electors were permitted to participate in the election of presidential electors and on December 11, 1816, by an appropriate resolution, Indiana was formerly admitted to the Union.

34. House Committee's Report on Petition of 1811 Asking Admission to Union (March 31, 1812).

At the session of the Territorial Legislature which met on November 11, 1811, a petition was adopted asking Congress to admit Indiana Territory to the Union on an equal footing with the original States. This petition was presented in the Senate in Congress on December 31 and in the House on January 1, 1812. On January 13, the Speaker laid before the House a letter of protest signed by James Dill and Peter Jones, two members of the Indiana House of Representatives, opposing the memorial asking the admission of Indiana Territory to the Union. It was the general expectation in the Territory that this petition would be favorably acted upon. General W. Johnston, a member of the Territorial Legislature from Knox County, assured his constituents that "The economical advantages which the general government will derive from this measure, induces me to hazard the belief that it will be acceded to." The petition which was presented in the House was referred to a select committee of which Jonathan Jennings was chairman and was under consideration by this committee for a period of three months. On January 10, in a letter to one of his constituents, Jennings said that the memorial had "met a very favorable reception by the select committee," and he expected a favorable report. He was unable to say whether he would be able to obtain the passage of an act for the admission of Indiana at that time but if not successful at that session, "I doubt not that it will be successful at the next." On March 31, the select committee submitted a report in which they recommended that Indiana Territory should be admitted to the Union whenever its population should amount to 35,000 to be ascertained by a census taken under authority of the Territory.

[Annals, Twelfth Congress, First Session, 1247.]

Mr. Jonathan Jennings, from the committee to whom was referred the memorial of the legislature of the Indiana Territory, praying to be admitted into the Union upon an equal footing with the original States, made a report thereon; which was read, and committed to a Committee of the Whole on Monday next. The report is as follows:

That the Territory of Indiana is a part of the original territory northwest of the river Ohio, and includes so much of the latter as was ordained by the ordinance for the government thereof to form a separate and independent State. That the acts of Congress establishing the Territories of Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois, have bounded the territorial limits of the former by the Territory of Michigan on the North; by a line drawn due North from the mouth.

of the Great Miami river on the East; by the river Ohio on the South; and by the river Wabash, from its confluence with the Ohio to Vincennes; and from thence by a line to be drawn due north on the West. That the Territory of Indiana has been governed according to the provisions of the ordinance aforesaid, which likewise ordains that the Territory northwest of the Ohio, should be formed into not less than three nor more than five States, and that each might respectively be admitted into the Union with a population less than sixty thousand free inhabitants.

Notwithstanding the General Government has extended the hand of relief to the Territory now under consideration, to the great advantage of its citizens, who must necessarily submit to its temporary existence and authority, by dispensing with some of the most arbitrary features of the ordinance; yet a complete emancipation from a Territorial government is not only desirable, but, in the opinion of your committee, should be granted as soon as it may be compatible with the interest of the United States and the said Territory.

The committee, therefore, submit the following resolution:

Resolved, That the Indiana Territory should be admitted into the Union as an independent State, under the conditions of the Constitution of the United States, and a law to be provided for that purpose, whenever the population of its Federal numbers shall amount to thirty-five thousand and the fact thereof shall have been ascertained by a census to be taken under the authority of the said Territory.

35.

Waller Taylor's Letter Relative to Statehood (June 17, 1812).

The only strictly campaign document relative to the assumption of statehood which is extant in the literature of the period was published in the Western Sun of June 23, 1812, by Waller Taylor who was a candidate for Delegate to Congress.

[Western Sun, June 23, 1812.]

With respect to the territories assuming the state government, my own opinion is, that it should be entered into as soon as the people shall think themselves able to support it, however, I shall expect instructions, and those instructions, whatever they may be, coming from the majority of the people, or from the Legislature, I shall punctually obey.

36. Authorizing an Official Census of Indiana Territory (August 29, 1814).

In response to the recommendation made by the House of Representatives on March 31, 1812 (Document No. 34), the Territorial Legislature, on August 29, 1814, adopted a resolution requiring the listers of taxes to take a census of the free inhabitants of the Territory in the year 1815, at the same time that property was listed for taxation, designating in separate lists the total number of free inhabitants and the total number of free male white inhabitants above the age of twenty-one years.

[Acts, First Session, Fifth General Assembly of Indiana Territory, 92.]

