The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1868-09-08
The Wise Men of the East.

We are surprised that 80 sharp people as
the New Englanders do not see the danger to
which they are exposing themselves in excluding
the South from the Union, except upon the
terms which it is the interest of New England
to grant. Her people do not seem to feel alarm
from any reflection that such policy is furnish,
ing precedent for possible action towards the
SIX Eastern States in future years. We do not
say that the cup will be presented to their lips
IN precisely the same manner in which it has
been presented to ours but We do say that it is
not outside of the range of possibility that the
representation of those small States in the Senate
will be placed upon a different basis as regards
the rest Of the Union:
We see here six States with altogether pop
ulation not equal to that of the State of New
York, yet possessing six times its power in the
Upper House of Congress. Or to put the in
equality in another and more glaring shape, we
behold New England's vote in the Senate bal
ancing those of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois and Missouri
Does any one presume, if we had to enter into
a new compact of States, that any such over
whelming power would be granted to section
OF the country that can never much exceed its
present amount of population, while the States
we have named are capable of supporting on an
average each ten millions of souls-Which will
in time be the case.
We have seen this small district of the Union
expressing ten States and preventing their en-
tering the Union except under such conditions
as suit to build up the present interests of New
England. No patriotic principle is involved in
this exclusion, but simply bondholders and man
ufacturers are fostered at the expense of virtual
disruption of the Union, of the degradation of
the South
Nau Io xrlo Oh
expects it, that the rest of the Union is not over
friendly to her, and that were the people of the
remainder of the nation consulted as to their
simple wish as to whether she should be reduced
to the power that equitably belongs to her, the
response would be an almost unanimous ave.
New England has voted for an amendment to
the Constitution, depriving the Southern States
of their power over suffrage, and thus indirectly
diminishing their representation in the lower
House 1t is by no means impossible that at
some future day the boundless West may resolve
to diminish the power of her six little States
in the Senate. Does she suppose that the great
Middle States would not heartily join in such
movement?
This contingency has not arisen, and We hope
that it will never arise. The people of all the
reaeof the Union are in favor of equality of
representation and it is but their respect for the
compromises of the Constitution that has pre-
vented their insisting upon this long ago
We warn these Eastern States that the men
who have engineered the 14th Amendment may
see another amendment offered that will reduce
the dimensions of their representation in the
Senate to something like fairness to the rest of
the Union. If one section of the country is for
its own moneyed interests, always keeping the
nation in hot water, the people of the Union will
see IT there may not be some method devised to
lessen its power of mischief-NortoM Journal