Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-05-02
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this act not 10 legislate slavery into any State
or Territory, nor to exclude it thereiro1n; but
to leave the people thereof perfectly free to
form and regulate their domestic institutions
in their own way, subject only to the Consti-
tuition of the United States"
This is the speech, and pretty little thing
itself, and very proper to be spoken from
stump in the prairie. 1t has intent, and q
true intent; which is neither to legislate slay-
cry into, or out Of any State or Territory
Then why legislate at ala Why all this dis
turbance if no effect is produced, and things
to remain Just as they we're: Let well enough
alone, was the old doctrine; to make well
enough still better, is the doctrine of progress;
and that in spite Of the Italian epitaph, which
says: II was well, and would be better; took
physic, and here am" But the States must
be greatly delighted at the politeness and for
bearanco of this bill. 1t puts States and Ter
ritories upon precisely equality with respect
to the power of Congress over them. Con-
gress does not mean TO put slavery in or out
of any State or Territory. To all that polite
abnegation, l have to say that, in respect of
the States, it is the supererogation of modesty
aud humility, as Congress happens to have no
power to put slavery in them; and in respect
Of the Territories, it is an abdication of a con-
stitutional power and duty; it being the right
Of Congress to legislate upon slavery in the
Territories and its duty to do so when there
is occasion for it-as in 1887 and 1920.
l object to this shilly shally, willy-won'ty,
don't can'ty style Of legislation. 1t is not
Legislative. 1t is not parliamentary. It is not
manly. 1t is not womanly. No woman would
talk that way. No shilly -shally in woman.
Nothing of the female gender was ever born
young enough, or lived long enough, to get be-
logged in such a quandary as this. 1t is one
thing or the other with them; and what they
say they stick to. No breaking bargains with
them. But the end of this stump speech is
the best of the whole. Different from good
milk, in which the cream rises to the top, it
here settles to the bottom, and is in these
words:
leave it to the people thereof, that is to
say, of the States and of the Territories, to
regulate slavery for themselves as they please,
only subject to the Constitution of the United
States.
Certainly this is new subsection for the
States. Heretofore they have been free TO
regulate slavery for themselves-admit it, or
reject it and that not by virtue of any grant
of power IN the Constitution, but by virtue of
au unsurrendered part of their old sovereignty.
1t is also new of the territories. Heretofore
they have been held to be wards Of Congress,
and entitled to nothing under the Constitu-
ton but that which Congress extended to
them. But this clause is not accidentally
here; it is to keep up the dogma of the Con-
stitution in territories but only there in re-
lation to slavery, and that for its admission
not rejection.
Three dog1nas now afflict the land; Uideiices,
squatter sovereignty, on-intervention,a and no
power in Congress to legislate upon slavery
in the territories. And this bill asserts the
IL u
whole three, by knocking each one on the
head with the other, and tramphng each I'M
der foot in its turn. Sir, the bill does deny
squatter sovereignty, and it does intervene,
and it does legislate upon slavery in terrific
ries and for the proof of that, see the bill;
and see it, as the lawyers say, psssias that is
to say, here, and there, and everywhere. 1t
is a bill OF assumptions and contradictions
assuming what is unfounded, asd contradict
ing what it assumes-and balancing every af-
iirmation by negation. 1t is see-saw bill
but not the innocent see-saw which children
play on a plank stuck through a fence; but
the up and down game OF politicians, played
at the expense Of the peace and harmony OF
the Union, and to the sacrifice of all business
in Congress. 1t is amphibological bill,
stuffed with monstrosities, hobbled with con-
tradictions, and Badgered with proviso.
Amphibology is a cause for the rejection Of
bills, not only by Congress, but by the Presi-
dent, when carried to him for his approval
General jackson rejected one for that cause,
and it was less amphibological than this it
was the last night of the last day of his last
administration, anda quarter before midnight.
Congress had seut him bill to repeal the
specie circular, and to inaugurate the paper
currency Of a thousand local banks as the cur
rency of the Federal Government. 1t was an
object not to be avowed, nor to be done in
any direct or palpable manner. Paraphrases,
crcumlocution, ambideXterity, and ambiguity
were necessary to cover up the design, and it
was piled on until it was uninteligible. The
President read it, and he could make nothing
of it he sent to his Attorney General, who
was equally puzzled He then returned it,
with message to the Senate, refusing to sign
the bill, for amphibology. We should reject
this bill for the same cause, if for nothing
else Hard is the fate of party fealty. 1t has
to keep up with the ever changing measure
Often have these bills changed; and under
every phase they had to be received as test
of orthodoxy, and have more changes to I'M
dergo yet, and to continue to be test under
all mutations.
And now, what is the object of this move
ment, which so disturbs Congress and the
countrys What does it propose to accom-
push 10 bSttle u pI1AlClpA0B 10 tuS dioN cK-
the principle of non-intervention, and the
right of the people of the territory to decide
the question of slavery for themselves. Sir.
there is no such principle. The territories are
the children Of the States. They are minors,
under age, and it is the business of the States,
through their delegations in Congress, to take
care Of them till they are of age-unt1 they
are ripe for State government; then to give
them that government, and admit them to an
equality with their fathers. That is law, and
has been SO admitted since the first ordinance,
in 1884. The States in Congress are the guar
dams Of the territories, and airs bound to exer-
else that guardianship, and cannot abdicate it
without breach Of trust and a dereliction of
duty. Why, sir, the territory itself is the
property Of the States, and they do with it
what they please-permit it to be settled, or
not, as they please it up by lines, as they
please-sell or give it away, as they please
chase white people from it, as they please
This has been always the case. There is a
proclamation now extant, Of the old Congress
Of the Confederation, describing the first set
tiers in the Northwest Territory as 'sdisorderly
PERSONS and ordering them to be driven OFT
by the military. l remember many such
military explosions in the early settlement of
the western country, often executed with Sc
verify; burning houses, cutting up CORN, de-
stroying fences, aud driving OFT people at the
point of the bayonet, and under the edge OF
the sabre.
AS late as 1885, So, and after the extinction
Of the Indian title to the Platte country in
Missouri, similar orders were given to the