Mr. SEIERMAN. The Senator says he did not refer to the remarks I made. Well, sir, let me state my view of the proposition under debate. We have the undoubted constitutional power to admit the State of Colorado with or without conditions. We have the right to impose such conditions on the State of Colorado as We seeP. It is clearly within our constitutional power to do so. In this case it is proposed to impose a condition, without requiring Colorado to accept it, and it therefore has no force or validity whatever. We may impose conditions upon the admission of a State, and if those conditions are assented to they become a part of the compact between the State and the U.S. Every law for the admission of a State into the Union has contained conditions declared to befundamental in their character. The act for the admission of the 1st State that was admitted, the State of Tennessee, contained such conditions. When the State of Ohio was admitted there were 3 or 4 fundamental conditions, and the people of that State were required to assent to them before Ohio was admitted into the Union. In this case a proposition is made to declare a certain doctrine a fundamental condition, but the State is not asked to assent to it, and it therefore, in my judgment, has no force or effect whatever. Still, that Congress has power to condition make this or to declare this condition I have not a doubt. Congress mayingraft upon the Colorado bill the Ten Commandments or the Lord's Prayer, or a great many other good things for which I should be willing to vote at all times and in all Fo but yet unless we required the people of the State to assent to those conditions they would be of no force whatever. Therefore when a proposition is made to declare any fundamental doctrine, or any fundamental principle, or any code of ethics or law a condition, I do not feel restrained from voting for it, because I do not believe it will have any effect; and if other Senators who are also in favor of the main proposition will be inclined to vote for it if this be adopted as a part of the bill, I am not disinclined to give them that opportunity. I think there is no inconsistency in the position that I have occupied, nor in the position occupied by the Senfrom WestVirginia. He was opposed to a certain amendment; he voted against it. That is done constantly. Propositions and amendments are offered against which Senators vote, and yet they vote for the original proposition even if amended. I see nothing inconsistent in this and nothing to call for unreasonable criticism. A word now in regard to the population of Colorado. The Governor of the Territory of Colorado, who will be legislated out of office by this bill, is very much opposed to the passage of the bill. I saw him myself when I was in Colorado recently. It seems he got up a cen susupon his own authority of the number of inhabitants there. It was a matter of common remark that in some of the counties the census was not taken at all, in many of the counties it was imperfect, and no reliance and no attention was paid to it whatever. No one took the pains to be enrolled on his census, and I think that no sufficient steps were taken to secure a full enumeration of the inhabitants of Colorado; and yet I feel bound to state that from the best information I could get in Colorado there were not more than 40 or 50,000 people in the Territory who were permanent citizens. I do not think the highest estimate I heard placed upon it by disinterested men was over 50,000. Still they have all the elements of a State. The town of Denver is a flourishing little city, well built, well constructed. The Pa. cific railroad is rapidl approaching Colorado, and next summer will enter upon its northern border..What is called the Kansas branch of the Pacific railroad is Foout rapidly to and will soon reach it. The capitalinvested in mining in Colorado amounts to many million dollars and needs protection. Indian wars are about to occur in that imme diate neighborhood There is no doubt that we shall soon have collisions with the Chey ennes, as I believe they are called, and also with the Sioux, and perhaps the Utes and other tribes on the immediate border and in Colorado. The military authorities will be moving there in their military operations. It seems to me that under these circumstances it is important for the protection of the white people of colorado that some kind of a government other than a territorial government shall be found there. It is a well known fact that there is great hostility between the present territorial government and a large portion, and I think a majority of the people of Colorado. Who is at fault in this matter I cannot state; but it is certain, in my judgment, although that is a disputed point, that a majority of the people of Colorado desire to get rid of that territorial government. That territorial government is now an expense to the nation. I believe a majority of the people of Colorado desire to substitute for it a State government. There is no practical objection against the adoption of a State government in Colorado except that it gives them for a time at least undue representation in the Senate and House. Under the circumstances by which they are surrounded, with a large amount of capital developing their mining industry, with a rapidly growing population, with Indian hostilities springing up all around them, when they ask us for a State government which will compel them to pay the expenses of that State government, it seems to me not unreasonable that we should waive the meagerness of their population, the undue political power it will give them for the time being, and admit them as a State. Within 2 years from this time, perhaps within less, they will have the requisite population to elect a member of the HoRep under the existing law. They will then have the right, by the precedents that we have already adopted, to admission. We now waive for one or 2 sessions of Congress the meagerness of their population and the undue political power they will have in this body and in the House. I do not think that the case of Colorado is as strong as the case of Nebraska. Nebraska, in my judgment, is better prepared and better fitted for a State government, and their people are more united on the question of a State government, than they are in Colorado; but still I think, under the circumstances by which these people are surrounded, it would be an act of wisdom on the part of Congress to give them the management of their own affairs by the organization of a State government, and I shall therefore vote for it.