The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-25
DAKOTA ANDTHE DEMOCRATS
Voters Of the Territory To Be Disfran-
chised Because Republicans.
AbSurdity Of the Plea that the People Have
Acted in DerOgation of National Authority
The Kelley Case in the Senate.


WASHINGTON, Dee. 22-The little session lust
over has been far from the usual barren three
weeks marking the opening of each Congress.
In the House, the very important work of revis-
ion of the rules has been completed, and whether
for veal or woe, the lower branch of Congress
will now work with the "muzzle" off. as il is
called. The Hoar succession bin has passed the
Senate, and the committees of the upper house
are loaded down with business. mostly pertain
ing to nominations, but great many important
bills fully five hundred in number, have
been introduced and referred The
two principal topics of public interest
thus far discussed have been Dakota
and Kelley. The Democratic attitude toward
Dakota is simply one of brute force. They can
control the action of Congress. by virtue Of their
majority in the lower House, and they do not
propose to admit Dakota, simply and solely for
the reason that the vast majority of the popula-
ton have the temerity to be Republicans. There
is no man of any honesty in either party who
will attempt to deny this. AT the last session of
Congress admission was refused because presi-
Dental election was pending. and the Democrats
did not propose to add single vote to the certain
Republican electoral column; and now that they
have the House and the executive, the PROPOSE
ton is to continue this Acknowledgement in or
der to perpetuate themselves in power. Mr..
Vest, in his reply to Senator Harrison's
speech defending the people Of Dakota
from the imputatlon of revolution, frankly
disclosed the animus by saying that he was fight
ing for his party. The action of the Democracy
in keeping Dakota out of the Union with its
active, enterprising and increasing population
amply sufficient in South Dakota alone to entitls
famous however, than the effort to make it ap.
pear that the people are acting in derogation OF
the authority of the national government in the
framing of State Constitution. and in getting
ready all the machinery of State government
Neither Senator Butler, of South Carolina mol
Senator Vest, of Missouri who took charge of it,
had any knowledge whatever of the subject, and
they were simply swamped when the current Of
precedent was turned upon them. The facts
are that thirteen, if Tot fourteen of the States,
beginning with Vermont and endil, with Colora.
do have come into the Union without previous
enabling acts, and in repeated instances
the people of Territories have organized State
governments elected full tickets of State officers
and chosen United States senators and represent
atives in the lower house prior to their admis-
sion by Congress into the Union. Very notable
instances are the States of Tennessee, Arkansas,
Michigan and California. The people of Tennes-
see organized a State government, and sent to
the President and to Congress notification that
at given date the Territorial government
would terminate. The then President did not
discover the smell of revolution on the garments
of Tennessee, and Congress admitted the State.
In the case Of Arkansas and Michigan long and
heated debates were held in Congress, in which
men like John Quincy Adams. Senators Buchan-
an. of Pennsylvania, and Morris, of Ohio, took
the strongest ground in favor of the right and
justice of the demand of the people
for statehood and both these States were
admitted by vote in the lower
branches, settling the question of the entire
legality and orderiness of the method adopted.
Justice Mclean. in an opinion given in the
United States Court, coming up from Michigan,
involving the attitude of that State took deCid-
ed ground in favor of the right of the people to
frame Constitution and organize State gov
eminent without the permission of enabling
act of Congress. DR.. Won Hoist. in his Consti-
tutional History, also defends the right of the
people, and, in discussing the case of Michigan,
says the repeated delays of Congress to accord
justice, if persisted in further would have justi-
fed the people in rebellion. In the case of Min
Congress, and the State Legislature had elected
two United States senators, before Congress
passed the act of admission. In the State Of
California. the State government was
in actual operation by virtue of
the abdication of the military pro
visional government under General Riley and
representatives and senators were here in Wash.
ington memorializing Congress for admission OF
behalf of the State of Cafornia"-the assump
ton of q like title by the people of Dakota now
throwing General Butler and Senator Vest into
an ague of apprehension for fear of rebellion and
revolution! The two California senators wera
William NJ Gwin, recently dead, and John
Charles Fremont; and so soon as the Senate
passed the admission bill these two senators
appeared before the bar of the Senate and were
into Office Such. also. was the history in the
case of Colorado. The senators were here, and
the moment the admission bill was passed the
senators presented themselves and took the
OATH But all at once proceedings of this nature
by the people of Dakota, who have
proved their enterprise by following the
course of empire, as it westward takes its
plies of the Union and the government is amply
indicated by their 60, 900 Republican majority,
are asserted to be rebellious and revolutionary
by no less personages than Gen. NJ c. Butler
of Hamburg massacre fame who lost a leg in
the effort to overthrow the government. and
George G. Vest. who was too great a coward to
fight much in the field but found more congen-
ial arena for his treason in the Senate of the
Confederate States. These are the men who ar
raign the people of Dakota 1t is well for the
people of the country, and of Indiana to know
these facts. and to understand that the Demo
cratic opposition to Dakota is but one OF the
methods by which Republicans are to be dis
franchised and the power of Democracy perpetu-
ated 1t is an expression in another form Of
the same spirit which in the South
''wades through slaughter to a throne" and
which. in cities like Chicago and Cincinnati, per-
petrates organized fraud and prostitutes the
courts, State and federal, to uphold their infa-