Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1858-12-17

ed power of admitting a new State into
the Union, however small may be the
number of its inhabitants, yet this pow
er ought not, in my opinion, to be exer-
cised before the population shall amount
to the ratio required by the act for the
admission Of Kansas. Had this been
previously the rule, the country would
have escaped all the evils and misfor-
tunes to which it has been exposed by
the Kansas question.
OF course, it would be unjust to give
this rule retrospective application, and
exclude State which, acting upon the
past practice of the government, has al
ready formed its Constitution, elected its
Legislature and other officers, and is now
prepared to enter the Union.
The rule ought to be adopted, whether
we consider its bearings on the people of
the Territories or upon the people of
the existing States. Many of the seri-
Gus dissensions which have prevailed in
Congress and throughout the country,
would have been avoided, had this rule
been established at an earlier period of
the government.
Immediately upon the formation of a
new territory, people from different
States and from foreign countries rush
into it, for the laudabIe purpose of i'm
proving their condition. Their first duty
to themselves is to open and cultivate
farms, to construct roads, to establish
schools, to erect places of religious wor-
ship, and to devote their energies gener-
ally to reclaim the wilderness and to lay
the foundation of hourishing and pros
porous commonwealth. If, in this incip-
lent condition, with a population of few
thousand, they should.prematurely enter
the Union, they are oppressed by the
burden of State taxation, and the means
necessary for the improvement of the
Territory and the advancement of their
own interests, are thus diverted TO very
different purposes.
The federal government has ever
been liberal parent to the Territories,
and a generous contributor to the useful
enterprises of the early settlers. 1t has
paid the expenses Of their governments
and legislative assemblies out of the COM
mon treasury, and thus relieved them
from heavy charge. Under these cir
cumstances nothing can be better calcu-
lated to retard their material progress
than to divert them from their useful en-
ployments by prematurely exciting angry
political contests among themselves, for
the benefit of aspiring leaders. 1t is
surely no hardship for embryo governors,
senators and members of Congress, to
wait until the number of inhabitants
shall equal those of single Congression-
al district. They surely ought not to be
permitted to rush into the Union with a
population less than one-half of several
OF the large counties in the interior of
some Of the States. This was the con-
dition Of Kansas when it made applica-
ton to be admitted under the Topeka
Constitution. Besides, it requires some
time to render the mass of a population
collected in new Territory at all hom-
ogenous, and to unite them on anything
like fixed policy. Establish the rule,
and all will look forward to it and govern
themselves accordingly.
But justice to the people of the sew
eral States requires that this rule should
be established by Congress. Each
State is entitled TO two Senators and at
least one Representative in Congress
Should the people of the States fail to
elect Vice President, the power de-
wolves upon the Senate to select this
officer from the two highest candidates
on the list In case of the death of the
President, the Vice President thus elect.
ed by the Senate becomes President OF
United States. On all questions of len.
islation, the Senators from the smallest
States Of the Union have an equal vote
with those from the largest. The same
may be said in regard to the ratification
of treaties, and of executive appoint.
ments. All this has worked admirably
in practice, whilst it conforms in princi.
pie with the character Of a government
instituted by sovereign States. pre-
sumo no American citizen would desire
the slightest change in the arrangement
Still, is it not unjust and unequal TO the
existing States to invest some forty OF
] fifty thousand people collected in Ter
ritory with the attributes Of sovereignty
and place them on an equal footing witt
Virginia and New York in the Senate o
the United States?
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