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Members of a State Legislature were also chosen at the election in November. The Legislature convened at Golden City on the second Tuesday of December, 1865, and elected for United States Senators from the new State of Colorado John Evans, the Territorial Governor, and Jerome B. Chaffee, formerly Speaker of the House in the Territorial Legislature.

These Senators elect, early in January, 1866, in compliance with a joint resolution of their State Legislature, presented the papers relating to the State organization to the President of the United States, asking his influence in favor of the early admission of the State into the Union. This influence the President declined to give; but submitted the whole subject to Congress, as will appear by the following communication which he made to that body:

"I herewith transmit a communication addressed to me by Messrs. John Evans and J. B. Chaffee, as United States Senators elect from the State of Colorado, together with the accompanying documents. Under the act of Congress, approved on the 2d day of March, 1864, the people of Colorado through a Convention formed a Constitution, making provision for a State Government, which, when submitted to the qualified voters of the Territory, was rejected. In the summer of 1865, a second Convention was called by the Executive Committees of the several political parties in the Territory, which assembled at Denver on the 8th of August. On the 12th of that month, the Convention adopted a State Constitution, which was submitted to the people on the 5th of September, 1865, and ratified by a majority of 155 of the qualified voters. The proceedings in the second instance having differed in time and mode from those specified in the act of March, 1864, I have declined to issue the proclamation for which provision is made in the 5th section of the law, and therefore submit the question for the consultation and further action of Congress.

(Signed)

"WASHINGTON, D. C., June 12, 1866."

"ANDREW JOHNSON.

This document was referred in the United States Senate to the Committee on Territories, which, on the 18th of January, 1866, reported a bill for the admission of Colorado into the Union, with the Constitution adopted by her people.

This bill, which had previously been passed by the House of Representatives on the 3d of May, 1866, was passed in the Senate by a vote of 19 to 13, and in the House by a vote of 80 to 55. The bill was not approved by the President. The reason assigned for his veto were substantially as follows:

First. That the establishment of a State Government was not at that time necessary for the welfare of Colorado. The population was smallfrom twenty-five thousand to forty thousand-and many of these were not permanent inhabitants, but were ready to remove to other mining districts, if circumstances should render them more inviting.

Secondly. It was not certain that a majority of the people desired the establishment of a State Government. In 1864, out of a vote of 6,192, there was a majority of 3,152 against the proposed change from the

Territorial condition. In September, 1865, the question was again presented, without any legal authority, and out of 5,905 votes there was a majority of only 155 in favor of a State organization. It was not safe to recognize the illegal election as setting aside the former legal

one.

Thirdly. It would be unjust to give to (say) thirty thousand people of Colorado an equal weight in the Senate with the four millions in New York, and in the Electoral College three votes to the thirty-three of New York; that is, in the choice of President to allow one person in Colorado to have as much weight as one hundred in New York. It was desirable to have something like an equality in this respect among the several States. Though for various reasons great irregularities had been allowed, in no one was it so great as in that instance.

A bill for the admission of Colorado, similar in its essential provisions to the former, was passed at the second session of the 39th Congress. This bill was vetoed by the President as the former had been. It was returned on the 28th of January, 1867, to the Senate, in which it orig inated, with the President's objections. These were, in general, the same as those to the bill passed at the previous session. The principal grounds, on which the President withheld his signature from the second bill were, that the population of Colorado, as appeared from an official census, was only 28,000, and that the third section of the bill, prescrib ing, as a condition precedent to the admission of the State, the allowing of citizens to vote without distinction of race or color, was in confiet with the legislation of the Territory and with the State Constitution under which it was proposed to admit Colorado into the Union.

DAKOTA.

DAKOTA TERRITORY was first settled by employés of the Hudson Bay Company, but is now being rapidly peopled by emigrants from the Northern and Western States. It was set off from the western portion of Minnesota when that Territory became a State in 1857, and was organized March 2, 1861.

