Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 19.djvu/691

 PROCLAMATIONS. 665 No. 6. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Aug. 1, 1876. - A PROCLAMATION. Whereas the Congress of the United States did, by an Act approved ‘°"""“"l°· on the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and seventy- five, authorize the inhabitants of 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 consti— tution should, when assembled for that purpose and after organization, 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 ot his or her mode of religious worship, and that the people inhabiting said Territory do agree and declare that they forever 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 termed 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 ratification or rejection at an election to be held in the month of July, eighteen hundred and seventy-six, at which election the lawful voters of said new State should vote directly for or against the proposed constitution, and the returns of said election should 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 should canvass the same, and if a majority of legal votes should be cast for said constitution in said proposed State, the said acting Governor should certify the same to the President of the United Sta-tes. together with a copy of said constitution and ordinances ; whereupon it should 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; And whereas it has been certified to me by the acting Governor of said Territory of Colorado, that within the time prescriber} by said act of Congress a constitution for said proposed State has been adopted, and the same ratified by a majority of the legal voters of said proposed new State in accordance with the conditions prescribed by said act ot' Congress; And whereas a duly authenticated copy of said Constitution and of the declaration and ordinance required by said act has been received by me: Now, therefore, I, Umrssns S. GRANT, President of the United States Qoloradqo pm of America-, do, in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress glaripjcsloz mite of aforesaid, declare and proclaim the tact that the fundamental conditions ° ‘ imposed by Congress on the State of Colorado to entitle that State to admission to the Union have been ratified and accepted, and that the admission of the said State into the Union is now complete.