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To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of Wisconsin
The petition of the undersigned in his paradoxical character of a citizen of the United States and of the state of Wisconsin, represents:
That experience has demonstrated that the American people cannot exist as a nation, and at the same time preserve the relation of Federal and State authority - that in order to sustain free government on this continent, the one or the other must field up its power - that the idea of separate state governments, with no common centre of attraction and power, is not to be entertained, and therefore, in order to secure the happiness of the millions who inhabit the territory of the United States, it is expedient and proper that steps be taken to secure to them and to their posterity, one executive, one county, one legislature, and one code of laws; - and your petitioner therefore asks, that your honorable likely devise some way by which a convention of the states may be had, in order to mature a plan, which shall have for its purpose the abolition of the state authority and the extinguishment of geographical state lines, and to lodge all power in one common government.
William Welch
