Mr. CONNESS. Mr. President, this question, while it has been considered in this body, has given me no little trouble and uneasiness. If I may be allowed to distinguish between the motives that governmentn and those which affect myself, I may say that my feelings have all been toward the side and inclined to the admission of this Territory as a State, while as the discussion progressed, and time has )assed on, my maturingjudgment has been and is that it should not be so admitted. It is a matter of considerable pain to me, growing out of the facts which I shall state, that my vote will not be in accordance with my feelings. In the 1st place, the proposed new State of Colorado is mainlya mining State, having a great leading industry identical with that of the State which I in part represent here. In the next place, as stated by the Senfrom minnesota, it is on the big way to the Pacific, and although not in close or contiguous neighbor hood to the State of California, it yet ranks among the communities of the West, with which I and the State I represent are identified. Lastly, the gentlemen who have come here as Senators have been here so long that my acquaintance with them has become agreeable, and I should like to have them for associates in this body. For all these reasons it is some what painful to me to take the opposite side of the question, but I am constrained to do this, Mr. President, in view of not simply the existing condition of Colorado, but a conviction that I have had for many years of my life that the Congress of the U.S., representing the Republic, has perhaps for a quarter of a cen tury or more been creating States too rapidly. That has been my conviction. It appears as though a system of policy had been adopted in that respect which recognized the greatest possible good as achieved when for any and every cause a State was added to the Union. The flamin announcement that an additional star was aded to the constellation was spoken of and received by the whole people with great joy. Long antecedent to the difficulties that came up connected with Kansas and Nebraska my own reflections went to this subject, and when the bill was introduced into the congress, of the U.S., and urged by the amented Senfrom Illinois, now no more, for the organization of Kansas and Nebraska, I saw in it an additional difficulty, the creation of communities where there were no people. As the Senate will remember, I directed a question to the honorable Senfrom Ohio today in this connection. I asked him, be having been here at that time, whether political considerations did not control the organization of Kansas and Nebraska, to which the Senator replied in the nthrmative. There were no people in those Territories at that time; but it is true that immediately after their organization people flocked in that direcflon, and eventually one of those Territories became a battle ground where the different sections of the Union created civilWar, and where a war was inaugurated which was but the precursor of the terrible civilWar which is now so happily past. Mr. President, I think the wiser policy on the part of the Congress of the U.S. won d be to carry out a proposition which has been heretofore suggested, to pass an act providin that no Territory should be received into the nion as a State until it had population enough to elect a member to Congress under the then existing apportionment law of the U.S. We are told here, and it is said in behalf of the admission of this new State, that because we admitted Nevada we should therefore admit Colorado; and next, that because the congress of the U.S. passed an enabling act for Colorado in 1864, Congress is bound by that act and should therefore admit this Territory as a State. It is known to many, ifnot to all of us that pending the great war which has passed there was a very strong disposition on the part of a very large portion of Congress I confess for one to have been influenced by that feeling to create and admit loyal States. Disloyalty in the Union became so general and came so near disru ting arid destroying the Union, and the prolem whether we should have a country or not was brought so much and continued so much in question that the pros gect of getting into the Union even a young late that was loyal became a desirable one to our minds; and in that view, as well as from otherconsiderations, Nevada camein. Although Nevada is populated very largely by former citizens of (Iiihfornia, I say here today that but for its contignity to California, and but for the identity of interest with California and the constraint of admitting it because it was a known loyal State, I would not have given a vote for the admission of Nevada, and would not have given a vote for the enabling act from my knowledge of Nevada at that time. So therefore I do not feel bound in voting upon this question by the precedent establishe in the case of Nevada.“ New, sir, a word on the question whether we should be governed by the enabling act, and as to the fact that congress has, as the honorable Senfrom NewHampshire says, committed itself by the passage of that act to the admission of this new State now. It can scarccl be held that Congress always acts wisely. I do not think the Congress of today would pass the fugitive slave act of 1850; nor need I goto that for an illustration. If in 1864, while the war was pending and when we desired to make an addition of loyal communities, not knowing at that time whether the power of the Government would be able to subdue the South, we had the desire to extend our system of government to these communities, believing them to be loyal, that necessity does not exist today and we are not to be governed or controlled by it. I know very well, because I was here when the enabling act was passed, that the considerations to which I refer entered into the passage of the enabling act for both the State of Nevada and the Territory of Nebraska. Nobody will say today that the Territory of Nebraska is fit to enter this Union as a State. If any Senator will, let him oin us and pay a visit some mornin to the ComPacRailroad when it sits considering the question whether a certain branch of the pacific railroad shall be constructed so as to go into the Territory of Nebraska, and hear the statements made there involving the productivenessand the capacity of that country to sustain a communit now fit to become a State. Again, sir, NewMexico is today engaged, as we see by the journals of the day, in forming a State constitution. She is now taking the preliminary steps for that purpose. Suppose we admit Colorado on a statement that she has 40,000 inhabitants, what then? The honorable Senfrom Minnesota says that it is an assumption to say that Colorado has even 40,000 inhabitants, and that she may as well be said to have 50 or 60,000. Admit, then, for the sake of the argument.3"“ Colorado has 50,000 inhabitants shall we hold ourselves bound by admitting ED omdo today because we passed an enabling act, W110" she had less poulation in 1864, to admit NewMexico when 5 e comes, whether or not she shall have in her constitution the word “white, ” which so offends the distinguished Senfrom Massachusetts, and which it is charged therefore forms his only reason for o posing the passage of this bil I I have noting to say about that. The honorable Senator has given his reasons at leneth to the Senate. But when NewMexico shallI come here, as she will, for she is now taking the preliminary steps. what reason can we urge for the rejection of NewMexico? Simply because we did not pass an enablin act at any time. So far as that is concerned think the answer made in regard to the question of an enabling act is entire y complete: the act served its purpose, was at an end. These acts are never repealed. They serve their purpose, and either are rejected or acccpted, and that is the end of them. They remain a dead letter on your statute books when not accepted. Mr. President,I would gladl vote for the admission of Colorado ifI could believe it was not a violation of a policy fundamental to the nation. There is another question that enters into the consideration of the admission of this Territory as a State. The Congress of the U.S. have as yet postponed and put off the policy of disposing of the public lands which iiirm the Territory of colorado and all the western Territories of the Union, because they are found to contain in part the precious metals, gold and silver. Thus we are called upon to admit a community that has scarcely another than a mining interest, without any titfe to their lands, without any taxable property unless they tax their improvements.