The Republican journal., 1899-01-19

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Congressional laws to govern the Louis
lana purchase; to govern the acquisition
OF Florida; and to govern the Territories
of Utah and New Mexico, are reviewed by
the writer in detail, showing how absolute
national control was maintained, and how,
gradually, rights of suffrage were extend
ed therein. In 1862 slavery was abolished
in the Territories, and in 1867 came the
Fifteenth Amendment, ending the work
OF Congress SO far as suffrage in Terri
tories has been concerned:
starting with the rude provisions laid
down by the Continental Congress in the
ordinances of 1884 and 1887, it had in the
course of eightythTee years reached uni
versal manhood suffrage for a wide range
of offices. At first no voters existed. Then
men owning fifty acres of land might vote
for one branch of the legislature. Before
the first quarter OF our century was turn
ed the territorial delegates and the mem
bers of the second branch of the legisla-
ture were elected by the people, the prop
erty qualification of voters was swept
away and the payment of a tax SUBSTITUTE
ed, and the qualification of electors of the
territorial delegates was left for the legis-
latures to decide. When the middle of the
century came any free white male citizen
of the United States could vote, and every
town and county officer not judicial had
been made elective. twenty-five years
later the negro had been enfranchised,
and the legislatures were regulating the
qualifications of voters -
Professor McMaster concludes his arti-
Gle as follows:
"A review of the history of suffrage in
the Territories thus makes it clear that
foreign soil acquired by Congress is the
property of and nota part of the United
States; that the Territories formed from
it are without, and not under, the Consti-
tuition; and that in providing them with
governments Congress is at liberty to es-
tablish just such kind as it pleases, with
little or no regard for the principles of
self government; that in the past it has
set up whatever sort was, in its opinion,
best suited to meet the needs of the peo-
pie, never stopping to ask how far the gov
eminent so created derived its just powers
from the consent of the governed; and
that it is under no obligation to grant even
restricted suffrage to the inhabitants of
any new soil we may acquire unless they
are lit to use it properly. Congress is in
deed morally bound to give the very best
government that circumstances will per-
lilieI oul IL 10 ttlSO IlOldlly UOuItl uOG W Dc
carried away by theories of human rights
which even the States themselves ignore
We have no such thing as unrestricted
universal suffrage. In the States east of
the Mississippi no woman may cast bal
lot for governor, for Congressman, or
for Presidential electors. Yet in each one
of them are numbers of women who own
property, and pay taxes amounting some
times to thousands of dollars year. What
government derives its just powers from
their consent? Are they not taxed with
out representation? Do they not obey laws
in the making of which they have no
voice? All this is utterly inconsistent with
the broad doctrines on which our republi-
can form Of government is founded. The
truth is, the suffrage never has been and is
not to-day regulated on any other princi-
pie than expediency. Nor is this to be re-
GREETED. No government is worth rush
unless it is practical; and to be practical
it must not be in advance of the intelli-
gence and capacity for self government
possessed by the people for whose welfare
it has been created. This has been the
characteristic of every government yet set
up in State or Territory, and is greatly to
our credit; and this is the course we must
pursue in the treatment of any people,
whatever their stage of civilization, who
may come to us with new acquisitions of
territory