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Show GRANTS TO STATES ON ADMISSION TO UNION 309 the approaching election in 1864. The war was lasting unexpectedly long, losses on the battlefield were terrific, taxes were high, and discontent was widespread. Political wiseacres thought that the election of 1864 might be thrown into the House. To strengthen the administration it was deemed expedient to create two or three new states whose votes might be expected to be for Lincoln. New Mexico had nearly enough population but was close to Texas and probably would vote Democratic. Three other territories were interested in statehood to some extent. Nebraska, with a population of 28,841, Colorado with a population of 34,277, and Nevada with a population of 6,857, all as of 1860, were to be the instruments of Republican planning.73 All were deficient in population, but time and again territories had been admitted without the necessary number, whether 60,000 or the Federal ratio of the number of people to a Congressman. Here then were three possibilities for the creation of Republican-controlled states to aid the party in Washington and in the Electoral College. Congress proceeded to adopt three enabling acts on March 21 and April 19, 1864, with little debate. A Democratic proposal that would have kept Nevada out of the Union until it had at least 65,000 people was easily defeated. A proposal, favored by Benjamin Wade of Ohio, that would have exempted from taxes for 3 years all privately owned lands entered with warrants, scrip or as homesteads, had been approved by the Senate Committee on Public Lands but in open discussion was disowned by members of the committee except Wade. Another proposal that would have made the 5 percent of net returns from land sales apply to past as well as future sales was also struck out.74 The three measures were nearly identical, except for the sections detailing the boundaries and slight variations in the land con-sessions promised the territories if they decided to enter the Union at this time. They are shown by the following table. Land Concession in Enabling Acts of 1864 Nevada Colorado Nebraska School grants_______ Sections 16, 36 Sections 16, 36 Sections 16, 36 Public Buildings_____ 12,800 acres 12,800 acres 12,800 acres Penitentiary________ 12,280 acres 12,800 acres 32,000 acres University__________ None None 46,080 acres Salt Springs________ None None 46,080 acres The 5 percent of the net returns from land sales was to be handled differently. Nebraska was to have the fund for the support of schools, while Nevada and Colorado were to be assigned the fund for "making and improving roads, constructing ditches or canals, to effect a general system of irrigation in the 73 J. G. Randall and Richard N. Current, Lincoln The President. Last Full Measure (New York, 1955), 236-37. state as the legislature shall direct." For the first time Congress had shown an understanding of the vast difference between the humid Middle West and the semi-arid territories of the Interior Basin and Rocky Mountain area.75 uCong. Globe, 38th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 789, 1558; 13 Stat. 30, 32, 47. ™Cong. Globe, 38th Cong., 1st sess., p. 789; 13 Stat. 30, 32, 47. |