72 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



was elected on October 3, 1859;' the other, George M. Willing,^ claimed 

 to be the regular choice at this election, and, though apparently not 

 recognized at Washington, reiterated the arguments of Williams and 

 the territorial memorials. Both houses of Congress gave some heed to 

 the facts thus presented. They received from President Buchanan on 

 February 20, i860, a message transmitting the petition from the Pike's 

 Peak country,^ and bills to meet the demand were at least introduced 

 into each house. The Senate upon April 3 received a report from the 

 Committee on Territories introducing Senate Bill No. 366, for the 

 erection of Colorado territory;'* while Grow of Pennsylvania reported 

 to the House on May 10 a bill to erect in the same region a territory of 

 Idaho. 5 The name of Jefferson disappeared from the project in the 

 spring of i860, its place being taken by sundry other names for the same 

 mountain area. Several weeks in the spring were given in part to debates 

 over this Colorado-Idaho scheme as well as to the older Dakota, Nevada, 

 and Arizona territories. As in the past sessions of Congress, the debate 

 was less upon the need for the erection of several territorial governments 

 than upon the attitude which any bills should take upon the slavery issue. 

 In the demands of the Republican leaders in the territorial debates from 

 1858 to 1867 can be measured the advance of antislavery attitude, from 

 exclusion of slaves through guarantees to free negroes, and up to the 

 abolition of the "white" clause in the franchise qualification. This 

 obsession of Congress by the slavery debate precluded territorial legis- 

 lation in the years 1859 and i860, but the session ended with the reason- 

 ableness of one of the demands well presented. In a secondary way the 

 governmental argument was strengthened by petitions for the service 

 of the mails, for post-roads from Fort Laramie to Golden City and from 



' A memorial of January 4, i860, describes this election. House Misc. Doc. 10, 36 Cong., i Sess., 

 Serial 1063, p. 7. The text of his certificate of election is in Rocky Mountain News, August 29, i860. 



' Two letters written by Willing to Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, are in the Department of State, 

 Bureau of Rolls and Library, in a volume of territorial papers marked, Minn., Neb., Ore., Wyom., Col. 

 D. C, Kan., Mich., Miscellaneous, and are brought to the writer's attention through the courtesy of W. 

 G. Leland, Esq., of the Carnegie Institution, Department of Historical Research. 



3 Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, V. 580; Sen. Ex. Doc. is, 36 Cong., i Sess., 

 Serial 1027; Cong. Globe, 36 Cong., i Sess., p. 841, February 20, i860; p. 871, February 23. 



4 Ibid., 1502. 



s Ibid., 2047, 2066, 2077. The memorials of Williams had been presented in the House by Green 

 Adams of Kentucky, on February 15. See under that date ibid., 789; House Journal, Serial 1041, 283. 



