Mr. DOOLITTLE. Mr. President, as thisquestion is coming to a vote, I desire to say a few words by way of explanation of the vote that I shall feel constrained to give. I confess that m sympathies and my hopes have been with this young Territory, as it has always been with the new Territories and rising States of the West. I voted for the enabling act. I did so in the most perfect good faith, and in the belief, as was stated by the Senfrom Ohio, that there were at that time from 40,000 to 50,000 people, and that, in all human probability, by the time the enabling act would be carried into effect, and the government of the State organized, there would be a population almost suilicientto entitle it to elect a representative to the other House. But, sir, I nd, if the statements which appear in a paperlaid upon our desks are correct, that I was under a mistake; that instead of there being 40 or 50,000 people in Colorado in 1864, when we passed the enabling act, there could not have been certainly to exceed 25,000. It would seem from a table of the votes which have been taken there, that in 1861 there were 10,580; in December, 1861, 9,354; in October, 1862, 8, 224; in Septeinber, 1864, 2 years afterward, 5, 769; and: then, at the election held under the enabling act, when votes were given for and against the constitution, there were 6, 192 votes cast. Then the vote upon the present constitution, under what is denominated the popular movement, was but 6,895; and it is said that upon the last election when they elected Officers under the State government, there were about 7,000 votes. These facts force upon my mind a conviction against my hopes, and I will say against my Wish, that the population of Colorado is much less than I supposed it was when.the enabling act was passed, and my conviction is that the population now is not to exceed 25,000 in that Territory. This conviction being forced upon my mind, the question arises, what under the circumstances is it my duty to do? It is urged upon the one side that inasmuch as we nssed this enabling act and invited or allowe Colorado to form a constitution and submit it to the“is to form for themselves out of said Territo people, we, in good faith have become bound to the people of Coloradopto accept the constitution which has been adopted by them, notwithstanding we are convinced that her population is too small to entitle her to the representation and the position of a State. That brin 5 me to the consideration of the question whether we are in good faith bound to the people of that Territory.