r the
support of common schools which had ever been previously granted to any
State upon entering the Union, and also the alternate sections of land
for 12 miles on each side of two railroads proposed to be constructed
from the northern to the southern boundary and from the eastern to
the western boundary of the State. Congress, deeming these claims
unreasonable, provided by the act of May 4, 1858, to which I have just
referred, for the admission of the State on an equal footing with the
original States, but "upon the fundamental condition precedent" that
a majority of the people thereof, at an election to be held for that
purpose, should, in place of the very large grants of public lands
which they had demanded under the ordinance, accept such grants as had
been made to Minnesota and other new States. Under this act, should
a majority reject the proposition offered them, "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," In that event the act authorizes the people of the
Territory to elect delegates to form a constitution and State government
for themselves "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." The delegates
thus assembled "shall first determine by a vote whether 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." After this constitution shall
have been formed, Congress, carrying out the principles of popular
sovereignty and nonintervention, have left "the mode and manner of its
approval or ratification by the people of the proposed State" to be
"prescribed by law," and they "shall then be admitted into the Union as
a State under such constitution, thus fairly and legally made, with or
without slavery, as said constitution may prescribe."

An election was held throughout Kansas, in pursuance of the provisions
of this act, on the 2d day of August last, and it resulted in the
rejection by a large majority of the proposition submitted to the people
by Congress. This being the case,