Whereas the Congress of the United States did, by an act approved on the
3d day of March, 1875, 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 constitution
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 of 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 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 ratification or rejection at an election to be
held in the month of July, 1876, 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 States, 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 prescribed 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 of
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, Ulysses S.
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