Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1888-04-20
The Senate, by a Vote of 26 to 23,
Decides to Admit South Dakota
to Statehood.
Leading Democratic Senators Express
Their Willingness to Vote for Ad-
mission as a Whole,
But Refuse to Recognize South Dakota
as a Territory-Acknowledged
a Party Matter.
CONGRESSIONAL.
The Senate.

CONGRESSIONAL.
The Senate.
WASHINGTON, April IL. Among the
bills reported from committees and placed
on the calendar was one authorizing the
president to appoint and retire John G.
Fremont as a major general of the United
States army and one eappropriating $15O,O0O
for quarters and barracks at branches of
the national soldiers home.
SOUTH DAKOTA.
The senate resumed consideration of the
bill for the admission of the state of South
Dakota and was addressed by Mr.. Plumb
in support OF the bill. He contrasted the
small votes in the southern states with the
vote of Dakota and said that very few of
them had cast as many votes at any cleo
ton within the last five years as the terri
tory OF Dakota had cast in 1856. If it was
the quality of the people Of Dakota that
the senator from Missouri (Mr. Vest) OBJ
jected to, he (Nlr. Plumb) declared that
they were a fair representation of the
Anglo-Saxon character. They had been
taken from the more active and energetic
portions of the people of the northern,
eastern, middle and western states. He
had yet to learn that a man in Dakota had
ever been deprived, by direction or indirec-
ton, of his right to vote, or that any candi-
date for congress in Dakota had ever
started out on his campaign with twelve
pound piece of artillery. Nothing had ever
occurred in Dakota for which any of her
citizens or any citizen OF the United States
had been called upon to blush. No one
quarreled with the states of North Caro-
lima or Virginia because they did not have
institutions that gathered in the popular
will ana gave it ample reflex as in other
states. The senator from Missouri was
especially delighted with their companion
ship because he saw in it assurance
doubly sure" that thereby those states
would remain democratic. Coming down
to the state of Alabama, he contrasted the
tables of taxation in that state to show
that the assessed value Of ''guns, pistols
and dirks" was four times greater than
that Of farming tools and agricultural inn
plements, and he said the senator from
Missouri did not object to the representa-
tod OF Alabama in the senate or house of
representatives, but was willing to meet
them on plane of equality. For himself,
he did not care as to the politics of any of
the territories applying for admission as
states. He would vote for the admission
of Montana and of Washington, demo-
cratic though they were. He would do so
because he believed the peace and
welfare of the republic consisted not in
the existence of territories to be governed
from Washington and not in the existence
OF colonies which formed no integral part
of the great body of the American people
in their governing capacity. He believed
the power and perpetutity of the republic
depended upon the equal association of all
the people of the United States sub.divlded
within the limits of states, each one re-
volving in it's orbit or taking care of its local
concerns, each contributing its advice, its
counsel, its wealth and its power to the
progress of the United States in their
national capacity. Mr.. Allison addressed
the senate in support of the bill. He agreed
with the senator from Missouri (Mr Vest)
that the question was a political one. 1t
was political and party question. The
attitude OF the democratic party in both
houses on this subject was an attitude of
non-action. Its policy had been clearly
shown in Mr.. Springer's letter read at the
Aberdeen convention. He believed that
South Dakota should now be admitted as a
state and that North Dakota should also be
now admitted as state and he should be
glad to vote at this session for the admis-
sion of North Dakota. Mr.. Vest asked
him it he would vote now for bill ad-
mitting to statehood the whole territory of
Dakota. He (Vest) would. Mr.. Allison
replied by asking Senators Vest and But
Ter if the democratic party, as political
organization, would vote to-day for admis-
sion of the state of Dakota as whole. Mr..
Vests response was that as matter of
course neither he nor the senator from
South Carolina could speak for the demo-
cratic party. but he would say that from
full deliberation and consultation, not any
sort of caucus with his democratic col
leagues, there was not any of them who
would not vote for the admission of the
state of Dakota as whole at any time. MI.
Allison suggested that political parties
were to be judged by their general action,
not by statements, and the action