New Gods of North America.

Chapter 669 Act
The next day, before having breakfast, Wayne made a point of flipping through the latest newspaper that had been brought along with the meat wagon.
Then he realized that he seemed to have been emotionally deceived...

What kind of bullshit "special report" is this?

There wasn't a single major article with a relevant headline in any of these newspapers.

By searching the front pages of various newspapers using keywords, a small, relatively similar article appeared below the headline on the front page where the Kansas statehood bill was officially passed by the Senate.

The state legislature’s investigation committee held a hearing yesterday regarding allegations that some state legislators may have committed election fraud. Secretary of State Andrew Pryor, who has election oversight responsibilities, attended the hearing as scheduled and answered questions.

Holding the newspaper, Wayne was about to reopen the current affairs section and look through it again when his hand paused in mid-air. He then immediately flipped back to the front page.

what? !

"Kanx's statehood bill has passed the Senate?!"

As a Kansas native, Wayne wasn't surprised that Kansas' statehood bill passed.
After all, politicians like the town mayor have been preparing for this for many years, and Kansas is not going to remain a state forever; it was only a matter of time before the bill passed.

One reason he would be surprised is that for a bill to be formally passed, it needs to be voted on by the full Senate and the House of Representatives.

The American Congress does not meet for most of the year at this time. Since senators are required to remain in their districts most of the time, and the United States has a large territory, Congress is divided into summer and winter sessions, with the rest of the time in recess—during which no bills are passed.

Senator Walter from Virginia, however, seemed to have been in Richmond the whole time, making Wayne forget that it was still the federal congressional session.

I have a feeling that since the people who are supposed to vote haven't left yet, it's definitely going to be a while before the bill passes.

Thinking back carefully,

When he first came to Virginia from Chicago, he met Illinois Senator Underwood on a steam train.
At that time, some senators had already started heading to Washington, D.C., presumably to avoid missing the congressional session or to prepare in advance for the passage or rejection of certain bills.

The reason Mr. Walter was able to refresh the Richmond website from time to time was...

It's very likely because Washington, D.C. is right next to Virginia...

alright,

Living close by can sometimes really give you the freedom to do whatever you want.

This also means that Mr. Walter has definitely gone to Washington, D.C., which is actually a good thing for Wayne.
With the big boss away, the detective agency no longer needs to worry about local intelligence organizations suddenly targeting them.

It would be even better if Bishop Tyrell of the cathedral were attending some kind of synod at St. George's Cathedral in New York right now.
With the detective agency completely unsupervised for a short period, they could practically do whatever they wanted, only engaging in minor mischief in the dock area.

Ugh,
Unfortunately, this is something we can only dream about.

After all, the cathedral also has a newly appointed treasurer and Brother Merlin.

The focus shifted to the reports of the Kansas statehood bill passing the Senate. Under the current American system, a bill actually needs to pass both the House and the Senate before it can be signed by the president.

At this point, the process is at most halfway through, or even less than halfway.

—According to the division of responsibilities between the Senate and the House of Representatives, bills related to the overall interests of the federal government are primarily introduced by the Senate, while bills related to the interests of the public are introduced by the House of Representatives. The order in which the two houses vote is not entirely fixed.
This means that if a member of parliament wants to obstruct the passage of a bill, they will have two opportunities to oppose it, and the second attempt will often be more forceful than the first.

Upon closer inspection of the report, even Wayne noticed something amiss.

According to the federal Self-Government Act of that time, each state had the right to make its own laws and choose to become either a "free state" or a "slave state."

The current point of contention in this statehood bill is whether Kansas, which already has many towns that support slavery, should be stripped of their right to continue owning slaves after statehood is established.

Theoretically higher-ranking senators remained silent, while some representatives stepped forward, saying that if this part was not guaranteed, they would definitely obstruct the passage of the statehood bill. Some even suggested that Kansas should simply be split in two to form two new states, or that there should be two capitals within one state, allowing people to choose whichever they preferred.

