Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1888-07-25
Dakota United.

/ 8
the influences Of a presidential year have
been able to obscure the unanimity 81
sentiment which moves the people OF
Dakota. They have ceased, and rightly
/ so, to regard tho territorial status as toll
cradle. And they are united today, per-
haps as never before, for division and
admission. At last they have discovered
they have nothing to hope from demo-
cratic policy or democratic justice.
There was time when some OF them
believed that, the democracy being in
power, it might be both able and willing
to do something for them. And by this
we are to read the result of the light
vote on the question Of division. Word
went out from Washington that advo-
cacy Of admission as whole was to be
considered a test Of democracy. Wea-
ried with the long struggle made so
vainly for the common rights of citizens,
there were those who thought that per-
haps this poor boon might be conceded
if they yielded to the party Of the ma
jority. Leading democrats set up an
anti division crusade, and the work was
pushed rapidly. But even those are now
both disappointed and deceived. They
are disappointed, because not even 10y
atty to party could make Dakota demo-
Gratis vote bodily against division. They
find themselves deceived because, after
this concession, they are no whit nearer
statehood than before. And the people
are weary and desperate with the great
injustice which has been done them, for
they see no sign Of end or change.
1t is under the pressure of this situa-
ton that public feeling is crystallizing
once more into grand demand for
rights withheld. The movement for adj
mission and division is stronger, more
determined and more aggressive than
ever before. The two-state convention
recently assembled was full of enthusi-
asm. 1t decided to make this the issue
of issues, to appeal to people indig-
nant at justice denied, and to move in
peratiyely for statehood. The attitude
Of this body, undiscouraged by the pro-
longed contest and the failures OF the
past, is full of significance. But even
more SO is the course of the democratic
territorial convention. Whatever oppo-
sition to division there is has been found
in the democratic ranks. 1t is that party
which the leaders were instructed to
hold solid as bulwark against the de-
mand for two states, and from that body
were to emanate the declarations that
serve as pretext for repeating the old
story, that public sentiment in. Dakota
itself was divided. This has proved inn
possible. The voice OF the delegates was
for division. The platform declares for
admission as single state, but for an
act which shall submit the
question Of admission as one or as two |
states to a vote of tho people, this vote
to be final. Well did those who framed |
it know the effect of such all act. Again |
and again in the last twelve years have
the people of Dakota expressed them
selves on this question, through their
in conventions and by popu-
lar votes. And, though majorities have
varied, the result has not. Every formal
of opinion. has been for di-
vision. And when the democratic con-
vention voted for that plank, it knew it
was voting for two states as plainly as
if the names Of North and South Dakota
bad been called. Yet even this declara-
ton, it is said, is moro guarded than that
which majority of the delegates had in
tended to adopt; being modified in the
interest of harmony, because the candi-
date for congress had already expressed,
more freely than party caution warrant
ed, his approval of division There can
be no honest or reasonable doubt of the
wish of the territory. There is but one
thing more to be done. Let the people /
Of Dakota give the people of the nation
no rest until they haves obtained their
rights. Let this party issue be heard in
every speech and every debate of the
coming campaign, and the people be
made to understand the magnitude of
the crime of which democracy is guilty
in barring Dakota from the Union.
That act of partisan injustice is enough
alone to warrant the downfall of the
party that is wholly responsible.
leer Press.
Tt is every mans privilege to discuss
the affairs of the nation, and it is his
duty to Investigate matters and vote the
way he thinks right; but it is neither
his privilege nor his duty to in any way
browbeat or bulldoze another man into
thinking or voting his way. We don't
care what a mans politics arc. So long
as he is a man we respect him, and the
nero fact that his belief is contrary to