able property within such corporation, county, or subdivision, to be ascertained by the last assessment for territorial and county taxes previous to the incurring of such indebtedness; and all bonds or obligations in excess of such amount given by such corporation shall be void: that nothing in this Act contained shall be so construed as to affect the validity of any Act of any territorial legislature previously enacted, or of any obligations existing or contracted thereunder, nor to preclude the issuing of bonds already contracted for in pursuance of express provisions of law; nor to prevent any territorial legislature from legalising the acts of any county, municipal corporation, or subdivision of any territory as to any bonds previously issued or contracted to be issued.

Nothing in this Act contained shall be construed to abridge the power of Congress to annul any law passed by a territorial legislature, or to modify any existing law of Congress requiring in any case that the laws of any territory shall be submitted to Congress.

The legislative assemblies of the several territories shall not grant private charters or special privileges; but they may, by general incorporation Acts, permit persons to associate themselves together as bodies corporate for mining, manufacturing, and other industrial pursuits, and for conducting the business of insurance, banks of discount and deposit (but not of issue), loan, trust, and guarantee associations, and for the construction or operation of railroads, waggon-roads, irrigating ditches, and the colonisation and improvement of lands in connection therewith, or for colleges, seminaries, churches, libraries, or any other benevolent, charitable, or scientific association. No corporation or association for religious or charitable purposes shall acquire

or hold real estate in any territory during the existence of the territorial government, of a greater value than $50,000; and all real estate acquired or held by such corporation or association contrary to this provision is forfeited and escheat to the United States.

The Constitution and all laws of the United States which are not locally inapplicable have the same force and effect within all the organised territories, and in every territory to be organised, as elsewhere within the United States. Penitentiaries erected by the United States in an organised territory are placed under the care and control of the marshal of the United States for the territory or district in which such penitentiary is situated, except as specially provided in certain territories. The needful rules and regulations for such penitentiaries are prescribed by the Attorney-General of the United States, and the marshals having charge shall cause them to be duly and faithfully executed and obeyed. The compensation, as well as the expense incident to the subsistence and employment of offenders against the laws of the United States sentenced to imprisonment in such penitentiary, is chargeable on, and payable out of, the fund for defraying the expenses of suits in which the United States are concerned, and of prosecutions for offences committed against the United States, but the maximun compensation allowed by law to those officers shall not be exceeded. Any person convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction in a territory for the violation of the laws thereof, and sentenced to imprisonment, may at the cost of such territory, on such terms and conditions as may be prescribed by such rules and regulations, be received, subsisted, and employed in such penitentiary during the term

of his imprisonment, in the same manner as if he had been convicted of an

offence against the laws of the United States.

be, and they are hereby, authorised to form for themselves, out of said territory, a state government with the name of the State of Colorado; which state, when formed, shall be admitted into the Union upon an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatsoever, as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 2. That the said State of Colorado shall consist of all the territory included within the following boundaries to wit, commencing on the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude, where the twenty-fifth meridian of longitude west from Washington crosses the same; thence north on said meridian to the forty-first parallel of north latitude; thence along said parallel west to the thirty-second meridian of longitude west from Washington; thence south on said meridian to the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude; thence along said thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude to the place of beginning.

SEC. 3. That all persons qualified by law to vote for representatives to the general assembly of said territory at the date of the passage of this Act shall be qualified to be elected, and they are hereby authorised to vote for and choose representatives to form a convention, under such rules and regulations as the governor of said territory, the chief-justice, and the United States attorney thereof, may prescribe; and also to vote upon the acceptance or rejection of such constitution as may be formed by said convention, under such rules and regulations as said convention may prescribe.

And the aforesaid representatives to form the aforesaid convention shall

be apportioned among the several counties in said territory, in proportion to the vote polled in each of said counties at the last general election, as near as may be; and said apportionment shall be made for said territory by the governor, United States district attorney, and chief - justice thereof, or any two of them.

And the governor of said territory shall, by proclamation, order an election of the representatives aforesaid to be held throughout the territory, at such time as shall be fixed by the governor, chief-justice, and United States attorney, or any two of them; which proclamation shall be issued within ninety days next after the 1st day of September 1875, and at least thirty days prior to the time of said election; and such election shall be conducted in the same manner as is prescribed by the laws of said territory regulating elections therein for members of the House of Representatives; and the number of members to said convention shall be the same as now constitutes both branches of the legislature of the aforesaid territory.

SEC. 4. That the members of the convention thus elected shall meet at the capital of said territory on a day to be fixed by said governor, chiefjustice, and United States attorney, not more than sixty days subsequent to the day of election; which time of meeting shall be contained in the aforesaid proclamation mentioned in the third section of this Act; and, after organisation, shall declare, on behalf of the people of said territory, that they adopt the Constitution of the United States; whereupon the said convention shall be, and is hereby, authorised to form a constitution and state government for said territory:

Provided, That the constitution shall be republican in form, and make no distinction in civil or political

rights on account of race or colour, except Indians not taxed, and not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence:

And provided further, That said convention shall provide, by an ordinance, irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of said state, first, that perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and no inhabitant of said state shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship; secondly, that the people inhabiting said territory do agree and declare that they for ever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within said territory, and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States, and that the lands belonging to citizens of the United States residing without the said state shall never be taxed higher than the lands belonging to residents thereof, and that no taxes shall be imposed by the state on lands or property therein belonging to, or which may hereafter be purchased by, the United States.

