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peal in all such cases shall be made to the supreme court of said Territory, the same as in other cases. The said clerk shall receive in all such cases the same fees which the clerks of the district courts of Utah Territory now receive for similar services.

SEC. 10. That the provisions of an act entitled "An act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters," approved February twelve, seventeen hundred and ninety-three, and the provisions of the act entitled "An act to amend, and supplementary to, the aforesaid act," approved September eighteen, eighteen hundred and fifty, be, and the same are hereby, declared to extend to, and be in full force within, the limits of said Territory of Nebraska.

SEC. 11. That there shall be appointed an attorney for said Territory, who shall continue in office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President, and who shall receive the same fees and salary as the attorney of the United States for the present Territory of Utah. There shall also be a marshal for the Territory appointed, who shall hold his office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President, and who shall execute all processes issuing from the said courts when exercising their jurisdiction as circuit and district courts of the United States; he shall perform the duties, be subject to the same regulations and penalties, and be entitled to the same fees as the marshal of the district court of the United States for the present Territory of Utah, and shall, in addition, be paid two hundred dollars annually as a compensation for extra services.

peace. The supreme court shall consist of a chief justice and two associate justices, any two of whom shall constitute a quorum, and who shall hold a term at the seat of government of said Territory annually, and they shall hold their offices during the period of four years, and until their successors shall be appointed and qualified. The said Territory shall be divided into three judicial districts, and a district court shall be held in each of said districts by one of the justices of the supreme court, at such times and places as may be prescribed by law; and the said judges shall, after their appointments, respectively, reside in the district which shall be assigned them. The jurisdiction of the several courts herein provided for, both appellate and original, and that of the probate courts and of justices of the peace, shall be as limited by law: Provided, That justices of the peace shall not have jurisdiction of any matter in controversy when the title or boundaries of land may be in dispute, or where the debt or sum claimed shall exceed one hundred dollars; and the said supreme and district courts, respectively, shall possess chancery as well as common law jurisdiction. Each district court, or the judge thereof, shall appoint its clerk, who shall also be the register in chancery, and shall keep his office at the place where the court may be held. Writs of error, bills of exception, and appeals shall be allowed in all cases from the final decision of said district courts to the supreme court, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law; but in no case removed to the supreme court shall trial by jury be allowed in said court. The supreme court, or the justices thereof, shall appoint its own clerk, and every clerk shall hold his office at the pleasure of the court for which he shall have been appointed. Writs of error, and appeals from the final decision SEC. 12. That the governor, secretary, chief of said supreme court, shall be allowed, and may justice, and associate justices, attorney and marbe taken to the supreme court of the United shal, shall be nominated, and, by and with the States, in the same manner and under the same re- advice and consent of the Senate, appointed by gulations as from the circuit courts of the United the President of the United States. The governStates, where the value of the property, or the or and secretary to be appointed as aforesaid, amount in controversy, to be ascertained by the shall, before they act as such, respectively take oath or affirmation of either party, or other com- an oath or affirmation by the laws now in force petent witness, shall exceed one thousand dol therein, or before the chief justice or some assolars; except only that in all cases involving title ciate justice of the Supreme Court of the United to slaves, the said writs of error or appeals shall States, to support the Constitution of the United be allowed and decided by the said supreme States, and faithfully to discharge the duties of court, without regard to the value of the matter, their respective offices, which said oaths, when property, or title in controversy; and except also so taken, shall be certified by the person by that a writ of error or appeal shall also be allowed whom the same shall have been taken; and such to the supreme court of the United States, from certificates shall be received and recorded by the the decisions of the said supreme court created said secretary among the executive proceedings: by this act, or of any judge thereof, or of the dis- and the chief justice and associate justices, and trict courts created by this act, or of any judge all other civil officers in said Territory, before thereof, upon any writ of habeas corpus, involv- they act as such, shall take a like oath or affirming the question of personal freedom; Provided, ation before the said governor or secretary, or That nothing herein contained shall be construed some judge or justice of the peace of the territory to apply to or affect the provisions of the "act who may be duly commissioned and qualified, respecting fugitives from justice, and persons es- which said oath or affirmation shall be certified caping from the service of their masters," ap- and transmitted by the person taking the same to proved February twelfth, seventeen hundred and the secretary, to be by him recorded as aforeninety-three, and the "act to amend and supple- said; and afterwards the like oath or affirmamentary to the aforesaid act," approved Septem- tion shall be taken, certified, and recorded, in ber eighteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty; and such manner and form as may be prescribed by each of the said district courts shall have and ex- law. The governor shall receive an annual salaercise the same jurisdiction in all cases arising ry of two thousand five hundred dollars. The under the Constitution and laws of the United chief justice and associate justices shall receive States, as is vested in the circuit and district an annual salary of two thousand dollars. The courts of the United States; and the said supreme secretary shall receive an annnal salary of and district courts of the said Territory, and the two thousand dollars. The said salaries shall respective judges thereof, shall and may grant be paid quarter-yearly, from the dates of the rewrits of habeas corpus in all cases in which the spective appointments, at the Treasury of the same are granted by the judges of the United United States; but no such payment shall be States in the District of Columbia; and the first made until said officers shall have entered upon six days of every term of said courts, or so much the duties of their respective appointments. The thereof as shall be necessary, shall be appropriat- members of the legislative assembly shall be ed to the trial of causes arising under the said entitled to receive three dollars each per day duConstitution and laws, and writs of error and ap-ring their attendance at the sessions thereof, and

