The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-02-22

az any plaine common-sense man would have
done. he would have taken the constitution IN
one hand and the Missouri compromise in the
other, and weighing the language OF both.
would have frankly declared whether or no
they were inconsistent with each other: if they
were-as he would have been bound to admit
he would have said honestly that the
latter must yield and the constitution be
maintained at all hazards. He would
have seen at glance, in the first
place, that the constitution recognizes slave
ry by granting representation to slave
property He would have seen nowhere In the
constitution that any right to establish, pro-
hbit, or interfere with slavery in any State OF
Territory, was conceded by the States to Con-
cress; and he would have read in the amend
ments Art. e.
The powers not delegated the Uaitsd States by the
eonstun prohibit cd by II to the States rsssrv
cd to tbs states respectively or 10 the people
This, it would seem, prohibits Congress, in
tolerably unequivocal language, from inter
fering with the rights Of the States or the peo-
pie respecting slavery. Fit had been pretend
vi,
confers upon Congress the power to establish
or prohibit slavery in the Territories, Mr.
Seward, had he undertaken to discuss the ques-
ton in plain honest way, would at once have
exposed the fallacy Of The argument That sec
ton reads thus
Tne @ De ress shall have to DISPOSE OF And sake
oil needfu rules sDd Respecting the territory
or ether property OF the Uaitsd States, a.,
l. fcin 1nrycn
from these words that Congress has power to
interfere with the domestic institutions OF the
people settled in organized Territories. The
power granted is obviously over the Terrific
ries or other property" that is to say, over
the Territories as property, not over the PEG
pie who,inhabit them. Congress may sell the
Territories, or exchange them, or locate In
dams, orregulate the right of hunting therein,
and this is ,what is meant by "all needful rules
and regulations but Congress has no more
power to make "rules and regulations" for
the domestic institutions Of the people in the
Territories than. i. has " to dispose" Of the said
people, This is obvious from any study of the
section; and Senator Seward must have seen it
as well as other men. 1t did not suit his pur-
pose to say SO, simply because he was using the
Nebraska question, as he has used the anti
masonry, and anti-rentism, and anti-slavery
controversies rs stepping stone to fortune.
He and every other man of note, except those
mentioned below, who has taken open ground
against the Nebraska bill, have been actuated
by personal ambition, and have sought, by pet
tifogging objections and trumpery special
pleading, to blind the country to the real ques-
ton involved in the Nebraska debate.
The second class Of anti-Nebraska agitators
are those who are at open war with the consti-
tuition of this country. Such are Theodore Par
ker, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Summer.
Horace Greeley, William Lloyd Garrison, and
the other fanatics who are popularity known as
abolitiohists. These men have for years been
wagipg war against the foundation Of the re-
public. Most of them candidly avow the ground
they take. They are seltconfessed traitors
They want to break up the confederacy, to dis
solve the Union. Every pretext affords them
an opportunity of declaring these sentiments;
the Nebraska debate is merely the last. There
are countries where such men as these would
be safely kept under lock and key at the public
expense; here, we have such confidence in the
common sense of the community that we can
afford to let them 60 at large. But what
weight can be attached to anything they say
What respect can we pay to the opinions of men
whose object is revolution, and the destruction
of all we hold most dears Is it not enough
that we let them rave in impunity?
To this class, in some respects, William Fl.
Seward belongs rs well as to the other. He is
ready to kindle flame Of prejudice that will
consume the bond Of union between the States
like Haxen cord; and only asks as tbs price of
such service that he be promoted to the high
est rank in the North.
These are the opponents of the Nebraska bill.
All who now protest against its passage are
comprised under these two heads. They are
either aspiring politicians who oppose it disin-
genuously with craft and special pleading; or
open revolutionaries who seek the subversion
of the Union, and care not how it comes about.
Shall these men prevail against the cou ntrys
The Gadsden Trsaty-The Gadsdsn Country
The Walker Fiibustering Expedition.
A writer in the Washington SenfineI-proba-
bly, one Of the lobby members of Santa Anna,
Gen. Almonts, Gen. Gadsden, or Of the Garay,
Sloo, Hargous, or some other company-in his
jealous advocacy Of the Gadsden treaty, repre-
sents the Gadsden country as falling very little
short Of the Garden Of Eden in its beauty and
spontaneous fertility. He says, truly enough,
that the New, York HERALD calls this country
"a margin of the deserts of Chihuahua and So
nora"-"a waste and bowling Wilderness