Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1856-07-04
AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.


for himself, and expound to his children, if
he has any, at least once year.
But at this time the great political truths
embodied in this paper have special sig
nifcance. The slave power of these states
has absorbed into itself and transformed
into its own nature, all that part of the
democratic party, which can submit to be
used for the base purpose of extending slave
ry and abridging freedom. A vast multi
tude Of the rank and file, and some among
the leaders Of that party, seeing and abhor-
ing the corruption which has seized upon
it, have deserted it, as all honest men should.
Enough remain, however, seduced by the
love of Office, or led by the power of preju-
dice, to give to the schemes of the slave
holders the endorsement of the party as such.
The democratic party having made itself
the tool of the Shareholders, has utterly de-
parted from and denied the fundamental
principles which lie at the foundation of our
! government 1t tramples under foot the
I Declaration of Independence. The south
ern Shareholders who are the rulers of de-
mocracy openly declare that the Declaration
is a humbug, that the words, "all men are
created equal" are the merest political
clap-trap. As might be supposed the de-
mocracy which Acknowledges such leaders,
is advocating measures openly hostile to the
Declaration. True the democratic leaders,
like other knaves who must accomplish their
ends by the help of honest men, labor hard
to clothe their schemes of villianY with a
semblance of respect for those great and
accepted truths which they dare not openly
deny. They tell US that the people of each
territory have the right to settle for them
selves their own domestic institutions, and
that the right is fundamental in a republi-
can government. This sounds fair enough
upon its face, and if the right is exercised
without the violation of other greater and
| ''unalienable rights" such as the right to
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" :"
the doctrine may be accepted. But if the
right of the people of a territory to fix and
regulate their own domestic institutions, is
to be exercised to violate and destroy the
greater and more fundamental rights spoken
ofabove, then so far we deny that the peo-
pie have any such right.
But if we would know precisely the mean
ing of the doctrine, that the people of a ter
ritory have the right to fix and regulate
their own domestic institutions, as the doc
trine stands in the democratic creed, we
must look at FACTS. The democracy have
thrown down the barrier which shut slavery
out of Kansas and Nebraska. The slave
holders are making desperate efforts to get
possession of Kansas, and claim in unquali-
fed terms that they have the right to carry
their slaves into all the territories of the U.
S., and that they cannot be shut out unless
the people of the territory when it becomes
a state shall decide that slavery shall not
exist in it. The democracy assents to these
demands of the Shareholders, and the doc
trine above spoken of in regard to the right
of the people to fix and regulate their own
institutions, means simply this, that tie peo-
! Pile Of all the territories may introduce
and establish slagery therein, and that their
doing so shall not, # democracy rules, con-
stitafe any barrier to heir reception into
| the Union. If this be true then the con-
stitution of the United States carries slavery
with it into all the national territory, and
this 'sum of all yillianies" can only be ex-
cluded when the people of a territory form
constitution of their own. The democra-
ley have not dared to say openly that the con-
stitution of the United States carries slave
rv into all the territories but it is we'll
known that declaration to this effect was
lost by one vote only in the committee which
prepared the platform at Cincinnati, on
which Buchanan now stands. They might
as well have put it in. 1t is there in fact
whether it Is in form or not.
Under the fair sounding words that the
people of the territories have the right to
fix and regulate their own domestic institu-
tons, the democracy conceal this abomina-
bic doctrine, that the constitution of the ..
S. admits slavery into all our territories, and
protects it there; that the people of the
territory may fix it there and then demand
admission into the Union. Now, in conec-
ton with these doctrines, read the follow
inc words from the Declaration. "We hold
" these truths to be scIf-evident; that all
men are created equal, that they are en-
" dowed by their Creator with certain IN
alienable rights; that among these are
q life, liberty, and the pursuit Of happiness,
q that to secure these rights governments
Il are instituted among men," Is it or is it
not in accordance with these words to teach
l.