Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-03-22
The Nebraska Act.

The Nebraska Act.
The Patriot continues to derive comfort
from remark of ours that, in one respect,
the Know Nothing platform very nearly copies
the Nebraska act Now this is q question OF
fact and not of opinion. 1t is fact that the
Nebraska act declares that its intention is "to
LedUe the people Of Territory perfectly free to
form and regulate their domestic institutions IN
their O0n uedy, subject only 10 the Constitution
Of the United States" Aud the Know Moth
ing platform "recOgnizes the right Of natiDe
born and naturaIized citizens Of the United
States, permanently residing in any Territory
thereof, TO frame their constitution and Ldtos
and to regulate their domestic and social affairs
an their OUR mode, subject TO the prOUiSiOHs Of
the Federal Constitution.
The difference here is, that while the Ne
braska act recognises the right Of the people,
the Know Nothing platform restricts The right
to the ndtiUe born and nGturaIized citizens.
With this difference, the platform copies the
principle of the act Union and american.
This difference does not affect the great
principle" of both the KanSaS-Nebraska
act and the American platform-we mean
the great principle of non-interVention,"
which the Union and american has here
tofore declared to be THE TEST OF DEMO
CRATIC soUNDNEss EVERYWHERE" This
great principle" as enunciated in the
Compromise Measures of 1850, the Kan
saS-Nebraska act and the American plat
form, is identical Under it, as Mr. YANCEY,
one of the Democratic electors of Alabama,
declares, we have
The FINAL, FULL AND COMPLETE RECoG-
milton OF THE EQUALITY OF THE SOUTHERN
STATES AND THEIR CITIZENS IN THE TERRIFIC
MEs"
The Union and american cannot get
around, nor over, nor under, this GREAT"
FACT, by an endeavor to lead his readers
from its contemplation, and fixing their
attention upon a minor fact relating to
the description of persons in whom the
right to form their constitution and laws is
recognized The recognition of the equal
ity of the Southern States and their citizens
in the Territories" overshadows and dwarfS
almost into insignifcance all the other fea-
lures of the acts and platform.
But let US see whether the KansaS-Ne-
braska act possesses any charm for South
ern men, over and beyond the American
platform.
The Kansas-Nebraska act conferS the
right of suffrage upon unnaturalized for
eigners; the American platform restricts
the right of suffrage to native and natu-
rallied foreign born citizens. This is the
difference" cited above by the Union and
American. Does it afford any ground Of
complaint against the American platform,
or does it give the KansaS-NebraSka act
any superior charm in the eyes of Southern
men? Does it not really make the American
platform preferable? 1t is a well-known
fact that the Abolitionists and negro wor-
shippers of all kinds, in their crusade upon
Southern rights, draw very large proper.
ton of their strength from the foreign
population which settles in the nOn-slaVe-
holding States. Foreigners coming hither
without any just idea of the system of
slavery peculiar to the SOuth-prejudiced
against and hating NATURALLY coalesce to
an alarming extent with the enemies of the
South The AbOlitioniSts and other anti-sla-
very men seek to make Kansas free State
In the pointed language Of the editors of
the Chicago Tribune, "a paper printed in
a city in which the foreign population pre-
dominates, their voice is Though the
Heauens fall, or the Union be rent IN hoain,
Kansas shall not be cursed Nth sLdrergp BY
the aid of emigrant aid societies, they are
pushing men of their own class into Kansas
to vote down Southern emigrantS. They
can take the emigrant from Europe so soon
as he lands on our shores, hurry him off to
Kansas aud put his vote in the scale to
neutralize or weigh down the suffrage of
the native born and naturalized citizens of
the South, who feel some interest in the
institutions of the country which has pro
tected and sheltered them. This principle
of the Kansas-Nebraska act is rejected by
the American platform, and for this reason,
the latter is the safer and better for the
South Southern men opposed the introduc-
ton of this principle into the act, and only
submitted to il to secure the great princi-
pie of non-intervention, which is identical
in the act and the American platform.