February 20, 1860
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
Eight memorials numerously signed by our fellow-citizens, “residents for the most part within the territorial limits of Kansas and Nebraska at and near the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains,” have been presented to me, containing the request that I would submit the condition of the memorialists to the two Houses of Congress in a special message. Accordingly, I transmit four of these memorials to the Senate and four to the House of Representatives.
These memorialists invoke the interposition of Congress and of the Executive “for the early extinguishment of the Indian title, a consequent survey and sale of the public land, and the establishment of an assay office in the immediate and daily reach of the citizens of that region.” They also urge “the erection of a new Territory from contiguous portions of New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, and Nebraska,” with the boundaries set forth in their memorial. They further state, if this request should not be granted, “that (inasmuch as during this year a census is to be taken) an enabling act be passed with provision upon condition that if on the 1st day of July, 1860, 30,000 resident inhabitants be found within the limits of the mineral region, then a Territorial government is constituted by Executive proclamation; or if on the 1st day of September, 1860, 150,000 shall be returned, then a State organization to occur.”
In transmitting these memorials to Congress I recommend that such provision may be made for the protection and prosperity of our fellow-citizens at and near the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains as their distance and the exigendes of their condition may require for their government.
JAMES BUCHANAN.