collamer, Crittenden, Dixon, Doolittle, Douglas, Durkee, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Hale, Hamlin, Harlan, King, Seward, Simmons, Stuart, Trumbull, Wade, Wilson. PAIRED.-Bell with Pierce, Fitch with Sumner. ABSENT. Clark, Bates, Henderson, Reid, Thompson (Ky.), Slidell. In the House, on the final vote, among those who had voted against the original Lecompton Bill and who now supported the English dodge, were Gilmer, Am., of N. C., and the following Democrats, viz.: English and Foley of Ind.; Cockerill, Cox, Groesbeck, Hall, Lawrence and Pendleton, of Ohio; and Owen Jones, of Pa. Gen. Quitman of Mississippi, and Mr. Bonham of S. C., fire eaters, voted No, and the following members "paired off," viz.: Washburn (Wis.) with Arnold; Matteson with Reuben Davis; Purviance with Dimmick; Morrill with Faulkner; Horton with Hill; J. C. Kunkel with Miles Taylor; Montgomery with Warren; Thompson with Stewart (Md.); and Wood with George Taylor. THE PUBLIC LANDS-AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. THE following bill appropriating public lands for the establishment of agricultural schools, which was introduced by Mr. Morrill, passed the House of Representatives on the 22d of April, 1858, by a vote of 104 to 100. In the Senate it was read twice and referred to the Committee on Public Lands, and will probably come up for final action in that body during this (1858-9) winter : An Act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there be granted to the several States and Territories, for the purpose hereinafter mentioned, five millions nine hundred and twenty thousand (5,920,000) acres of land, to be apportioned to each State a quantity equal to twenty thousand (20,000) acres for each senator and representative in Congress to which the States are now respectively entitled. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the land aforesaid, after being surveyed, shall be apportioned to the several States and Territories in sections or subdivisions of sections, not less than one quarter of a section; and whenever there are public lands in a State worth one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre [the value of said lands to be determined by the governor of said State], the quantity to which said State shall be entitled shall be selected from such lands, and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby directed to issue to those States in which there are no public lands of the value of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre land scrip to the amount of their distributive shares in acres under the provisions of this act, said scrip to be sold by said States and the proceeds thereof applied to the uses and purposes prescribed in this act, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever: Provided, That in no case shall any State to which land scrip may thus be issued be allowed to locate the same within the limits of any other State, but their assignees may thus locate said land scrip upon any of the unappropriated lands of the United States subject to private entry. SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That in all the expenses of management and supervision of said lands, previous to their sales, and all expenses incurred in the management and disbursement of the moneys which may be received therefrom, shall be paid by the States to which they may belong out of the treasury of said States, so that the entire proceeds of the sale of said land shall be applied without any diminution whatever to the purposes hereinafter mentioned. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That all moneys derived from the sale of the lands aforesaid by the States to which the lands are apportioned, and from the sales of land scrip hereinbefore provided for, shall be invested in stocks of the United States, or of the States, or some other safe stocks, yielding not less than five per centum upon the par value of said stocks; and that the moneys so invested shall constitute a perpetual fund, the capital of which shall remain forever undiminished (except so far as may be provided in section fifth of this act), and the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated by each State which may take and claim the benefit of this act to the endowment, support, and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific or classical studies, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the grant of land and land scrip hereby authorized shall be made on the following conditions, to which, as well as to the provisions hereinbefore contained, the previous assent of the several States shall be signified by legislative acts: First. If any portion of the fund invested, as provided by the foregoing section, or any portion of the interest thereon, shall, by any action or contingency, be diminished or lost, it shall be replaced by the State to which it belongs, so that the capital of the fund shall remain for ever undiminished; and the annual interest Dowdell, Edmundson, Elliott, English, Eustis, shall be regularly applied without diminution Faulkner, Florence, Gartrell, Goode, Greento the purposes mentioned in the fourth section wood, Gregg, Groesbeck, Grow, L. W. Hall, of this act, except that a sum, not exceeding T. L. Harris, Hill, Houston, Hughes, Jackson, ten per centum upon the amount received by Jenkins, Jewett, Geo. W. Jones, J. G. Jones, any State under the provisions of this act, may be expended for the purchase of lands for sites or experimental farms, whenever authorized by the respective legislatures of said States. Second. No portion of said fund, nor the interest thereon, shall be applied, directly or indirectly, under any pretence whatever, to the purchase, erection, preservation, or repair of any building or buildings. Third. Any State which may take and claim the benefit of the provisions of this act shall provide, within five years, at least