342 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences,, Arts , and Letters. 
troduced, Congress did not take any real notice of the situation 
until 1885, when a resolution was passed authorizing the 
President “to open negotiations with the Creeks, Seminole® 
and Cherokees for the purpose of opening to settlement under 
the homestead laws, the unassigned land in Indian Territory.” 
(23 Stats., 384.) President Cleveland did not consider this 
resolution as obligatory, and believing that such action would 
not be advisable in the state of affairs then existing, he paid no 
attention to it. 1 But the demand for opening Oklahoma w^as 
not to be stifled in this way. The agitation increased in the 
western states, floods of petitions poured in upon Congress, and 
one by one the states passed resolutions in favor of the opening. 
As a result of this agitation, a bill was introduced into the 
House in 1886 to provide a territorial government for Indian 
Territory and to create a commission to treat with the Indians 
for opening the vacant land to settlement. A strong opposition 
to this bill was immediately developed which based its argu¬ 
ments on the idea that the interests of the Indians were not re¬ 
ceiving sufficient consideration, and that it would be a violation 
of their solemn treaties. The influence of the powerful cattle 
corporations was also exerted against the bill, and it failed of 
passage after having given occasion to a long debate. 2 
Congressman Springer, chairman of the committee on ter¬ 
ritories, introduced another bill in Congress in 1888, from which 
he had endeavored to eliminate the objectionable features of the 
previous bill. This bill provided for the organization of the 
territory of Oklahoma out of Indian Territory, excepting the 
land of the five civilized tribes and including the Public Land 
Strip. Ho lands patented to the Indians were to be included 
nor any Indian rights disparaged, nevertheless the opposi¬ 
tion maintained that to organize Oklahoma into a territory be¬ 
fore the clear title had been procured from the Indians, was 
practically to force them to sell, and in spite of the: demands of 
the western people and the arguments advanced to support the 
bill, its promoters were unable to push it through. 3 
1 Congressional Record, vol. 19, p. 6744. 
2 Ibid., vol. 17, p. 4064. 
3 Ibid., vol. 19, p. 6741. 
