Subject files and correspondence of territorial governor Gorman. A large proportion relate to territorial officers' appointments and commissions. Letters received and sent address the following topics: concerns of federal civilian agencies, military and Indian affairs in general, the 1855 treaty with the Winnebago Indians, land sales, the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad Company, and other territorial affairs. Also present are a legislative diary (Jan. 27-March 6, 1857), pardon records, petitions regarding local government organization, reports from territorial officers, and requests from other states for return of fugitives.

Gorman's governorship spanned a period of both tangible and speculative growth in the state's infrastructure and economy, with numerous railroads, educational institutions, and corporations being chartered, new counties established, new towns incorporated, and several Indian treaties ratified. The surviving records contain only sketchy information on these developments, and do not appear to contain any significant documentation on an abortive 1857 scheme to remove the state capital from St. Paul to St. Peter.