not less than one college, as described in the fourth section of this act, or the grant to such State shall cease; and said State shall be bound to O. Jones, Keitt, Kelly, Lawrence, Leidy, Leiter Letcher, Maclay, McQueen, Mason, Miles, Mil' ler, Millson, Montgomery, Moore, Isaac N Morris, Mott, Niblack, Nichols, Pendleton, Pey ton, Phelps, Phillips, Potter, Quitman, Reagan Ruffin, Sandige, Savage, Scales, Scott, Searing, A. Shaw, H. M. Shaw, Shorter, Singleton, Wm, Smith, Spinner, Stallworth, Stephens, Steven. son, J. A. Stewart, Talbot, Geo. Taylor, Trippe. Ward, Warren, Watkins, Winslow, Woodson J. V. Wright-100. PREEMPTION RIGHTS. MR. GROW, member of the House of pay the United States the amount received of Representatives from Pennsylvania, proany lands previously sold, and that the title to posed at the first session of the XXXVth purchasers under the State shall be valid. Fourth. An annual report shall be made Congress, the following important mearegarding the progress of each college, record- sure for the protection of settlers on the ing any improvements and experiments made, with their cost and results, and such other matters as may be supposed useful-one copy of which shall be transmitted by mail free, by each, to all the other colleges which may be endowed under the provisions of this act, and to the Smithsonian Institution, and the agricultural department of the Patent Office at Washington. Fifth. When lands shall be selected from those which have been raised to double the minimum price, in consequence of railroad grants, they shall be computed to the States at double the quantity. The yeas and nays on the passage of this bill were as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Abbott, Adrain, Ahl, Andrews, Bennett, Bingham, Bishop, Blair, Bliss, Bowie, Brayton, Buffinton, Burlingame, Burroughs, Public Domain: A BILL to prevent the future sale of the public lands under proclamation of the President until the same shall have been surveyed for at 'east fifteen years. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Con gress assembled, That from and after the first day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, no public lands shall be exposed to sale by pro clamation of the Pres dent, until the same shall have been surveyed and the return thereof filed in the land office for at least fifteen years. This bill, it will be seen, gives the settlers fifteen years, precedence over the speculators. On the 3d of May, 1858, above bill, which motion was voted down as follows: Campbell, Case, Chaffee, Ezra Clark, Clawson, YEAS-Messrs. Abbott, Adrain, Andrews, Bennett, Bingham, Blair, Bliss, Brayton, Buffinton, Burlingame, Case, E. Clark, H. F. Clark, Clawson, Colfax, Comins, Coo, Cragin, James Craig, Burton Craige, Curtis, Damrell, Davis Pike, Pottle, Purviance, Ready, Reilly, Ricaud, (Mass.), Davis (Iowa), Dean, Dick, Dodd, DurRitchie, Robbins, Roberts, Royce, Russell, fee, Foster, Giddings, Goodwin, Granger, Grow, Seward, J. Sherman, J. W. Sherman, Sickles, R. B. Hall, Harlan, T. L. Harris, Hickman, Stanton, Tappan, Thayer, Thompson, Tomp- NAYS-Messrs. Anderson, Atkins, Avery, Barksdale, Billinghurst, Bocock, Bonham, Branch, Bryan, Burnett, Caskie, Chapman, J. B. Clark, Clay, Clingman, Cobb, J. Cochrane, Cockerill, Cox, J. Craig, B. Craige, Crawford, Curry, Davidson, Davis (Ind.). Dewart, Hoard, Horton, Howard, G. W. Jones, Kellogg, [Republicans in Roman; Democrats in Italics; Americans in SMALL CAPS.] NAYS-Messrs, Anderson, Atkins, Avery, ABSENT OR NOT VOTING. -Messrs. Ahl, Arnold, Barksdale, Bishop, Bocock, Boyce, Branch, Bryan, Burnett, Burns, Caruthers, J. B. Clark, Clay, Clemens, Clingman, Cobb, John Coch rane, Cockerill, Crawford, Davidson, Davis (Ind.), Dewart, Dowdell, Edmundson, English, Foley, Garnett, Gartrell, Gillis, Goode, Greenwood, Gregg, L. W. Hall, Hawkins, Houston, Hughes, Jackson, Jewett, J. G. Jones, Owen Jones, Lawrence, Leidy, Leiter, Letcher, McQueen, H. MARSHALL, MAYNARD, Millson, Niblack, Nichols, Peyton, Phelps, Powell, READY, Reagan, Reiley, Ruffin, Russell, Sandige, Savage, Scales, Seward, Shorter, Sickles, Singleton, S. A. Smith, Stalworth, Stephens, TRIPPE, UNDERWOOD, Watkins, White, WOODSON, Wortendyke, A. R. Wright, J. V. Wright, ZOLLI COFFER-78. [Democrats in Roman; Republicans in Italics; Americans in SMALL CAPS.] Becker, Billinghurst, Bonham, Bowie, Bur- KANSAS IN 1858. the appointment of judges and presiding officers, and the final counting and declaration of the returns, was vested by the Convention in their notorious President John Calhoun, and the Free-State men had every reason to expect that any necessary amount of cheating and falsification would be resorted to, to shape the returns according to his wishes. On the other hand, there was evident danger that this bogus Constitution would be forced upon the Territory; and it seemed a pity, considering the great majority of the Free-State men, not to make an effort to secure the officers to be elected. A Free Soil Convention decided to make no nominations for State officers, but this was not satisfactory to all, and a bolting nomination was made. Our last sketch of Kansas affairs left it. The whole control of the election, that territory with the Lecompton Constitation hanging over its head. The Convention which had framed that bogus instrument declined, in spite of the pledges of the majority of the members, to submit their handiwork to the people. They allowed only a vote on the insertion or rejection of the clauses by which slave property was declared to be before and higher than any constitutional sanction, and establishing-the holding of slaves as a part of the fundamental law of Kansas. The vote upon the adoption or rejection of this clause was fixed for the 21st of December, but as it was impossible to vote against slavery without at the same time voting for the Constitution, the FreeState men abstained from the polls, and