The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-06-22
For the National Era.
The NEBRASKA BILL-Ro. 4.

Z,
gravate your punishment.
Douglas May it please your honor, thereis
no occasion for the excitement and agitation
which have boon got up about this affair. If
this is q sovereign State, you have an unques-
tionabls right to legislate the water out forth
with. lf it is Territory you have only to
wait till you become State, and then you may
ladle it out, let it stay in, just the people
please, agreeably to the great fundamental
principles OF democracy and self-governmentD
see no ground for this charge" against me
and other honorable gentlemen. We have not
troubled the watcrs-it is those who are pad
ding in them.
Judge. Let the prisoner be committed, to
take his trial at MichG,imas.
And now, who shall say that the little
giant has not good right to roar, with his
stentorian lungs throughout all the land
hbelsD fasehood,7 Fraud calumny"
objectionable SANDER" against ali who ven
ture, with ever 80 much modesty, to express the
opinion that has bill proposes 10 let S!dUeTy INTO
NtJraSkd
And, If it does propose this, then, by his own
showing, it proposes to violate, not only the
Compromise, bat also the Constitution and his
oath, for he expressly admits that 10 establish
Slavery anuiehere would be n breach Of both
Where, then, is the brand of infaHly?" IL
it ON the brow OF his friend Burke, or IL it,
ssipsO Judios, Judge Douglas being the judge,
burned iDdelibIy upon his own z
TIE SOUTHERN PRETENSION.
Mr.. Douglas has expressed no opinion upon
the pretensiOn, set up within few years by
the shareholders, that they have a natural
and inalienable right " to carry their slaves as
property into the Territories; and that no law,
10y wbOmsOever prescribed, can or shall deprive
them of it. IL | mistake not there were South
ern Senators and Representatives who openly
declared, in 1850, that they would 90 home
and advise their constituents to themselves,
and march with their property into the Terri
tories. They did nat say whether they would
advise their constituents to arm the Prcperty'
that would have been mere interesting Upon
this threat, mainly, am immense business at
Union saving has been transacted by Upperten,
Dampscbif, Doushface, Hunker, Corruption,
& TO.
This Tretension has become 80 important an
element in the Territorial question, that it is
70 DO presumed that q Senator who undertakes
20 diacGss that question, and yet expresses no
opinion upon q view Of it which has been vio-
lenty adopted, (jt never could be adopted in
any other manner 10y nearly tho entire South,
must be presumed 70 assent to it it would be
30 very knavish for him to conceal his dissent.
More than this both he and Mr. Cass recog-
Mise 1t as a fact, and urge it ~ an inducement
for the free States 10 yield. Practically, there
fore, they advocate the imPudent dogma, and
assist to enforce it.
Waving tho vantage ground that ! might
take with the utmost prOpriety, and on over
whelming authority from the regularity of the
property, "a popularity which has made the
People Of enc United 5tator. aud thfs under
Southern lead ordain that traffic therein shall
be deemed piracy and punished with death |
will, for the sake Of argument put it on par
with other property, and demand of these chiv-
alrous dOgmatsts whether they are prepared
to contend that there ID no species Of property
which the People in the exercise through Con-
gress OF their sovereignty over the Territories,
may not prohibit the owners from carrying
there That is the question. And now, gen
tlemen, "iacc the music
What say you to the laws passed from time
immemorial, by the United States and by sep
arate States, prohibiting the carrying Of ardent
spirits into their Territories for sale to the In
dams IT the People Of the United States may
prohibit the sale Of liquor to the Indians with
~ their Territories, they may 90 further, and
prohibit tho sale Of it to any other man
exclude it altogether. And is not liquor prop
crtyi
Some OF the Southern States have prohibited
the introduction of 1CO0deR ClolkS-pcrhaps be-
cause they are Yankee notions-slthough the
Constitution says that Congress shall regulate
commerce between the States" and this grant
has been construed by the Supreme Court to
be erciHsine Still, THE power, thus vested in
Congress, has been exercised by Virginia and
several other slave States Are not wooden
clocks property! Tell US, learned Thebans
All the Southern States have always claim
ed, and at one time or another have exercised.
the right of prohibiting the introduction oil
slaves for safe into their respective limits. Vr-
ginia did so soon after the Declaration of In
dependence. and. with three or four exceptions
hsy all do II noaO. | suppose they will not
turn upon me as the argument pinches, and
say that slaves are not property.
If States may do this for themselves, not
withstanding that they have no power to regu-
late commerce between the States then a for
fiOrI, the People of the United States, in Con-
gress, may do II for their own Territories How
much would MIR. Dixon think his friend Doug
lass boon Is worth, with this restriction ?
If Congress have this power in respect to slaves
introduced for sale they have it in respect TO
those introduced for any other purpose; or il
they have not, show us the limit. Gentlemen
Of the South, the burden is on you.
Ii will not | presume, after what has been
said, be pretended that what a State NAV dc
in the exercise Of its limited sovereignty, within
ihn TIC e1flC Di the O0lI6u Ntstbee
may not do, IN the exercise Of their unlimited
sovereignty, within their territories At al
events expect that this will not be said until
new and better reasons are given for it. In
fact, We have seen that the United States have
leglslated Th'ie frcemeh out Of territories oc-
cupled by Indians Mr. Calhoun could not
have gone there without a Government license
or passport And surely the United States
have no more power over Indian territory than
they have over that Which is exclusively their
own.
Some of the early Territorial Governments
passed laws for the sale of insolvent debtors
until their labor discharged their debts This
was done ia Indiana, under Governor Hsrri-
F0n. IL was done IN Michigan, under Governor
Cas- By this act and a sherif7s certificate
service or labor became due from the ven.
dued debtor to the purchaser, by better title
than that by which Southern gentlemen hold
thor slaves But, will they say, will Mr.
Douglas, Mr.. Clayton, or even Mr.. Casa say
that the People OF the United States have no
power TO interdict this class Of slaveholders
from carrying their human property into Ne
hraska Il may DO that white persons are
still held under those laws. Ii there are none
in Michigan, there are in New Mexico
Some of the greatest ststesmeH and orator:
of this and of other countries have been deep
". hopelessIy, insoivent Demoethenes wa:
fined fifty talents, for taking bribo; and il
default Of payment, was forced to fly from
Athens The republic subsequently RENTED
the fine, but did not reverse the Judgment
Pitt and Fox were both insolvent, and were
offered, respectively, by the merchants of Lon
don. the means of acquitting themselves o
their pecuniary liabilities. Both declined the
offer, deeming such an obligation to psrticu
srko ~, fba nv in