een hundred and fifty, 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 thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or put in force any law or regulation which may have existed prior to the act of sixth of March, eighteen hundred and twenty, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting or abolishing, Slavery.

three dollars each for every twenty miles' travel in going to, and returning from, the said sessions, estimated according to the nearest usually-traveled route; and an additional allowance of three dollars shall be paid to the presiding officer of each house for each day he shall so preside. And a chief clerk, one assistant clerk, a sergeant-atarms, and door-keeper may be chosen for each house; and the chief clerk shall receive four dollars per day, and the said other officers three dollars per day, during the session of the legislative assembly; but no other officer shall be paid by the United States: Provided, That there shall be but one session of the legislature annually, unless, on an extraordinary occasion, the governor SEC. 15. That there shall hereafter be approshall think proper to call the legislature together. priated, as has been customary for the territorial There shall be appropriated, annually, the usual governments, a sufficient amount, to be expended sum, to be expended by the governor to defray under the direction of the said governor of the the contingent expenses of the territory, includ- Territory of Nebraska, not exceeding the sums ing the salary of a clerk of the executive depart- heretofore appropriated for similar objects, for ment; and there shall also be appropriated annu- the erection of suitable public buildings at the ally, a sufficient sum, to be expended by the seat of government, and for the purchase of a secretary of the Territory, and upon an estimate to library to be kept at the seat of government for be made by the secretary of the Treasury of the the use of the governor, legislative assembly, United States, to defray the expenses of the legis-judges of the supreme court, secretary, marshal, lative assembly, the printing of the laws, and other incidental expenses; and the governor and secretary of the Territory shall, in the disbursement of all moneys intrusted to them, be governed solely by the instructions of the secretary of the Treasury of the United States, and shall, semiannually, account to the said secretary for the manner in which the aforesaid moneys shall have been expended; and no expenditure shall be made by said legislative assembly for objects not specially authorized by the acts of Congress making the appropriations, nor beyond the sums thus appropriated for such objects.

and attorney of said territory, and such other persons, and under such regulations as shall be prescribed by law.

SEC. 16. That when the lands in the said territory shall be surveyed under the direction of the government of the United States, preparatory to bringing same into market, sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six, in each township in said territory, shall be, and the same are hereby, reserved for the purpose of being applied to schools in said teritory, and in the States and Territories hereafter to be erected out of the same.

SEC. 17. That, until otherwise provided by law, SEC. 13. That the legislative assembly of the the governor of said Territory may define the Territory of Nebraska shall hold its first session judicial districts of said Territory, and assign the at such time and place in said Territory as the judges who may be appointed for said Territory governor thereof shall appoint and direct; and at to the several districts; and also appoint the said first session, or as soon thereafter as they times and places for holding courts in the several shall deem expedient, the governor and legisla- counties or subdivisions in each of said judicial tive assembly shall proceed to locate and estab-districts by proclamation, to be issued by him; lish the seat of government for said Territory at such place as they may deem eligible; which place, however, shall thereafter be subject to be changed by the said governor and legislative as sembly.

