Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-03-14

FRIDAY, MARCH "A, 1865.
which Is the soundcr1

requires no extraordinary perceptive pow
ers. The simlitude can be seen at glance.
The fundamental principle of both is sen-
Intervention They eschew Intervention OF
all sorts and from all sources They locate
the power to control the character of the
domestic institutions of the inchoate State
in one sovereignty, and one alone. They
contend that the Constitution has intrusted
this delicate duty to the people of the Ter
ritories, or incipient States in their capa-
city as formers of State Constitution,
upon their application for admission into
the Union. They thus deny, by exclusion,
the power to Congress to intervene or in
terfere in the determination of the ques-
ton. They as fully deny it to the squat
tiers" or Inhabitants Of Territory, be they
few or many. This construction, by in
ference, guarantees to the citizens of every
State in the Union the right to emigrate
to the Territories, the common property of
all the States, and there enjoy every privi-
lege which they hold in the homes from
which they had emigrated. Among the
dearest Of these privileges is the right to
hold and enjoy property. Property is
whatever the organic law Of the land per-
mits the citizen to hold and use for his own
benefit, aud dispose of at his own discre-
ton. The Constitution of the United
States recognises property in slaves. There
fore, in all territory over which the Consti-
tuition and its appointed authorities exercise
dominion, slaves are property. The citi-
zen of Southern State, owning slaves,
has the right to carry them there and hold
them as such. 1t requires no local or mu
nicipal law to make good that right No
local legislation can infringe it, and no
Congressional legislation can impair it in
its minuteSt jot or title. There is but one
power which has an existence in this gov
ernment, which can annul or make void the
title to that property. 1t resides in the
State Constitution which the people of the
Territory may at certain period in their
existence ordain and establish. That pc
riod being when a legally taken census has
certified to the requisite population, and
after formal application for admission into
the Union, and acceptance by Congress-
Then, and then only, and thus, and only
thus, can any change be made in the rela-
ton of master and slave, barring only the
individual right to emancipate The right
to make the change is purely and peculiarly
a State right. The right of Congress to
prevent the introduction of slavery into
the territories, is just as indefensible as its
right to abolish it in the States But one
sovereignty is competent to abolish or eS-
tablish it, and that is State sovereignty.
1t does not reside in the squatterS, or strag-
glers, or bona jide inhabitants of territory
until certain regulations have been complied
with; until they begin to assume the char
acter of people with political rights and
prerogatives. Before they attain this con-
dition, they are to be regarded in the light
of subjects living under the care and pro-
lection of the General Government Squat
ter sovereignty is, if possible, more vio-
lent pervcrson of the Constitution than
Congressional sovereignty, and both are
utterly repugnant to its spirit and letter
This is the correct and Constitutional
doctrine. We have considered it the doc
trine of the KanSas-N ebraSka act and of
the American Platform. We are confirm
ed in this view, by reference to the pro-
ceedngs of the late Virginia Democratic
Convention. They made a declaration of
principles, among which we find the fol-
lowing:
Eighth That we approve Of the act known
rs the Kansas-Nebraska act, repeating, as il
did. the Missouri restriction, which was I'M
just to the South, and in conflict with the
constitution and the equality of the States
Ninth That this Convention approves fully
and endorses cordially the principle contained
in the aforesaid act, which secures TO the citi
zens of Territory, in applying for admission
into the UuiOn State, the right to estaO-
lsh their own government, with such powers.
Limitations and restrictions as they may think
proper, subject only To tie Constitution of the
United States, which requires the form of gov
eminent to be Republican.
Unaltcrable attachment to the COnstitu-
ton and a strict construction of its letter,
is the glory Of Virginia and her statesmen.
They have in these resolutions re-declared
the high ground they have always main
tanned on the Slavery question and its con-
stitutional bearings The reader will note
the remarkable similarity in language, and
the precise identity in the idea conveyed
between the ninth resolution given above,
and the seventh section of the Februa-
~ platform Of the American Convention
The American Party Of the Union and the
Virginia Democracy, are united on the
Slavery question. They commit the insti-
tuition of slavery to the States where it
exists, or may exist, claiming that State
sovereignty alone can give it existence, or
refuse it existence, or abolish it where it
does exist. No Southerner asks more than
this, nor wants more The Virginia de-
mocracy in taking this position have en-
dorSed the American noSition and yindica.