The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1856-03-13
The Aggressions and Usurpations
OF the slave Power.
Declaration Of the Principles and Purpos-
es Of the Republican Party,
ADDRESS or Tue REPUBLICAN CONVENTION, AT
rIrTsBURC, FEB. %, 1856.
[Concluded.l

stakeholder to carry his slaves as property,
By virtue Of the Constitution, into territory
belonging to the United States, the slavehuld-
ing interest has been compelled to claim, for
the inhabitants OF the territories themselves,
the right to provide for admitting or exclud-
ing Slavery, Us right inherent in their SOW
eregnty over their own affairs. This prin-
clyle OF Popular Sovereignty, as it is styled.
was embodied in the bills for organizing
New Mexico and Utah, and is made the sub
stltute for the prohibition of Slavery in the
Missouri Compromise, which it repealed !;
and the slayeholding interest is now sustain
ed by the Federal Government, in this new
position, as it had been in all the positions
1t has successfully assumed. The principle
or Popular Sovereignty is fundamental in
our institutions. No one doubts that the
People are sovereign over all the territories
rs well us over all the States of tho Confed-
eracy. But this sovereignty is subject to
limitation and definition, and can only exist
within the limitations Of the Constitution.
The People are sovereign in the House of
representatives, but their sovereignty may be
overruled by the Senate, or defeated BY the
veto Of the President. The States arc sover-
eign-but only within certain limits, and in
subordinatOn to the the sovereignty of the
country and on the same subject, it is mani
fest, cannot exist one must of necessity cx-
clude the other. But the Constitution, in
express and unmlstakable terms, makes Con-
gress sovereign over the territories, by confer
ring upon it power to make call needful rules
and regulations respecting them" The doe
trlne Of Popular Sovereignty in the people
Of the territories, finds no warrant or sup
port III the Constitution. In the language
Of Mr. Calhoun, " it involves an absurdty
II the sovereignty over the territories be in
their inhabitants instead Of the United States,
they would cease to be territories of the Uni
ted States the moment we permit them to be
inhabited" So long as they remain terrific
RES, they are IN the possession and under the
exclusive dominion of the United States and
1t Is for the General Government TO make
such laws for them as their welfare, and that
OF the nation, may require.
We deny that Congress may ahdcate a
portion of ITS authority, and commit TO the
inhabitants OF territory power conferred
upon 1t by the Constitution. Such an abdi-
cation IS an abandonment Of duty, and can
not be justified on the pretended principle Of
popular sovereignty. That principle, indeed,
Is discarded in the very act of Congress in
whIchitis claimed to be embodied. If SOW
ereignty exist, it must be exercised through
the organized departments of government
the legislative, executive and judicial But
the act to organize the territories of Kansas
and Nebraska prescribes the requisites of
citizenship and the qualifications of voters,
confers upon the President and Senate the
appointment Of n Governor, who is clothed
with the veto power, and judges by whom
the common law shall be Interpreted. Each
department Of the government thus rests vir-
tually IN the power Of the President Of the
United States. To style the small remnant
of power which such law leaves to the peo-
pie popular soyereignty,' is an abuse of
language and an insult TO common sense Yet
even this has been efectualy DESTROYED by
the invasion of armed men, sustained bv the
General Government, in their high handed
endeavor to force Slavery into Kansas against
the will of the hardy settlers who have made
it their home.
The whole system Of doctrine by which
Slavery seeks possession of the territories
Of the United, either by asserting the soyer-
eighty OF their inhabitants, or by DENYING
the power Of Congress to prohibit or exclude
Slavery from them, is novel and alien to the
principles and the administration Of our gov
eminent. Congress has always ASSERTED and
exercised the right of prohibition. 1t was
exercised by the vote of the first Congress,
IN 81, reafflrming the ordinance Of the old
eonfederacy by which Slavery was prohibited
from the territory northwest Of the Ohio
river. Ii was exercised in 1920, in the pro-
hibition of Slavery from the Louisiana terri
tory north of SO deg. 80 min. II was exer-
ciscd in lS4S, when Slavery wasv prohibited
from the territory Of Oregon.
Nor n in tho lao @, darroa 1 =
the argument that these territories when thew
become States and are admitted into the
Union, can establish or prohibit Slavery in
their discretion. Their rights az States do
not begin until their obligations as territories
end. The Constitution knows nothing of
s'inchoate States" Congress has power 10
make "all needful rules and regulations for
them ms territories, until they are admitted
INTO the Union as members Of the common
confederacy.
GENERAL TENDENCY or FEDERAL LEGISLATION on
TIE SUBJECT or SLAVERY.
In oil these successive acts, in the adrnis
sion of Missouri and Arkansas, in the annex
alton of Texas and the provision for admit
ting four new States from her territory. IN
the war with Mexico and the conquest of her
provinces, In the repeal Of the Missouri,
Compromise, and in the cruel war now waged
against the people of Kansas for the extern
SION of Slavery into that Territory, we trace
the footsteps of powerful interest. aiming
at absolute political power and stridine
onward 70 complete ascendency over the
General Government. 1t finds powerful al
hes and an open field in the political arena
for the prosecution of its purposes. Always
acting as compact unit, it finds ITS onno-
nents divided by a variety of interests. Par.
tlzan alliances and personal ambitions have
hitherto prevented any union against lie ag-
gresslons, and not feeling or fearing the dis
pleasure Of their constituents. renresan+a-
tves from the Free States have been inapcod
to AID I'D the promotion Of their designs All
other interests have been compelled to give
way before 1t. The representatives Of Free