The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1854-08-04
sacred trust.

civil and religious liberty. Nor did our anc4s-
tors misiudge its value in developing the re-
sources physical, moral and intellectual of man..
J Look to its civil results. Under republican
government we have grown, and prosppred,
and expanded far beyond the most sanguine i'm
aginatlon OF the most hopeful devotee of liberty.
Our shores are washed by the two great oceans
east and west. Nearly one half of the North
American continent bears upon its generous bo-
som teemlng millions of American citizens,
who make their own laws and worship at their
chosen Shrines. From 100000 we have
sweled to % 100000. From poverty and ig-
norance and weakness we have grown rich, in
teligent. and strong. Our sails whiten every
sea, and our enterprise and energy penetrate
into every land. No longer does the British
lion strike terror into the hearts of our women
and our children. We are now here equal in
all the elements Of natural greatness and here
superior in every characteristic of personal IL
berty and political independence. Great Bri-
tain undertook to manage our local affairs by
assuming the right TO legisate for us, while we
were colonies.
The Parliament assumed that they were bet
ter Judges of our wants and necessities than our
colonial legislatures. They undertook to regu-
late the domestic policy OF their distant depen-
denotes. They imposed duties upon tea, with
out consulting us, and in every manner asserted
their rights TO goUera as. Our fathers, who
had encountered the perils ofthe ocean, and the
greater pprils of savage wilderness, who bad
fled from Europe to escape political and religious
intolerance, could not long brook such an unjust
assumption. They petitoned, lmportuned, re-
monsrated the British government without avail
tta{-t herr rIphfS in thpir Epa
and after long and doubtful struggle, establish
ed a new fundamental article in the science of
Government-the great American doctrine of
the right of the people to govern themselves
lGreat cheering. No tenet in political science
has more thoroughly vindicated its wisdom,
than this, and when brought into issue its orho-
doxy has not been questioned for seventy-eght
years until few months past
1t is said by some, who have forgotten or re-
nonnced the teachings and principles of their
fathers, now, that the people Of Kansas aud Ne
braska are incapable of governing themselves,
and that the Congress must assume the same
guardianship over these distant territories as the
!. Parliament claimeA over the coloGifssss Where
is the American feeling in the bosom OF any
man, who from fanatcal zeai for the African
slave, whose condition he cannot improve, is
willing to renounce this great doctrine of our
fathers? [Cheers.l Abolitionisin and fanaticsm
mistake the heart OF this country in supposing
that when they cry oct against slavery, that it
will cause the people TO repudate the principles
upon which the Government is based. Cheers |
The country owes my distinguished friend who
will follow me, the ''little giant Of the great
west" Senator Douglass immense applause, a
debt OF gratitude for his powerful and successful
advocacy ofthis principle have been discus
sing, and for its triumphant vindication in the
Kansas Nebraska bill.
With all the misrepresentation which has
been poured out upon that measure, the people
are now beginning to understand truly It's pro-
Visions and lis greatest prncple-the so
frrcely assaied by Wings and Abolitionists--
is the very principle for which our fathers
fought the Revolution. VIII you now take the
side of the British Parliament?
The people of Kansas and Nebraska have had
Conferred uponsthem, by Congress- the right to
regulate their own domestic concerns according
to their own wishes and inclinatons. Is it right!
Who will say it is wrong? Who knows best
what are tire wants of our fellow-citzenS in the
valley ofthe Kansas, or the upper Missouri, the
representatives they elect to their own terrtori-
al legislature or the Congress of the United
States, where not a single member, perhaps, has
made footprint in Kansas or Nebraska, and
which would most likely legislate wisely iol
them, the territorial Legislature or Congress =
The statement the question carries the answer
with it. II a Pennsylvania now has the right
to make his own laws here, what is there il
the atmosphere of Kansas, when he remove!
there, rendering him less competent 10 do the
same thing there9 This right conferred BY
Congress on the territories is subject to but one
limitation which all concede is Just, and that is
that their Legislation shall not contravene tht
Constitution of the United States limitation
that exists as TO the States, and should in the ter
ritorieS.
As this Isl Democratic celebration, it will no
be improper that ! should say that felt a higl
pride in seeing nearly all Of your Democratic
representatives in Congress sustaining the bill
and maintaining that great principle first asserte,
on this ballowed spot seventy eight years agc
by Benjamin Franklin, the philosopher and pa
triot of Pennsylvania, and his compeerS. 1t wa
becoming in the representatives of the Demo
f cracy OF Pennsy lvanIa to vindicate the prlncI
, plies which you have so long profeSsed, by com
! ing boldly forward and sustaining the bill witt
/, enlightened wisdom and manly independence
(Cheers.)
= But the revolution not only secured civil lib
, erty by depoSing the authority Of the King an
making the people political soyereigns, but
established another great American princpl
f which has exercised potent influence on tn
moral nature OF our race, it established religion
t Hberty--it separated Church and State--it de
: med the right of the former any political pow
!. er as an organization. 1t said TO the Purltans
the Cavaliers and the Hugenots who had he
. religious intolerance and prescription, here yo