Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1854-10-23
Hon. Thomas III. Benfon's Views
OF NOn-InteTventiOn and So uat-
ter SOVEREIGNTY

constitutes lea0ing, if not the only plank
IN the great Democratic platform, erected
by Pierce and Douglas and dedicated to
the Democratic party:
And what is all this hotch-potch for p
1t is to establish a principle, they say-the
principle of non-intervention-of sauatter
sovereignty. Sir, there is no such princi-
pie. The Territories are the children of
the States. They are minors under TWEEN
ty-one years of age; and it is the business
OF the States, through their delegations in
Congress, to take care of these minors UNI
til they are of age-until they are ripe for
State recommendation give them that
government, and admit them to an equal
ty with their fathers. That is the law.
and the sense Of the case; and has been
so acknowledged since the first ordinance
IN 1884, by all authorities, Federal and
State, Legislative, judicial, and executive.
The States in Congress are the guardians
to the Territories, and are bound to exer-
else the guardianship; and cannot abdicate
1t without breach of trust and derelic-
ton OF duty. Territorial sovereignty is a
monstrosity, born of timidity and ambition,
matched into existence in the hot incuba-
ton OF presidential canvass, and revolt
ing to the beholders when first presented.
Well do | remember that day when it was
first shown in the Senate. Mark ANTONY
did not better remember the day when
Caesar first put on that mantle through
which he was afterwards pierced with
Internationally "envious stabs." It was
IN the Senate in 1913, and was received
as nonsense-as the essence of nonsense
as the quintescence of nonsense-as the
hVe-tlmes distilled essence Of political nom
senslcallty. Why, sir, the Territory 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 a.
way, as they please; chase white people
from it, as they please. After this farra-
go-this ola-podrida-comes a little
stump speech, injected in the belly of the
bill, and which must have a prodigious eff
feet when recited in the prairies, and out
towards the frontiers, and up towards the
heads Of the creeks. [ will read it, and [
hope without fatiguing the House; for it
is both brief and beautiful, and runs thus:
ut 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-
tectly free to form and regulate their do
nestle institutions in their own way, subject
only to the Constitution of the United
States"
This is the speech, and pretty little
thing itself, and very proper to be spoken
from stump in the prairie. It has intent,
and true intent; which is neither to le-
gislate slavery into, or out of any State or
Territory. Then why legislate at all 3
Why all this disturbance if no effect is pro-
duced, and things to remain just as they
were? Let well enough alone, was the
old doctrine; to make well enough still
better, is the doctrie of progress; and that
in spite of the Italian epitaph, which says
81 was well, and would be better; took
physic, and here l am" But the States
must be greatly delighted at the politeness
and forbearance of this BILL It puts States
and Territories upon precisely equality
with respect to the power of Congress over
them. Congress does not mean to put
slavery in or out of any State or Territory
To all that polite abnegation, I have to say
that in respect Of the States, it is the SUI
pererogation of modesty and humility, as
Congress happens to have no power to put
slavery IN them, or out of them; and in
respect of the Territories, it is an abdica-
ton of constitutional power and duty; ii
being the right Of Congress to legislate
upon slavery in the Territories, and its du-
ty to do so when there is occasion for it-as
in 1887 and 1920.
object to this shilly-shally, willy-won'-
ty, don'ty-cant'y, style of legislation. 1t
is not legislative. 1t is not parliamentary
1t is not manly. 1t is not womanly. No
shiily-shally in woman. Nothing of the
female genderwas ever born young enough,
Or lived long enough, to get befogged in
such 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 o.
the United States"
| Certainly this is new subsection fol
the States. Heretofore they have beer
free to regulate slavery for themselves
admit it, or reject it; and that not by vir.
tue Of any grant of power in the Constitu-
ton, but by virtue of an unstlrrendered
part Of their old sovereignty. 1t is also
new Of the 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 acciden-
tally here; it is to keep up the dogma o.
the Constitution in Territories; but only
there in relation to slavery, and that for its
admission-not rejection.
Three dogmas now affiict the land: "a
/ detlcet Suuatter soyerel0nty nOn-interyen-