In this letter to Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden, Ewing urged support for the pending Kansas bill, which would have brought Kansas into the Union under the Wyandotte Constitution, by explaining one potentially controversial provision and assuring the senator that the population of the territory was between 80,000 and 100,000. The constitution provision in question conferred "suffrage on aliens who have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States." Ewing did not argue "the wisdom of this provision" but explained that it was a necessary "inducement to Emigrants" being made by all the western states and territories.