Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-01-01

direct repeal through contradictory enact;
ments They had been practically abrogated
| by the legislation attending the organization
| of Utah, New Mexico, and Washington. If
any vitality remained in them, it would have
been taken away, in effect, by the new terri
torial acts, in the form originally proposed to
| the Senate at the first session of the last Con-
gress. 1t was manly and ingenious, as well
as patriotic and just, to do this directly and
| plainly, and thus relieve the statue-book of
| an act, which might be of possible future in.
| Jury, but of no possible future benefit; and the
measure of its repeal was the final consumma-
| ton and complete recognition of the princi-
pie, that no portion of the United States shall
| undertake, through assumption of the powers
| of the general government, to dictate the So
cial institutions of any other portion.
The scope and effect of the language of re-
peal were not left in doubt. It was declared,
| In terms, to be " the true intent and meaning
Of this oct not to lcgislate slavery into any
Territory or State, nor to exclude it thereform,
but to leave the people thereof perfectly free
to form and regulate their domestic institu-
tiOns in their own way, subject only to the
constitution of the United States"
The measure could not be withstood upon its
merits alone. II was attacked with violence,
on the false or delusive pretext that it consti-
tuted a breach Of faith. Never was objection
more utterly destitute Of substantial justifca.
ton. When before was il imagined by sensi-
BILE men that regulative or declarative stat
ute, whether enacted ten or forty years ago,
is irrepealable-that an act of Congress is
above the constitution If, indeed, there
were in the facts any cause to impute bad
faith, it would attach to those only who have
never ceased, from the time of the enactment
Of the restrictive provision to the present day
to denounce and to condemn it; who have
constantly refused to complete it by needful
supplementary legislation who have spared
no exertion to deprive il of moral force; who
have themselves again and again attempted
its repeal by the enactment of incompatible
provisions; and who, by the inevitable reac-
tonary effect of their own violence on the
subject, awakened the country TO perception
of the true constitutional principle of leaving
the matter involved to the discretion of the
respective existing or incipiont States.
1t is not pretended that this principle, or
any other, precludes the possibility of evils in
practice, disturbed as political action is liable
to be by human passions. No form of gov
eminent is exempt from inconveniences; but in
this case they arc in the result of the abuse,
and not of the legitimate exercise, of the
powers reserved or conferred in the organiza-
tion Of Territory. They are not to be
charged to the great principle Of popular SOW
ereignty; on the contrary, they disappear be-
fore the intelligence and patriotism of the peo.
pie, exerting through the ballot box their
peaceful and silent, but irresistible power.
If the friends of the constitution are to have
another struggle, its enemies could not present
more acceptable issue, than that of State,
whose constitution clearly embraces ga re
publican form of government" being exclu
ded from the Union because its domestic in.
stitutions may not in all respects comport with
the ideas of what is wise and expedient en-
tertained in some other State. Fresh from
Il H. 81
against others, men will commence the agita-
ton ofthis new question with iDdu bitable vio-
latlon OF an express compact between the in
dependent sovereign powers of the United
States and of the republic of Texas, as well as
of the older and equally solemn compacts,
which assure the equality of all the States.
But, deplorable as would be such a viola
ton of compact in itself, and in all its direct
consequences, that is the very least of the
evils involved. When sectional agitatOrs shall
have succeeded in forcing on this issue, can
their pretensions fail to be met by counter
pretensions? Will not different States be COM
PEELED respectively to meet extremes with ex-
tremcs! And, If either extreme carry its
point, what is that so far forth but dissolution
of the Union! If a new State, formed from
the territory of the United States, be abso-
lutely exclui led from admission therein, that
fact Of itself constitutes the disruption of
union between it and the other States But
the process of dissolution could not stop there.
Would not sectional decision, producing such
result by a majority of votes, either northern
or southern, Of necessity drive out the op-
pressed and aggrieved minority, and place in
presence of each other two irreconcileably hos
tile considerations?
1t is necessary to speak thus plainly of pro.
Jects, the offspring OF that sectional agitation
now prevailing in some Of the States, which
are as impracticable as they are unconstitu.
tional, and which, if persevered in, must and
will end calamitOusly. 1t is either disunion
and civil war, or it is mere angry, idle, aim
less disturbance of public peace and TRANQUIL
lily. Disunion for what? If the passionate
rage OF fanaticism and partisan spirit did not
force the fact upon our attention, it would be
difficult to believe, that any considerable por-
ton of the people of this enlightened country
could have so surrendered themselves to a
tanatical devotion to the supposed interests of
the relatively few Africans in the United
States, as totally to abandon and disregard
the interests of the twenty-five millions of
AmerieanS-to trample under foot the injunc-
tiOns Of moral and constitutional obligation
and to engage in plans of vindictive hostility
against those who are associated with them
In the enjoyment of the common heritage of
our national institutions.
Nor is it hostility against their fellow-citi-
zens of one section of the Union alone. The
interests, the honor, the duty, the peace, and
the prosperity of the people of all sections are
equally involved and imperilIed in this ques-
ton. And are patriotic men in any part Of
the Union prepared on such an issue, thus
madly to invite all the consequences of the
forfeiture OF their constitutional engagements?
1t is impossible. The storm Of phrcnsy and
faction must inevitably dash itself in vain
against the mistaken rock of the constitution
l shall never doubt it. l know that the Union
is stronger thousand times than all the wild
and chimerical schemes Of social change,
which arc generated, one after another, in the
unstable minds Of visionary sophists and in
terested agitators. | rely confidently on the
patriotism of the people, on the dignity and
self-reSpeot of the States, on the wisdom Of
Congress, and above all, on the continued
gracious favor of Almighty G cd, to maintain,
against all enemies, whether at home or
abroad, the sanctity of the constitution and
the integrity of the Union.
FRANKLIN PIERCE.
WASHINGrON, December 81, 1875.
WASHINGTON MARK 1T AND GRASS
FARM FOR SkI.E