The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1856-01-12

visions Of law for the extradition Of fuei
tives from service. with occasional esp
sodes Of fanatic efforts to obstruct thei
execution be riot or murder, continue
for brief time to agitate certain local.
ties. But the true principle of leavih
each State to regulate its own laws of Ia
Dor according to its own Sense Of RICH
and expediency had acquired fast hol
upon the public Judgment /; to such de
gree that by comitton consent, it was Oh
served in the organization Of the Terri
tory of Washington.
When, more recently, it became feaui
site to organize the two territories o
Kansas and Nebraska, it was the natura
and legitimate if not the meritable conse
quence of previous events and legisla
ton, that the same great and sound prin
ciple whice bod already been applied t.
them, and they stand exempt from thu
restrictions provided in the act relative
to the State of Missouri. These restric
tons were, in the estimation of many
thoughtful men, null from the beginning
unauthorized by the Constitution, contra.
ty to the treaty stipulations for the ces.
sion of La, and inconsistent with the
equality of the States. They had been
stripped of all moral authority by presis-
tent efforts to procure their indirect re-
peal through contradictory enactments.
They had particularly abrogated by the leg.
islation attending the organization Of Utah
New Mexico and Washington. If any vitality
remained it would have been taken away in
the effect of new territorial acts, in the form
originally proposed in the Senate at the first
session of the last Congress. TWAS manly and
glorious, as well as potrotic and just, to do
this directly and plainly, and thus relieve the
statute books OF an act which might be of fu-
ture possible injury. and Of no possible future
benefit and the measure of its future repeal
was the final consummation and complete re-
cognition of the principle that there can be no
assumption of the powers of the General Gov
eminent to dictate the social institutions of any
portion of the country.
The scope and effect of the language of re-
peal was not left in doubt. 1t was declared, in
terms, to be the true intent and meaning of
this act not to legislate slavery into any State
or Territory, or to exclude it therefrOm-to
leave the people thereof perfectly free to form
and regulate their domestic institutions in their
own way, subject only to the constitution of the
United States. The measure could not be
withstood on its merits alone; it was attacked
with violence, on the false prctext that it con-
stituted breach of faith. Never was objec-
ton made so utterly destitute of substantial
justification. When before was it imagined
by sensible men that regulative or declara-
tive statute, whether enacted twenty or forty
years ago, is irrepealable? that an act of Con-
gress is above the Constitution?
If indeed there were in the act any cause to
imagine it, it would attach only to those who
have never ceased from the time of the enact
ment of the restrictive provisions to renounce
and condemn it,-and who have constantly re
fused to complete it by the needful supplement
ofany legislation-who have again and again
attempted its repeal by the enactment of in
compatible provisions, and who by the newt
able re-actionary effect Of their own violence
on the subject, awakened the country to the
true constitutional principal of leaving the
matter involved TO the discretion of the pee-
pie of the respective existing or incipient
states. L! is not pretended that this principle,
or any other precludes the possibility of evils
il practice. No form of government is exempt
from Inconvenience, the result of abuse, and
not OF the legitimate exercise of powers con-
ferred in the legitimate organization of ter
ritory.
4uEy arr AOt W NC Cudt SCu Will tuO SACdt
principle of popular sovereignty; on the con-
trary, they disappear before the intelligence
and patriotism of the people, presenting
through the ballot box their peaceful and si-
lent, but irresistible power. If the friends
of the constitution are to have another strug-
gle, it's enemies could not present more &C
ceptable issue than that of state whose con-
stitution embraces Republican form of gov
eminent, being excluded from the Union be-
cause it's domestic institutions do not in all
respects comport with the ideas entertained
in some other States. Fresh from the
groundless imputations of breach of faith
against other men, they will commence the
agitation of this question, with the violation
of an express compact between the independ-
ent sovereign powers of the United States,
and the republic of Texas, as well as the
older and equally solemn compacts which as
sure the cordially of the States.
But deplorable as would be sHeh vic
lation of compact in itse IF, with all its
direct consequences, that is the very
least of evils involved. When sectional
agitators have succeeded in forcing on
this issue, can their pretensions fail to
be met by counter pretensions? Will
not different States be compelled to meet
extremes with extremes? and if either
extreme carries its point, what is that, so
far forth, but dissolution of the Union
If new State formed from the Terrific
ry of the United States be absolutely
excluded from admission therein, that
fact Of itself constitutes the destruction
of the Union between it and other states,
but the process of dissolution could not
stop there. Would not sectional decis-
ion producing such result by majority
of votes, either northern or southern, of
necessity drive the oppressed and aggriev-
ed minority TO the wall, and place in
presence of each other, two irreconeila-
bly, hostile considerations?
1t is necessary to speak thus plainly ofpro-
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 preserved in, must end
calamitously. 1t is either. distnion or civil
war, or is it mere angry. idle, aimless distur.
bance of the public peace aud ira. guilty
Disunion for what! If passionate rage of ia
naticism and partizan spirit did not force the
fact upon our attention, would be difficult to
believe that any considerable portion OF the
people of this enlightened country could have
so surrendered themselves to fanatical deve-
ton to the supposed interest of the re-
latively few Africans in the U. S., as to totally
to abandon and disregard the interest of the
26, 100000 Of Americans, to trample under
foot the injunctionsof constitutional and moral
obligations, and engage in plans of vindictive
hostility against those who were associated
with them in the enjoyment of the common
horit q na of nur national institutions