The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-04-02
THE PASSING sCEPTRE.
Westward March OF Political Pow
er-Remarkable Paper from the
London "Times."

Westward March OF Political Pow
er-Remarkable Paper from the
London "Times."
From the London Times OF March l, 1875.
The vast dominious of the American
Union are divided, as all the world
knows, between two classes of commnni-
ties-those which are fully organized
and have taken their place as units OF
Government, and those which are still
partially nnorganized and have no share
in nominating or directing the Federal
authority. The former class are the
States, the latter the Territories; but the
popularity of the American system is
that every undeveloped portion is slow
ly ripening by steady process, and pre-
pairing when the proper time comes, to
be raised to the dignity and power Of
constituent member of the Federation.
That time may be delayed by political
difficulties, but if Territory continues
TO grow it must assnredly obtain recog-
milton as a State. The admission of
Colorado and New Mexico into the Fed
eral pact has for long time been dis
eussed in America New Mexico was
ceded TO the Union by the Mexican
Government after the war of l84s, and
two years later was organized as a,F'er-'
ritory, Utah being at the same time ad-
mitted on the same footing. Within
the next ten years the vast West was
still further partitioned among new Ter
ritorial governments, and one of these
was Colorado.
1t is, no doubt, to the recent changes
in the Senate that the determination of
the Republicans to admit New Mexico
and Colorado as States without further
delay is due. The party majority in
the Senate has fallen from 26 to-S too
small a number to check the forces of
the Democrats in the House of Repre-
sentatives. But, probably, each Of the
two new States may be relied upon to
send two Republican Senators to Wash
ington, who will be hailed as welcome
reinforcement by the partisans Of the Ad-
ministration. In the House of Repre-
sentatives the measure will have less
Significance, for neither New Mexico
nor Colorado has anything approaching
to the population that would entitle
either Of them to more than the single
Representative which according TO the
Constitution, every State must return.
The number of members of the House
. determined after each decennial CEN
sus, and was fixed upon the basis Of the
enumeration OF 1870, at 2s3, distribu-
ted among the several States in proper
tion to their population. This gives
one Representative to 135, coo citizens;
but it is provided that the Representa-
tives of any new States admitted during
the decennial period are to be in addi-
| tion to the 283 members divided among
the thirty-seven States federated in 1870.
One member from New Mexico aud one
from Colorado will raise the number,
therefore, to 2s5. II is remarkable that
this accession to the organized forces Of
the Union, occurring exactly hundred
years after the first assembling of the
/ Congress of the Thirteen Colonies" at
Philadelphia, will precisely treble the
number of the Confederate States whose
amalgamation was the work Of that IA
mons Assembly. The thirteen States
for whom the American Constitution
was framed have grown TO thirty nine,
and have extended their grasp from the
seaboard of the Atlantic, TO which a CEN
tury ago they timidly clung, across a
mighty continent. Who shall forecast
what teeming populations will in anoth-
er century inhabit the vast regions Of
the Mississippi? 1t is not too much to
say that Colorado alone, which has now
barely the numbers of fourth-rate
/ town, will then outweigh in all the Gle
ments Of political strength, the whole
| of New England. The territory Of this
| young and vigorous community "astride
upon the Rocky Mountains" giving one
hand to Kansas and the other TO Utah,
is at least of magnificent dimensions.
New Mexico, lying directly soHth, and
with its neighbor Arizona, stretching
across half the continent from the North
ern wilds of Texas to the Californian
frontier, has, perhaps, less splendid pos-
sibilites before it, but they are such as
might dazzle any nation less accustom-
ed to contemplate boundess inheri-
tance than the people of the United
States.