Mr. BUCKALEW. Mr. President, I do not feel any great amount of interest in the pending motion for the postponement of this subject until next month, nor do I feel any'considerable degree of interest in the amendment to the bill which has been the main matter of debate this morning; I mean the admission of this State upon a proposed fundamental condition relating to suffrage. As to the 1st question, the question of postponement, it is one of those which naturally and properly belong to the majority of the body to fix and determine for themselves. All that the gentlemen who do not constitute that majority, who are not responsible for the manner ahd time in which the business of the Senate is chnducted, can claim is, that when measures are pending they shall be fully and fairly heard; that the judgment of the body shall only be pronounced after they have had a reasonable opportunity to submit their sentiments to it for its consid. eration. Therefore, last evening I submitted some remarks in the spirit in which I have just made this observation. I then stated that I desired to be heard upon this general question of the admission of new States into the Union, and that I was content to conform myself to the desire of the majority of the Senate, either to proceed last evening or to speak today or upon some other subsequent occasion which might be fixed. As to the proposed amendment to the bill, to which I have alluded, I have to remark that in the 1st place I suppose it has been sufficiently, discussed; it is unnecessary to add upon either side of the argument. In the 2nd place, confessedly as regards the application of a provision of this kind to the Territory or proposed State of Ne.braska, it would have no considerable effect, no practical operation, and therefore it is not necessary that we should debate it at length. I pass that topic, therefore, and embrace the occasion to speak upon the merits of the bill itself, following in this particular the example set me by other members who have discussed the bill itself when speaking in point of form upon different propositions of amendment submitted to it.. Mr. President, in 1864 the Senfrom Ohio, [Mr. WADE, ] who has charge of the present bill, as the chairman of the ComTerritor, reported 3 enabling acts to the Senate. One was to enable the people of Nevada to form a constitution of State government for themselves; another was to enable the people of the Territory of Colorado to do the same thing; and the 3rd bill was to enable the people of Nebraska to do the same thing. These 3 bills were reported by him and were passed by the Senate at his instance, he taking upon himself on several occasions the whole or nearly the whole of the debate in their favor. I propose to examine for a short time those bills presented by the same member who now desires us to pass this bill; and I make this examination because those bills, and the time and circumstances under which they were passed and the objects in view in their enactment, are all intimately connected with the question before us. The enabling acts for the Territories of Ne vada and Colorado were passed on the 21st of March, 1864, and that relating to the Territory of Nebraska upon the 19th day of April of the same }. about one month afterward. Now, sir, what were the leading and material provisions of those acts? I may state, in the 1st place, that those acts were all }. very much alike. were, I believe, identical in all their provisions except the particular of the name of the Territory, and also in the particular desig nation of boundaries; otherwise the 3 acts were precisely alike, and the examination of one gives us complete knowledge of the provisions of the others. I will take the act relating to the Territory of Nebraska, which appears on the 5 1st page of the pamphlet of laws of the session.P 1863–64. E. e 3rd section of that act the Governor of the Territory was authorized to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the Territory to elect dele gates to a constitutional convention. The words are: “And the Governor of said Territory shall, by proclamation, on or before the 1st Monday of May next, order an election of the representatives as aforesaid to be held on the 1st . in June thereafter throughout the Territory, and such election shall be conducted in the same manner as is prescribed by the laws of said Territory regulating elections therein for members of the HoRep.” Then by the 4th section it was provided: “That the members of the conyention thus elected shall meet at the capital of Monday said Territory on the 1st in July next, and after organization shall declare, on behalf of the people of said, Territory, that they, adopt the Constitution of the States; U.S., whereupon the said, convention shall be, and it is hereby, authorized to form a constitution and State government for said Territory.” Then follows in the 5th section a provision with regard to the adoption of the constitution: “That in case a constitution and State government shall be formed for the people of said Territory of Nebraska, in compliance with the provisions of pthroisvaideet, bthyat said convention, forming the same shall ordinance for sosaid constitu.tion to the people of or rejection