| Show A ADMISSION ibis ikis akis SION slon OF NEW MEXICO portions of he the tho gho discussion on the knablin enabling ij act la in the LT S senates senate march 10 101&7g MG MB mn MORBILL MORRILL of vermont I 1 know very well that under the treaty with mexico this territory wasin was in due time to be incorporated into the union as a state but as I 1 read the article of the treat treaty yin in this case it was to be done at the proper time and as congress might j udge adge fit andexpedient aridexpedlent and expedient now I 1 take it that this territory has no claims to be introduced into the union unless they are sl similar aillar to those which would operate in the case of the territory of washington or dakota or any ether other territory that we have unless the public interests will bo be promotsd promoted by it it seems to me plain that that territory ought not to be admitted as a state MB INIR HITCHCOCK of course the proposition as the honorable senator from vermont says is an important one it is a proposition to endow the people of a territory with sovereignty to found an empire to organize a government destined as we trust to continue and strengthen and grow powerful during the long years of a prosperous future and more it is a proposition to give to that govern government mem a proportionate porti portl ortionate orti onate power in controlling the N destinies stinles stanles of the thirty seven other independent dependent sovereign sovereignties ties now members of the tha american union such a proposition should of course receive careful consideration at the hal hai mai mav ekof tkof h of tho the tlid alid american congress t fo icare rcare are as the honorable senator 1 ji i 4 ald aid said two points of inquiry natuilly natu natti nalii tily illy 11 y nib nio ug gesting oesting themselves to the mind wind iu in considering the propriety nud and wisdom of this measure one I 1 in u legard reard to the number and character of the population which we propose by this bill to endow with american citizenship and the other in regard to the extent character and resources of the country which they inhabit and which it Is proposed by this bill to make an independent state in recard regard to the number of population I 1 believe belleve it is clear blear elear elean glear glean that new mexico has today to day a sufficient population to entitle her bet ber under the law to admission as hs a state a sufficient population to entitle her to a be ro presentative on ehe the ebe floor of the other brwn branch ot 0 con congress res then theil thell in 114 lit regail regard regaid to territory new mexico stretches stretch es from about the thirty first parallel to the thirty seventliphralfelof seventh parallel of north latitude WN W N and from the one hundred and third thir meridian to theone the one hundred and ninth meridian meridiaji meridi ajl aji asl of longitude west of greenwich it contains contain 8 an area of more than one hundred and twenty thousand square miles an em empire ire lre iro in lt itself selone one hundred times lwgcr larger than boine soine sme of the states of thi thl this union as large as all dre bre now new england and ne nelwyork york afifftwice and twice as large di as old eng england ladd of course a large portion of the soil is not rich in agricultural products the larger portion of the soil bonsists consists of ofadty a drys high and in many places arid plain but these plains are rich in grazing facilities capable of supporting vast herds berds aad and flocks of sheep and nd the valleys of the streams and rivers are rich in agricultural products while the moun tains bains and the cannons are rich in 4iineral mineral wealth the committee therefore believe that ill lil ili dependent independent of any treaty obligations to which the honorable senator has alluded and which were twentyfive twenty twebty nive five years ago sufficiently important to induce some of the most prominent states statesmen meh men of this country to favor the admission of new mexico then new mexico from the number of her people and the extent and character of her territory is justly entitled to become now a member of this american nation it is insisted by these people and I 1 think the record bears them out that general S W kearny of the united states army who took formal military possession of new mexico in Ati atl august gust zust 1846 was himself of opinion that the territory would at an early day be organized under a territorial form of government to be boon soon thereafter admitted as us a state into the union it is entirely clear that this was the policy of president taylor the rule in the admission of new states into the union has not been that such states should have a population equal to the ratio established for one representative other things have been taken into the account as the resources of the proposed state the character ot or its population and its capacity for self government nevada and ne we braska were admitted with populations tions eions less than the ratio fixed for one presentative representative Ite and colorado now preparing to become a state stale of the union has a less population than new mexico mit MB mio mlo barge SARGE SARGENT XT I 1 do not know whyafterwe why after we have madeatreaty madea made a treaty with