nially, as in Illinois and several other states; but as this practice is not free from objection, we shall not recommend it in our esti

mates.

Your committee would then present the following as an estimate of the legislative department:

A legislature of sixty members, and a session of fifty days, at $2 per day, $6000; mileage, $2 for every twenty miles travel, average $25 each member, $1500; thirteen officers, at $2 per day, $1300; state printer, $2500; stationery and fuel, $1000; chaplains, $200; postage and newspapers, $650; librarian and superintendent of public property, $300; incidental, $2000.

3d. The judicial department.-Here, again, your committee will refer to precedents, in order to aid in arriving at proper esti. mates. In the states of Ohio and Indiana, the salaries of judges of the supreme court were originally fixed at $1000 per annum. In several other states the salaries of district judges does not exceed $1000. Lest, this should be regarded too low a salary for the judges of Wisconsin, your committee will allow $1200 in the estimate.

It is true that we now receive from the United States $8000 annually for jury fees. Although this class of expenditure forms no part of the cost of state government, yet it is fair that it should be taken into the account, inasmuch as the general government would no longer make this appropriation on the event of our becoming a state. Whenever we shall have ceased to be a territory, the expense of jurors will fall upon the several counties.

Your committee will now proceed to recapitulate the estimated expenses of the three departments of a state government in the order in which they have been considered, viz: executive, legislative, and judicial:

$23,150 8,000

Add to the above sum of $23,150 the sum of which we now receive for jury fees, and it shows the amount to be supplied by the people of Wisconsin to be

Having estimated the probable cost of state

$31,150

government, the

From the best

inquiry arises, are the people able to support it. evidence which your committee have been able to obtain, it sp pears that the total amount of assessed taxable property in this territory is over $8,000,000. Provided that no other meats could be devised for meeting the expenses of state govern ment than a resort to direct taxation, it will be perceived that a tax of three and seven tenths mills on a dollar, would produce a sufficient revenue for that purpose, with our present resources and population. But when we take a prospective glance at the tide of population, enterprise and capital, which will swell our present numbers and resources within the next two years, it is no visionary calculation to estimate that twenty-five per cent. will be added to the above assessed valuation within that period; and hence a tax of about three and one-tenth mills on the dullar would raise the requisite sum to support a state government.

But if the proof of our ability to support a state government were the only argument in favor of changing our present territoririal relations, there would be less reason for action at this time. There are other considerations, however, which appeal not only to the pecuniary interests of the people, but to the nobler sent ments of man-science, morality and political liberty. Before

proceeding, however, to consider what Wisconsin wilgain by becoming a state, it may be well to answer the comma objection, viz: that our present number of inhabitants is too spill to go into a state government. It was clearly the opinion of:ongress that the territories would be fully competent to govern themselves, and assume an independent station among the soveign states of the Union, whenever they should number sixty thesand inhabitants within their respective limits. And it is, meover, just to draw the conclusion, that the territories would be cpected to sever their territorial dependency upon the general government as soon as they should respectively number sixty thasand. If this were not so, why were provisions made for the teitories to come into the Union with a less number than sixty thosand? From a calculation it appears that there are within the hits of this terri-· tory, from eighty to one hundred thousand inhaitants. Should any, however, doubt our having reached that number, they must, nevertheless, admit one fact, to wit: should Wiconsin come into the Union two years hence, (1846,) she wad come in with a greater number of inhabitants, with perhaps single exception, than any other new state ever came in with, since additional states have been made to the original thirteen. The following table, exhibiting the population of the several newstates, at the time of their admission into the Union, may be rgarded as tolerably ac

It is proper to remark, that if the history of the past be any guide by which to judge the future, the increase of population in Wisconsin will be more rapid after our admission into the Union, than previous to that period; this has been true of all the new

states, as is learly proven by a reference to the statistics of their population. This influx of immigration doubtless arises from the belief that he laws are more stable, and that property is more se cure in state than in a territory.

If, then, ibe true that Wisconsin, two years hence, might come into the Unic with a greater number of inhabitants than a majority, if not all,he new states which have preceded her, what valid reason can bassigned for our remaining in the dependent attitude of a terrory? As to our right to form a state government with the numer of inhabitants prescribed in the ordinance of 1787, it has ben conceded by the most enlightened statesmen and jurists in th Union, and therefore needs not to be argued by your committee. Will the people listen to appeals made to their cupidity? Willhey be told that it is cheaper to be governed than to exercise he prerogative of self-government! Will they be made to belies that their happiness and prosperity can be better promoted by aimited exercise of their privileges in the choice of their rulers, the by assuming the responsibility of being go verned by whom hey please? Such appeals and such incentives may find favor wth those who have no higher aspirations than sal slaves, but can never find a response in the hearts of gene freemen. Will it be said that Wisconsin possesses less int gence, and has less cpacity to enter into a state government had the new states wich have gone into the Uni Are the moral, physcal, and intellectual cap consin less adapted to self-government than the tudes?

But, it may be aske, what besides the fall ernmental affairs shall ve gain by becoming Wisconsin will receive, upon her admission 000 acres of land, which is equivalent to for the benefit of he people of $650,000 has been granted o the new states on Union, and nearly if not all the western ed large additiona, grants of land from haps, be replied, th