The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-01-31

sitions of free territory, and when the world
wide rush to the gold fields of California
| brought about the application for her admission
as a State Calhoun and his Southern followers
in the Senate opposed this admission as the
destruction in that body of the sectional
equilibrium-ffteen free States and fifteen
slave States. When, nevertheless, with the
other compromise measures of Henry Clay,
the bill admitting California (1850) was
passed, it was followed by a Secession Con-
vention in South Carolina Q851) upon the
question whether the State should at once
secede on her own account or wait little
longer for the chances of general Southern
cooperation. The Convention voted to wait
little longer, and in December, 1860, a
month after Lncoln's election as President,
South Carolina, ASSURED of cooperation, led
off with her ordinance Of secession, and that
was the beginning of the end of the conflict
between the North and the South for the con-
troll of the Senate. To the admission of Cali
fornia we thus directly trace the settlement of
this great conflict between the North and the
South.
Now the battle for the balance of power in
Congress, and especially for the Senate. is be-
tween the East and the West The slavery
question and the negro question being finally
disposed OF, the contest reverts to the money
question in all its sectional bearings, includ-
ing the tariff question; and here the contesting
sections are the East and the West. The
States of the Atlantic SLOPE. including the
Gulf States, still hold the ascendancy in the
Senate; but the balance of power is still held
in reserve by the West in those Territories we
have enumerated, leaving Alaska, by far the
largest of all, out in the cold as happy hunt
ing ground for the Esquimaux. The East,
from the returns of the last census, finds that
it is true that 'sWestward the star of empire
takes its way" but the East does not intend
to yield its ascendancy till it is actually dis
possessed nor will it contribute, meantime,
needlessly to the strengthening of the West.
Hence the new 1ule requiring the full ratio of
one hundred and forty-fve thousand inhabit-
ants in Territory as the first condition pre-
cedent to it's admission as State. Hence the
defeat of the proposed admission of Colorado,
although it appears that it was the blending of
Utah with Colorado that killed the bill. Apart
from Utah, however, for the reasons suggested,
the result would have been the same
And there is yet another reason which is
beginning to be recognized against the too
hasty admission of our new Western Ter
ritories as States. From California to Kansas
and Nebraska the lessons of morality taught
by our new Western States in the elections of
their Senators and in various other things
connected with profitable jobs and the gov.
eminent spoils have been rather demoralizing
than otherwise. From the assassination of
Senator Broderick in California to the ex-
posure Of the briberies and corruptions charged
against Senators Caldwell and Pomeroy, the
general reputation attained by our new States
developed resources is that of railing ring in
each case, which aspires to nothing higher
and to nothing else than to schemes for
securing the public lands, bonds and money,
or the public plumber in every shape and
form. No doubt there was q ring behind this
bill for the admission of Colorado, managing
ring which had all the honors, offices and
emoluments of the State organization, in
GLIDING particularly its United States Senators,
all appointed and provided for. The rule,
therefore, which now holds the Territories to
the condition of the full ratio of population
for one representative in Congress is good
rule, in giving the people concerned larger
margin than they ever had before in the con-
troll of these things; and on this ground
alone there is reason sufficient for rigid
adhesion to the law.