Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-11-01
We Shall Beat Them.

OF course we shall Beat what? Why
the opposition Who will beat them p
The Democratic party, Of course On what
issue The issue of popular sovereignty
It is the same issue that has ever existed be
tween the Democratic and the anti-demo-
cratic parties in this country. Ii was the
doctrine of Hamilton aud the elder Adams
that the people were not capable of self-gov-
eminent, and therefore should not be trusted
with power. Jefferson held differently; and
here political parties sprung up, dividing on
the principle Of popular sovereignty; and on
this principle they have remained divided.
Issues have changed from time to time only
in name. The principles that have charac-
terized the parties are as marked now as
ever.
When the elder Adams and his friends
passed the Alien and Sedition laws which
took from the people the rights of free speech,
and gave to Congress the power to punish
"Seditious offenders" or those who spoke i'll
of the government, the measure was opposed
by Jefferson and the Democratic party, un-
der the plea of popular sovereignty. SO,
when the Federals extended the term of res
dence for the naturalization of foreigners to
fifteen years, distrusting their ability for self
government, said laws were opposed and f.
nally repealed by the democratic party in ac-
cordance with the views of popular sove-
reignty.
All our accessions Of Territory, either
from France, Spain or Mexico, have been
steadily opposed 10y the opposition on the
grounds that our country was too hrge-
would fall to pieces by its own weight" or
in other words the people inhabitng these
territories were not capable of self govern
ment.
1t was at one time contended by the oppo-
sition that Congress alone through a United
States Bank could regulate the exchanges of
the country, the people could not; and Con-
gress was invoked by the wing party in 40
and did pass Bankrupt law by which COM
merclal balances and mercantile accounts
were settled without the aid of money.
In all these trials, the cause of the people
in the hands of the democratic party, has
signally triumphed, and sooner or later it al
ways will.
The issue now dividing political parties in
this country-is the same that it ever has been,
and the parties are the same There is the
democratic party on the one side contending
for the principle of popular sovereignty, as
in the days of JEFFERSON, and there is the
party of Fusion, alias Federalism, contend
ing as usual for Congressional rule. In or
ganizing the Territories of Nebraska and
Kansas, the Democratic party have incorpor-
ated Jefferson's doctrine of self-govemment,
and the fusionists oppose. The former con-
tend that the people Of these Territories are
capable of regulating their own domestic az.
fairs as well now rs six months or six wears
hence when they shall become States. The
latter contend that Congress should interfere.
and that body of men, fifteen hundred
miles away, not one of whom perhaps, was
ever in the Territory, can better Judge the
wishes of the people and administer to their
wants than those living in the country thus
governed. Democrats believe in the CONNIE
tency of the people, the fusionists in the ON
Impotence of Congress.
When JEFFERSON purchased Louisiana Of
Napoleon, in 1908, it was a slave colony.