nd square miles included within the limits designated in their
original constitution. It was in conformity with pledges that I had
given them personally, with instructions which I knew I had received
from them at the ballot-box, that I introduced, at an early day of the
present session, the bill imbodying the boundaries of their choice."

It was not, however, until March 27, 1846, that Mr. Stephen A.
Douglas, from the Committee on the Territories to whom Mr. Dodge's
bill had been referred, reported an "amendatory bill." This
bill, which was introduced to take the place of the original bill,
rejected the boundaries of the Constitution of 1844 and proposed the
parallel of forty-three degrees and thirty minutes as the Northern
boundary line of the new State. It was committed to the Committee of
the Whole House on the State of the Union, wherein it was discussed on
the eighth of June and reported back to the House. On the ninth of
June the amendatory bill was taken up by the House and passed. It was
reported to the Senate without delay, but was not passed by that body
until the first day of August. On the fourth day of August the act
received the approval of President Polk.

The most important discussion of the bill was in the House of
Representatives on the eighth day of June. An attempt was made
to reduce the State on the North. Mr. Rockwell, of Massachusetts,
moved to amend by striking out the words "forty-three and thirty
minutes" where they occur and inserting in lieu thereof "forty-two
degrees." He understood from a memorial which had been presented to
the House that the people in the Northern part of the Territory did
not wish to be included within the proposed boundaries.

Mr. Douglas said that he was now in favor of the new boundaries as
proposed by the Committee on the Territories. He declared that the
boundaries of the act of March 3, 1845, "would be the worst that could
be agreed upon; the most unnatural; the most inconvenient for the
State itself, and leaving the balance of the territory in the
worst shape for the formation of other new States." As to the memorial
from Dubuque recommending the parallel of forty-two degrees, Mr.
Douglas said that he was aware of the influences which produced it.
The people of Dubuque "wished either for such an arrangement as should
cause Dubuque to be the largest town in a little State, or else to
make it the central town of a large State."

Mr. Rathburn, of New York, was op