The Arkansas advocate., 1835-06-19

opinons ot others, induce them 10 state the reasons for their desire to place Arkan- sas, dt the earliest possible iay, upon an equal footing with the other States.
 Tie jtrsi inquiry with your committee was; Has Arkansas, at this time, the redul- site population to en,itle her to admission into the Union!
 Secondly. If she has the necessary po- pGlation, IS she now prepared for the conse- 1 quences which such change will probably produce? and
 Lasag. What effect will change from Territorial to State Government, have upon our condition?
 Upon these several questions we have bestowed much reflection, and have avaiIed ourselves oi' the best lights within our reach, and have come b the following conclu- sions:
 Judging from the returns of the census already received, and forming an estimate from our knowledge of tho population of the other counties, yet to be received, we have arrived at the belief that our aggre- gate population will not fall short of fifty | thousand souls, {lederal numbers. The federal ratio representation Is now 47,- 1 700, (federal numbers,) The constitution ot the United States requires no particular number of souls of which the Territory ap- plying for admission into the Union must consist.-CongYess have . discretionary power over the subject; and have admitted Territories into the Union widely varying in their numbers of souls. Louisiana was admitted with a population of about 26 .000;
 illinois, With population of about 32,000;
 tennessee, with population of about 43- 900; and Ohio, with population of about 47,000. Mississippi Indiana, Ohio and Alabama had, when admitted, e few thou sand, and but few thousand, more than we now have. The rule that Congress seems to have adopted upon the subject of admitting Territories into the Union, has been, when they had population sufficient ;o enttle them, under the provisions of the apportlonment bill, 10 member of Con- gress; provided they constituted part of the States. Adopting this ruie as the stan- dard, we ean say. with truth, that we havo the requisite number t6 -nfifia is foz adnais- sion mo tho Union. So far as population IS concerned, Arkansas need not any lon- ger delay. Should Congress, as che l zdeAllss.less wlll, 2, lss OCT courts of justice, es K . asels.ssa bg eases in l polnt-et f4ia aid aeig well establis5s ed usages, Arkansas need iIe., geoga lie re. suit of her application, ask aehea s,ss actl, 1 and in what form she may, provided she presents herself with Republicae Coash- tafioa. \ constitution of different cha l p tor IG tbn 5elc consistently with it's principles, interpose, now that we have the population.
 The next inquiry that presents itself for our consideration, Is: are we prepared for the consequences which change of our government. (now upheld and supported by the United States,) which will probably be produced, when thrown upon our own re- l sources for an existence as government ] Your committee freely acknowledge tiifit they have not been able to ascertain, with accurate precision, the financial condition of the country, either its debts, is credits, or it's resources; and they may add, that so long as sheritfs are allowed, by law, to com bne within themselves the triplicate offices of assessor, collector and hotder, as he ever is for months, without interest or penalty, l and sometimes for years, of the public mo- ] neys, 1t will be found tedious, if not an impracticable sjob, for the most industrious, skllful and curlous-every avenue to their offices being made inaccessible, amid the heaps of confusion, blurred and mutiated tax-lists, torn memorandums, and dusty, dirty pigeon holes-to ascertain our true f. nanciai condition. We esteem it q forrni- dabe labor, at least; and rather than incur ii, for the sake of our argument, willingly yield up 10 them this years revenue, 10 dis charge the existing Territorial debts, if any there be. We will commence even, and in that light will consider the proposition on which we set out.
 The income 10 our Treasury is princi- pally from the taxes paid upon land and slaves. Iii this Territory, aboat one mil- lion of acres of land have been appropriated 10 the soldiers of the last war; and the greater part of this appropriation IS DOW taxable. We do not know the precise quantity of land held and DOW taxable. by Spanish and French claims, by donations, New Madrid locations, or by public sales and private entries. We have estimated those various titles at two millions, and the estimate, we have no doubt, is greatly un- der the mark. The quantity ofland now taxable, according to our estimate, IS about three millions of acres of land, which will yield, at the present rate of taxation, to the State or Tcrriory,) at least thirty thousand dollars per annum. And fl may be remark