Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1854-05-12

>~~~~~~~~~.~S~ ~S~~~~~>~se~~S~s~~N~
, minors until they are Of age-until they
are ripe for State government, and admit
them to an equality with their fathers
!. Tha: is the law, and the sense of the case
and has been SO acknowledged since the
first ordinance in 1854, by all authorities
Federal and State, legislative, judicial, anc
executive. The States in Congress are th'
guardians Of the Territories, and are bound
to exercise the guardianship; and can not
abdicate it without breach Of trust and
a dereliction of duty. Territorial sover
eighty is monstrosity, born Of timidity
and ambition, Matched into existence in
the hot incubation Of presidential can
vass, and revolving to the beholders when
first presented Well do remember tina;
day when it was first shown in the Senate.
Mark Antony did not better remember tina.
day when Cesar first Put on that mantle
through which he was afterwards pierced
with three-and-twenty "envious stabs. "
1t was in the Senate in 1S48, and was re,
ceived as nOnsense-as the essence Of non
sense-as the quintessence Of nonsense
as the fve-times distilled essence of polit.
ical nonsensicality. Why, sir, the Terri
tory itself is the property Of the States,
and they do what they please with it
permit it to be settled or not, as they
please cut it up by lines, as they please
sell it, or give it away, as they please ;
chase white people from it, as they please.
After this farrago-tbis oNd-podrida-
comes 4 little stump speech, injected in
the belly of the bill, and which mus. have
proiigious effect when recitcd in the prai-
ries, and out towards the frontiers, and up
towards the heads of the creeks. l will
read it, and l hope without fatiguing the
House for it is both brief and beautiful,
and ruEs thus:
alt being the true intent and meaning
Of this act not to legislate slavery into any
State or Territory, nor to exclude it there
from; but to leave the people thereof per-
frctly free to form and regulate their DO
nestle institutions in their own way, sub
ject only to the Constitution Of the United
States"
This is the speech, ard pretty little
thing itself, and very proper to be spoken
from stump in the prairie. 1t has in-
tent, and true intent which is neither
to legislate slavery into, or cut Of any
State or Territory. Then why legis.aic at
all? Why all this disturbance if no etfec.
is produced, and things to remain jus. as
they were? Let we'll 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: Il was well, and would lie
better; took physic, and here l am"
But the States must be greatly delighted
at the politeness and forbearancc Of this
bill. 1t puts States and Territories upon
precise equality with respect to the power
of Congress over them. Congress does not
mean to put slavary in or out Of any State
or Territory. To all that polite abncgation,
| have to say that, in respect Of the States,
it is the supererogation of modesty and hu-
mility, as Congress happens 10 have no
power to put slavery in them, or GU. Of
them; and in respec, of the Territories, it
is an abdication Of constitutional power
and duty it being the right of Congress
to lcgislate upon slavery in the Territories,
and its duty to 10 so when there is occasion
for it-as in 1877 and 1920
Iobject to this shilly y-shally, ,willy-won'ty,
don'ty-cauty, style of legislation. 1t is
not legislative. 1t is not parliamentary.
1t is not manly. 1t is not woman'y. No
woman would talk that way. No shilly-
shally in woman. Nothing of the female
gender ives. ever born young enough, or
lived long enough, to get befoeged 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 subjcction for
the States. Heretofore they have been
free to regulate slavery for themselves
admit it, or reject it; and that not by yir-
tue Of any grant Of power in the Consti-
tuition, but by virtue Of an ursurrendcred
part of their old sovereignty. 1t is also
new Of tho Territories. Heretofore they
have been held to be wards of Congress,
and entitled to nothing under the Consti-
tuition but that which Congress extended
to them. But this clause is not accidcn-
tally here: it is to keep up the dcgmas Of
the Constitution in Territories but only
there in relation to slavery, and that for