Helena Weekly Herald

THE GROUND
OF
COMPLAINT.

In the natural course of events Montana will without much doubt become a sovereign State before another four years shall roll around. Having survived already twenty years of existence with a fair degree of prosperity under the present form of government, we think we can survive for the short time that is likely to elapse before reaching Statehood, and it is fast becoming less and less of a practical question to procure such changes of this Territorial form of government as we have always thought would make it better conform to the principles of government set out in our constitution. In all probability the present form of Territorial government will be nearly or quite extinct within the next ten years. It will go into history like some of those extinct species of animals whose footprints and gigantic skeletons are occasionally brought to light by modern explorations. But in passing let it be remarked that this system of governing the Territories was devised by those very men who fought for and won our independence and framed our constitution. It has been continued down to the present time through a long series of Democratic administrations without any attempt to modify it and we presume it useless at this late day to try to raise a crusade over the inherent defects of a system so near the point of its final extinction.

Those who compare the territorial condition to a Roman satrapy are introducing a comparison that we cannot understand. The satrapy is an Asiatic type of government distinct in every respect from anything Roman. Perhaps the Roman province was intended. The framers of our system did not go abroad evidently for the idea, but took the English colonial system with which they were very familiar. They could and we think should have made the territorial system conform more nearly with that of the states, but it seems as if they grew weary of framing new systems of government and never carried out symmetrically the ideas they had on the subject. It was expected that all the vacant territory that then belonged to the United States would soon be included in states but we have been adding successively by purchase, treaty and conquest till we have had a long, uninterrupted series of territorial governments never dreamed of by the framers of our government or we are sure they would have given it more study and devised a more consistent and homogenous system. The system worked better when the ratio of representation in Congress was small and the people of the Territories were so few and scattered that it was regarded by them as a burden to support a full organized government. It is a very different thing now when the same system is continued for communities of hundreds of thousands of people. It is as incongruous as dressing up a full grown boy in baby clothes.

After all our grievances are rather theoretical than real. We make our own laws with very little interference from Congress, and what is more, we execute them. It is singular indeed that the loudest complaints now or ever made are directed against a governor who interferes the least of any with our own execution of our own laws. The governors of Montana appointed by the President compare very favorably with the average governors of States and in our opinion are far above those of Louisiana, Missouri and Kentucky, and have interfered less with the execution of the local laws. We must remember that so long as the President is personally responsible for the appointment, he will most naturally select those whom he knows personally, or are recommended by personal or political friends. In the present House with its heavy democratic majority the proposition that the people of the Territories should elect their own governors and other officers found no favor, and we might further say, was ignominiously kicked out.

In the matter of administering our laws, of which so much complaint is made, it is another remarkable instance that those who make the wildest complaints, were recently championing the cause of the only judge who for a long term of years has dishonored his position. Our judiciary stands high, not only as compared with other Territories but with a good share of the States. The attempt to magnify a small personal grievance into something larger and more respectable is a disastrous failure.

The Senate seems to be following out the wishes of the people of Dakota in granting them a division, but they have not regarded the wishes of the people in providing a name for the new Territory. It is a poor taste to our notion that fixes the name of Lincoln to the north part of Dakota. It is a departure from general and approved usage, of which Washington is another exception. We had hoped to see the name of the latter Territory changed to Tacoma, and as for North Dakota we should much prefer the name of Pembina. The Senate evidently keeps up the hallucination that the Territories are infants and that it is not necessary to consult the infant as to its name.