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hours, when the House adjourned, after midnight, on the 12th. On the next day Mr. Richardson expressed a willingness to modify his motion, and on Monday, the 15th, a resolution was passed, directing that the vote should be taken on Saturday, May 20th.

The debate was continued throughout the week, and on Saturday the committee proceeded to the consideration of amendments proposed, with five-minute speeches under the rule. Mr. Richardson offered a substitute for the whole bill.. Pending the discussion of amendments to this, the House adjourned to the next Monday. On that day, after many amendments had been proposed, and the business of the committee of the whole had become much involved by various questions of order, Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, a friend of the bill, moved to strike out the enacting clause. This motion takes place of all motions to amend, and if carried is considered equivalent to a rejection. The friends of the bill voted for this motion in committee, in order to cut off amendments, but when that fact was reported to the House they refused to adopt the recommendation of the committee of the whole, replaced the enacting clause, and Mr. Richardson proposed his substitute. This was adopted by a vote of one hundred and fifteen to ninety. The bill was then ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, by a vote of one hundred and twelve to ninety-nine, and was finally passed, by a vote of one

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hundred and thirteen to one hundred, on the same day, May 22, 1854.

The bill, as it thus went back to the Senate, was in the same form as when it left that body, excepting that Mr. Clayton's amendment, which omitted from the class of those entitled to vote and to hold office, "those who shall have declared on oath their intention to become citizens of the United States, and shall have taken oath to support the constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act," had been struck out by the House. In the Senate it was again debated two days, when a motion to restore Mr. Clayton's amendment (leaving only citizens of the United States capable of voting or holding office) was lost, yeas seven, nays forty-one; and the bill passed to a third reading, thirty-five to thirteen, and was finally passed on the 25th of May.

It received the signature of the President, and became a law, May 30th, 1854, in the words given in the next chap

ter.

17

CHAPTER VIII.

AN ACT TO ORGANIZE THE TERRITORIES OF NEBRASKA AND KANZAS.

BOUNDARY OF NEBRASKA.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 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 in the Missouri river where the fortieth parallel of north latitude crosses the same; thence west on said parallel to the east boundary of the territory of Utah, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains; thence on said summit northward to the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude; thence east on said parallel to the western boundary of the territory of Minnesota; thence southward on said boundary to the Missouri river; thence down the main channel of said river to the place of beginning, be, and the same is hereby, created into a temporary government by

BOUNDARY OF NEBRASKA.

195

the name of the Territory of Nebraska; 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 construed 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 Nebraska, until said tribe shall signify their assent to the President of the United States to be included within the said territory of Nebraska; 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.

GOVERNOR.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the executive power and authority in and over said territory of Nebraska shall be vested in a governor, who shall hold his office for four years, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified, unless sooner removed by the President of the United States. The governor shall reside within said territory, and shall be commander-in-chief of the militia. thereof. He may grant pardons and respites for offences against the laws of said territory, and reprieves for offences against the laws of the United States, until the decision of the President can be made known thereon; he shall commission all officers who shall be appointed to office under the laws of the said territory, and shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

SECRETARY.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That there shall be a secretary of said territory, who shall reside therein, and hold his office for five years, unless sooner removed by the President of the United States; he shall record and preserve all the laws and proceedings of the legislative assembly hereinafter constituted, and all the acts and proceedings of the governor in his executive department; he shall transmit one copy of the laws and journals of the leg

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