mexico that new mexico should be received of course within our own discretion as to the time that we should draw a distinction between the hardy amerl americans canswho who go out into these territories and the people of the race with whom we made the original compact that they should come in I 1 n with the mexicans we agreed that this portion pqrtion of their territory should come in in as a state I 1 admit in our own time they had in view these very mexicans that are referred to this native mexican population they are the people they proposed to protect not our own citizens who might thereafter go to new mexicobut mexlcobut Mexico but the original population thereby showing their protecting care of these people and the obligation arises from the fact that there is a mexican population who are thus protected and if it is true that there is in new mexico as large a population as that in colorado which we agreed last year to admit I 1 should II 11 like liko ke to know what argument can be advanced against this bill which would influence the senate that voted so largely last lust year to admit colorado the population of new mexico at present is greater than that ot of either of the following five states at the time the laws were passed admitting them to the union oregon kansas nevada nebraska andcolorado and colorado if ther6isaspecles there is a species of favoritism in this thing thingy if we can pick out one territory and say you shall not come in wltha altha with a certain population and to another you may come in with equal or less it ought to be explained I 1 do not think that that is the intention of Coli coll congress gress in dealing with the territories it here is a population in new mexico as large as or larger than the average required of territories becoming states then b by every principle of justice we ought to admit them now it is cruel to a territory with from 90000 to 160000 150000 inhabitants to keep them in this state of tutelage that we call a territorial government I 1 doubt if the ingenuity of mankind ever has devised a worse system of govern government men t than what we call our territorial system unless it is some form of tyranny lt it is a careless carl carf catl liess cless eless audwasteful and aud wasteful system the wishes of the people are not consulted at all the ofm off omm meers officers leers to rule ever them are sent from thousands of miles distant they have no knowle knowledge dge of these men before they go there and frequently the knowledge that they acquire of them tbem teem afterward is such as to make them regret that they ever saw them we have questions with reference to judges who are sent there I 1 myself was very much troubled and pained by certain re monstrances mons trances which were recently sent to me as to a judge put in this ve very territory err tory with a request that he e might be removed there was conflicting testimony on one side there seemed to be a very large number of people including the bar who protested against this mans juans manb continuance in office offlee for reasons given on the other hand a respectable gentleman said and some senators I 1 think this man is a good man we know him personally so nally naily but such a question ought to be and under our system in the states is resolved by the people themselves let them choose their ofm off omm meers officers leers and do ao not keep in power over them a man of doubtful character sent from a long distance where they have no control overhim overheim over ove him rhim furthermore a territory makes very little improvements while it remains in the territorial condition we have half of a promise to provide for them we do pay the expenses of the territorial legislature except in utah ED nessl NEWSJ newsl and occasionally we make inake mawe a grudging appropriation for a public building the consequence is that the people there do not tax themselves do not set themselves earnestly to work in order to erect their public buildings occasionally we make a road there partly 0 pretense of being a military roa roal 1 1 il i d l partly on account of the wantb wanta af uf the territory but the people themselves do not pass laws and tax themselves as they will as soon as they become a state in order to make these internal improvements it is like a farm which is held by a tenancy at will or by sufferance the tenant does not improve it because he be does doe 8 not know when he will get a better right the people who are there not being exactly citizens but mere denizens in the long years before it may becomeastate becomea becomer state may become tired and move away it is a question tionof of the future whetberbenefits whether benefits will be reaped from anything they may do now and whether they will ever come to them and andtherefore therefore they do not feel very great interest in building up a community furthermore ther more a public school system is not much built up in territories we did not give the sixteenth and thirty sixth sections to the territories riesy but to them when they are admitted as states and they constitute a fund for the benefit of the states whereby they educate their thir people in my state by a careful husbanding hus banding of this fund we weareable weaveable wea kre are reable reabie able abie in every school district