Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1879-03-18
sELF.eovERNMENT IN THE TERRITORIES.

Decius S. Wade, chief justice of Montana, in the
International Review for March.
More than fifty years ago Chancellor
Kent said:
eff the government of the United States
should carry into execution the project oil
colonizing the great valley of the Columbia
or Oregon river to the west of the Rocky
Mountains, it would afford a subject of grave
consideration what would be the future civil
and political destiny of the country. 1t
would be a long time before it would be
populous enough to be created into one or
more independent states; and in the mean
time, upon the doctrine taught by the acts
Of congress and even by thejudicial decisions
of the supreme court, the colonists would be
in a state of most complete subordinatlon,
and as dependent upon the will of congress
as the people Of this country would have
been upon the king and parliament of Great
Britain if they could have sustained their
claim to bind us in all cases Whatsoever
Such a state of absolute sovereignty on the
one hand and of absolute dependence on the
other is not congenial with the free and in
dependent spirit of our native institutions !;
and the establishment of distant territorial
governments, ruled according to the will and
pleasure, would have a very natural tenden-
cy, as all pro-consular governments have
had, to abuse and oppression"
The period contemplated by this eminent
jurist has arrived. Territorial governments
have been erected in the remotest parts of
our vast domain. The great valley of the
Columbia contains one state in the Union
and one organized territory. Distant COM
munities of our countrymen are living thou.
sands of miles from the central government
that gives to them the law and appoints Off
GERS to execute and enforce it. The fabric
of our territorial governments, reaching
from the waters of the Pacific to the Red
river and the Rio del Norte, covers an area
of S6S,472 square miles. and provides the
law for more than one half million of peo-
pie. The marvellous growth and progress
of our country during the last half century
presents the problem contained in the pro.
phetic words of the great chancellor as one
of the living questions ofto-day. How shall
these planters of states and builders of en-
pires be governed? How shall those COM
mon rights that belong to every American
citizen be secured to them?
Our territorial system of government is
nearly a century old. 1t had its origin I'M
der the confederation in the famous ordi-
nance of 1877, providing q government for
the territory northwest of the Ohio river.
The provisions of the ordinance were SUBJ
ssquently extended to the territory south
west of the Ohio, and from that day 1t has
been the model upon which the organic
acts of the several territories have beer
Is this system, which was formed
in the infancy of the republic, when the
population was a mere handful and the ex-
tent of territory occupied correspondingly
suited to the changed condition oil
things in the present day, when the popula-
lion has pushed across the continent, and
communities situated on the shores
the Pacific are ruled and governed FAC.
to the will and pleasure" of con-
yress placed near the shore of the Atlantic ?
This system of absolute sovereignty on the
me hand, and absolute dependence on the
,ther, was in force when Chancellor Kent
wrote, and which, when applied to distant
erritorial governments, he condemned, as
lot congenial to the free and Independent
pirit of our native institutions. In order
o appreciate the force of his remark, it is
necessary to know something of the founda-
ion upon which the system rests.
The ordinance Of 1887 required congress
rom time to time to appoint a governor for
he territory, whose commission should
continue in force for the term of three
ears unless sooner revoked by congress,
md that he should reside in the territory
md have a freehold interest and estate ther-
q of one thousand acres of land while in
he exercise of his Office. It also provided
hat congress should appoint q secretary
nd three judges with like qualifications as
o property and residence also for the cleo.
ion of and appointment of q general assem-
'ly to consist of a council and house of rep
esentatiyes, and that the legislature should
AVE the authority to elect a delegate who
hould have q seat in congress with a right
# debating, but not of voting.
Subsequent acts for territorial govern
nents have 10 far modified the provisions
# the ordinance as to require the president
o nominate. and with the consent of the
'enate to appoint, q governor, chief justice
md two associate justices, q secretary,
MARSHAL and United States attorney; they
provide also for the election of a legislature
" the people, with power to enact local
avs subject to the approval of congress;
hey abolish the requirement that the ON
ers appointed should be freeholders in the
and thav anfhOriIa the naonlp In.