Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1859-02-25
The Admission Of Oregon.


The Admission Of Oregon.
By the joint action Of the two Houses OF
Congress. Oregon has been admitted as on,
Of me States Of this Union. The bill passed
the Senate during the las, session, and few
DAYS since passed the House by fourteen ma.
jrriiy We regret tina, this bill passed by
the aid Of republican votes. From the yea.
and nays We End .fiisR republican. voted
Tor the hill Had only m,jori,y OF ,hi.
fifteen voted against IL. IL would have been
7 defeated. Dut /, may b. asked, does not
Organ come into the Uni,n a frcc State
II such an inquiry, We answer, nomHalt
il doe. and iha, i,all tina, can he nid abou,
IL. IL nor .hern State with rank south
ern principles. \ territory, TO ertitle /, to
a right " admission as sovereign State,
should rrcscn, constitution that is ere.
publican in form" This the constitution
"l NH' 'Ult'N oN1V'N H'ANfN INI'Wpt"'N
The constitution presented by Oregon, and
which {, now the fundamental law Of tina,
new State. contains some " tho mos, inia.
nous. anti.rcpublican provisions that ever
dissracci any community Of people let,
Il expressly prohibits the immigration OF
irer negroes and mulattos. and absolutely
excludes this class OF people from the State.
In many Of the States, colorcd persons are
'' citizens. Thcyarc in Maine. The con.
sti,ution Of the United States guarantees to
he citizens Of each State the privileges and
immuni,cs Of citizens in each and all the
States. Hence this provision Is in Hat con.
tradic,ion with the federal constitution.
But this Oregon constitution contains an
other provision that would disgrace com.
muuity Of roularr, or Fcjecs. lti,barhar.
Gus. 1t prohibits negroe. aud mula,,oo.
from holding real estate, or making con.
tracts, or maintaining suits in any courts
in the State. Under thi. CLAUSE, II they
arr found in the State. they are complete
or''gr' They can have neither howell or
home. and are deprived Of every right that
pertain. to human being This clause Is
sufici,rt objection TO any constitution
north or south. and 90 admit State con.
tanning such atroeious provisions. and call
IL free State, is paradox. 4 third OBJ
icct,on IL th,. Oregon constitution is this,
thar while IL forbid, every man having the
remotcs, tinsc Of African blood in his veins
from voting; it grants the right Of suffrage
TO every struggling, wandering foreigner
tia, happens to turn up in the State. Its
these ignorant, ngmuthn yagibobis, that
bell swell up the democratic" vote in Or.
egOn. and aid in sending to the U. ). sen.
ate your Joe Lane. and DelusiOn Smiths
Oregon does not, from any reliable calcula.
tiOu that has been made, contain mors than
about fifty or sixty thousand inhabitants,
and We, the "delnocrats" in Congr,ss vote
to admit her. while they require as an arbi.
trary rule for free Kansas, ninety-three
thousand, and under the English swindle
actually passed law to that effect.
Circumstances alter cases. \ state Of
things might ckist here 1t might bs policy
20 admit State under the circumstances
which surrounded the admission Of Oregon.
Every member Of Congress votes on his own
responsibility. and is really amcniable only
10 his constituents. We have no ccnsurcs
to apply to any republican who voted for
this bill but7Tc frankly eOuIas we can.
not see how any man standing upon the
Declaration Of Independence rs a platform,
could vote to admit Oregon with u consttu-
uon containing such brutal, heathensh
provisions. Another thing. unless the dem
ocrauc party in Congre-- would have re-
pealel the clause in the English bill which
dlscriminatcs against Kansas on account OF
population, we never would have voted 10
admit Oregon with less population until
the end N time. This " bowling the knee a
little " to southern democrats and northern
doushiaees. is no way to have northern
rights respected. Here grand oppOr,uni-
ty vas offered the republicans to h thar
yCirsrs h fen. Upon this O.egon question
the party could have brought the slave pro-
paganda to terms, and unless they would
have yielded - far as to repeal the $4,000
clause in the English bill, Oregon should
have been KEEP, out. This may look To some
like the law Of retaliation, bot we don't
care hs wha. you call il. In the last
Congress We knew members Of The republic.
can party. land some Of the very men who
voted Tor this Oregon bill,) who would
sometimes pretend they would be magpan.
imous to the south, by sometimes voting to
please southern men upon questions where
southern interes: alone was concerned. And
what did they or any republican in the
House ever get in return for this wonderful