at an elescatiiodnSttaotebefohr etlhdeoirnrtahteifisceactioonnd Tuesday of Qctober, 1864, at such regulations such places and under as may be prescribed therein.” There is only one other provision of these enabling acts to which I propose to c Jl attention, and that is found in the concluding part of the 5th section. After providing for the returns of the election upon the question of adopting or rejecting the constitution the returns are to be made to the acting Governor it proceeds: “The said acting Governorshall certify the same to the POTUS, together with a copy of said constitution and ordinances; whereupon it shall be the duty of the POTUS to admitted iisnstuoethhies Union aomnations declaring the State with the t original States, without any further action whatever on the part of Congress.” The Senate will perceive that this enabling act with reference to the Territory of Nebraska was that the Governor should, by proclamation, call a convention to meet in the month of July following; that if the convention a constitution it should be voted upon and accepted or rejected in October following; and that in case of the acceptance of the constitution and a return of such acceptance made to the POTUS, he should issue a proclamation declaring, the State admitted into the Union. It will be seen that it was contemplated that these Terri tories, if they chose to assume to themselves the dignity and character of States, should be prepared for representation in Congress at the 2nd session of the 38 h Congress, to wit, when it assembled in the month of december, 1864. These bills contained provisions by which the people of each of these 3 Territories would be enabled to take their place in the confederacy of States and obtain full representation in both Houses of Congress upon the assembling of Congress in December, 1864. The remarkable provision that they should be declared admitted into the Union by presidential proclamation, “without any further action whatever on the part of Congress, ” was a departure from the previous practice of the government in such cases, and exhibits the anxiety felt for their speedy entrance into the Union as States. Now, sir, it will at once be seen that the pretense that the people of either of the territories that have been spoken of in the debate Colorado or Nebraska have proceeded under the enabling acts in the formation of constitutions for themselves, and in applying for admission into the Union, is wholly groundless, is without the slightest foundation in fact or in law. Either one of the enabling acts expended itself within the year 1864. It was to be executed in that year by the officers and people of the Territory concerned if executed at all; if it had effect, if it had the result that was contemplated, the new State would appear by her representatives in the Congress of the U.S. in December of that year. Any proceedings which have taken place since that." in either Territory in connection with the formation of a constitution have been wholly unauthorized by the enabling acts. They have been voluntary on the part of the people and authorities of the Territory in question., They have not been authorized or instigated by the legislation of Congress in any way whatever. The result is inevitable that these Territories appear before us as petitioners; they apply to us as, perhaps, they can properly apply, for permission to enter the Union if we think under all the circumstances they should be admitted; but any questions of right under the enabling acts of 1864 are out of the case and wholly foreign to the debate. Before I pass on, I will pause a moment to make the inquiry, what was intended or designed in 1864 in the enactment of these several enabling acts as they are called? It appears from the congressional proceedings, which are preserved to us, and which we can consult, that the people of neither of those Territories applied for admission formally. There was no agitation on their part. Individuals resident in one or the other of the several Territories may have verbally expressed such a desire, but I believe it will be found upon investigation that no application was made by any officer or citizen of those Terri tories in a formal manner to either House of Congress for the passage of an enabling act. Why, then, were those bills introduced and passed? We know, from subsequent inquiry and investigation, that the number of inhabitants in either one of these Territories was exceedingly small at that time. There was a paucity of population, a deficiency of popula uon for any reasonable purpose of forming a how State, or introducing a new State into the Union. Why, then, were those bills passed? I was never able to give any other explanation than this: that they were passed for the purpose of heading off I(if may use the expres:sion) Mr. Lincoln, who was then POTUS, in his policy of reestablishing State governments in the South and obtaining their recognition and representation in this Government. In his annual message at the beginning of the session, he had communicated to Congress a plan for the reorganization of State governments, in which any greater number than one 10th of the people of any insurrectionary State were authorized to