Dakota may be said to consist of two sections nearly square in form, the north-eastern and the south-western, the former being much the larger. The north-eastern section is bounded on the north by the British Possessions, on the east by Minnesota and Iowa, on the south by Nebraska, and on the west by the south-western section and Montana. The south-western section is bounded on the north by Montana, on the east by the south-eastern section and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado and Utah, and on the west by Idaho. The south-western portion of the latter section is crossed by the great Rocky Mountain Range in a north-eastern and south-western direction.

!

Dakota Territory may be defined, in general terms, as lying immediately west of Minnesota and the north-western part of Iowa, and as extending from the 41st to the 49th parallel of north latitude, and from the 20th to the 34th degree of longitude west from Washington, embracing an area of country greater in extent than all New England combined with the great States of New York and Pennsylvania. It occupies the most elevated section of country between the Arctic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, forming, to a great extent, the watershed of the two great basins of North America-the one of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and the other of the tributaries of Hudson Bay. Thus, within the limits of Dakota we find the sources of rivers running diametrically opposite; those flowing northward reach a region of eternal ice, while those flowing southward pass from the haunts of the grizzly bear and the region of wild rice, through the cotton fields and sugar plantations of the Southerner, until their waters are mingled with the waves of the gulf.

The general surface of the country east and north of the Missouri is a beautiful, rich, undulating prairie, free from marsh, swamp, or slough, traversed by many streams, and dotted over with innumerable lakes of various sizes, whose wooded margins, rocky shores, and gravel bottoms afford to the settler the purest of water, and give to the scenery of the Territory much of its interest and fascination. West of the Missouri the country is more rolling, and gradually becomes broken, hilly, and finally mountainous as the western limits are reached and terminated by the Rocky Mountains.

The mighty Missouri runs through the very heart of Dakota, and gives it nearly a thousand miles of navigable water-course, thus affording the facility of cheap water transportation, by means of which the inhabitants can bear away the surplus products of their rich, luxuriant lands to Southern markets, and receive in exchange the trade and commerce of all climes and lands.

On the Missouri, Big Sioux, Red River of the North, Vermillion, Dakota, and Niobrara are located millions on millions of acres of the richest and most productive lands, to be found anywhere within the domain of the National Government.

Dakota combines the pleasant, salubrious climate of Southern Minnesota and the fertile soil of Central Illinois. Thermal statistics and experiments prove that within the limits of the Territory are to be found both the climate and the soil necessary to produce most successfully the two great staples of American agriculture-corn and wheat. Starting from Chicago as a point, the isothermal line rises to a higher and higher degree of latitude as we proceed northward. Fort Benton, on the Missouri River, formerly in the extreme northern part of Dakota, but now included in the new Territory of Montana, possesses the same mean temperature as Chicago, Albany, and New York. The corn-producing belt of country which runs through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois extends north and west through Iowa, and up the valley of the Missouri through Dakota.

According to Blodgett, the author of a very able and interesting

work on the climatology of the United States, the thermal capacity required for the successful cultivation of Indian corn is a mean temperature of 67° for July, and it may go a little beyond 65° for the summer. According to the same authority, the thermal capacity required for the successful cultivation of wheat is a mean temperature of from 60° to 65° during the ripening months. Statistics prove that Dakota possesses a considerable excess of the temperature required, being beyond 70°.

While Dakota is not flooded with the excessive spring rains which often retard the putting in of crops in the States south-west of it, the late spring and early summer months bring copious showers, which supply vegetation with all the moisture needed for the rapid growth which is characteristic of that region. The capacity of the Territory for raising immense herds of cattle, and for the production of large crops of corn, wheat, oats, rye, barley, buckwheat, potatoes, sorgho, melons, fruits, and vegetables demonstrates its ability to sustain a dense population.