SEC. 14. That a delegate to the House of Representatives of the United States, to serve for the term of two years, who shall be a citizen of the United States, may be elected by the voters qualified to elect members of the legislative assembly, who shall be entitled to the same rights and privi leges as are exercised and enjoyed by the delegates from the several other territories of the United States to the said House of Representatives; but the delegate first elected shall hold his seat only during the term of the Congress to which he shall be elected. The first election shall be held at such time and places, and be conducted in such manner, as the governor shall appoint and direct; and at all subsequent elections, the times, places, and manner of holding the elections shall be prescribed by law. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be declared by the governor to be duly elected, and a certificate thereof shall be given accordingly. That the Constitution and all the 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 sixth, eighteen hundred and twenty, which being in consistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with Slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by the legislation of eight

but the legislative assembly, at their first, or any subsequent session, may organize, alter, or modify such judicial districts, and assign the judges, and alter the times and places of holding the courts, as to them shall seem proper and convenient.

SEC. 18. That all officers to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for the Territory of Nebraska, who, by virtue of the provisions of any law now existing, or which may be enacted during the present Congress, are required to give security for moneys that may be intrusted with them for disbursements, shall give such security, at such time and place, and in such manner as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe.

SEC. 19. That all that part of the territory of the United States included within the following limits, except such portions thereof as are hereinafter expressly exempted from the operations of this act, to wit: beginning at a point on the western boundary of the State of Missouri, where the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude crosses the same; thence west on said parallel to the eastern boundary of New-Mexico; thence north on said boundary to latitude thirty-eight; thence following said boundary westward to the east boundary of the Territory of Utah, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains; thence northward on said summit to the fortieth parallel of latitude; thence east on said parallel to the western boundary of the State of Missouri; thence south with the western boundary of said State to the place of beginning, be, and the same is hereby, created into a temporary government by the name of the Territory of Kansas; and when admitted as a

State or States, the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union with or without Slavery, as their Constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission: Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to inhibit the Government of the United States from dividing said Territory into two or more territories, in such manner and at such times as Congress shall deem convenient and proper, or from attaching any portion of said Territory to any other State or Territory of the United States: Provided further, That nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as to impair the rights of person or property now pertaining to the Indians in said Territory, so long as such rights shall remain unextinguished by treaty between the United States and such Indians, or to include any territory which, by treaty with any Indian tribe, is not, without the consent of said tribe, to be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory; but all such territory shall be excepted out of the boundaries, and constitute no part of the Territory of Kansas, until said tribe shall signify their assent to the President of the United States to be included within the said Territory of Kansas, or to affect the authority of the Government of the United States to make any regulation respecting such Indians, their lands, property, or other rights, by treaty, law, or otherwise, which it would have been competent to the Government to make if this act had never passed.

[The next seventeen sections substantially repeat the foregoing, save that their provisions apply to Kansas instead of Nebraska. The final section refers to both Territories, as follows:]

SEC. 37. And be it further enacted, that all treaties, laws, and other engagements made by

the Government of the United States with the Indian tribes inhabiting the territories embraced within this act, shall be faithfully and rigidly observed, notwithstanding anything contained in this act; and that the existing agencies and superintendencies of said Indians be continued with the same powers and duties which are now prescribed by law, except that the President of the United States may, at his discretion, change the location of the office of superintendent.

No action of any moment with regard to Slavery in the Territories was taken in either House at the Second (short) Session of this Congress.

KANSAS ORGANIZED.

The struggle respecting Slavery in Kansas which followed the organization of that Territory, under the Provisions of the act just recited, is yet too recent and incomplete to justify an attempt to write its history. All that can be prudently done as yet, is to collect and arrange the most important documents in which its incidents are detailed, and its principles discussed, and this we now proceed to do, without attempt ing to reconcile the gloomy discrepancies between the statements submitted on the one side and on the other, respectively. Though it will not be possible in this course to avoid repeated statements of the same fact, and an occasional devotion of undue space to a point undeserving of such

elaborate treatment, yet, the measurable authenticity of statement, thus secured, and the light cast on the general theme by the conflicting views thus presented, serve to give this the preference over any other mode of narrating so nearly cotemporaneous with their chronicle as these. We proceed, then, with our record, which must henceforth consist mainly of public documents, submitted to the current Congress, connected by the merest thread of narrative.

