All the Random Things We Wanted to Know About Setting Up a U.S. Territory But Were Afraid to Ask
- With Senate approval, the POTUS will appoint each territory's Governor, Secretary, Chief Justice, Associate Justices, Attorney, and Marshal.
- Everyone has to take an oath to support the U.S. Constitution, and those oaths and certificates have to be recorded by the clerk.
- The Governor will receive a salary of $2500. The Chief and Associate Justices will each get $2000. They'll all get paid four times a year (and we thought making a paycheck stretch for two full weeks was a challenge).
- The Legislative Assembly members will get paid three dollars per day of attendance, plus they'll get a travel allowance of three dollars for every twenty miles they have to travel to do their job. In addition, the presiding officer of each Legislative Assembly house will get three dollars per day.
- The chief clerk gets four dollars per day, and the other officers will get three dollars per day, but no one else can collect their salary from the U.S. Government.
- Once a year, the U.S. will send a lump sum to the Governor and Secretary that should cover everything listed here, and should also cover the printing of laws and other incidentals (as directed by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury).
- Twice a year, all spending must be accounted for and reported to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. These territories are not allowed to spend more than they have unless specifically authorized by the U.S. Congress.
- The Governor of Nebraska Territory gets to decide when and where the first Legislative Assembly meeting will be. After that, the Governor and Legislative Assembly must establish a location for their government seat, though this can be changed later on, in case commitment issues arise.
- The Territory's voters can elect one U.S. Representative; he'll serve for two years.
- The first elections will be set up by the Governor, but then a law needs to be made dictating future elections. He who gets the most votes, wins.
- Unless laws are locally inapplicable, the Territories must abide by the U.S. Constitution (just ignore that whole Missouri Compromise thing; it's going the way of the dinosaur anyway).
- The U.S. Government will give each Territory enough money to construct suitable government buildings (including a library) for its new government peeps.
- Fun fact: A township is an area of six square miles, divided into thirty-six one-square-mile sections. These sections are very creatively numbered 1 through 36.
- This section is basically saying that, in each township created Nebraska Territory, sections 16 and 36 need to be reserved for schools, as opposed to being sold to private owners or used for government or military purposes.
- Until laws are written that say otherwise, the Governor can define judicial districts, appoint judges, and decide when and where court will be held.
- The Governor's decisions can be altered by the Legislative Assembly (this is to help ensure that Governors don't get carried away with themselves and turn into crazy dictators with unlimited power).
- All government peeps handling money for each Territory must do so in accordance with rules set by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.