The true Democrat., 1856-08-26


 converse of the propositions already disposed of Having shown what popular legal consti- tutlonal sovereignty is and that this is the only sovereignty in the Kansas Nebraska bill, it re- mains to be shown what is squatter sovereignty, and who are responsible for it. Squatter so- verelSnty Is an assumption of iursdiction-is an assumption of the ri ght of suffrage and of the right to legslate in the absence of organic Ia" or Tn advance of the action of Congress in organlzlng territorial government. The case ol california, which was one of the prominent measures of the system of compromise in 1850. furnishes an illustration. It was organized in- 10 a government and adopted State constitu ton without authority of law, in defiance of Congress, and in the face of the constitution of the United States. The bill for its admission as State, 1t is known, was signed, and could only become a law by the signature of Willard Fillmore, the then acting President of the | United States.
 l, together with many other southern slave holders, both whigs and democrats, voted to admit California with an anti-slaverv constitu ton, based and built upon squatter sovereigntv although they then were, and still are in favor oi slavery and opposed to squatter sovereignty. sought my justification upon the same ground upon which l justify the vote of the patriotic southern men who voted for the Missouri re. stnctlon Tn 1920 and in no other The peo pc oi tennessee, without distinction of party, Justhed the act and acquesced in its provisions anu lc rece!Ved the vote of the entire north ill the Congress regardless of party.
 Now, sir, where do we find the true wbio party of the north? Now divided between the republican party and Fillmore party upon another important feature and co-orlinate branch oi that great system of pacifcation. to wit: the fugitive slave law, which is nart and parcel of the written letter of the federal con- sttuton itself. Out of seventy-three northern wings, but three solitary men were found. when the trlal came, with moral courage and moral hrmness to stand by the constitution and pro tect the property, the rights, the peace. and safety ot the citizens of fifteen States of the Uhlon. All these enormitcs 1 witnessed. and endured with shame and with fear and trem bling Tor the safety of the country, rather than sever the ties of party allegiance. The con. servatlsm, the nationality then, as in the con- test ot lofl, in the passage of the Kansas Ne braska blIl, found in the north was principally m the democratic party History must be obc liberated before the effects of these truths cease to be impressed upon the American heart or appreciated by an American judgment
 nat IS the other and only other ground upon winch the republican party and portion of the Know Nothing party denouncc the Kan | saS- Nebraska bill? It is alien suffrage. which IS that clause of the organic act which permits | persons at the first election under that law who nave t'cd their declaration of intention to be- come cItIzens of the U. s, to vote in said electlon. This bill passed on the 18th of May. | Io94' I3' and received the signiture of President Fierce, by which it became law It is copied IJf( m D y/yfy4 +l,1 I toraI blll, passed on the second of March. 1853 ! and is in these exact words and will he fonnI [ on page 174 United States Statutes:
 " Provido4, That the right of suffrage and o' holding pflce shall be exercised only by ci 'i%e"S oi the l. Chlted States above the apc of | 'Weh'y-one years, and those above that age Who shall have declared on oath their inten ton to become such, and shall have taken an c, o"'h to upport the constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act.'
 This law received the signture of Mir. Fill more, by which 1t became a law and has con. thued unassaiIed and unmolested to this dav
 furthermore, there Is a provision in the bi'l or2aIlzing the territories of New Mexico and Y tah' dchnlns ctlzenship and the qualification ol voters, winch Is n these words, and will be lound III the sixth section of those territorial
 'r :, laSes 449 and 453 of the Statutes of " Pfo0tnSta tates:
 of holding office : .l ~ tizeus of the United' \. i'5nS ol SuHra9e and recognized as citizens by tREG5Se1 'iy only oy cl- IYi 194S" tn the The bills in which this proyiso is inserted are two of the compromise bills signed by Mir. Fillmore, and forming the basis of his admins traton, and in which were also inaugurated the doctrines of non-interventon and popular sovereignty in reference to slavery in the terri tories. These are two of the cardinal features of the Kansas x ebraska bill, and by the oper- ation and introduction of which in the New Mexico and Utah bills the Missouri restriction was rendered practically imperative and void.
 While these quotations from the organic laws, establishing the territorial governments of Utah, New Mexico, and Washington, prove concusively that the candidates of the Ameri- can party Ill this contest, and consequently that party, and not the democratic party or its can dldates, are responsible for both alien suffrage and squatter sovereignty, they at the same time establish most lncontestibly v another and no less important fact connected with the history rise and progress of the American party in the Un- lted States. They contradict and overturn un- mlstakably the whole doctrine profcssed by that party upon the subject of naturalization; for as it is unquestonably true that these laws recognized and first adopted alien suffrage, and that the bill admitting California as a State in looO, recognized, adopted and inaugurated squatter sovereignty as cardinal feature in Mir. Flllmores administration, 1t is also equally true that the clauses quoted from the New Mexico and Utah bills did convert, by the mere option of the Mexican citizens, Mexican citizens into American citizens, and invest them with all the attributes of sovereignty and suffrage in the face ot the laws of Congress requiring residence of five years and declaration of in- tenton to become citizens of the United States two years before naturalization. It is true that \ thls was done under the treaty making power l but presume there Is no voter in the United States ot any party, however remote or obscure hls means of information may be, who Is so verdant as not to know that resort to diff terent mode of doing particular thing does not change the thing itself, or in the slightest degree affect the principle upon which it rests These doctrines were endorsed and confirmed by MT. Fillmore in 1852, and by nine -tenths at least of those who now belong to the party advocating his election, and who then support ed the nominee of the whig convention at Bal tmore for president. It will not be forgotten that Gen. Scott added plank to the platform o1 ms party, which was acquesced Ill by all who supported him, requiring all foreigners, whether their dialect was the sweet German accent or the rich Irish brogue to be naturai- zed and clothed with all the attributes of cti- zenship, sovereignty and suffrage who had served twelve months in the army or navy of the United States.
 Yet, sir, notwithstanding these undeniable facts, the entire republican and Know Noth- ing parties north and a portion of the southern Americans condemn these very doctrines in the Kansas and Nebraska bills. May not, in all candor and sincerity, and in the name and on behalf of your constituents and mine and na- tlonal conservative men everywhere, exclaim "Oh consistency, consistency truly thou art jewell"
 To come down to events of a more recent date, and I find Mir. Fillmore himself address ing mass meetings on his return from Europe, at Albany and Newburg, in which he takes