While still in line with the spirit of the Self-Government Act, if this kind of infinite subdivision were to occur, then in an extreme scenario, it might even be possible to divide each town in two, with each town supporting or opposing slavery.
Isn't that essentially still supporting slavery?

Even in wealthy Virginia, not everyone owned plantations and slaves.
If calculated by population percentage, Richmond could actually be considered a "relatively free city," since the vast majority of its citizens did not own slaves.

With things dragging on to this point, Wayne figured the statehood bill was going to be a long and contentious affair.

It remains to be seen whether the House of Representatives will pass the bill before the current congressional session ends; we could find out within a few months.

After hearing Wayne's words, Lina, who was also looking at a newspaper, noticed that hers was different from Wayne's, but the front page headline was probably the same.
She then thought of a very practical problem: "If I take Alicia back to Kansas in the future, wouldn't she be free immediately? Mixed-race female slaves are not cheap; they can be exchanged for a lot of US dollars."

“Theoretically, yes. But we’re already negotiating an employment contract with her, which means she’s essentially voluntarily relinquishing a lot of specific control. As for the price, that’ll depend on your decision at that time, but at least the Richmond court will be on your side.”

“Hmm…” Lina was caught in a dilemma.

Inessa picked up a newspaper as well. Actually, the detective agency's newspapers were mainly bought for her. As long as Inessa read them, she could ask her directly if there were any problems later. Wayne and Lina didn't have to read them.
She quickly skimmed through the contents. "After traveling to so many places, I think Kansas might be better off as a free state. Although some of the northern states may not seem as prosperous and stable as Virginia, at least legally, no one has the right to arbitrarily take or control of another person's life, which is at least a kind of progress."

Wayne could understand Inessa's thoughts; she was bound by the Exorcist Association, even though the association hadn't used particularly forceful control methods.

However, "not using the shackles" and "not having the shackles" are completely different.

If Inessa had been replaced by Wayne or Lena, regardless of whether they would have become outlaws, Reverend Harker would probably have been abandoned halfway through his journey.
Accumulating contribution points? What a load of crap.

Not launching a surprise attack would be considered polite.

They chatted about distant political news for a while. The intelligence team really had new work to do now. Since newspaper reporters were unreliable, they would have to investigate what Wayne had heard yesterday.
He also mentioned his speculation that Mr. Walter was probably not in Richmond at the moment, which "softened" their investigation so that they might not have to worry too much about conflicts with former colleagues in the local intelligence organization.

"Really?" Lina, who usually didn't use her quick wit for political matters, made a point of confirming it again upon hearing this.

This made Wayne a little uneasy: "I think the possibility is not low. With the statehood bill causing such a big controversy, even considering only the possible discussions and campaigning within Congress, he probably won't be in a hurry to come back unless there is some urgent matter to deal with."

"But judging from your expression, what are you planning to do now?"

"We've recently 'softened' them by finding a secret outpost of a local intelligence organization, a place they didn't know about before. I'm considering whether to take this opportunity to go and check it out."

"Mr. Walter isn't in charge of guarding the outpost, so what difference does it make whether he's there or not?"

"The difference is huge. That seems to be one of his secret offices, where there might be important documents or something."

"no!"

"Why?!"

"We haven't even sorted things out here in the dock area yet. Just dealing with the Secretary of State is troublesome enough. Don't provoke the local intelligence agencies at a time like this. What if Mr. Walter really does come back?"

“I can disguise myself as someone from the School of Life, no, I don’t need to disguise myself, I still am. They might think it was done by some wild extraordinary person from the Old World.”

“His office isn’t going anywhere, you can go there another time. Besides investigating what I just mentioned, if you have some free time lately, you might as well keep an eye on the dock area and see if you can find any smuggling channels.”

"Hmm... okay then. Just remember not to object next time."

(End of this chapter)