SEC. 5. That in case the constitution and state government shall be formed for the people of said Territory of Colorado, in compliance with the provisions of this Act, said convention forming the same shall provide, by ordinance, for submitting said constitution to the people of said state for their ratification or rejection at an election, to be held at such time in the month of July 1876, and at such places and under such regulations as may be prescribed by said convention, at which election the lawful voters of said new state shall vote directly for or against the proposed constitution;

And the returns of said election shall be made to the acting governor of the territory, who, with the chief

justice and United States attorney of said territory, or any two of them, shall canvass the same; and if a majority of legal votes shall be cast for said constitution in said proposed state, the said acting governor shall certify the same to the President of the United States, together with a copy of said constitution and ordinances; whereupon it shall be the duty of the President of the United States to issue his proclamation declaring the state admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, without any further action whatever on the part of Congress.

SEC. 6. That until the next general census said state shall be entitled to one representative in the House of Representatives of the United States, which representative, together with the governor and state and other officers provided for in said constitution, shall be elected on a day subsequent to the adoption of the constitution, and to be fixed by said constitutional convention; and until Isaid state officers are elected and qualified under the provisions of the constitutions, the territorial officers shall continue to discharge the duties of their respective offices.

SEC. 7. That sections numbered 16 and 36 in every township, and where such sections have been sold or otherwise disposed of by any Act of Congress, other lands equivalent thereto, in legal subdivisions of not more than one quarter-section, and as contiguous as may be, are hereby granted to said state for the support of common schools.

SEC. 8. That, provided the State of Colorado shall be admitted into the Union in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this Act, fifty entire sections of the unappropriated public lands within said state, to be selected and located by direction of the legislature thereof, and, with the

approval of the President, on or before the first day of January 1878, shall be, and are hereby, granted in legal subdivisions of not less than one quarter-section to said state for the purpose of erecting public buildings at the capital of said state for legislative and judicial purposes, in such manner as the legislature shall prescribe.

SEC. 9. That fifty other entire sections of land as aforesaid, to be selected and located, and with the approval as aforesaid, in legal subdivisions as aforesaid, shall be, and they are hereby, granted to said state for the purpose of erecting a suitable building for a penitentiary or state prison in the manner aforesaid.

SEC. 10. That seventy-two other sections of land shall be set apart and reserved for the use and support of a state university, to be selected and approved in manner as aforesaid, and to be appropriated and applied as the legislature of said state may prescribe for the purpose named and for no other purpose.

SEC. 11. That all salt-springs within said state, not exceeding twelve in number, with six sections of land adjoining, and as contiguous as may be to each, shall be granted to said state for its use, the said land to be selected by the governor of said state within two years after the admission of the state, and when so selected to be used and disposed of on such terms, conditions, and regulations as the legislature shall direct.

Provided, That no salt-spring or lands, the right whereof is now vested in any individual or individuals, or which hereafter shall be confirmed or adjudged to any individual or individuals, shall by this Act be granted to said state.

SEC. 12. That 5 per centum of the proceeds of the sales of agricultural public lands lying within said state, which shall be sold by the

United States subsequent to the admission of said state into the Union, after deducting all the expenses incident to the same, shall be paid to the said state for the purpose of making such internal improvements within said state as the legislature thereof may direct: Provided, that this section shall not apply to any lands disposed of under the homestead laws of the United States, or to any lands now or hereafter reserved for public or other use.

SEC. 13. That any balance of the appropriations for the legislative expenses of said Territory of Colorado remaining unexpended shall be applied to and used for defraying the expenses of said convention, and for the payment of the members thereof, under the same rules and regulations and rates as are now prescribed by law for the payment of the territorial legislature.

SEC. 14. That the two sections of land in each township herein granted for the support of common schools shall be disposed of only at public sale, and at a price not less than $2.50 per acre, the proceeds to constitute a permanent school fund, the interest of which to be expended in the support of common schools.

SEC. 15. That all mineral lands shall be excepted from the operation and grants of this Act. (March 3, 1875.)

1. Declared a state of the Union.

the Territory of Colorado to form for themselves out of said territory a state government, with the name of the State of Colorado, and for the admission of such state into the Union, on an equal footing with the original states, upon certain conditions in said Act specified:

And whereas it was provided by said Act of Congress that the convention elected by the people of said territory to frame a state constitution should, when assembled for that purpose and after organisation, declare on behalf of the people that they adopt the constitution of the United States, and should also provide by an ordinance, irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of said state, that perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and that no inhabitant of said state shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship; and that the people inhabiting said territory do agree and declare that they for ever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within said territory, and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States; and that the lands belonging to citizens of the United States residing without the said state shall never be taxed higher than the lands belonging to residents thereof; and that no taxes shall be imposed by the state on lands or property therein belonging to, or which may hereafter be purchased by, the United States:

And whereas it was further provided by said Act that the constitution thus formed for the people of the Territory of Colorado should, by an ordinance of the convention forming the same, be submitted to the people of said territory for ratifica