The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-02-09
y Indentured servants must be included here

prohibition What Missouri Is now, Illinois
would have become, had it not been for that
noble Ordinance of 1887
In the light Of these facts, the question re-
specting the repeal Of the prohibition against
Slavery in Nebraska assumes great practical
Importance. For thirty three years that pro-
hibtion has been not only upon the Statute
Book, but in force. Lying right on the border
of Missouri, with its eighty-seven thousand
slaves it would ere this have been settled to
some extent by shareholders, had it not been
for the Proviso of the Missouri Compromise
which the people of the State of Missouri
especially regarded as solemnly binding. A
large portion of the Territory lies west of that
State in the same latitude, and is susceptible
of the same kind of culture. Hemp and To-
bacco may be gfown there as in Missouri. And
now, when it is proposed to abrogate the Com
promise, to repeal in express terms the prohi-
bition against Slavery, we are to be told that
it may be safely left to the emigrants who
shall go to the new Territory-Slavery will
never find place there The facts aud figures
We have presented give the lie to the assertion.
Repeal the Missouri Compromise, and Sla-
very will find its way into Nebraska, just as
readily as it did into Missouri, and grow just
as rapidly. A hundred Shareholders, once set
tied in the Territory, concentrating as they
would capital and intelligence, and acting as
unit, would control the Territory and deter
mine its institutions. The policy which gave
birth to the free States Of Michigan, Ohio, In
diana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, cannot be un-
wise or anti Democratic those States are grand
monuments of the power and benefcence of
positive enactment by Congress against Terri
torial Slavery. What was necessary to create
thoge five free States, what so completely rro-
tected free labor and free inhabitants in them.
is necessary to secure to Freedom the numer-
GUS States yet to be formed in Nebraska
Abandon this policy-and this ia done if the
Missouri Compromise be repealed as proposed
by the Bill of Mr.. Douglas-adopt towards
them the policy of Non-Intervention, as it s
called, the same policy pursued in relation to
Missouri, and what can you expect! Nom In
tervention, as it is styled, has always given us
Slavery-why should it give us Freedom in
Nebraska? Can the came fountain send forth
sweet water and bitter
The advocates Of repeal pretend to be very
Democratic. They know the value attached
by the American People to the principle of
self goUernment. What, they exclaim, are you
not willing to trust the People to govern them
selves! Undoubtedly who are the PEG
ple?" The People of Ohio, of Pennsylvania,
of Kentucky, we know. They constitute Or
ganized communities, selfgoverning, independ-
ent, sovereign, except as to powers which
they have delegated to the Union. But are
struggling pioneers who chance to settle in
wilderness, without government, without laws,
without organization, "a People" in the con-
temptation of the Constitution of the United
States? The disclaimers about selfgoyern-
ment do not themselves recognise the principle
in its application to any Territory of the United
States. Do they admit that one or two hun
ganize a Government for the new Territory
called by that name, and to determine for all
future time its institutions
What is this Bill of MIR. Douglas but denial
of the absolute right of the People of Terri
tory to govern themselves? Does it not pro-
pose to give them form of Govcrmeut-to
ordain, without consulting them that it shall
be divided into three ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS for
the appointment of Judicial and Executive Off
GERS of the Territory, by the President without
any reference to their wiil-apply to them all
the laws Of the United States applicable to
their condition, although they may have had
no part in framing them, and secure to Congress
the power to overrule their domestic legisla-
ton! Would they not prohibit as they have
done in some cases, in establishing Territorial
Governments, the Territorial Legislature from
issuing charters to banks of circulation
Would they allow the inhabitants ola Territory
the right to institute any other than republican
institutions
This clamor about selfgovernment in Terri
tories is designed to mislead the People from
the true Issue involved in this controversy. MIR.
Douglas does not believe that the People of
a Territory have the absolute right to govern
themselves: nor do we. He holds that Con-
gross has the right to give them form Of Gov
eminent to impose certain restrictions upon
them; to apply to them such laws Of the Uni
ted States as may be applicable to their ccnd-
ton: SO do we. He holds that the People of a
Territory, through Legislature, the constitu-
ton of which Congress has prescribed, may
legislate, within these restrictions and these
laws upon their internal affairs: 80 do We.
The only question is, not whether they have
this limited right of self government but wheth-
er among the restrictions imposed by Congress,
that, prohibiting them from establishing Slave
ry,is legitimate one. We say that it is and
then he cries out, 49, you deny the principle
of self government-we are willing to trust the
People" Why not then, trus. the People with
the establishment of their own form Of Govern
ment, and the election Of their Governor,
Judges and other officers! Why impose upon
their Legislative power any restriction
We said the other day, that this doctrine of
Non-lntervention, as it is called, has two very
different meanings At the North, the disciples
of Gen. Cass claim that it implies the right of
the People of a Territory to legislate for the
exclusion or recognition of Slavery; at the
South, their political associates insist that it
implies the absence of power in Congress or in
the Territorial Legislature to legislate against
the introduction of Slsvcry into Territory.
And yet this two-faced, contradictory doc
trine is to be held up as the creed of the De-
mocraey, the sound, constitutional principle,
for the settlement Of the Slavery Question !