WASHINGTON, _December 9, 1835_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_.
GENTLEMEN: By the act of the 11th of January, 1805, all that part of
the Indiana Territory lying north of a line drawn due "east from the
southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan until it shall intersect Lake
Erie, and east of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the
middle of said lake to its northern extremity, and thence due north to
the northern boundary of the United States," was erected into a separate
Territory by the name of Michigan.
The territory comprised within these limits being part of the district
of country described in the ordinance of the 13th of July, 1787, which
provides that whenever any of the States into which the same should
be divided should have 60,000 free inhabitants such State should be
admitted by its delegates into the Congress of the United States on
an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever,
and shall be at liberty to form a permanent constitution and State
government, provided the constitution and State government so to
be formed shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles
contained in these articles, etc., the inhabitants thereof have during
the present year, in pursuance of the right secured by the ordinance,
formed a constitution and State government. That instrument, together
with various other documents connected therewith, has been transmitted
to me for the purpose of being laid before Congress, to whom the power
and duty of admitting new States into the Union exclusively appertains;
and the whole are herewith communicated for your early decision.