Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1856-08-30
Hon. George T. Curtis.

George T, Curtis has also been Webster
whig; a member Of the legislature from
Boston and exhibited talent Of high or.
der wherever he has been called upon to act.
| Ills speeches have filed no small space IN
wing journals. And he has performed a
| most acceptable service in his candid and
thorough History of the Constitution. -
Such is the whig who has written most
elaborate protest against the geographical
party.
We have made long citation from his le..c
ter. We make another quotation. 1t thus
searchingly delineates the perls Of the pres
ent crisis - Boston Post.
"We often hear it asked, with an afr of
mingled confidence and defiance, whether the
southern ststes will dare To- quit Che Union
because slavery is prohibited il, one or all Of
the territories Of the United States. have
no authority to speak for the south or the
north ) l can only give expression to nv
own opinions, and voice to my own fears; and
l say frankly that have no idea of q co.,
gressional prohibition of slavery in this or
that territory would alone place the Union
in serious jeopardy But this by no means
disposes of the perils Of The present crisis
Those perils spring from The doctrines avow-
cd by the republican party az sheir basis for
a presidential election, and not from the pre-
else objects of Legislation which those doc
trines are invented to promote, and to (Which
they are Immediately applied. The Leaders,
OF this organization profess now, with more
or less of sincerity, that they have no wish
or purpose to Interfere with slavery in the
states. The difficulty of their position will
be, that after having carried presidential
election and majority in the two houses of
Congress by the votes Of the free states on
the doctrines which they have avowed, they
cannot and wiW n0t be aNoaced to keep their
hands of from slavery in the stasss This
seems to me SO plain result, on an inspeo-
ton of the formal instrument in which their
principles are embodied that l cannot wit.
ness the accession to thier ranks Of men
whom we have seen resorting TO them with
out establishment find in that instrument
the assertion that the principles promulga-
ted in the Declaration Of independence are
embodied inthe Federal Constitution ; that
the fathers of the republic meant to assert
the right of 'all mem to liberty; that the
constitution was ordained and established
to secure the blessings Of liberty : without
the slightest attention to the restriction BY
which the people who ordained it confined
that object of is provisions to- 'ougsesuss and
our posterity.' It is true that these doc
trines are put forth as basis for the very
unfounded assertion to that the primary
object and Interior design Of our federal gov
ernment is to grant these federal rights Of
liberty to all persons u,sder its enctustre juysae
diction.' But II .nnsse doctrines are true.
rhy or hoU can you con6ne the object and
design Of the federal constitution, with re-
spect to liberty, to shs regions where il hss
an exclusive jurisdiction The CONSTITUTION
was intended to operate in the states, al
we'll as in the territories in places where ii
only has limited as we'll as in places where
it has an exclusive jurisdiction and, al
though the mode in which it is to reach It's
object and design may be indirect in one
place and direct in another, yet, if it's oh:
ject in one place is to secure liberty to all
men, it must have the same object and de-
sign, deducible from the same promises, for
all other places, Ifthe principles Of tho
Declaration of Independence, which cor
tains sweeping assertions of the liberty and
equality Of all men, are in truth embodied
in the federal constitutional that constitu-
ton imposed 10 limitation upon those prir.
it was not made by and for par
tioular race of men, and the posterity Of that
raco--tlen those who are to administer it are
just as bound to use its powers to promote
liberty in the states, as they are to secure il
in the territories"