The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-12-13
NO. 467.
LETTER OF FRANCIS P. BLAIR, ESQ,
THE
REPUBLICAN, ASSOCIATION OF WASHINGTON.
REPUBLICAN Rooms,
I'LL ~ N

Pe,olsed. That the thanks of this Association
be presented to Francis p. Blair, ESQ.,, for his
able and highly satisfactory letter, showing that
the present Administration has departed en-
trely from the Jeffersonian principles relative
10 the government of the Territories of the Uni
tel States, and has become but little better
than q working model of John c. Calhoun's
Notification and Disunion doctrines.
ResoIred, That copy of the letter and reso-
lutions be offered the city papers for publica-
tion. and be issued in pamphlet form for gen.
oral circulation, to strengthen the hands of Re-
nublicans, to unite all discordant opinions, and
induce good mem of all parties to use their in
9pence TO bring this Government back to its
original principles Of Freedom, and to stand
mon the issues therein presented, in the next
Presidential election.
LEWIS CLEPHANE, Secretary.
SILVER SPRING, Nd, Dec. !, 1855.
GENTLEMEN Having relinquished political
endowment, and, to avoid encountering again
i, anxieties, addicted myself to country life,
o,n constrained to decline your invitation to
;o;n the Republican Association of Washington
Citv. although tempted by the honor Of be-
coming It's presiding officer. Yet feel it my
dntv 10 saw. that in the main / concur in the
aims of the Association. To exclude Slavery
G~o,o the Territories of the United States, and
70 rebuke the violation of the Compromises
which were made to stand as covenants be-
tween the Slave and Free States to effect that
exclusion, are, in my opinion, the most import
ant movements which have engaged the pablo
mind since the Revolution.
The extension of Slavery over the new Ter
ritories would prove fatal to their prosperity /;
hut the greatest calamity to be apprehended
from it. is the destruction of the Confederacy,
ON which the welfare of the whole country re-
poses Every conquest of this element of dis
cord. which has so often threatened the disso-
lutiOn OF the Union, increases the danger.
Every surrender of the Free States invites in
yason.
The cause which your organization is in
tended to promote may well draw to its sup
port men Of all parties. Differences on ques-
tons OF policy, of constitutional construction,
ofmodes of administration, may well be merged,
10 unite men who believe that nothing but con-
cert of action on the part of those who would
arrest the spread of Slavery, can resist the
power of the combination now embodied to
make it embrace the Continent from ocean to
ocean.
The repeating clause Of the Kansas Bill is
pradicated on the nullity of the clause in the
Constitution which gives Congress the power
"to make regulations respecting the Terrific
ries of the United States. Yet nothing is
clearer in the history of our Government, than
that this phrase, giving power to Congress "to
make regulations respecting the Territories,
was meant to give it the power to exclude Sla-
very from them.
Nr. Jelferson's resolutions of 1874, declaring
!. .LuN 10
untliy ssrgitude IN any of the States" laid off
in the Western Territory, was subsequently re-
newed ia the Congress of 1885, which added,
that this regulation shall be an article OF
compact:" and it was so voted unanimously by
the delegations of eight States out of twelve.
1t was passed by the unanimous votes of all
the States by the Congress Of 1887, which sat
cJnieinpOraneously with the Convention form
ny the Constitution, and that Constitution gave
Congress the power "tO make regulations re-
sDectiaq tie Territories" and moreover affirmed
the validity of 81 the engagements entered into
before the adoption Of The Constitution" by the
Coniederation-one of which engagements was
that made by the regulation excluding Slavery
from the Territories. Thus the Congress of
the Confederation and the Convention framing
the Constitution united in giving a double sane
ton 10 the exclusion.
The first exerted the power of enacting Mr.
.eifersous interdct of Slavery in the Terrific
ries hea heid by the United States, to which il
had previously given an impressive sanction by
adding /" this regulation shall be an article Of
compact NC. and the Convention guaranteed
this engagement" entered into under the Con
federation, bv declaring it "valid," and EN-.
ployed the same terms, "reguldtiOa Of the Ter
r'ts'tes, to transmit the power here exerted
to future Congresses. In the face of this his.
tory. and the letter OF the Constitution granting
the power to make whatever regulations il
deemed iit respecting the Territories Of the
mted States, the authors of the Kansas and
Nebraska Bill deny the constitutionality of all
the regulations which exclude Slavery from the
Territories, and set at naught all the precedents
that confirm them, which have followed in
uninterrupted succession, from the foundation
OF the Government.
That other clause in the Constitution, en-
covering congress to pass laws to prevent the
migration or importation" of slaves after
o' shows the fixed purpose of the founders
0i our Union to limit the increase of this evil
The consequence was an inhibition, which pre-
Vents 4 South Carolina planter, who has slaves
IA Cuba, from bringing them to his home plant
alton and to remove this obstruction to the in
crelse of Slavery within the Union, and oper
Africa to supply the de-nand made by the new
act the Northern = ifers are already call
ed on by their South, ! allies to lend their aid
ami certainly those VINO embrace Mr.. Calhoun's
doctrine, as stated by Mr.. Douglas, that "every
ctlen has an inalienable right to move into
any OF the Territories with his property, Of
whatever kind or description" the Constitution
ana Compromises Notwithstanding, can hardly
refuse II. 1t was on the annexation of the
NeXlcan Territories that Mr.. Calhoun asserted
ulls prnclple, to unsettle the fixed policy of the
Nauon, beginning with the era of the Declare
u'n OF Independence; and he applied it alike
uo tue Compromises of 1920 and 1850. Mr.
douglas thus sums up the position taken, and
the result:
nder this section, as an the case of the Mer
"dh toic R NeU WericO and Utah, it is a dis
iuted point whether Slavery is prohibited in the
nebraska country by valid enactment. The
leclslon OF this question involves the constitu
uohal power of Congress to pass laws prescri
blng and regulating the domestic institutions o
me various Territories of the Union. In the
upim0n Q! those eminent statesmen who hole
mat Congress is invested with no rightful au
lhority to legislate upon the subject of Slavery
IN the Territories, the eighth section of the ac
preparatory to the admission of Missouri is null
and void, while the prevailing sentiment in {
large portion of the Union sustains the doctrine
mat the Constitution of the United States Sc
cures to every citizen az inalierd6te right tt
move into any of the Territories with his prop
cry, OF whatever kind and description, and t.
NOD and enjoy the same under the sanction o
Jaw Your committee do not feel themselve'
called upon to enter into the discussion of these
eOn'roverted questions. They involve the same
grave issues which produced the agitation, thu
sectional strife, and the fearful struggle of 1882
g from rom this it appears that the Compromises
ioZO and 1850 involved the question of thu