Daily Iowa State Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1856-1859, 1856-09-15
- - -
DE MOCRATIC MEETING.

| Col Whittaker's speech before the Dem
ocratic Club of this city Oh Friday evening
Of last week was worthy OF larger audi
ence. The Court House was not quite full
although there we're few unoccup,ed seats.
HIS discourse was logical, sound and argu-
mentativs, and better adapted to the halls
OF Legislative body, than to popular as
sembly.
The Colonel commenced by saying that
during this political campaign he had never
met an opponent who denied that the prin-
ciple OF the Nebraska act WIS correct, and
the very one which is the foundation of our
National Government. The doctrines of
Popular Sovereignty are not denied by any
respec table portion of the American peo-
pie II then the prime pie OF the Nebraska
act is correct, all other measures in conflict
with II should give way aud be repealed.
For once cOncede that the people of the
Territories, by nature and under the Consti-
tuition have, and Of right should have the
power OF making Their own domestic laws,
aud you at once admit that the Missouri
Compromise, so called, was an act violating
one OF the inal,enable rights Of the inhab
tants. and therefore wrong in principle
The doctrine of Self. Government is recog-
Missed to the fullest extent, in the Missouri
Compromise itself, respecting territory
south Of &c Q 30 min, for it says that the
people south OF that line shall have the
right 10 make their own laws in their own
way, and come into the Union as States with
or without slavery, as the people thereof
shall determine. Now, if the principle Of
self-governmeni is right south of 36 Q 30
min, who shall say that the same principle
is wrong north Of that line South of this
line the Missouri act gives the most enlare
ed liberty, while north Of it, the sovereign
ty of the people is most unwarrantably alb
ridged, and the right of choosing their own
system Of laws denied them. This manner
of making distinction as to the measure of
political rights in different sections of our
territories is a violation of both the letter
and spirit Of the Constitution, and mans in.
alienable rights To call the Missouri act
compromise, is to be ignorant Of the pow.
ers Of legislation A legislature cannot
compromise with itself, and as We are one
nation, represented by a Congress, we can
rot compromise with ourselves. Congress
can pass laws, but they are always repeal
able, and to say or think otherwise is TO
show deplorabIe ignorance.
The principle Of self-government then
being as sacred north as south Of an imagin-
airy line, the Nebraska ct, which enunci-
ates that principle, is right, proper, and
should be respected BY every class of the
people Of this common country.
Because bad men from Missouri and
Massachusetts nave violated the principle of
that act by wicked proceedings in Kansas,
it does not change the correctness Of the
act itself, any more than the commission Of
murder is an argument against the laws pu-
nshing homicide II is the violation of the
act which should be condemned, and not
the act itself.
The Aid Societies of the North have
been the authors of all the difficulties in
Kansas, By first organizing body of men
in the Territory who proclaimed their de-
termination to resist the Nebraska act and
the laws Of Kansas. Let it be remembered
that Notwithstanding the Kansas Legislature
passed bad laws, we defy any man to point
out = single instance where any attempt has
been made to enforce those laws. No
man has been aggr,eved by the enforcement
Of a single law obnoxious to the abolition
lists. The execution Of those laws has new.
er been attempted. Why then all this great
clamor and excitement respecting laws
which have remained dead letter upon the
statute book Alas 1t is one act in the
consummation Of the great crime of disu'
zion which the leaders of the northern free
soilers have determined upon. 1t is the re-
suit of 4 deep under current of hatred to the
South and her institutions which is the
moving cause Of all this clamor. 1t is DIS
UNION which - aimed al, and Kansas is
made the excuse for the great treason The
act Of multiplying the laws Of Kansas, and
ALL the laws Of that Territory, are sesisted
as much as the bad ones. leaving the Terri
tory without any Law-was the signal for
all the thieves, villains, robbers, aud crimi
mails of the land to rush into Kansas and
take advantage Of the confusion, TO steal,
plander, rob and murder indisc rim inately
all persons and parties, and this indepen.
dent band OF freebooters, though connected
with neither the pro-slavery or free state
party, are perfectly safe in their derreda.
tons, ard the abolitionists Of the North cry
out that they are " border rnffians." So
| long as the Abolitionists nullify the laws Of
the territory and resist its government with
armed force, there will be any amount of
"outrages" committed nv this independent
band Of freebooters, who are neither pro-
slavery men Of abolitionists
Thus we see that, while the Kansas Act
is in itself right, the fanatics Of Massachu-
sets, by notification, have brought all the
calamities upon Kansas that now disturb
her peace. And still the war il waged bv
Jim Lane, encouraged BY men, money and
arms from the North. Can such q course
end ii establishing peace to the nation /? -
Can we believe that the Republicans are
sincere in their professions of love for the
Union, when they are exerting every effort
TO emb,iter the North against ths South, and
Get mp civil war? Like Daniel Webster
We will say: "1f that terrible event Of
dissolution must come, only hope that
may not live to see it!s
Lane - be Lynche0.
The notorious Lane, leader Of the Fu.
sion forces in Ksnsas, 10 denounced, b.
the Free State meo 10 that Territory q
. dessseabls intsemsddlsr in their affairs