reorganize their government; and he pledged the faith of this Government that such State onment should be recognized and upheld y it. Not only that, but it was notorious to the whole country, and appeared in all forms in official documents, that Mr. Lincoln was not only announcing a plan but was executing one. He was carrying forward its execution in Ten messee under the present POTUS, who was sent there by him. He was carrying it on in the State of Louisiana actively and energetically. He was carrying it on also in Arkansas in the communication to General Steele, who was for a time in command in that State, and in other ways he was engaged in its execution. He was also carrying it on in the State of Virginia, within sight of the Capitol, at our very doors. A very grave question arose upon which men differed, and differed upon both sides in politics, differed among themselves. It was whether that policy of his of organizing States upon the minority principle and by military power or under military coercion was valid, and if valid, whether it was reasonable and proper that it should be done. Upon that whole question I agreed with the Senfrom Ohio, the chair man of the ComTerritor. I thought it was absurd, it was monstrous that those presidential States should be set up as members of this Union and should be represented in the Senate and in the House to the full extent to which their populations were represented before the war, that a mere fragment of the population of a State should wield the whole political power of that State in this Government, both in Congress and in the Electoral Colleges. I, for one, thought that to be a monstrous proposition and resisted it; in this agreeing with the Senfrom Ohio. But although I agreed with him in his views on that question of presidential reconstructed States as they were then presented in the midst of the war, I did not agree with him in the means by which his object should be reached. He desired to head off this presidential policy. He felt about as John Miner Botts did in the days of Tyler. He, too, was opposed to the President and his policy and desired to check him, to defeat his policy; to prevent the accomplishment of his designs. I united with that Senator in voting against recognizing those State governments, in resisting their being represented in Congress, in resisting the counting of their electoral votes for President and VEEP I did all this upon clear grounds and upon full conviction. But there was one thing in which I could not agree with the Senfrom Ohio, and that was, in calling into existence inper fect, weak, inadequate, premature States in the West for the purpose of checking the policy of the President; rushing in Nevada oCol orado and Nebraska for the purpose of out voting Mr. Lincoln's new members from the South. I could not go that far with the Senfrom Ohio, and therefore never gave my assent to these enabling acts of 1864. But, sir, to pass on: under what circumstances were those bills enacted by Congress? I propose to show that to the Senate and to the country. I propose to show the statements upon which the assent of Congress was given to those measures, and I propose to show that those statements came from the Senfrom Ohio himself. Upon the consideration of the Colorado enabling act, Mr. CoLLAMER said: “I wish to inquire of the chairman of the ComTerritor whether he has any information as to the extent of the population of this Territory? “Mr. WADE. Nothing that I can rely upon with a very great deal of confidence, I pains have taken some to ascertain the facts from the Delegate in the oOtfhfiecre, House, and from Mr. Edmunds, of the Land who has some information on that subject. understand there must be now about 60,000 inhabitants in Colorado; some think a great deal more than that. That is the smallest number I find intimated by those who profess to know anything about it. It is a Territory which is filling up very rapidly. Judge Edmunds tells me that he has not the least doubt in the world that before they finish their arrangements and become a . State, there will be population, there for a Representative in congress, according to the ratio of representation fixed by the last census. That is about the information I got.” When the enabling "act for Nebraska was pending the Senfrom Ohio said, in the conclusion of the debate, these important words and recollect, he was speaking as the organ of the ComTerritor, speaking upon a territorial question, in a case and at a time when his expression of opinion was entitled to the highest respect and confidence “ I have no doubt that this Territory will have a population annplysufficient for a Representative by the time they get a ready State government formedand are to elect their officers.” Which, according to the provisions in the enabling act, would have been in October, 1864. Now, by the legislation of Congress, under the present census, the population required for a member of the HoRep is 127,000; and Congress was assured, when these enabling acts were passed in 1864, that by the time the people of these Territories appeared, respectively, and claimed admission under those enabling acts they would have, each of them, at least the ratio or number of 127,000.