A joint resolution of both houses.

Resolved by the Legislative Council and House of Representatives, That the several listers for the year 1815 be and they are hereby authorized and required at the same time they take lists of the taxable property in their respective counties, to take a list of the free inhabitants within the same, noting in a seperate list the free male white inhabitants above the age of 21 years, and the said list to return together with the lists of the taxable property to the clerks of their respective counties, to the intent that it may be ascertained and known when there shall be sixty thousand free inhabitants within the Indiana Territory; and the clerks of the several courts are hereby required to transmit the same to the House of Representatives, at the same time and in the same manner that they transmit statements of the Territorial levies within their counties, and the courts of claims in the several counties, shall make to the listers reasonable allowances for said services.

Approved August 29, 1814.

And that the said several listers, before they enter upon the duties of their office, shall take an oath or affirmation before some magistrate or other person duly appointed to administer oaths, to take the census of inhabitants within their districts truly according to the best of their information, and return the same with list of taxables.

37. Official Census of Indiana Territory.

The report of the official census of Indiana Territory, authorized by the resolution of August 29, 1814 (Document No. 36), was submitted to the House of Representatives on January 5, 1816.

[Annals, Fourteenth Congress, First Session, 460.]

Corydon, February 24, 1816.

Dear Sir: Agreeably to your request, I embrace the first moment within my power to send you a certified statement of the

census of the Indiana Territory, taken from the official returns of the listers, certified by the clerks of the various counties, and forwarded to the House of Representatives of the said Territory, at their session which commenced on the 4th day of December, 1815, to wit:

Given

I, William Hendricks, Clerk of the House of Representatives, do hereby certify that the within statement is correct. under my hand the day above written.

W. HENDRICKS,

Clerk of the House of Representatives.

*From the county of Perry, no listers book had been received from the clerk, but the representative of that county says he had the number above stated from good authority.

38.

Memorial to Congress Asking Admission to Union (December 11, 1815).

The formal petition of the Legislative Assembly of Indiana Territory asking admission to the Union was adopted on December 11, 1815. This memorial set forth that Indiana Territory had a population in excess of 60,000, and that inasmuch as all the requirements of the Ordinance of 1787 had been complied with, that Congress should authorize an election to be held on the first Monday of May, 1816, to select constitutional delegates to frame a state government or to provide for the assembling of representatives to organize a state government at some time in the future. Among the concessions demanded were: (1) seven per cent of all money received for the sale of public lands; (2) the grant of one township of land for the endowment of an academy;

(3) the grant of one section in each township for the use of common schools; (4) the grant to the State of all coal mines and salt licks; (5) the reservation of one entire township for the establishment of a college; (6) the grant of one entire township for a seat of government; and (7) the exclusion of slavery. They also suggested an apportionment of the delegates to the convention which was adopted by Congress, with the exception of Harrison county.

[Western Sun, January 27, 1816.]

To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled:

The memorial of the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of the Indiana Territory, assembled at the town of Corydon, in the year 1815, in behalf of their constituents, respectfully sheweth:

day of

That whereas the ordinance of Congress for the government of this Territory has provided, "That whenever there shall be sixty. thousand free inhabitants therein, this Territory shall be admitted, into the Union on an equal footing with the original States;" and whereas by a census taken by the authority of the Legislature of this Territory, it appears from the returns that the number of free white inhabitants exceeds sixty thousand, we, therefore, pray the honorable Senate and House of Representatives, in Congress assembled, to order an election, to be conducted agreeably to the existing laws of this Territory, to be held in the several counties of this Territory on the first Monday of May, 1816, for representatives to meet in Convention, at the seat of government of this territory, the 1816, who, when assembled, shall determine by a majority of the votes of all the members elected, whether it will be expedient to go into a State government; and if it be determined expedient, the convention thus assembled shall have the power to form a constitution and frame of government; or if it be deemed inexpedient to provide for the election of representatives to meet in convention, at some future period, to form a constitution. And whereas the people of this territory have made great sacrifices, by settling on the frontiers, where they have been exposed to dangers and hardships of almost every description, by which means the lands of the U. S. have been greatly increased in value we feel confident that congress will be disposed to grant us 7 per cent, on all monies received at any of the U. S. land offices, from the first day of April, 1816, for lands already sold or hereafter to be sold, lying in this territory; such