New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-11-08
LILLE NEYT NEW &T1TE-


The Democrats in Congress will make one Of
their habtual stupid partisan blunders if they
oppose the admission of Dakota as State.
| DakOtas claim to come into the Union is just as
valid as was that of Colorado. Oregon, Ne
| braSka or Minnesota when those communities
were invested with self-goyerning functions,
and great deal more valid than was that of
Nevada. If it is resisted by the Democrats, the
real motive of their opposition will be their
belief that the two Senators from the new
State will be Republicans. They may talk
about rotten boroughs" as much as they like
but everybody knows that they would be Ca ger
to admit any Territory with half the population
Dakota has to-day If they could be assured that
it would send Democrats to represent it in
Congress.
There ought to be no question of party poll
tics involved in the admission OF a new State.
TO enlarge the ssterhood of States by the recep-
ton of a new member is too important a matter
to be decided from the low point of view
of party interests If there is any domain of
craftsmanship which lies above the field of par
tisan contests and prejudices, it surely ought to
embrace an affair of such great interest and
lasting consequence as the endowment of
with all the rights possessed by the people of
the oldest States of the Union. Yet the Demo
cratic Senator's at the first intmation of an in
tention on the part of the inhabitants OF Da-
kOta to prefer their plea for admission next
winter, are threatening to make the question
party issue and create deadlock to prevent
vote upon it. Such performance on their part
would only strengthen the conviction of the
country at large that the Democratic party is
incapable of treating any great public ques-
ton with even toerable degree of fairness.
The claim of Dakota to admission is pccu-
liarly strong one At her last election she cast
2S,091 votes, while Delaware cast only
29,4OS after nearly hundred years of State
existence, and Nevada, which has been State
for twenty years, cast only 81, $50. Dakota is
not pocket State like Delaware, incapable
from its diminutive size of further growth, or
Il collection of precarOus and shifting mining
camps like Nevada. She can Justly be com
pared with such great agricultural States as
Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska. There is moth
ing to check her further growth to population
of two millions. Her development during the
past decade from a hunting ground of wander
ing tribes of savages TO a stable and prosperous
civilized community, with cities and towns,
schools and newspapers, vast areas of we'll
titled farms, and over two thousand miles of
railroads, has furnished an admirable example
of the expansive forces of American society.
domain which the most powerful monarch in
the Old World would be proud to acquire has
been conquered from nature by peaceful in
vason of farmers and mechanics.
In Jane, 1850, the census takers found
1852 people in Dakota. The immigration
of the summer and fall of 1880 and of the whole
Of 1881 has unquestionaby brought the pOpula-
ton up to at least 10000. The Territory is
much too large, however for single State.
Its area is as great as that of the States of
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New-York. New
Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio combined. The
proposition which will be brought before Con-
gress next winter will be to take the southern
half of the Territory, or perhaps only the south
eastern section, and erect it into a State, pro-
viding the remainder with Territorial Gov
eminent. If the smaller area suggested is de- !
cided upon, the new State will have an acreage |
greater than that of Pennsylvania, and a popu-
lation at the outset OF over 100, 900 Before she
can exercise any power in National legislation |
her population will be equal in numbers to the |
average constituency of member of the House |
of Representatives from the older States, and /
by the time she has an opportunity to throw |
the weight of her electoral vote into the scales
of Presidential election it is safe to predict !
that her voters will outnumber those of either !
Oregon, Colorado or Delaware, as they already |
do those of Nevada. There can be no good |
reason alleged for making a community SO
vigorous, intelligent, expansive and prosperous
wait longer for the privilege of governing it.
self. Ii the Democrats in Congress- unite in an |