River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1889-03-07
THE NEW STATES.

Congress has just enacted that by
conforming to conditions, four large
states may be admitted to the Union.
and South Dakota, North Dakota, Mon
tana, and Washington are likely to
send eight senators and five repre-
sentatiyes to seats in the 5lst Congress
that convenes next December.
The new states will have the boun-
diaries of the territories of the same
name, except the present territory of
Dakota will be divided by the seventh
standard parallel (46a north latitude)
into North and South Dakota.
No sister has been received into the
Union since 1875 when Colorado was adj
mitted as the Centennial State" but
aside from this novelty the present
action deals with tremendous area,
lying in the most promising latitude,
having the richest arabic and mineral
lands, the most abundant fuel and
building material, the readiest means
of transportation, and withal, the most
virile people to be found any where in
civilization.
Imagine an area unbrOken except
by Idaho's panhandle of 200 miles,
from the Pacific Ocean to the Missis-
sippi River averaging 1900 miles, and
from Canada south an average of more
than 270 miles, and in every respect
the empire thus included gives prom
Use of all things of praise that France
has, and vastly more when the fact is
recognized that the people come to-
gether spontaneously, each bearing
the impress of the institutions from
which he has come, and the varied
characters therefore must be swedged
together, governed only by the Consti-
tuition of the United States, to form a
government, and hence the effete insti-
buttons are likely to be sacrificed and
the states will come formed with little
of the obstacles of older governments,
and the citizens can spend their energy
in developing the marvellous resources
of the country.
Three hundred and sixty-three thou
sand square miles of such territory
annexed to the Union and in bodily
contact with it. is, with such people
as will make its industrious popula.
ton, worth more to the United States
government than all the colonies of
all the European countries, because it
is a free people, seeking an alliance
that has the essence of strength and
the purpose of perpetuity in equality,
rather than in subordination, as in
colonial dependencies.
The soil will average with any Euro
pean countries; is perfectly watered;
the economic minerals of all known
varieties and the contiguity such as
are requisite for mutual use, as coal
and iron, has no parallel in the world;
the navigable streams and railways
afford means of free exchange. No
Imagination can add a single factor to
these states to make them more pros
porous than the next fifty years will
find them. Unlike the civilization
that seeks evolution on its native soil
and is perpetually checked by the
states of society already formed, and
cramped by the effete customs of semi
barbarism, this virgin soil invites the
stalwarts from all countries to come
and blend their labor, grow new
civilization that shall he adapted to
the needs that shall be discovered,
and thus the very best blood, the
purest institutions, and the largest
life that all other states have known,
will constitute the germ of these new
lands, and who can picture its posi-
bilities in half century!
Congress provides for the election
of IS delegates in each of the terri.
tories ON the second Monday in May,
1889, who shall convene at the CAPT.
tals-except in South Dakota, at Sioux
Falls-On the 4th of July, 1889, and
shall form state constitutions, PRO.
yided South Dakota may adopt the
constitution framed at Sioux Falls in
1885, after making appropriate chang
es therein. These constitutions shall
be submitted to popular ratification in
October, 1889, and at the same election
congressman and state officers may be
chosen. If in the judgment of the
president the constitutions adopted
conform to usage and to specifications
entered in the congressional act, he
may proclaim the states; otherwise
the territories continue in territorial
government till further congressional
action.