Dec. 3rd, 1855.-The XXXIVth Congress convened at the Capital, in Washington,-Jesse D. Bright of Ind. holding over as President pro tempore of the Senate, in place of Vice-President William R. King of Alabama, deceased. A quorum of either House was found to be present.

But the House found itself unable to organize by the choice of a Speaker, until after an unprecedented struggle of nine weeks' duration. Finally, on Saturday, Feb. 20th, 1856, the plurality-rule was adopted-Yeas 113; Nays 104-and the House proceeded under it to its one hundred and thirty-third ballot for speaker, when Nathaniel P. Banks, Jr., (anti-Nebraska) of Massachusets, was chosen, having 103 votes to 100, for William Aiken of South Carolina. Eleven votes scattered on other persons did not count against a choice. It was therefore resolved-Yeas 155; Nays 40-that Mr. Banks was duly elected Speaker,

But, during the pendency of this election, the President had transmitted to both Houses, first (Dec. 31st) his Annual Message, and next (Jan. 24th) a special message with regard to the condition of Kansas, which is as follows:

MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 1856. To the Senate and House of Representatives:

Circumstances have occurred to disturb the course of governmental organization in the Territory of Kansas, and produce there a condition of things which renders it incumbent on me to call your attention to the subject, and urgently recommend the adoption by you of such measures of legislation as the grave exigencies of the case appear to require.

A brief exposition of the circumstances referred to, and of their causes, will be necessary to the full understanding of the recommendations which it is proposed to submit.

The act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas was a manifestation of the legislative opinion of Congress on two great points of constitutional construction: One, that the designation of the boundaries of a new Territory, and provision for its political organization and which of right fall within the powers of the Geneadministration as a Territory, are measures ral Government; and the other, that the inhabitants of any such Territory, considered as an inchoate State, are entitled, in the exercise of self-government, to determine for themselves what shall be their own domestic institutions, subject only to the Constitution and the laws duly enacted by Congress under it, and to the power of the existing States to decide, according to the

provisions and principles of the Constitution, at | administration, and partly of the unjustifiable what time the Territory shall be received as a interference of the inhabitants of some of the State into the Union. Such are the great politi-States, foreign by residence, interests, and rights cal rights which are solemnly declared and affirm to the Territory. ed by that act.

The Governor of the Territory of Kansas, commissioned, as before stated, on the 29th of June, 1854, did not reach the designated seat of his government until the 7th of the ensuing October, and even then failed to make the first step in its legal organization-that of ordering the census or enumeration of its inhabitants-until so late a day that the election of the members of the Legislative Assembly did not take place until the 30th of March, 1855, nor its meeting until the 2d of July, 1855; so that, for a year after the Territory was constituted by the act of Congress, and the officers to be appointed by the Federal Executive had been commissioned, it was without a complete government, without any legislative authority, without local law, and, of course, without the ordinary guarantees of peace and public order.

Based upon this theory, the act of Congress defined for each Territory the outlines of republican government, distributing public authority among the lawfully created agents-executive, judicial and legislative-to be appointed either by the General Government or by the Territory. The legislative functions were intrusted to a Council and a House of Representatives, duly elected and empowered to enact all the local laws which they might deem essential to their prosperity, happiness and good government. Acting in the same spirit, Congress also defined the persons who were in the first instance to be considered as the people of each Territory; enacting that every free white male inhabitant of the same above the age of twenty-one years, being an actual resident thereof, and possessing the qualifications hereafter described, should be en- In other respects, the Governor, instead of extitled to vote at the first election, and be eligible ercising constant vigilance and putting forth all to any office within the Territory; but that the his energies to prevent or counteract the tendenqualifications of voters and holding office at all cies to illegality which are prone to exist in all subsequent elections should be such as might be imperfectly-organized and newly-associated comprescribed by the Legislative Assembly: Provi-munities, allowed his attention to be diverted ded, however, That the right of suffrage and of from official obligation by other objects, and holding office should be exercised only by citi- himself set an example of the violation of law in zens of the United States, and those who should the performance of acts which rendered it my have declared on oath their intention to become duty, in the sequel, to remove him from the office such, and have taken an oath to support the of chief executive magistrate of the Territory. Constitution of the United States and the provisions of the act: And provided, further, That no officer, soldier, seaman or marine, or other person in the army or navy of the United States, or attached to troops in their service, should be allowed to vote or hold office in either Territory by reason of being on service therein.