the slavery clause was adopted by a vote of 6,143 for, to 569 against it. More than half the affirmative votes were returned from counties along the Missouri border, not having in all more than a thousand votes. The choice of officers under this Lecompton Constitution, as ordered by the Convention, was to come off on the first Monday in January. There was great difference of opinion among the Free-State men how they ought to act in reference to Meanwhile, Governor Walker had been superseded, and Governor Denver, a commissioner of the Land Office, appointed in his place. Secretary Stanton, acting Governor in Walker's absence, called a special session of the newly elected Territorial Legislature in which the Free-State men had a majority, and they passed an act submitting the Lecompton Constitution to a vote of the people, to be taken on the same day with the Lecompton electhe Legislature, under the Topeka Contion. At the beginning of the year, also, stitution, many of whose members were election held on the 3d of August, by ten thousand majority, trampled the Lecompton Constitution under their feet. also members of the Territorial Legisla- jected both bribes and threats, and at the ture, met at Topeka. Their object merely was to keep up the State organization. At the election of the 4th of January, a majority of 10,226 votes was cast against The Territorial Legislature, whose sesthe Lecompton Constitution. The result sion expired by law with the month of of the Lecompton State election long February, had failed to meet the expec. remained in doubt. It was understood tations of its constituents. The members that a little over six thousand votes (a had been altogether too much engrossed large part of the Free-State men not by private bills for banks, railroads, townvoting) had been given for both sets of plots, etc., to have much time or thought candidates for State officers, but accord- to give to public interests. The most ing to Calhoun's figuring, the Pro-Slavery obnoxious of the Border Ruffian acts were men were chosen. It was also understood repealed, and a bill was passed to call a that the Free-State men, of whom a large Convention to frame a new State Constipart had voted for members of the Legis- tution; it was so late, however, in the lature, had a decided majority in both session, when this bill was disposed of, branches of that body; but all depended as to afford Governor Denver a plausiupon the returns from Leavenworth ble pretence for insisting that it had failed County, the returns for some districts of to become a law. which had been falsified on their way to Calhoun, and as he kept the whole body of returns in his pocket, and refused to certify to anybody's election till Congress had first acted on the question by admission, the matter long remained in doubt. It was generally understood that if Kansas was admitted, Calhoun would cook up the returns so as to produce a Pro-Slavery State government and Legislature. In spite of this renewed and unequivocal indication of the entire repugnance of a large majority of the people of Kansas to the Lecompton Constitution, the President still adhered to the policy of forcing Kansas into the Union, under that Con stitution. A bill to that effect was introduced. Mr. Douglas falling back upon his doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, refused to support it, and, though it passed the Senate, in spite of every exertion of executive power, it was rejected in the House. Some of the bolters were bought over; others were half bought over, so that finally the bill passed, but only with a provision submitting the question of admission or not to a vote of the people of Kansas, who were also offered a large The Convention met, however, in April, and framed a Constitution to be submitted to Congress, which Constitution was ratified by the people by a large majority, though the entire vote upon it was but small, as the people doubted whether Congress, after their recent act, would consent to admit Kansas as a State, with her present population. Meanwhile, Kansas has enjoyed an uneasy sort of quiet, not, however, without some cruel and bloody events in the region about Fort Scott, where the Border Ruffians made their final stand, and against whom the Free-State men were obliged to arm in self-defence. Indeed there can hardly be said to have been any law anywhere in the Territory. Governor Denver adopted the policy of keeping quiet and doing little, or nothing The infamous Lecompte still remained the chief justice of the Territory. It is true that the Free-State men had been enabled to displace by popular election the county officers and the Probate Judges, to whom the Border Ruffian Legislature had given a very wide jurisdiction, and to elect FreeState men in their places; but the moment bribe in lands, to come in under the that these Probate Courts could no longer Lecompton Constitution, to which was be used for purposes of Border Ruflian added a prohibition against their coming oppression, Lecompte and his colleagues in under any other Constitution till they had the full population of 93,340. [A full account of these Congressional proceedings will be found in another part of the Almanac.] It was still further attempted to bribe or delude the people of Kansas by an issue on the part of John Calhoun, of certificates avowed their intention to decide against the validity of the law conferring general jurisdiction upon them, thus invalidating all the proceedings of those Courts, and throwing everything into confusion. To give Kansas an efficient government, and to wipe out the deep remaining traces of the oppression and misrule of which she to a majority of Free-State men as mem- has been the victim the speedy organizabers elect of both branches of the Legislation of a State government and her admission into the Union appear to be The people of Kansas scornfully re- highly necessary. ture. |