Monday, November 23.
Proposed new State.
On motion of Mr. Poindexter, the House resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, on the bill to authorize the people of Mississippi Territory to form a constitution and State Government, and for the admission of the same into the Union.
Mr. Richardson moved to strike out the first section of the bill.
This motion was supported by Mr. Pitkin, principally on the ground of the inexpediency on general principle, of giving to a Territory embracing a population of only twenty or thirty thousand souls, a representation in the Senate equal to that possessed by other States, some of which contained a million of inhabitants. Another objection was, that the bill proposed to incorporate within a State the town and citadel of Mobile, now in possession of a foreign power; and thus make it the duty of a State to expel from its territory a force which the President had not thought fit to remove.
The motion was opposed by Mr. Poindexter, who contended that the population of the Territory was much greater than was represented; and even if it were not what it is, that a precedent was to be found in the incorporation of Ohio and of Louisiana. He represented in glowing terms, the anxiety of the people of the Territory to be enabled to bear their share of the expense as well as the dangers of the present war in support of our just rights; in which cause they had already employed twelve hundred militia, which the gentleman could not say of the populous State he represented; and if that were not enough, they were ready to put a bayonet into the hands of every man in the Territory capable of bearing arms. As to the occupancy of Mobile by the Spaniards, it was not a valid objection; but if it were, he said he hoped it would soon be invalidated; he trusted that the spirit of the country would aid the disposition of the Executive to repel every foreign enemy from our territories.
The motion to strike out the first section was negatived, yeas 24.
After some amendment to the bill, the committee rose and reported it to the House.
Mr. Pitkin renewed the motion to strike out the first section of the bill; which was negatived by a large majority.
The bill was then ordered to be engrossed for a third reading.