Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1854-02-22

We publish below smother communication from
our correspondent "Pro Bono PubIico." In this,
in bis former article, he assumes that the bill
Mr.. Douglas authorizes the people Of Nebraska 70 !
hold slaves This is the position assumed by
nearly all Of those who oppose the bill, whether
from an ignorance of its provisions or not is not
for us to say. But we do say that the bill author
ICES no such thing. 1t is based upon the doctrine
of the right of the people to selEgovernmeut, and
claiming that sovereignty is with the people, it ac
knowledges the right of the people, whether OF
the States, or of Nebraska and Kansas, to fashion
and control their own institutions; to make the
laws by which themselves are to begoverned.-i
That they are capable of SO doing upon all other
subjects than this one, the most strenuous and
rabd opposers of this bill do not doubt or deny
Then why should an exception be made in this
respect! Have the people ever failed to exhibit a
capacity for controlling their own affairs so as to
answer their own necessities and interests! Have
they ever given any grounds to dstrust their abil-
ity for self-governmeatl When they do so twill
be time enough for the States and the National
Government to take out certificate of guardian
snip OVeT LneHi' hc PeOpiO VI lhS 4SiitoitOo "AO
supposed to know as we'll their wants and neces.
stiles as Congress or the people of the States are
for them. We claim that right as citizen Of
| Ohio, and what we claim for ourselves, that are
we willing to accord to others, and not because
the hardy sons of toll may choose to leave the
hearth-stone and cultivated fields of their child
hood to plant the standard of civilization in the
wilds of the far West, to deny them the rights for
which the fathers of the Revolution fought and
bled-the right of government-the right to
provide for their own necessities without dictation
from the parent government. -H.a -
Again. "Pro Bono Pubco" assumes that the
doctrine laid down by Gen. Cass in his celebrated
Nicholson letter, was intended to be applied only
to the territories to be acquired from Mexico as the
result of the War, and that the compromises OF
1850 had reference only to the territories therein
embraced. Can it be possible that "Pro Bono
Publico' has so soon forgotten that Gen. Cass in
that letter denied the right of Congress to legs-
late upon the subject in the territories at all and
claimed that such legislation was unconstitution-
al and void, and that it was question belonging
to the exclusive control of the people of the terri
tories themselves Does he not know that both
the Democratic and Wing National Conventions
f of 1862 affirmed the Compromise measures o.
1850, not as having exclusive reference to the
subjects therein embraced, but as a settlement in
principle. Now, what did they mean when they
declared that part of the Compromise which cre
ated territorial governments for New Mexico aud
Utah, acknowledging the right and power of the
people to control this subject, to be settlement
in principle of this vexed question, if not that for
mer restrictive enactments should be abandoned
and that in future territorial organizations, this SCI
tied principle should be applied! Certainly the
language employed bears this plain, palpable con-
struction, and none other
But great stress is placed upon "antecedents,'
as though they were the polar star by which oul
bark is to be steered amid the storm of fanat
cism which RACES around us. Is our correspond
ent willing to submit the government to be con
trolled by precedents all the way through! W.
opine there are some in the early history Of the
government that will scarcely suit his democratic
palate that received the sanction Of th'
very founders of the Republic, who had poted thu
country through the stormy days of the Reyolu
ton, and peried life, liberty and fortune to main
tain the right of the people to form and maintain
their own institutions and regulate their own mu
nicipal affairs, that would hardly meet his appro
baton. We regard it as an evil day when Con
gress first set the example of interfering with th
rights of the people of the Territories to contro
! +lo NJ thao
d to the wind" and the country is now "reaping th
whrlwnd'' of fanatical excitement which can b.
y productive of no advantage to the country or th
b cause Of liberty, justice right.
!; For the Portage Sentinel.
u Nebraska Bill.