The true Democrat., 1856-01-15

II the governments of Europe Our cooperative i action rests in the conditions of permanent con. federation prescribed by the constitution. Our l. balance of power is ill the separate reserved . rghts of the States, and their equal represen
 taton in the Senate. That independent so-
 vereignty in every one of the States, with it's n reserved rights of local self-govcrnment assur e ed to each by their co equal power in the Sc . nate, was the fundamental condition of the
 constitution. Without it the Union would never have existed.
 , However desrous the larger States might be
 to reorganize the government so as to give to . their population its proportionatc weight in the I common counsels they knew it was impossible. unless they conceded to the smaller ones au- thorlty to exercise at least a negative influence on all the measures of the government, whether Legislative or executive through their equal re- f presentation in the Senate. Indeed, the larger States could not have failed to perceive that the same power vas equally necessary to them, for the security of their own domestic interests against the aggregate force of the general go- vernment In word, the original States went into this permanent league on the agreed pre- { mlses of eXertng their common strength for the defence of the whole, and of all its parts:
 but of utterly excluding all capability of reel procal aggression. Each solemnly bound itself to all the others, neither to undertake, nor per
 init, any entroachment upon, or intermeddling with another's reserved rights.
 Where 1t was deemed expedient, particular rights of the States were expressly guarantied by the constitution; but, in all things beside, these rights were guarded by the limitation of the powers granted and by express reservation of all powers not granted, in the compact of ho of tav limited to purposes of common defence and ge- neral welfare, excluding objects appcrtaining to the local legislation of the several States; and those purposes of general welfare and common defence were afterwards defined by specific enumeration, as being matters only of correa tlon between the States themselves or between them and foreign governments which, because of their common and general natllre could not be left to the separate control of each State.
 Of the circumstances of local condition, in- terest and rights, in which portion of the States constituting one great section of the Union, differed from the rest, and from another section, the most important was the peculiarity of larger relative colered population in the southern than in the northern States
 A population of this class, held in subec- tion. existed in nearly all the States, but was more numerous and of more serious concern ment in the south than in the north on account of natural differences of climate and produc- tion; and 1t was toreseen that, for the same reasons, while this population would diminish, and, sooner or later, cease to exist, in some States it might increase in others. The pe- culiar character and magnitude of this question of local rights, not in material relations only, but still more in social ones, caused it to enter into the special stipuations of the constitution.
 Hence, while the general government, as well by the enumerated powers granted to 1t, as by those not enumerated and therefore refused to it, was forbidden to touch this mat ter in the sense of attack or offence, it was placed under the general safeguard of the Un- ion, in the sense of defence against either inva- sion or domestic violence like all other local interests of the several States. Each State ex- pressly stipulated, as well for itself as for each and all of its citizens and every citizen of each State became solemnly bound by his allegiance to the constitution, that any person, held to vice or Iabor i'll one State escaping to another, should not, in consequence of any law or regu- lation thereof, be discharged from such service or labor, but shoull be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor might be due ny the laws of his State
 Thus, and thus only, by the reciprocal guar anty of all the rights of every State against in reference on the part of another was the present form of government established by our fathers and transmitted to us; and by no other means is it possible for it to exist. If one State ceases to respect the rights of another and obtrusive- ly intermeldes with its local nterests-if portion of the States assume to impose their in. stcutious on the others, or refuse to fulfil their ob, igations to them-we are no lon 5erunted us friendly States, but distracted, hostile ones, with little capacity left of common advantage, but abundant means of reciprocal injury and mis- chief.
 Practic4 - mmaterlal whether aggres- sve interference between the States, or delibe- rate rsfI-l .u the part of any one of them to comply with JnsJtutional obligations. arise from er.3.eaus conviction of blind prejudice whether 1t oo perpetrated by direction or ,indi. rection. In either case, it is fall of threat and full of danger to the durability of the Union
 CONSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS OF SLAVERY.
 Placed in the office of chief magistrate as the executive agent of the whole country- bound to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and specially enioincd by the consti- tuition to give information to Congress on the state of the Union, it would be alpable neglect of duty on my part to pass over a subject like this, whicl, beyond all things at the present time, yitally concerns individual and public se- curty.
 l. has been matter of painful regret to see States, conspicuous for their services in found ing this republic and equally sharing its ad van , tages, dsregarding their constitutional obga- tons to 1t. Although conscious of their inabi- lty to heal admitted and palpable social evils of their own, and which are completely within , their jurisdiction, they engage n the offensive , and hopeless undertaking of reforming the do- ,t mestic institutions of other States wholly be- yond their control and authority In the vain pursuit of ends, by them entirely unattainabe and which they may not legally attempt to compass they peril the very existence of the constitution and all the countless benefits which 1t has conferred. While the people of the south ern States cOnhne their attention to their own affairs not presuming ofciously to intermeddle with the social institutions of the northern States, too many of the inhabitants of the lat ter are permanently oSanized in associations to ; inllict injury on the former, by wrongful acts, f which would be cause of war as between for eign powers and only fail to be such in our sys-
 tenn, because perpetrated under cover of the l Union.
 It is impossible to present this subject as truth and the occasion require, without noticing the , reiterated, but groundless, allegation that the south has consistently asserted claims and .b- } taned advantages in the administration of the l general government, to the prejudice of the I north, and in which the latter has acquicsced. That is, the States, which either promote or to- l lerate attacks on the rights of persons and of property in other States, to disguise their own injustice, pretend or imagine, and constantly aver that they, whose constitutional rights are r thus systematically assailed, are themselves the aggressors. At the present time, this imputed
 aggression, resting it does, only in the vague, l declamatory charges of political agitators, re- solves itself into misapprehenson, or msinter- pretation, of the principles and facts of the po litcal organization of the new territories of the
 United States.
 What is the voice of history? When the ordinance which provided for the government t of the territory northwest of the river Ohio, f and for its eventual subdivision into new States