of the state to keep open a public school of course we aid it by local taxation in the large districts where there are multiplied schools but in all the districts we keep open a school nine dine or ten months in the year allowing the ordinary vacat vacation ion IoD lon by means of this bounty of cob CoL congress colgress gress if we had been kept out of the union for a dozen years longer when population was pouring in upon us these sixteenth and thirty sixth sections would have been largely absorbed and perhaps other available lands would have had to be taken in lieu of them on account of homestead and preemption pre emption settlements intervening sowedonotgivetheter so we do not give the territories ri the opportunity to build up public schools by allowing them to have a good fund and we may prevent their having the means of having such a fund hereafter I 1 believe in local self government so far as that goes I 1 always firmly believed in squatter equatter sovereignty sovereignti that is to say that the people of a territory should have a right to make their OWH laws to elect their own officers and to be american citizens in intact fact certainly when they have arrived at the respectable size of from ninety to one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants bie aie ble MAXEY we all know that as long as apeoplearein astate assate of pupilage so long as a territorial government exists they do not progress as they do when admitted as gr7of one of the sovereign states of the american sisterhood it is with me a question of right politics has nothing to do with my vote on this question it is simply a question of pure naked hight right rigb ribb t wlientbemll when the military command and our forces took possession of new mexico in 1846 inducements were held out to these people to believe that they would be admitted as a state in the union by reason keason heason of that belief during all the war with Al exico mexico there was but little of it within the limits of new mexico general kearney controlled that country with but little difficulty in 1819 1849 in the administration of general taylor among his earliest messages was a message asking that the newly acquired territory should be admitted as early as was consistent with the common good as a state in the american union and this is one of the last left from prom erom its terri tory lias has ilas been carved out and cut off the northern tier of countries and placed in colorado having less population than the territory of new mexico all I 1 ask is if colorado can come in as a state in this union should notney notnew not new mexico besides I 1 see no reason why if it a territory has conducted itself right and well for twentyfive twenty five years the people of these united states should pay the expenses of keeping up a territorial government there I 1 think they should be permitted to form their own constituion constitution and have the glorious privilege of local self government we all know that we regard that as a blessing priceless in its nature if they are entitled to como come in let them come in and that they are entitled to come in there js is in my own mind no question MH HARVEY HABVEY harvby mr president I 1 have been a little astonished at the position taken by my friends thesenator the senator from vermont and the senator from maine in the discussion of this bill the senator from vermont says before voting on this bill he would like to know the number of the anglo saxon population of this territory and whether there Is sufficient wealth there to support a government Is it true that the theory of our government is that only the anglo saxon race is entitled to self government and that only rich people have that capacity the declaration of independence the original charter of our liberties took a ground so much broader that the assertion of it was characterized as a lfglitter glittering generality but the logic of 0 events basjustifled has justified the broad scope taken in that instrument the true theory of our government is that people of all facea racea are entitled to self government the history of t the he worldshowpi world showi shawi that tb the e oldest republic is that of switzerland its people arm are arc amm aro nrc not composed exclusively clu sively of anyone any one race properly speak speaking Dg none of them are of the anglo saxon race but they are of teutonic ancestry and latin ancestry the senator from maine spoke of different portions of tills this country being divided by certain lines it seems to me as indetensible indefensible inde tensible as the position taken by the senator from vermont to assert that the people ou on one side of a certain line are capable of selo self seln sein seio government but that tho thaae thoae je on the other side should be incapable to the remark of the senator that these territories have no reason to complain be because causie caurie they are under the patronage of a powe powerful rful erful government ern ment they might very truly retort that the kind of patronage which they receive is to have the constituents of senators and men bers hers of the house from different states sent into the territory to fill the various local offices that happen 11 p to be located there that is 1 about the extent of what might be called the |