Such of the public officers of the Territories as, by the provisions of the act, were to be appointed by the General Government, including the Governors, were appointed and commissioned in due season-the law having been enacted on the 30th of May, 1854, and the commission of the Governor of the Territory of Nebraska being dated on the 2nd day of August, 1854, and of the Territories of Kansas on the 29th day of June, 1854.

Among the duties imposed by the act on the governors, was that of directing and superintending the political organization of the respective Territories. The Governor of Kansas was required to cause a census or enumeration of the inhabitants and qualified voters of the several counties and districts of the Territory to be taken, by such persons and in such mode as he might designate and appoint; to appoint and direct the time and places of holding the first elections, and the manner of conducting them, both as to the persons to superintend such elections, and the returns thereof; to declare the number of the members of the Council and House of Representatives for each county or district; to declare what persons might appear to be duly elected; and to appoint the time and place of the first meeting of the Legislative Assembly. In substance, the same duties were devolved on the Governor of Nebraska.

While, by this act, the principle of constitution for each of the Territories was one and the same, and the details of organic legislation regarding both were as nearly as could be identical, and while the Territory of Nebraska was tran quilly and successfully organized in the due Course of law, and its first Legislative Assembly met on the 16th of January, 1855, the organization of Kansas was long delayed, and has been attended with serious difficulties and embarrassments, partly the consequence of local mal

Before the requisite preparation was accomplished for election of a Territorial Legislature, an election of delegate to Congress had been held in the Territory on the 29th day of November, 1854, and the delegate took his seat in the House of Representatives without challenge. If arrangements had been perfected by the Governor so that the election for members of the Legislative Assembly might be held in the several precincts at the same time as for delegate to Congress, any question appertaining to the qualification of the persons voting as people of the Territory, would have passed necessarily and at once under the supervision of Congress, as the judge of the validity of the return of the delegate, and would have been determined before conflicting passions had become inflamed by time, and before opportunity could have been afforded for systematic interference of the people of individual States.

This interference, in so far as concerns its primary causes and its immediate commencement, was one of the incidents of that pernicious agitation on the subject of the condition of the colored persons held to service in some of the States, which has so long disturbed the repose of our country, and excited individuals, otherwise patriotic and law-abiding, to toil with misdirected zeal in the attempt to propagate their social theories by the perversion and abuse of the powers of Congress.

The persons and parties whom the tenor of the act to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas thwarted in the endeavor to impose, through the agency of Congress, their particular views of social organization on the people of the future new States, now perceiving that the policy of leaving the inhabitants of each State to judge for themselves in this respect was ineradicably rooted in the convictions of the people of the Union, then had recourse, in the pursuit of their general object, to the extraordinary measure of propagandist colonization of the Territory of Kansas, to prevent the free and natural action of its inhabitants in its internal organization, and thus to anticipate or to force the determination of that question in this inchoate State.

With such views, associations were organized in some of the States, and their purpose was pro

claimed through the press in language extremely irritating and offensive to those of whom the colonists were to become the neighbors. Those designs and acts had the necessary consequence to awaken emotions of intense indignation in States near to the Territory of Kansas, and especially in the adjoining State of Missouri, whose domestic peace was thus the most directly endangered; but they are far from justifying the illegal and reprehensible counter-movements which ensued.

Under these inauspicious circumstances, the primary elections for members of the Legislative Assembly were held in most, if not all, of the precincts, at the time and the places and by the persons designated and appointed by the Governor, according to law.

Angry accusations that illegal votes had been polled, abounded on all sides, and imputations were made both of fraud and violence. But the Governor, in the exercise of the power and the discharge of the duty conferred and imposed by law on him alone, officially received and considered the returns; declared a large majority of the members of the Council and the House of Representatives" duly elected;" withheld certificates from others because of alleged illegality of votes; appointed a new election to supply the place of the persons not certified; and thus, at length, in all the forms of statute, and with his own official authentication, complete legality was given to the first Legislative Assembly of the Territory.

that the duties of the office were legally devolved on the Secretary of the Territory; thus to the last recognizing the body as a duly-elected and constituted Legislative Assembly.

