372 ELI THAYER
Congress, to help or harm the prospects of the party ? I thank the gentleman from Indiana for the secret reasons which he has given, and which I have thus far been enabled to prove too absurd and impolitic to influence the action of the Republican party.
There are certain principles which, in my opinion, should govern the House on a question of the admission of a state. First, the Constitution must be republican in form. Second, there must be sufficient population; what number may be sufficient, must be left to the discretion of Congress. Third, the proposed admission must be shown to be for the benefit of the contracting parties; to be best for the state applying, to be best for the Confederacy. Let us look at these principles, and see how they should affect the vote on the admission of Oregon. First, then, is the Constitution presented by Oregon republican in form?
I will here send to the Clerk's desk a quotation from an authority which is justly and generally respected by Repub- licans an extract from a speech of Senator Seward, made in the Senate of the United States last May, upon this very ques- tion.
The Clerk read, as follows:
"I think there is nobody who doubts that the people of "Oregon are today ready, desirous, willing, to come in. They "have made a constitution which is acceptable to themselves, "and a Constitution which, however, it may be criticised here, "after all, complies substantially with every requirement which "the Congress of the United States, or any considerable por- "tion of either House of Congress, has ever insisted on in re- "gard to any state.
"It seems to me, therefore, to be trifling with the state of "Oregon, trifling with the people of that community, and to be "unnecessary, and calculated to produce an unfavorable im- "pression on the public mind, in regard to the consistency of "the policy which we pursue in admitting states into the Union, "to delay or deny this application. For one, sir, I think that
