WASHINGTON, _February 20, 1860_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
Eight memorials numerously signed by our fellow-citizens, "residents for
the most part within the territorial limits of Kansas and Nebraska at
and near the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains," have been presented
to me, containing the request that I would submit the condition of
the memorialists to the two Houses of Congress in a special message.
Accordingly, I transmit four of these memorials to the Senate and four
to the House of Representatives.
These memorialists invoke the interposition of Congress and of the
Executive "for the early extinguishment of the Indian title, a
consequent survey and sale of the public land, and the establishment of
an assay office in the immediate and daily reach of the citizens of that
region." They also urge "the erection of a new Territory from contiguous
portions of New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, and Nebraska," with the boundaries
set forth in their memorial. They further state, if this request should
not be granted, "that (inasmuch as during this year a census is to be
taken) an enabling act be passed with provision upon condition that if
on the 1st day of July, 1860, 30,000 resident inhabitants be found
within the limits of the mineral region, then a Territorial government
is constituted by Executive proclamation; or if on the 1st day of
September, 1860, 150,000 shall be returned, then a State organization
to occur."
In transmitting these memorials to Congress I recommend that such
provision may be made for the protection and prosperity of our
fellow-citizens at and near the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains as
their distance and the exigencies of their condition may require for
their government.