The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-13
TIE ADMISSION OF NEW STATES.


the meanest, narowest partisan prejudice.
Were that Territory Democratic or even Re-
publican by a close and uncertain majority,
there is not doubt that it would be promptly
admitted. AS it is, probably $50, 900 people
of that Territory, anxious to enjoy the bene-
fits of State government, are shut out and
for no other reason than that a majority
choose to vote the Republican ticket. These
voters, the heads of families, and doing i'm
its agricultural resources and adding to its
wealth, are, for the most part, emigrants from
the older Statesmen of pluck ambush, who
have faced the dangers and inconvenience of
frontier life and have carried civilization to
the desert in order to found new homes and
open up new areas to settlement. If there
could be any difference in the political rights
of citizens, the advantage should be in their
favor, and every encouragement should be
extended them. They have earned the right
of self-government, to choose their executive
and to participate in the legislation of the
general government. AS it is, the quarter of
million of people in Dakota are practically
DISTINGUISHED, and for no other reason in the
world than that more Republicans than Dem
ocrats have settled there.
How long is this wrong to be perpetuateds
Until the political sentiment of the Territory
changes9 1t would seem So for Senator
Cockrell has put himself on record as being
opposed to the admission of Dakota, even
though it had population that would entitle
it to four representatives in Congress, or 600,-
900. This shows the animus of the opposi-
ton. Provoked by the proposition to form this
State, and it having been demonstrated that
the movement for admission comes, not from
their party, but from the people of the Terri
tory itself, the angry senator from Missouri
blurts out the truth. Ii Dakota and other
Territories, the people of which may seek
admission, are to be kept out until they be-
come Democratic, the prospect of their ever be-
ing admitted is far from encouraging. The
energy and enterprise that actuate the set
tiers of the West is characteristic of the Re
publican party, and with it they naturally
sympathize, so that to-day they are Repub-
ican. 1t is a mistake to assert that the poll
tics of the Territories are swayed by the adj
ministration; that when the latter is Demo
cratic the Territories are Democratic,
and when the Republican party is
in power the Territories return Republican
majorities. For years prior to 1861 the Dem
ocratic party controlled public affairs; but
when the fight over the proposition to make
Kansas and Nebraska slave States was made,
both Territories were overwhelmingly opposed
to the Democratic party and its belief in the
righteousness of human slavery. The men
and women sturdy enough to brave the dan
gers and privations of Western life have ever
believed i'll free labor. And now, after
twentyfour years of Republican control, the
rapidly developing Territories are mainly Re
for the reason that they are the material from
which Republicans spring Unless Democ-
racy shall grow out of itself, escape from the
chrysalis of bigotry and prejudice against hon
orable labor and hatred of political liberty for
the poor, the West will never be Democratic
The hidebound prejudice evinced by Senator
~. = IL e
must go far toward aligning the people of the
Territories against it.
The Western Territories are Republican for
the reasons shown, and for the same reason
that so many Republicans have emigrated
to the West-Republican majorities in the
States have been reduced. The refusal to
admit Dakota is simply to disfranchise
quarter of a million of people. This, how
ever is in perfect consonance with the prac-
tice of the, Democratic party in persistently
DISTINGUISHING a million legal voters in the
South, by means of which it is now in power
to refuse admission to Dakota. But such in
justice cannot be perpetuated. The patriotic
and law-abiding North will rearouse itself to
the dangers of protracted Democratic ascend
ency, and relegate it once more to private life.
The most exasperating feature of this partisan
refusal to admit Dakota to the estate of state
hood, is the fact that an administration hos
tile to its politics, and to its admission, will
appoint its judges and executive, and it is by
no means certain that the possession of the
power to hold few more offices at its disposal
is ono of the actuating causes of the refusal
to grant the petition of the people who have
redeemed Dakota from the savages, and trans