The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1856-01-23

OF lands IS perhaps oeyono remeoyi out
it will be our own fault if our Rivers
and Harbors continue to be thus neg
lected
While in these and many other impor-
tant details of administration the inter-
ests of our own State are deeply affect
ed by the action of the Natienal Govern
ment, We are even more vitality concern
ed in the great principle by which that
action and the progressive development
of our country are regulated and con.
trolled.
As man 10 more than his cireumstan-
ces, as freedom il better than wealth, as
rights are more important than institu-
tions, it becomes US to look we'll to the
fundamental ideas which determine the
character of Government and the course
of its practical operation.
The basis of American institutions is
the democratic principle Of equality
among men. They rest upon the solid
foupdation of popular consent. The
primary objects of their establishments
are the defense and protection Of person
alrights. If they fail to secure these
ends, it is the duty of the people who
established to amend or change them.
To organize and administer government
upon these principles is the true work
of a republican people.
While the democratic idea thus con-
stitutes the basis of American Iustitu-
tions, various exceptions, under the
pressure of real or supposed exigencies,
have been admitted to its universal ap-
plication. Among these, Slavery, the
creature of despotism and the deadly
opposite of democracy, claims baleful
pre-eminence.
When our country asserted her inde-
pendence Slavery existed in all the
States. It's evil influences, social and
political, we're, however, we'll under
stood, and its irrcconcilable antagonism
to the rights of human nature and the
principles of just government, was uni
versally acknowledged
The founders of the Republic in fra
ming our institutions, were careful to
! give no national sanction to this porten-
tous anomaly; but they attempted no
interference with its existence in the
States. Outside of State limits, they
left it to the exclusive disposition of
States Immediately concerned. No fact
is better established by the records of
the past, than the prevalence, during
the earlier period of our history, of an
almost universal expectation that slave
ry, excluded, by positive prohibition,
from sll national territory, would grad
ually but certainly. and at no distant
day, under the operation of the princi-
Piles of the Declaration of Independence,
and through the action of the State au.
thorities, disappear wholly from every
State of the Union. The foremost cham.
pioLs of freedom were citizens Of slave
States, and occupied the highest sta
tions in the State and National Govern
ments.
In 1884, Immediately after the par
tial adjustment of the conflict between
the claims of the Union and the preten-
sions of the States in respect to the ter
ritory between the Alleghanies and the
Mississippi, through the cession, by Vir-
ginia of the territory northwest of the
| Ohio, Jefferson proposed to provide for
ever against the extension os slavery By
a positive prohibition of It's existonce af.
ter 100, in any territory ceded or to be
ceded, or in any State to be created out
of such territory. This proposed prohi-
bition received the votes of sixteen out
oftwenty.three delegates, and of six out
of nine States in the Congress Of the
Confederation. Il failed to become o
law BY reason Of that provision Ct the
Articles Of Confederation which made
the concurrsnce Of ct least seven States
necessary to an affirmative decision Of
any question. The great majority in its
favor indicates. however, the prevalent
sentiment Of the time.
Three years later, the Ordinance Of
| 1877 Impressed upon the soil Of the ter.
ritory northwest Of the Ohio an indeli-
bic prohibition Of slavery. That ordi-
nance vas adopted BY the unanimous
votes Of all the States In Congress. Il
covered every inch Of territory subject
to the exclusive regulation Of the Gen.
Ieral Government
In the same year the National Con-
lstitution was framed. Mr.. Madison de-
clared it wrong to admit in the Censti.
tuition theidea that there could be prop-
erty in man." No such word IS slave
or slavery found place in any of its pro-
Ivisiona All recognition Of the right.
fulness Of Slavsholding, and al national
sanetion Of the practice, was carefully
excluded from tho instrumsnt. In eve
Try clause which has been or oan Be con.
lstrusa a. referring to slaNary, il Is re-
eardsd - the creature Of State legislss
tion, and dependent, wholly, upon State
Legislation for It's existence and continu.
ance. There il DO trace in the Oonsti-
tuition itself, as in the debates Of its fra.
mars. Of any: expectation or appsahsn.
sion Of the institution or maintsnancs q