Excerpt from Speech of Hon. S. A. Douglas, of Illinois, on Kansas Territorial Affairs: Delivered in the Senate United States, March 20, 1856 Mr. President Iwill ask the indulgence of the Senate for such length of time as the subject may require, provided my strength do not fail me, while I submit some views in vindication of the majority report, and in answer to that of the minority, of the Committee on Territories, upon the Kansas question. In the first place, however, as we have taken up for consideration the bill reported by the Committee on Territories, to authorize the people of that territory to form a constitution and State government, preparatory to admission into the Union, it is due to the subject thati should give a brief exposition of the provisions and princi ples of the bill. The first section provides, that whenever the Territory of Kansas shall contain inhabitants, to be ascertained by a census, taken in conformity with law, (that being the present ratio for a member of Congress, ) a convention may be called by the legislature of the Territory to form a constitution and State government, preparatory to its admission into the Union as a State. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.