The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1845-03-21

lhe PolltCal majority here belong, about an
honest arrangement of the Congressional dis
tricts giving each party an equal advantage.
Now what is here proposed? BY this bill
the political majority here so " gcrrymander
the state," to use their own Ian guage, as to
give them certain whig district wherever it
can be made by any possible arrangement.
But they are not satisfied with even this.
There is another bill now pending in the
Senate, to take two townships from Athens
county and attach them to Morgan county,
by means Of which the democratic districts
composed of Perry, Morgan and Washing
ton will have certain whig majority
These measures will give tile Whig party
fourteen whig members of Congress, and the
democratic party seven democratic members
in the state. This will be the fair and hon
est arrangement of the districts, about which
such loud professions have been made, in
this state, and to secure the power to make
which a conspiracy was formed at one time
and the legislative branch of the govern
ment dissolved.
The slang about the unfairness of the pre-
sent law has been repeated and reiterated
before the people of the state in vain. 1t is
useless TO repeat this stale and threadbare
story here in the Senate again. The people
have already treated the "gorgons, hydras
and chimeras dire" which troubled the dis
tempered imaginations of the whig majority
here about the present Congressional Dis
tricts, with dlstrust and contempt. The pc
wer TO district the state was, after full COM
sideration, given TO the democratic party, by
the people; and after the districts were
made, the people sustained them at the bal
lot hoX.
Mr. Disney said that he should feel want
ing in his duty to his country as we'll as to
himself, did he not offer his protest to this
bill. He took occasion some days since TO
remark that never was there Legislature
that committed as many outrages against the
rights of individuals, as well as of decency,
as the present one. The 4th section Art. !
Of the constitution of the United States
says, " the times, places and manner of hold
ing elections for Senators and Representa-
tives shall be prescribed in each State, by
the Legislature thereof but the Congress
may at any time, by law, make or alter such
regulations, except as TO the places. of choos-
ing Senator'S"
This Mr.. d. deemed explicit. Congress
had the right to alter the districts, but the
Legislature, after fixing them, had not. In
this view of the constitution the whig men,
bers of the Legislature concurred, OR else
why, in defiance of their oatbs, did they
commit the crime of treason, in breaking up
the law-making power of the govemment?-
In one moment in this Senate chamber you
hear disunion openly advocated. Treason
against the state government--treason against
the general government-are familiar TO
these men as household words. Traitors to
their country, they deserve traitors fate
Had the power, they would hang high upon
the gibbet, under the second section, and
to the beast of prey should be given the de-
icate and loathsome banquet of traitors
corse.
One day, said Mr.. d., the majority eject,
from a contract, one whose only crime is diff
fering with them, although the contract has
all the sanction of law. Again, though they
prescribed prescription, they hurl the Board
of Public Works from office, and, not salts
fed with this, they turn out every officer,
down even to the lock tenders, at one fell
swoop. The act about being consummated
is but part and parcel of other foul outrages
perpetrated during the present session.
Other things Of similar nature are quick to
follow. A Representative is to be taken
from the counties of Seneca, Sandusky and
Craw ford, and placed in another district of
different complexion, and that, too, in def
ance of compromise bill, passed at the last
session. This bill, concocted in midnight
caucus-a fit time to violate the constitution
will have to be settled elsewhere than in
this Hall. This matter will have to come
before Congress-the people of Ohio will
pay no attention to this bill, and it will be
settled by the people, and by an honest Con
gress.
The doctrine now set forth, said Mr.. D.
that district bill can be repealed, is differ
ent from the doctrine set forth by that party
in 1s4s. If this be true, how deep and
damming does it make the deed that the Sc
nator from Delaware, who was one of The
committee who reported this bill. appear,
when with others, they broke up the Legsla-
ture, and set at defiance the constitution and
laws of the country? If the minority in this
chamber would but sustain him (Mr. d. this
bill would never become law.
Mr.. Powell. Will you follow my exemple
and absquatulate?
Mr.. Disney. Follow your example-fol-
low the example Of Inc Senator from Della
ware? Thank God, | have not, and cannot
sink so low into the depths ofinfamy, as to fol-
low that Senator's example. Absquatulation
denounced at the time, and still denounco.
Believing this bill to be an outrage--be-
lieving it to be unconstitutional, base and in
famous, he (Mr. Disney trusted the minori-
ty woud lend no sanction to it.