Dakota possesses a climate especially conducive to health and longevity. Occupying an elevated position, it is free from the humid, raw, chilly weather often prevailing in the central Western States, and has a dry, bracing atmosphere, giving tone and vigor to the physical system.

Said Governor W. Jayne, in March, 1862, in his message to the first Legislative Assembly of Dakota:

"I venture the prediction that the wheat granary of this continent will yet be found in the valleys of the Red River and the Saskatch

awan.

The day is not distant when the eye which can now behold only the vast expanse of prairie, and the tall, luxuriant grass waving before the wind, will rest contented upon the farm and workshop, the schoolhouse and church. We should bear in mind that within the last thirty years the great States of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Missouri have been settled up, and that within twenty years Iowa and Wisconsin have been rescued from the possession of the roaming Indian and subdued to the usages of civilized man.

"Thus has one generation witnessed an area of country no less than ours transformed from the hunting-ground of the Indian, the scene of the chase and the war-dance, and converted and divided into six of the most populous and thriving States of the Union.

"Shall we not judge of the future by the past? As regards soil, climate, beautiful uplands, rich prairies, luxuriant bottoms, productive mountain valleys, and navigable rivers upon which to float our cereal products and commercial exchange, what section of country within the broad confines of our Republic is fairer, or lovelier, or richer, or more inviting as the home of the active, intelligent, and industrious citizen? Before a generation shall have passed, more than a million of people will be living in the valley of the Missouri alone. The Pacific Railroad will have been completed, connecting the two oceans with its iron bands. The trade with India and Japan, the commerce of the opulent

and gorgeous East, will pass great cities on the Atlantic. a large portion of our

over

benefit."

through our borders on its way to the By the transit of a world's commerce Territory, we shall derive incalculable

COUNTIES AND COUNTY TOWNS.-Dakota is divided into thirteen counties. The following is a list of the counties and county towns:

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Five of the foregoing counties, Buffalo, Gregory, Hutchinson, Jayne, and Lincoln, are attached to other counties for judicial and other governmental purposes.

TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT.-The following was the Territorial Government of Dakota as constituted at the commencement of the year 1866. The Federal officers were: Governor, Newton Edmonds, residence at Yankton; Secretary, S. L. Spink, residence at Yankton; Surveyor-General, George D. Hill, residence at Ann Arbor, Michigan; Register United States Land-office, Nelson Minor, residence at Vermillion; Receiver United States Land-office, John W. Boyle, residence at Vermillion; Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Governor Newton Edmonds, residence at Yankton. United States Indian Agents.-For "Yankton Sioux," Major Patrick H. Conyer; for "Poncas," Major Joel H. Potter; for "Santees," Major James M. Stone; for "Goranties" and other tribes, Major Mahlon Wilkinson; for "Yankt mais," Major Samuel N. Latta.

The salary of Newton Edmonds was $1,500 as Governor, and $1,000 as Superintendent of Indian Affairs; the salary of the Secretary was $1,800; of the Surveyor-General, $2,000 and mileage, and of the Indian Agents, $1,500 each.

The Judges of the Supreme Court of Dakota were: Asa Bartlett, Chief-Justice, residing at Yankton; J. P. Hulder, residence at Vermillion, and William E. Gleeson, residing at Bon Homme, Associate Justices. The salary of cach Judge was fixed at $1,800. The United States Marshal of the Territory was Laban H. Litchfield, residence at Yankton; United States Attorney-General, James Christian, residence at Yankton; Clerk of Supreme Court, Moses K. Armstrong, residence at Yankton. Clerks of District Courts and Registers in Chancery. For the First District, John W. Boyle, residing at Vermillion; for the Second District, Moses K. Armstrong, residing at Yankton; for the Third District, T. James Gleeson, residing at Bon Homme.

The Territorial Officers were: Auditor, Joseph R. Hanson, residence at Yankton; Treasurer, Isaiah T. Gore, residence at Brule Creek P. O.;

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