40 KANSAS. and widely separated, have to contest with the savage and the wild beast, the dominion of the wilderness, and, for a time, are not of sufficient numbers, strength, or wealth to protect themselves alone against the uncivilized influences that surround them. Hence the federal government pays all the expenses of their legislation, builds their roads, erects their public buildings, appoints and pays the salaries of their executive and judicial officers, and as a necessary consequence must have a supervisory power over their acts ; were it otherwise, Congress might be involved in unlimited expenditures for legalized purposes which it entirely disapproves. While the capacity of men to govern themselves is the same, whether in a State or a Territory, their relations to the government are not the same, and it is no good cause of complaint that they must submit to all the conditions incident to their new and changed position. In the States they are members of an organized community which makes its own laws, elects its own rulers, and pays all the expenses thereof by levying and collecting its own taxes. The people of a Territory do none of these acts, either one of which is an indispensable requisite of popular sovereignty. So long as they are unable, for want of sufficient numbers and wealth, to support a State government, with all the tribunals necessary to secure life and property, they cannot exercise all the rights of an independent and sovereign people. But when their numbers and wealth are sufficient to justify it, and the people desire to take upon themselves the responsibility and expense of a State government, there is no longer any occasion for the guardianship of Congress, and no reason why their request should be delayed or refused. Is the population of Kansas, then, sufficient to support an efficient State government, without imposing excessive burdens of taxation upon its people? Taking the estimate of the Secretary of the Territory, sent to the President, and by him communicated to Congress, the population of the Territory last October was twenty-five thousand. If the increase for the last six months has been anything like the ratio of the six months preceding, the population of Kansas would now be about forty-five or fifty thousand. Each month, from the excitement and stimulus given to emigration in all parts of the Union to this Territory, adds largely to its numbers. The amount of population necessary for the admission of a State, being left by the constitution wholly to the discretion of Congress, and its action in reference to it having varied in almost every instance, affords no uniform precedent. Tennessee, admitted June 1, 1796, had by the census of 1790 a white population of 32,013. Louisiana, admitted April 8, 1812, had by the census ofl810awhite population of 34,311. Indiana, admitted December 11, 1816, had by the census of 1810 a white population of 23,890. Mississippi, admitted December 10, 1817, had by the census of 1820, three years after her admission, a white population of 42,176.
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