The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-03-21

State respectiveiy-to admiuieteg tho territorial
government 80 a. TO interfere with the rights Of
none, and to protect the rights Of ALL When
the people OF territory are prepared to b.
erected into State government is not matter
for executive, but for congressional considers
| ton
The influence of the Executive was indeed
revolutionary in its character. There was no
such thing as a people" in constitutional phra
seoogy, in California. The entire government
was military, not Representatives, based on
executive, not popular will. There was no such
thing as citizenship in California--no being there
had right to vote, or to interfere in questions
of government There had been formed no POI
| litcal basis, indeed, on which to erect State
government, which should come into existence
in full accord with the Constitution of The United
States and the rights of the people Of the re-
spectve States.
| When Alabama was a terrtory--goyernedb by
law Of Congress land the settlers became de-
sirous of admission into the Union, Congress
passed law consentng thereto, and prescrib-
ing the manner in which il should be done
laying down the qualifications Of voters for
members Of the onyention--prescribing the
time and place of voting, and time and place
even of the meeting of the convention. Cali.
| fornia had been subjected to no such healthfu
puplage and restraints, but contained mixed,
homogeneous transient population derived from
all sections. The only Ingredient indeed of
which it was not composed was one which had
been invidiousy excluded by the free-soil pol
icy of the government-the slaveholdng emf
grant from the Southern States
Such was the population that the Executive
influenced to take in hand for final settlement,
the great question at issue between the North
and South. To such population did the mill
tary governor of California commit the fate of
the South, against every precedent, and in viola
ton of our just rights ia that territory, and at a
time when her citizens could have 10 voice in
| the decision.
| The result was such as was doubtless antic-
pated, and exclusion Of the South from that
noble domain,
| This act, however was void and of no force,
and without right unless indeed it be considered
a revolutionary movement as independent, and
MS outside of, the Constitutions Congress up-
dertook to ratifyit Mr.. Clay frankly admitted
!, in the Senate that California had not become a
State by the adoption of that constiution--that
it required an act of Congress to give it vitality.
! This admits all the proceedings to have been
| irregular, and that those who framed the Cali
! fornia consultation were not possessed Of that
sovereignty which alone can '.institute new gov
| cluilShto anu SOtISlcSS III us CollSllcTutIDn
was entirely unrestrancd by any thing done by
| the California convention.
Congress admitted California with that con-
stitution, and, according to Mr. Clay's views,
Congress alone gave any vitality to it. We as
sumo then, as ncontrovertible, that Congress il
responsible for the prohbtory ,anti-slavery clause
| in that constitution. Congress had it in its
power to reject or adopt it, and it adopted it
California could claim no right to dictate the
terms of her admission. There were no people
there-no organized people, in constitutions,
phraseoogy, who could demand a State govern
ment. The constitution submitted had not is
sued from body which had acquired a polit-
cal existence by any act of Congress, and who
represented people with defined political rights
] Hence, their recommendation had no political
power, and when Congress by its act made it
the supreme law of California, Congress became
the only responsible source to which to look in
canvassing the question, slave you the power
to exclude slavery from that territory, and to
give the jurisdiction of so vast a territory to so
few settlers, TO the exclusion of the rghtful
claims of the entire South" Let us not be mis-
understood. We do not question the sight OF
every people to frame governments for them.
selves. That is different principle from that
involved here. If the people in California, dis
gusted by the delay of Congress to give them .
government had chosen to rise in rebellion, an
to assert this great fundamental right, il would
have presented another question for our corsid-
Grafton. But they do not claim this principle in
support Of their movement. Ii they did, then
having acted subversively of our rights and
against our power, surely they had no right to
demand admission into our confederation, and to
claim protection in the enjoyment of the very
spos they had just robbed us OF, and surely il
was the duty of Congress TO reject so nsolent
an application. They only claim to cone into
the Union under our Constitution, and looking
at the procedure by the light of the principles of
that instrument, we are constrained to say that
great fraud and palpable wrong was practiced
upon the South both in the administration of the
territorial government of that territory, and in its
erection into State government.
1t is not deemed necessary to pursue to any
great extent our views as to the action of the
Executive and the Congress relative to New
Mexico. In our opinion, similar fraud was de-
lberately practised on the South in all the diff
culties which this sectional controversy entailed
upon both the great parties, whose qualifications
extend through the North as well MS the South,
and disposition to shake off the responsibility
OF admission gave rise to this fundamental de-
sign in the cases both of California aud New
| Mexico.
The territorial governments which have been
framed for New Mexico and Utah, are based up
on the idea, so generally advanced by the lead
ing statesmen of both parties, that the Mexican
laws prohibiting slavery, still prevail until re-
pealed by Congress.
Several attempts were made in Congress to
insert in those bills the principle that every cti
zen should have the right to migrate TO those
territories, with all his rights Of property enjoyed
under the several State governments All such
attempts were at once defeated
We contend that it was the duty of Congress
to have made a declaration that these Mexican
laws should not be Of force Some contend
that such action would have been an interven.
ton on the part of Congress in the question of
slavery, and that the South has long since set
tied upon the doctrine Of non-intervcnton
Nothing can be more iallacious than such an ar.
gument IL is admitted to be the duty of Con
gress to provide governments for the territories
| why! 10 protect settlers in their lives and
property. II is admitted to be its duty so TO
regulate the landed property of the United
States as to throw it open to settlement and the