American Historical Association 501 historians as Von Hoist, Schouler, and Rhodes, but a careful study of the measure shows that such a view is not justified. The bill presented two issues, the constitution and the ordinance, and the conference committee endeavored to emphasize the latter and minor issue while minimizing the former which was really the more im- portant. As a matter of fact the land-grant provided for in the bill was modelled after the corresponding section of the enabling act for Minnesota passed the year before, and was identical with the grant actually made to Kansas upon its admission in 1861. It has been the custom moreover to make grants of land upon the admission of new states, and while the amount has varied the grants of later years have generally been larger than the one in question. Finally any appearance of a bribe was removed by the fact that the grant pro- vided for in the bill was actually smaller than the amount demanded in the ordinance accompanying the Lecompton constitution. Alore important than the matter of the land-grant was the provision in the bill that in case Kansas should fail to accept the terms thus offered the whole question of statehood should be postponed until the terri- tory should have a population equal to the unit of Congressional rep- resentation. This has been regarded as a threat but is so reasonable as a matter of principle that there seems to be but small occasion to denounce it ; at present it is customary to require a population equal to twice the unit of representation. The concluding paper of the session, that of Professor James A. Woodburn of Indiana University, on " The Attitude of Thaddeus Stevens toward the Conduct of the Civil War '", appears in full in a subsequent part of the present number of this journal. It remains to speak of the annual business meeting, always one of the most interesting portions of the session, to those who appre- ciate or take part in the varied activities which mark the progress of the Association throughout the intervals between meetings. In the annual report of the Executive Council the most important pas- sage was that which dealt with the problems connected with the Association's publications and particularly with the readjustments made necessary by the reduced appropriation by Congress, or (more exactly, so far as the present year is concerned) allotment by the Smithsonian Institution, of $5,000 for the printing of the Annual Report.^ It has been impossible under the appropriation for the current fiscal year to provide for gratuitous distribution to the mem- bers of volume two of the Report for 1905, which is now in press ; 'The Sundry Civil Appropriation Act of March 3, 1907, increases the appro- priation (in a sense, restores it) to $7,000 for the ensuing fiscal year.
