64 F. L. Paxson Congress until the end of January. And had not the departure of the southern members to their states cleared the way for action, it is highly improbable that even this session would have produced results of importance. Grow had announced in the House on December 12, i860, a general territorial platform similar to that which had been under debate for three years. ^ Until the close of January the southern valedictories held the floor, but at last the admission of Kansas on January 29, 1861, revealed the fact that pro-slavery opposition had departed and that the long-deferred territorial scheme could have a fair chance.- On the verj day after Kansas was admitted, with its western boundary at the twenty-fifth meridian from Washington, the Senate revived its Bill No. 366 of the last session and took up its deliberation upon a territory for Pike's Peak.^ Only by chance did the name Colorado remain attached to the bill. Idaho was at one time substituted for Colorado, but was amended out in favor of the original name on February 4 as the bill passed the Senate.* The boundaries were materially cut down from those which the terri- tory had provided for itself. Two degrees were at once taken from the north of the territory, and after some hesitation over the Green River the western boundary was placed at the thirty-second meridian from Washington.^ In this shape, between the thirty- seventh and forty-first parallels, and the twenty-fifth and thirty- second meridians, the bill passed the Senate on February 4, the House on February 18, and received the signature of President Buchanan on February 28." The absence of serious debate in the passage of this Colorado act is excellent evidence of the merit of the scheme and the reasons for its being so long deferred. On February 28, 1861, the territory of Colorado became a legal fact ; Buchanan left it to his successor to erect the territorial establishment. President Lincoln, after some delay caused by pres- sure of business at Washington, commissioned General William Gilpin as first governor of the territory. Gilpin had long known the mountain frontier; he had commanded a detachment on the Santa Fe trail in the forties, and had written prophetic books upon the future of the country to which he was now sent. His loyalty was unquestioned, and his readiness to assume responsibility went so ^ Cong. Globe, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 81. -Leverett W. Spring, Kansas (Boston, 1885), 266. " Cong. Globe, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 639.
- Ibid., 729.
°F. L. Paxson, "The Boundaries of Colorado", in University of Colorado Studies, II. 87-94- ° Cong. Globe, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 729, 777, 1003, 1206, 1274.
