The English Bill was drafted on April 23, 1858, it was an offer made by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

to Kansas Territory. Kansas was offered some millions of acres of

public land In all modern states, a portion of land is held by central or local governments. This is called public land, state land, or Crown land (Australia, and Canada). The system of tenure of public land, and the terminology used, varies between countrie ...

s in exchange for accepting the

Lecompton Constitution The Lecompton Constitution (1859) was the second of four proposed constitutions for the state of Kansas. Named for the city of Lecompton where it was drafted, it was strongly pro-slavery. It never went into effect. History Purpose The Lecompton C ...

. The English Bill was introduced by

William Hayden English William Hayden English (August 27, 1822 – February 7, 1896) was an American politician. He served as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1853 to 1861 and was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States in ...

(1822–1896), a Democratic

representative Representative may refer to: Politics * Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a group of people * House of Representatives, legislative body in various countries or sub-national entities * Legislator, som ...

in Congress from 1853 to 1861. The bill itself was not a

bribe Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corru ...

to the degree that it is usually considered to be, as it reduced the grant of land demanded by the Lecompton Ordinance from 23,500,000 to 3,500,000 acres (951,000,000 to 142,000,000 km²), and offered only the normal cession to new states. This grant, however, was conditioned on the acceptance of the Lecompton Constitution, and Congress made no promise of any grant if that Constitution were not adopted. On August 21, 1858, by a vote of 11,812 to 1,926, Kansans rejected the offer.

References

United States proposed federal legislation 1858 in Kansas Territory Bleeding Kansas {{Kansas-stub