Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1854-10-04

4
| equilibrium of the system. - 80
| The State Government sometimes encroach-
| es upon the province of the General Govern
ment as when the United States Marshal is
| bl ought before the State courts for an alleged
breach of official duty, or oppressive exercise
of power. The United States courts will pro-
tect and have protected their officers. So,
also, when any of the States have passed a
Bankrupt Law, whilst natioual Bankrupt Law
was in force. This being prohibited by the
| Constitution of the United States, in order to
prevent the conflict of jurisdiction ON ques-
tions arising under the laws. it is necessary,
| for the peace of the community and the admir-
alton ofjustice, that the act OF Congress should.
| be enforced, and the State law declared to be
unconstitutional. This has been done in sew
| eral instances-not only, in relation to Bank
| rupt laws, but to other laws on our Statute
Books. Consistently, therefore, with the an
| alogy adyerted to, and TO preserve the harmo-
ny of the system, the national government
should repel any such encroachments upon its
province, as the State legislature would repel
and clear encroachment upon lis erclusipe
powers.
There is one feature in system of gov
ernment which has caused a good deal of
trouble and which has, time and again, illustra-
ted the remark about attraction and repulsion:
it is, that of Slavery, and the Fugitive Slave
Law. Some of the States are disposed to carry
that law into effect, whilst other States are
differently disposed. Here is practical attrac-
ton and repulsion. The existence Of slavery
amongst us is undoubtedly an exception to the
general ruIe-that is, liberty; and when the
different States of the Old Thirteen began to
lberate their slaves, and thus become free
States, the rest of the States, known as slave
States, became alarmed, lest the balance of
power would be lost to them, and Virginia
would cease to be the sold Dominion as
| she was called, from the fact Of her furnishing
so many Presidents. The multiplication of
free Staaes has, therefore, always been asource
of political irritation and disturbance in the
South, because, in the Senate of the United
States, every State, whether large or small,
is equal in power and in the number of its
representatives, each State having two Sena-
tors. s.
When in 1920, the Territory Of Missouri
admission into the family of States, as one OF
their number, the great and agitating ques-
| ton arose as to the terms of her admission:
whether she should be admitted as free State
or slave State We all know how that ques-
tion was settled, and that ii was called the
Missouri Compromise, allowing slavery within
what was the Northwestern territory, up to
the line of 36 deg, 80 min. North latitude, and
prohibiting it North of that line. This com
promise was the result of wise and patriotic
counsels; the peace and integrity of the Union
were preserved by it and it continued unbro
ken for period of thirty three years Re
Gently, however, that compromise has been
broken, by an act Of Congress, passed at the
session, familiary known as the Nebraska and
Kansas Bill, which allows slavery to be intro
duced within either of those territories, if the
citizens thereof shall decide in favor of it by
their votes. It must be observed, by the way,
that almost all of the two territories lies North
OF sc deg. 80. min. and but for this late act of
Congress, slavery would have been forever
shut out from their limits.
The advocates of that law concealed their
designs under the cover of popular sovereign
ty, and the doctrine that all governments
should be founded on the will of the majority
alleging at the same time, their belief that it
was impossible for slavery ever TO get there,
whilst they were getting ready to remove tith-
er with their slaves and occupy the territories!
They forgot the favorite saying fthe lamen-
| ted Calhoun, ssmasterly inactivity and the
consequence is; that emigration societies have
been formed for the purpose of settling both
territories with a free population, from home
and abroad; they are fast filling up with this
kind of a population, to the great annoyance
of Douglass and others, shareholders, whose
designs are thus likely to be frustrated.
On this question millions of dollars of the
national treasury have been wasted, and
very great excitement produced and kept
up for months in Congress. The course taken
by the members of Congress from the North,
who voted for the bill, has been generally re-
| pudiated by their constituents, whilst that of
those who voted against it has been approved.
Such is part of the practical working of our
| system. The ambition and avarice of the
| great demagogue and his friends has disturbed
| the harmony of the community from that time
to this; and the passage of that bill has so
ezasperated the people of the extreme n orth
and West, that they will most probably keep
| up the agitation in Congress for years, and
| strive hard TO get the fugitive slave law re-
| pealed, which was one of the compromies of
1S50-another exciting period in our history,
when California was admitted as free State.
IT is lamentable that in this country, with a
| Constitution designed to establish more per-