The Woodville Republican. [volume] (Woodville, Miss.) 1847-1853, 1850-06-11

mtted into the Union. VIII the reader re
collect this, as l shall have occasion to Us,
1t IN another connection.
Let us pause for moment to conside
the honesty aud sincerity of purpose witt
which the lofty pretension has been set NJ
in certain quarters, that the people have 1
right to regulate, arrange, and mould thei
institutions TO suit themselves. In the ear
ly part of last year. the people inhabiting q
large portion of our unoccupied possession,
in what was then known rs New Mexico
and California, met in convention and fra
med State constitution, giving the name
of DEsERET to their country. They defined
their boundaries, and included within theiI
limits large extent OF Pacific coast Their
constitution was in every element essential.
y republican. They sent their agent to
Washington, with a modest request that the
constitution thus formed should be accepted,
and the State of DEsERET admitted into the
Union. How this application was treated
we shall presently see. Later in the same
year, the people of New Mexico formed a
territorial government, and sent their dele.
gate to Washington to present their wishes,
and, if permitted, TO represent their interests.
In the summer OF the same year, and sever
al months after the DEsERET convention,
the CaGionans held their convention.
They extended their boundaries so as to mo-
nopoliZe the whole Pacific coast, in total
disregard of the prior action of Deseret.
And then in contempt of the modest exam.
pie of her two neighbors, she sends, not an
agent or a delegate to Washington, with q
civil request, but she sends up two Senators
and two Representatives, with a bold de.
mand for instantaneous admission into the
Union.
What followed! The President made
two earnest appeals to Congress to admit
California, and he told us plainly to leave
the Others to their fate. Not only does he
fail to give them friendly salutation, but
he in truth turns from them in scorn. Not
a word does he utter in their behalf, or in
defence of their independent conduct
Their modesty faiIcdto commend them to
his paternal notice.
In Congress, and throughout the country,
a general outcry is now heard in favor of
California Everywhere throughout the
length and breadth OF the land, the cry of
California, glorious California, is heard. 1t
COMES to us from the East and from the
West, from the North and Il am panied to
say) in some instances from the South. II
any man has dared to interpose the slight
est objection TO the immediate admission of
California-if any one has hesitated about
yielding to California all that she so boldly
demands he has been denounced, black.
baled, hooted at, and almost driven from
society Mean time no voice has been
heard in defence of the rights of New Mex
leo and Deseret. They, too, assumed to
settle their own affairs in their own way.
Yet no whisper Of encouragement and hope
greets their modest agent and delegate at
Washington. The great national voice is
engaged to sing and shout for California.
Why has this been so! Why this marked
distinction between these several parties ?
The people, we are told, have a right to act
for themselves. California acted for herself,
Deseret for herself and New Mexico for
herself and yet, amid the din and clamor
in favor Of California, we have lost sight of
her more retiring and modest sisters Why
is this I'll tell you, fellow-citizens. Des-
eret and New Mexico did not insult the
South by excluding slavery. With be-
coming modesty they were silent on this
subject. California, influenced by .unwse
counsels, flung defiance in your teeth, sco1-
ed at your rights, and boldly threw herself
into the arms of the North. Here is the
secret Of all this boiling and bubbifg in IA
vor of California, and here, too, may be
found the end of the great doctrine that the
people may settle. the slavery question for
themselves. If they settle it against the
South it is WELL and if they do not it is no
settlement at all.
All but we are told there is a vast differ
ence between these territories; New Mex.
leo and Utah have but few inhabitants, and
California has many thousand--some say
one hunderd thousand and some say two
hundred thousand. ] do not understand
that because people are fewer in number
that therefore they have no political rights,
whilst greater number may have every
right. But how stands the case in regard
to these hundreds Of thousand of people IN
California? We all know that the emigra.
ton in that country has been confined to
hardy male adults, robust men. III mos
cases their families and friends have been
left in the States, to which, in four cases
out of five, they themselves have intended
TO return. At the elections last summer
they voted about twelve thousand, and latei
in the fall, on the important question O.
adopting State constitution, with the bal
lot-box wide open and free for every vote
they polled less than thirteen thousand
should like to know where the balance o
this two hundred thousand were. At leas
one hundred and fifty thousand Of them
suspect were never in the country, and th'
rest regarded the whole thing as ridicu
lous farce, with which they had nothing u
do. And this is the State and this the peo
pie who have excluded slavery, and sen
I two Senators and Representatives TO Wash