It will be perceived that if any constitutional defect attached to the legislative acts of the Assembly, it is not pretended to consist in irregu larity of election or want of qualification of the members, but only in the change of its place of session. However trivial the objection may seem to be, it requires to be considered, because upon it is founded all that superstructure of acts, plainly against law, which now threatens the peace not only of the Territory of Kansas but of the Union.

Such an objection to the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly was of exceptionable origin, for the reason that, by the express terms of the organic law, the seat of government of the Territory was " located temporarily at Fort Leavenworth;" and yet the Governor himself remained there less than two months, and of his own discretion transferred the seat of Govern ment to the Shawnee Mission, where it in fact was at the time the Assembly were called to meet at Pawnee City. If the Governor had any such right to change temporarily the seat of Government, still more had the Legislative Assembly. The objection is of exceptional origin for the further reason that the place indicated by the Governor, without having an exclusive claim of preference in itself, was a proposed town-site only, which he and others were attempting to locate unlawfully upon land within a military reservation, and for participation in which illegal act the commandant of a post, a superior officer of the Army, has been dismissed by sentence of court

Those decisions of the returning-officers and of the Governor are final, except that by the parliamentary usage of the country applied to the organic law, it may be conceded that each House of the Assembly must have been competent to de-martial. termine, in the last resort, the qualifications and the election of its members. The subject was, by its nature, one appertaining exclusively to the jurisdiction of the local authorities of the Territory. Whatever irregularities may have occurred in the elections, it seems too late now to raise that question as to which, neither now nor at any previous time, has the least possible legal authority been possessed by the President of the United States. For all present purposes the legislative body, thus constituted and elected, was the legitimate assembly of the Territory.

Accordingly, the Governor, by proclamation, convened the Assembly thus elected to meet at a place called Pawnee City. The two Houses met, and were duly organized in the ordinary parliamentary form; each sent to and received from the Governor the official communications usual on such occasions; an elaborate Message opening the session was communicated by the Governor, and the general business of legislation was entered upon by the Legislative Assembly.

But, after a few days, the Assembly resolved to adjourn to another place in the Territory. A law was accordingly passed, against the consent of the Governor, but in due form otherwise, to remove the seat of government temporarily to the "Shawnee Manual-labor School" (or mission), and thither the Assembly proceeded. After this, receiving a bill for the establishment of a ferry at the town of Kickapoo, the Governor refused to sign it, and, by special message, assigned for reason of refusal, not anything objectionable in the bill itself, nor any pretense of the illegality or incompetency of the Assembly as such, but only the fact that the Assembly had, by its act, transferred the seat of government temporarily from Pawnee City to Shawnee Mission. For the same reason he continued to refuse to sign other bills, until, in the course of a few days, he, by official Message, communicated to the Assembly the fact that he had received notification of the termination of his functions as Governor, and

Nor is it easy to see why the Legislative Assembly might not with propriety pass the Territorial act transferring its sittings to the Shawnee Mission. If it could not, that must be on account of some prohibitory or incompatible provision of act of Congress. But no such provision exists. The organic act, as already quoted, says "the seat of Government is hereby located temporarily at Fort Leavenworth;" and it then provides that certain of the public buildings there "may be occupied and used under the direction of the Governor and Legislative Assembly." These expressions might possibly be construed to imply that when, in a previous section of the act, it was enacted that "the first Legislative Assembly shall meet at such place and on such day as the Governor shall appoint," the word 'place" means place at Fort Leavenworth, not place anywhere in the Territory. If so, the Gov. ernor would have been the first to err in this mat ter, not only in himself having removed the seat of Government to the Shawnee Mission, but in again removing it to Pawnee City. If there was any departure from the letter of the law, therefore, it was his in both instances.

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But, however this may be, it is most unreason. able to suppose that by the terms of the organic act, Congress intended to do impliedly what it has not done expressly-that is, to forbid to the Legislative Assembly the power to choose any place it might see fit as the temporary seat of its deliberations. That is proved by the significant language of one of the subsequent acts of Congress on the subject, that of March 3, 1855, which, in making appropriation for public buildings of the Territory, enacts that the same shall not be expended "until the Legislature of said Territory shall have fixed by law the permanent seat of government." Congress, in these expressions, does not profess to be granting the power to fix the permanent seat of government, but recognizes the power as one already granted. But how? Undoubtedly by the comprehensive provision of

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