The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-10
and 22O SOUTH FRONT STREET,

is fortunate that causes should be in operation
to mature their convictions in season for re-
pudiation of the Republican party at the
beginning Of the fall elections. California thus
puts forth her hand to shake the tree, and
will cause the ripening fruit to drop in other
States.
California arrives earlier at opinions whose
intrinsic soundress will cause their general
adoption, by this advantages of her local situa-
tion, which gives her better points of view.
Her distance from the eat of Federal autho-
rity enables her to appreciate the ab5urdity
Of the centralizing system which the Republi-
can party is aiming to consolidate. A Govern
ment three thousand miles away could net
properly manage her domestic affairs, even if
it had nothing else to attend to. II would
perpetually legisl.te on subjects of which it
had no knowledge. It would constantly have
to depend on the representations of interested
parties. Great corporations, or great moneyed
interests, or great associations of sWindlers
would generally carry their designs by their
superior ability to send agents to Washing
ton and support a lobby. This would be
the case, even if the authorities at Washing
ton had no other care than to govern that
single State. But with nearly forty States
to govern, it could bestow so little attention
on each, that in the confused mass of ILL
understood or misunderstood business, Cali
fornia would be worse off as o member of
the Union than she would be under a native
monarchy.
California, from her isolated local position,
is well situated for understanding what the
Federal Government can, and what it cannot,
proftably do for a State. Her experience has
taught her that Republican State is equal to
all the emergencies of local administration.
She has had an excess of the turbulent ele-
ments of society, aud yet she has preserved
order without ever invoking Federal assist
A Al. -
was equivalent to revolution, and came out
triumphant; vigilance committee in San
Francisco assuming, and afterwards laying
down, authority with boldness and modera-
tion which demonstrated the capacity of the
people to rectify any disorders that might
arise from the temporary supremacy OF dan
gerous classes. The eventful history of Cali
fornia, and her success in maintaining order,
with an abnormal population, and a large
intermixture of mutinous people, is trium-
phant demonstration of the capacity of the in
dividual States for wise self-government.
What, then, does California want of the
Federal Union? Two things only-externaI
protection and free trade with her sister States.
II is for these alone that she has rem mained by
free consent, part of the American Union;
for she could; at any time during the war, and
ptobably before it, have declared and main
taired her independence. But the Union pro-
tects her against foreign aggression without
! the expenEe of separate army and navy;
and, what is still more important, it gives her
) the advantages of perfectly free trade with a
multitude OF other States, many of them as
prosperous and energetic as herself. The
/ Union engages to multiply the value of this
| beneficial commerce by constructing the Pacific
Railroad, which is the strongest tie that binds
her to the confederation. Distance and isolq
tion have enabled herto discriminate, as MANI
other States do not, between State and Federal
into 80 l. IL
States want and what they do not want of the
central Government.
f; Another reason which, had we duly reflected
I on it, might have led us to expect that Cali
fornia would lead the reaction, is the presence
in that tate OF large Coolie population. The
arguments by which the Republican party
attempts to prove the Justice of negro suffrage
are entirely destitute of force or they equally
demonstrate the necessity of Coolie suffrage.
The Callfornians have an intuitive perception
that this doctrine of the equal fitness of all
races for selfgoYernment is an exquisite abb
surdity. The negro population in most of the
old free States'is so small and unobserved that
it is deemed of little importance; but the
Coolies in California are numerous and de-
spised, and the idea of making them voters is
regarded with irTepressible derision. But
Coolie suffrage stands on precisely the same
aTgumentative grounds as negro suffrage.
The truths which California sooner sees from
the circumstances of her local position, are
none the less truths for the other States. 1t is
as true OF them as of her, that they are per-
tectly competent to maintain internal order,
and need nothing from the Union but external
protection and free trade among one another.
Even little Rhode Island put down, unassisted,
a formidable rebellion against her State Gov
eminent supported by majority of the popu-
lation. The Federal Government is indeed
under an engagement to suppress domestic
insurreetion in the States when called on to
do so; but in all our history no such call has
ever been made; which is a valuable proof of
the capacity Of these States to maintain un-
aided the supremacy of their local laws. Even
the smallest and weakest of the States would
be just as well of out of the Union as in. if
they could be equally protected against exter-
nal aggression, and equally sure of free inter-
course with the other States. California has
been in better position to perceive this truth.
but it is equally truth for ALL
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