Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-07-21
at the Door.

The people of the southern half O
Stitution and TO prenare foi the estab
iishment of a state government with
out the permission Of their ruler, Gov
Ordway. The territorial legislature ri
Its last session passed a bill providing
that a constitutional! convention shoul(
be held lie October next for the purpose
OF framing a constitution ~aDdformine
a state government for that part Of the
Territory that lies south OF the forty.
sixth parallel. but the governor, who
was offended by this action of his mis-
guided subjects, WQuld neither veto
nor approve it. lie seems to have
pocketed il, as the saying is. for the
purpose OF preventing the enactment
OF the law over his veto. But the peo-
pie We're not discouraged. They have
held a large and harmonious cQnyen-
ton. and they propose to do by com-
mon consent what they had intended
to do under the sanction of a Territor-
i'll law.
The marvellous growth Of Dakota
must excite the wonder of ali who
have studied the movements of popu-
iation and the settlement Of new soil.
Twenty years ago there were only Il
few hundred whites in the southeast
orner Of the Territory: in 1870 the
population Was only 14,N0o: Int in 1880
the population had grown to $4,000,
and new il is believed there are 250,000
pers0ns in Southern Dakota alone.
Railway companies are rapidly push
ing their lines through from north to
south and from east to west. Settle
ments are %springing up as il by magic,
and they are not mushroom mining
camps that die soon after birth. In
n settlement which recently am
into being there were, olly two weeks
after the receipt Of the FIRST load OF
lumber, y bank, a newspaper Office, a
church, two hoteis, seTeA stores, a
kct. five saloons, q telegraph office, a
p~ostotlice with 800 call boxes and so
~iock-boNes, and three lumber wards.
The soil is yielding enormous crops,
immigrants are coming in by the thou
sands. and congressman! Whohaveh been
repudiated by their constituents else
whore arrive by almost every train.
An attempt vas made last winter to
iecure the admission OF Southern Da-
isota as q State. The repudiated Yank-
ton bonds were a stumbling block, but
ihe Old Indebtedness has since been re-
funded 10 The satisfaction of bondhold-
cts. The applicants viii come before
me forty-eighth congress with Il much
stronger case than was presented last
winter: their opponents viii not be
able to make objection with reference
10 population, and it seems clear that
the people represented Will be practi-
Hally unanimous in support OF the de
indnd. The convention recently held
1T Huron vas the result OF a sponta-
'.SottS !1toNtlilcIt. more lIldu 4UD utlG-
gates were present, and elaborate pro-
VISIONS were maue Tor Il constitutional
convention OF l5c delegates, TO be held
ut Sioux Fails on Sept, 4. The dele
gates are to be elected on August /,
and the machinery Of election is to be
controlled by an executive committee.
From beginning to end the action viii
be voluntary and without legal sane
ton, but its effect may be as powerful
as the effect OF d convention held UNI
der Territorial authority would be, for
the movement seems to be warmlysup-
ported by the people. and nothing but
the peculiar course taken by Gov. Ord
way has withheld that authority which
the Territorial legislature attempted
to grant. The governor, who was spo-
ken OF in the convention as "a foreign
power" and an "unhalloWel yoke
which must be shaken off forever is
probably unwilling that his province
should be shom of its fair Proportions.
New York Times.
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