The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1848-01-14


Whatever power may may not rest in Congress un-
der the constitution that instrument could not take from
the people of Territories the right TO prescribe their
domestic policy; nor has il attempted any such office
The principles declared by this resolution older and
stronger than written laws and paper cOnstutiOns-prin-
sples which lie at the foundation of free institutions, and
from which laws and constitutions emanate-insulcatng
the doctrine that the inherent original power OF
eminent was derived by from the Sovereign of the
unverse and that government is the of man,
ana al not man the creature of government.
Inc republican theory teaches that sovereignty resides
with the people OF State, and not with its political or
ganlZaton and the Declaration of Independence recog
nlses the right OF the people to alter abolish and
sruc their government Ii sovereignty resides with the
people and not with the organization il rests as well with
the people of Territory, all that concerns their internal
condition as with the people OF an organized State and
If Is the right of the people by virtue Of their innate sove
regnty alter abolish" and their govern
ment, ii is the right Of the inhabitants of Territories by
virtue OF the Unborn attribute, all that appertns
to their domestic concerns to fashion suited their
condition and if, this respect, form of government
proposed to them by the federal and adopted
or acquiesced in by hem they may afterwards alter
abolish it at pleasure. Although the government of
Territory has not the sovereign power the govern
ment OF State in its political relations, the people of
don, the same sovereign rights the people of State
While Congress may exercise its legislation territory
so far is necessary to protect the interests Of the United
States the Legislation for the people should be exercised
| by them, under the constitution
The mental and physical organization OF man teaches
that he is better fitted for self government than for the
dscharging this duty to himself, he should not be
| trusted with the destiny OF others.
That system OF government whether temporary per-
manentwheher applied to States Provinces, or Terri
toress radically wrong, and has within itself all the
elements of monarchical oppression, which permits the
representatives of one community to egslae for the do
nestle regulation of another, to which they
sponsible-whch practically allows New York and Mas
sachusetts and other Atlantic States to give local laws
to the people of Oregon, Minnesota, and Nebraska, to
whom and whose interests, wishes and condition they
are strangers.
Nor is this objection raised here for the first time
Prominent in the catalogue of grievances alleged by
fathers against the British King and his minister's
for suspending legislatures, and declaring
themselves invested with power to egislae for US"
have been subjected TO the dominion of external
thorty, it has been upon the plea of necessythe same
plea by which tyrants and usupers have justified their
| enormitles from the foundation of the world.
The genius OF the federative system is government
1t the foundation upon which the ark OF political
safety rests Our fathers proclaimed that to secure the
nalenable rights vouchased to man, governments were
instituted deriving their just power from the consent of
the governed that whenever any form of government
becomes destructive Of these ends til the right of the
people to alter abolish it, and institute gov
ernmen laying its foundation such principles, and
ganzing its powers in such FORM them shall seem
most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
All experience has indicated mans capacity for the
exercise o this exalted attribute; and wherever civilized
and intelligent men have been cast together without the
proceeded to enact them They who planted the germ of
powerful empire upon the pilgrims rock before landing
from the May Flower, drew up and signed the following
model charter of liberty: a@
Having unde rtaken the glory of God and the ad-
of the Christian faith and the honor and being
of our country, voyage to plant the first colony in the
and mutually in the presence Of God and Of one anothef
covenant and combine ourselves together into civil body
nee Of the s ends And by hereof
d as aa ae nnd
tme shall be thought meet and convenient for the
general good of the colony which promise all due
Submission and obedience"
And the inhabitants of Oregon, three thousand miles
distant in the absence of that guardian which Con-
gress has been wont to extend to other Territories
the political centre, established and have in successful
operation provisional government, in which, of their
own votion without the assistance of ordinances
provsos, or "unalterable fundamental articles" they
The great experiment OF self-government has been
fairly tried, and has either succeeded failed If it has
taught that after all, by reason of inherent defects
of character is incapable of its successful exercise
cept in populous communities atured by age and that
he must remain in puplage until that has arrived,
we should boast no more that the mysterious problem
OF human government has been solved but read the
declaration OF independence backwards, and the
clause which procaims that gratifying truth, to be
ngea or am amended hav by we should ac
that the darkness OF the human intellect has been found
to predominant, and that the gloomy sophisms of the
hmd and the malignant specuaons OF the envous, have
prevailed
have already shown that the whole structure of our
system favored the idea of domestic government by the
question is fully Observation-Disclosures, in view Of their
capacity for its udcious exercise expedent to leave
their internal policy under the constitution with them
selves Any system which denies this in theory or in
practice, which seeks to withhold from the prma,
ry settlements until they shall become popuous and
ure States is founded the spirit of popular dis
trust by which the few have from the earliest history of
man. under the plea OF necessity been endeayorng to
strict the many in the exercise of freedom 1t nculcates
system of slavery ten fold abject than that it pro-
fesses to discOuntenance II is the same spirit which has
mumured its distrust the extension of our territorial
boundaries and embled for the pepetuity of the Union
on the admission of State-whch looks upon free
suffrage with consternaton and with holy horror upon
the naturalization of foregners-which would it.
self ensaye race, lest they should tolerate sys
tenn which holds in bondage another. 1t is the off
spring OF bgotry and intolerance, and should have fulfill
ed its mission during the middle ages All experience has
shown that that tens of thousands in the sparse settle
ments are as competent to Judge of their condition.
and are as much devoted to the support of law and order
the hundreds Of thousands in popuous towns and
cities; and that all questions concerning their domestic
policy may be safely confded to them. When our coun
try has been dsgaced by violence and disorder and dis
regard OF law has been confined to the populous towns
and cities and has not extended the border settlements
Should the domestic legislation of Territories be left with
their local legislatures would transfer from the halls of
Congress the booess sectional struggles which have Gre
ated bitterness at home, and served to degrade our ns
tutions IN the eyes of the world 1t would leave local
communities, Territories as well as States to consult
their own interests, wishes, and sense of propiety and
to erect or prohibit continue abolish such institutions
as may not De repugnan to the principles of the constu
ton 1t would leave the federal government free to pur
sue ITS onward course unembarrassed by matters Of