The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-30
THE ADHESION OF TEXAS.

THE ADMISSION OF TEXAS.
The United States Senate yesterday adopted,
by decisive vote, the House resolution pro-
viding for the readmission of Texas into the
Union, after having previously stricken out
the proviso that the conditions and guaran-
tees upon which Texas was originally annexed
and admitted shall not be affected by the re-
admission. This proviso appears to have
been q serious stumbling block to the Judi
ciary Committee of the Senate, and the chief
cause of its delay in acting upon the House
bill. One of the conditions upon which
Texas was originally annexed was as fol-
lows
'tNew States, of convenient size not exceeding
four in number, in addition to said State of Tex ls
and having suitcient population, may hereafter by
territory thereof, which shall be entitled to adms-
sion under the provisions of the Federal CoHstitu
tion And such States as may be formed out of that
portion Of said territory lying south Of thlrtysX de-
grees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly
known as the Missouri Compromise line, shall be ad-
mitted into the Union with or without slavery, as
the people OF each State asking admission may de-
sire; and in such State States shall be formed
out OF said territory north OF said Missouri Compro
mise line, slavery or involuntary servitude Except
for orme) shall be prohibited"
Here, it will be perceived, are two very i'm
portant conditions-one providing that Texas
may be cut up into five States, and the other
that slavery may be established in all her
territory lying south of the Missouri Compro-
mise line. The last-named condition has been
practically rendered obsolete by modern legis-
lation and the new constitutional amend
ments, yet still we think the Senate has acted
wisely in refusing to reaffirm it even by i'm
plication. The people will not tolerate slavery
in any State, and they should not be made to
appear to sanction that detestable institution.
The condition in regard to the subdivision Of
Texas may be respected when the necessity
for such division arises, but it is unnecessary
to discuss this question at length now, and it
ds not likely that future Congress would
deem itself irrevocably bound by any decision
on this point that was made at the present
session.
If the House concurs with the action of the
Senate in regard to these conditions, Texas
will cease, for the second time in her history,
to be lone star, and become once more an
acknowledged member of the American
Union. Of all the Southern States she suf-
fered least by the war, and its close found
her people afflicted with a corresponding de-
gree of contumacy. She therefore needed
considerably more reconstruction than the
other "wayward sisters, I" but as her rebellious
citizens have had good opportunity, by this
time, to learn the folly of further antagonism
to the national authority, her old relations
to the Union may be restored without serious
danger that her people will continue to
delight in barbarous maltreatment of
white Union men, and in the unprovoked
slaughter of inoffensive freedmen. After
peace and order are fully restored within her
boundaries, Texas bids fair to speedily be-
come one of the most powerful and prosper
GUS of American States. She contains a
greater variety of soil and climate than any
other Commonwealth, and when her re-
sources are thoroughly developed she will
comprise within herself imperial elements of
wealth. ..U. 1-.
The immediate object of fastening her re-
admission is to facilitate the official promul-
cation of the crowning act of reconstruction
the fifteenth amendment-which prohibits
legal distinction on account of color or pre-
vious condition throughout the length aHd
breadth of the land. 1t is desirable that this
great work shall be irrevocably completed at
the earliest possible moment, SO that the
nation may present to the world the proud
spectacle of a perfected restoration of the
Union, which is immutably based on doctrines
of universal freedom.