erritory for
sixteen months, with but one term of court. Your memorialists look upon
those evils as growing exclusively out of the immense extent of
country included within the present boundaries of the Territory, and
express their conviction and belief, that nothing would so effectually
remedy the evil as the organization of Western Wisconsin into a
separate territorial Government. To this your memorialists conceive
themselves entitled by principles of moral right, by the sacred
obligation that rests upon the present government to protect them in
the free enjoyment of their rights, until such time as they shall be
permitted to provide protection for themselves; as well as from the
uniform practice and policy of the Government in relation to her other
Territories . . . . Your memorialists therefore pray for the
organization of a separate territorial government over that part of
the Territory of Wisconsin west of the Mississippi river."

The time and place of the meeting of this remarkable "Territorial
Convention" were certainly most opportune. Meeting in the halls of the
Legislative Assembly at the Capital of the Territory and in the very
presence of the members of the Assembly, the delegates declared it to be
the wish and will of the people that the Territory be divided. The
members of the Assembly were impressed with the fact that the people
west of the Mississippi were in earnest, and, as representatives of the
whole Territory, they too drew up a memorial which was approved by the
Governor within three weeks after the Convention had adjourned.

In this memorial the Legislative Assembly stated the case as follows:
"That owing to the great extent of country embraced in the limits
of Wisconsin Territory, and that vast extent of Territory being
separated by a natural division, (the Mississippi river,) which renders
the application of the same laws oppressive or unequal to one section or
the other; the true policy of the two sections of the Territory being as
widely different as their locations; and the impracticability of the
officers of the General Government to administer the laws; render it
highly important in the opinion of your memorialists that that portion
of the Territory lying west of the Mississippi river be formed into a
separate Territorial Government.

"The Territory of Wisconsin now contains fifty thousand inhabitants;
one-half of which, at least, reside on the west side of the Mississippi
river.

"Wit