Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2026 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== USGenNet Data Repository Notice: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Grand Traverse (Michigan) Herald March 11, 1859 Oregon Admitted The bill to admit Oregon into the Union has passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 114 to 103. Fifteen Republicans voted for it, and seventy-three against it. The entire delegation from this State voted Nay. It will be recollected that the bill passed the Senate at the previous Session, and Oregon is now the thirty-third State in the Union. Though nominally a free State, she will in all things obey the behests of Slavery; and for that reason she is admitted with a population of 50,000, and an uncosnti- tutional Constitution, while Kansas, because she is Re- publican, is kept out until she has a population of 93,000. The Constitution of the United States guarantees to citizens of each State all the privileges and Immuni- ties of citizens in the several States. In Massachusetts all colored men are citizens, and the Contitution of New York declares all to be citizens, and entitled to vote; who possess certain property qualifications; but the Constitution of Oregon will not permit those citizens of Massachusetts and New York to come within her borders for any purposes whatever, and even goes so far as to make it a penal offence for her own citizens to furnish them with a meal of victuals or a night's lodging! Such is the 'Democracy' of Slavery everywhere. The following is the provision of the Oregon Constitu- tion to which we have alluded. "No free negro or mullato, not residing in this State at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall ever come, reside, or be within this State, or hold any real estate, or make any contract, or maintain any suit therein; and the Legislative Assembly shall provide by penal laws for the removal, by public officers, all of such free negroes and mulattoes, and for their effectual exclusion from the State, and for the punishment of per- sons who shall bring them into the State, or employ or harbor them therein." ===============================================================================