Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-12-03


the law to be unsound in principle. Expert
ence may show it to be imperfect in detail,
and impracticable i'll execution. And then
both reason aud right combine not merely to
justify, but to require its repeal.
Inc Constitution. supreme as it is over all
the departments of the government, legisla-
i've, executive, and Judicial, is open to
amendments by its very terms; and Congress
OF the States may, in their discretion, propose
amendment to It, solemn compact though it
IN truth is between the sovereign States of the
Union. In the present instance, political
enactment, which had ceased to have legal
power or authority of any kind was repealed.
The position assumed, that Congress had no
moral right TO enact such a repeal, was strange
enough and singularly so in view of the fact
that the argument came from those who OPEN
ly refused obedience to existing laws of the
land, having the same popular designation and
quality as compromise acts-nay, more, who
uuequlvocally disregarded and condemned the
most positive and obligatory niuuctons of the
Constitution itself, and sought, by every
means within their reach, to deprive portion
of their fellow citizens of the equal eniov.
ment of those rights and privileges guaranteed
alike to all by the fundamental compact OF
our Union.
This argument against the repeal Of the
statute line in question, was accompanied by
another Of congenial character, and equally
with the former, destitute of foundation in
reason and truth. 1t was imputed THAT the
measure originated i'll the conception of ex-
tending the limits of slave labor beyond those
previously assigned to it, and that such was
its natural, as well as intended effect and
these baseless assumptions were made, IN the
Northern States, the ground OF unceasing as
sault upon constitutional right.
The repeal in terms of a statute, which was
already obsolete, and also null for unconsttu.
tionality, could have no influence to obstruct
or to promote the propagation Of conflicting
views of political or social institutions When
the act organizing the Territories Of Kanzas
and Nebraska was passed. the inherent effect
upon that portion of the public domain thus
opened to legal settlement, was TO admit set.
tiers from all the States of the Union alike;
each with his convictions of public policy and
private interest, there to found III their dis
erection, subject to such limitations as the
Constitution and acts of Congress might pre-
scribe, new States, hereafter to be admitted
into the Union. 1t was a free field, open
alike to ALL whether the statute line OF as
sumed restriction were repealed or not. That
repeal did not open to free competition Of the
diverse opinions and institutions field, which
without such repeal would have been closed
against them it found that field of COMPETE
ton already opened, in fact and in law. All
the repeal did was TO relieve the statute book
OF an objectionable enactment, uneonstitu-
tional in effect, and injurious in terms TO
large portion of the States.
Is it the fact, that, in all the unsettled re-
gions of the United States, if emigration be
left free to act in this respect for ITSELF without
legal prohibitions on either side, slave labor
will spontaneously go everywhere, in prefer
ence to free labor Is it the fact, that the
peculiar domestic institutions of the southern
States possess relatively SO much Of vigor,
that, wheresoeyer an avenue is freely open to
all the world, they will penetrate to the ex-
cluslon OF those of the Northern States Is
it the fact, that the former enjoy, com.
pared with the latter, such irresstibly SUI
perior vitality, independent of climate,
soil, and all other accidental circumstances,
as TO be able to produce the supposed result,
in spite of the assumed moral and natural
obstacles to its accomplishment, and of the
more numerous population Of the northern
States
The argument of those, who advocate the
enactment of new laws of restriction, and
condemn the repeal of old ones, in effect AYERS
that their particular views of government have
no self extending or self-sustaining power of
their own, and will go nowhere unless forced
by act Of Congress. And if Congress do but
pause for a moment in the policy of stern
coercion if it venture to try the experiment
Of leaving men to judge for themselves what
institutions will best suit them; if it be not
strained up to perpetual legislative exerton
on this point; il Congress proceed thus to act
in the very spirit OF liberty, it is at once
charged with aiming to extend slave labor in
to all the new Territories of the United States.
vi course, these imputations on the inten-
ton OF Congress in this respect, conceived as
they were i'll prejudice. and disseminated in
passion, are utterly destitute of any justiica-
ton IN the nature Of things, and contrary to
the fundamental doctrines and principles of
civil liberty and self-government.
While therefore, IN general, the people of
the northern States have never, at any time,
arrogated for the federal government the pow
er to interfere directly with the domestic con-
dition of persons in the southern States, but
on the contrary have disavowed all such in
tentions, and have shrunk from conspicuous
utilization with those few who pursue their ia.
naiieal objects ayowedly through the con-
templated means of revolutionary change
of the government, and with acceptance
of the necessary consequences-a civil and
servlle war yet many citizens have
suffered themselves to be drawn into an
evanescent political issue of agitation after
another, appertaining to the same set of opin-
ions, and which subsidized as rapidly as they
arose when it came to be seen as it uniformly
did, that they were incompatible with the
compacts OF the Constitution and the existence
of the Union. Thus, when the acts of some
of the States tie nullify the existing extradi-
ton law imposed upon Congress the duty of
passing new one, the country was invited by
agltators to enter into party organizations for
Its repeal; but that agitation speedily ceased
by reason OF the impracticability of its object.
SO, when the statute restriction upon the in
stitutions of new States, by geographical
line, had been repealed, the country was urg-
ed to demand its restoration, and that project
also died almost with its birth. Then follow
ed the cry of alarm from the North against
imputed southern encroachments which cry
sprang in reality from the spirit of revolution
airy attack on the domestic institutions of the
South, and, after troubled existence of few
months, has been rebuked by the voice of
patriotic people.
Or this last agitation, one lamentable fea.
ture was, that it was carried on at the imme-
date expense Of the peace and happiness of
the people of the Territory of Kanzss, That
was made the battle field, not so much of op
posing factions Of interests within itself. as of
the conflicting passions OF the whole people
OF the United States. Revolutionary disor-
der in Kanzas had Its origin in projects of in.
teryention, deliberately arranged by certain
members of that Congress, which enacted the
law for the organization of the Territory
And when propagandist colonization of Kan
zas had thus been undertaken in one section