Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1854-03-09
[From the National Intelligencer.I
BusINEss IN CoNGREss.

1 ANAAC HNNhS SAe- N--SN ON-
gress assembled, comprehending nearly
one-third Of the usual duration of the
First Session, we may now pause for g
moment to cast glance back upon what
it has done, and forward to what il
promises in future. Less than dozen
acts, of comparatively little significance,
comprise the whole body of Legislation
to the present day. A vast deal Of
business has been registered on the cal
endars of both Houses, and much other
of equal importance with any that has
been reported upon is still before the
committees of both Houses. We do
not know, however, that in this appar-
emily dilatory action any inference should
be drawn against the present Congress;
for in this particular it has not fallen be-
hind its recent predecessors. The dis
position of both Houses, it will be al
lowed BY all calm observers, is quite as
favorable to an intelligent and dispas-
sionate discharge of their duty as of
any Congress of the last fifteen or
twenty years, and until within few
days past there has been no reason to
anticipate any thing like unduly excited
discussions of the questions to be
brought before them.
Having published the proceedings
from day to day, it is needless for us to
particularize or to dwell upon even the
leading measures already before Con-
gress. An exception to this remark
ought perhaps to be made of the bin for
establishing Territorial Governments in
the country designated as the Nebraska
Territory. To the establishment of a
regular Government over a vast terrific
~ which has at present no Government,
except such as is generally applicable to
all the country still in possession of the
Indians, there would be no objection, or
none to speak of, were it not for an i'm
portant principle, not necessarily con-
nected with the question, which has been
incidentally brought into debate in the
Senate. The circumstance to which we
refer is, of course, the feature proposed
by the Committee on Territories of that
body, upon an unlucky after thought, to
repeal tie Missouri Compromise, and to
introduce in lieu of it a provision extend
ing the Constitution and all the Laws of
the United States over the Territories
except as follows:
Except the eighth section of the act
preparatory TO the admission of Mis-
'souri into the Union, approved March
'6, 1920. which was superseded by the
principles of the Legislation of 1880,
commonly called the compromise meas
'ure, and is declared imperative"
The committee here in fact propose
what an honorable Senator from Mis-
souri,, at the last session of Congress,
expressed his belief that there was no
prospect nor any hope of, to-wit, repeal
Of the Missouri Compromise.
We shall not now enter into con-
sideration Of the motives, apart from
the interests Of the Territories in ques-
ton, which are supposed by many of
our contemporaries to have influenced
the introduction of this proposition at
this time in the halls of Congress-
Whatever considerations may have justi-
fed the measure in the minds of its
it is not possible that they could, |
if we were made fully aware of them,
be such as to obviate the decisive objec-
tons that we have to this part of the
bill of the committee.
The fundamental objection to this
which must strike every /
mere suggestion of which,
indeed, is enough to startle the true
friends of the Constitution in every
quarter of the Union--is that itproposes,
without circumlocution, the abrogation !
1f COMPACT hardly less formal than I
hat of the Constitution itself, and which
,an hardly be deemed of less high obi
CATION than that instrument. And this
of solemn covenant be-
.ween the United States and the State of
Missouri-between the South and the
North-is proposed on the ground that
his compact was superseded" and
''inoperative" by the "compro-
nises'' of 1850!
There is no one in the wide circle of
1ur readers who can hold with more
oertinacity than we do to the policy as
veil as to the durability of the Compro-
mise of 1850. But no one, we should
.bink, would seriously pretend that it is
Of higher obligation, in any part of it,
han the compact which is usually known
as the Missouri Compromise.
The bare recurrence TO the circum
stances under which the Missouri Com
promise was ratified will show with how
much greater solemnity the termination
Of that alarming controversy was at
tended. The discussion and the excite
ment of the Missouri question continued
during the terms of two Congresses,
and during of course an equal space of
lime in the new State of Missouri. The
crisis of 1850, on the contrary, broke
out on a sudden upon the opening of
he Congress of 1880, and for a
lime had certainly threatening aspect. |
But, after all, the Nashville Convention,
he product of that excitement, was but
The creature of an hour. Within very
few months, mainly by the exertion Of
a spirit of pure patriotism, animating
lew distinguished individuals on both
sides Of geographical line, and the
rood fortune of the nation in its having