The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1856-08-12
HILLsDALEs MICH, TUESDAY, AUGUST ls, 1856

Congress authorizes to be imported may b
sold, any law OF any State to the contrar
notwithstanding.
Now, fellow Democrats. our only safety
to stop where we arc---to make Kansas
Free State-to punish the authors of th
present agitation, and in that way, for tha
is the only way in which it can be done, pu
an end TO the slavery agitation;
How is this to be accoiiplshedl BY re
jecting the Cincinnati Convention and it
nominees-for they are inseparable. Tha
Convention met while the country, or, a
least, all but the Southern part of it, stoot
grieved and shocked by the violence and law
lessness in Washington and in Kansas. Bu
not word of disapprobation did the Convcn
tion utter. They resolved npon certain tru
isms which nobody has ever yet disputed
passed resolution against Bank of the U
nited States, as if anybody had dreamed O
such thing for years-a subject just as pert
inent to our present circumstances as the Vir
ginia or Kentucky resolutions; and then
gravely resolved that every new State must
form its own institutions, by imputation de.
pying both to Congress and TO the Territorial
Legislature the right to exclude slavery. II
must also be borne in mind, that the author
of the Kansas act and the nominees of the
Cincinnati Convention, have 10 this day,
declined to say that the people of the Terri
tories have the right to exclude Slavery.
Who does not know that no Free State has
ever been admitted into the Union, into
which, rs territory, slavery was admitted
Who does not know that slavery will 90
wherever the stakeholder goes, if he is per-
mitted to take it with him; that slavery ex-
lists in Kentucky, in higher latitude than
some counties of Ohio and Indiana, and in
Missouri, several hundred miles further north
than the southern limits of the free State Of
Illinois; that it is an institution easily plant
cd, in the infancy of settlements, and most
difficult to be eradicated in their maturity |?
But why not let the people of the country
docide the question for themselves? say these
new professors OF "Squatter Sovcteignty," or
at least said so before they introduced fire
and sword into Kansas, to disarm the squat
ters in ,iolation Of "the right of The people to
bear arms"-to break up their meetings in
violation of their "right peaceably to assemble
and petition for redress of gricvances"-to
disperse their assemblies, gathered to make
their own laws-to burn their houses, built
with many tolls and sacrifices in the midst of
the praries-to hunt their wives and children
into the wilderness, their only refuge from
the fury ofthose guardians of squatter's rights.
Why not Let them decide the question for
themselves? If they who decide were only
deciding for themselves, there might be some
plausibiity in the question. But they decide
for themselves and for all future inhabitants
of the Territory. They who come into Ter
ritory after slavery is introduced, have not
free choice in the matter. AT the very least,
wait until sufficient population to make
State before you let Slavery come in. Was
it ever heard that when ships company is
making up for a voyage, the first ten passen-
gers who set their feet on board may make
rules for the ninety who follow-rules that
shall be unalterable until the ship shall have
been hundred days at sea? And was it any
better to enact law that the few squatters
who entered Kansas before October, 1855,
should make laws which could not be altered
for two years, even though the population
should, in the next year, increase an hundred
fold9
Then, it is asked, what interest 1t Is to us
whether the people Of Kansas have slavery or
not? Is it of no interest to the people of this
generation that Virginia is Slave State p
If she had been free, what would now have
been her population, her wealth, her resour-
ces? Her river white with sails, her ships all |
over the globe, her lands cultivated like a
garden. If 1T had fallen to the lot Of any |
of past generation to decide
Whether that Commonwealth should be free |
Dr. slave, and he had, for any motives, allow
ID it to become slave, how would his memo
y have been cursed by every true Virginian
of our day9 Who that looks now at Missou-
i does not see the bitter fruits of that weak
ness or facility Of temper which led few
Northern men to unite with the South in
yielding il up to slavery? And hereafter,
when we who are now in life arc passing into
he grave, will it not be stain upon our
names and a shadow upon our consciences, if
,aYing the power to prevent it, we should
permit Kansas to be slave-another maraud-
ng Missouri instead of peaceful Iowa-or
wen Virginia, instead Of New York or
Pennsylvania?
Mr.. Buchanan, the candidate Of the Gin
innati Convention, stands pledged to make
he resolutions of that Convention his rule of
aith and practice. five are to take his own
he is to be. rather an automaton
han free agent. The Convention which
orninated him; that motley and noisy crowd
which nobody would have allowed to decide
matter of business of the smallest import
nee for himself-has done the thinking of
be President for the next four years, if Mr..
Buchanan should happen to be that Presi-
cnt. Such a candidate, under such circum-
ances, we cannot support.
Shall we, then, throw away our votes?-
hat we cannot do, for two reasons; one, that
,e shall indirectly contribute to Mr.. Buchan-
MS election; the other, that there is choice.
fr. Fremont, who has been nominated by the
scpublicans, is an acceptable candidate. His
and antecedents are all democrat
}, and strongly in his favor. He is known
, be man Of capacity, energy, pfObity and
onor. In his hands the Presidential office
ill be vigorously and justly administered
Ve have tharoforc Nominated him for tho |