Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-10-01

party are more thoroughly settled and more
vehemently active than any other, l would
answer in the language of the good old sage
and statesman, the Democratic leader-An-
drew Jackson-''the Union-it must and shall
be preserved" TFociferous applause.
Having, in brief terms, disposed of the first
legislation on the subject of Territories, now
come to that of the Territory of Louisiana
the first acquired after the establishment of
the Constitution of the United States. What
was the action of Congress with reference to
that Territory What was done may be found
Omitted States Statutes, at large, vol. .. page
23S) in an Act approved March 26 1904 en-
titled '-2n act erecting Louisiana into t,ro Ter
rifortes and prortdfng for the temporary gorern-
mert thereof"
By this Act, all south of the parallel lines
OF thirty-three degrees, being the present
State OF Louisiana, was organized by itself un-
der the name of the sc Territory of OrIeans.'
In respect to this Territory of Orleans. the
10th section prohibits the bringing in of slaves
from a foreign country; also the bringing in
OF slaves from any part of the United States,
who may have been brought into the United
States after the lst of May, 1893; and finally
provides as follows 8
No slave, or slaves shall directly or indirectly
De introduced into said Territory, except by cit
lzen of the United States removing into said Ter
ritory for actual settlement, and being at the time
OF such removal bona fae owner of such slave or
slaves; and every slave imported or brought into
said Territory contrary to the provisions of this
act shall thereupon be entitled to, and receive his
or her freedom
1t is said that slavery is a subject upon which
| Congress has no right to legislate. Here they
did legislate. and said that nobody but cit-
zen of the United States should bring slave
there; that he must come for actual settle
ment-in other words, that no slave should be
imported into that State, by the slave dealer,
whether he came from Cuba or Virginia
whether he from a frica or ba tbar IN
slave States. 1t allowed the citizen who own
ed slaves, and who was going into Louisiana
to settle, to take his slaves with him but it
allowed no slave to enter the Territory by any
other means than that; and had a slave been
taken into that Territory as they have been ta-
ken into Kansas, the habeas corpus would have
been issued, and the great judge of that day,
John Marshall, would have given the slave his
freedom. TApplause.1 The law of that day
is the law of to-day; and yet are not slaves
carried into Kansas, and is there not there as
Chief Justice man whose infamies will re-
deem the character of Jeffries in history ?
And yet, Democrats, you are asked to vote
and sustain him and, Americans, you are
asked to give half vote, or not to vote against
him. There is the position of the parties.
The Republicans come up and say, ''Kansas is
free; il is the land of freedom-it is free by
the law of God and the law OF man, and being
free, we mean to exercise all the power with
which, under God and the Constitution of our
country, we are invested, to secure its freedom
to the white man forever" We ask you to
join US in the work.
Now, my friends, from that time, down till
near the close of Mr.. Polk's administration,
any other doctrine than that which have as
serted, had never been uttered in either House
of Congress. l take it that my democratic
friends will receive the opinions of James Bu-
chanan as pretty sound, and will quote from
one of the last, if not the ve:y last speech
which he made while representing the State of
Pennsylvania in the Senate of the U. States.
1t was during the administration of John Ty-
Ter, when the Texas bill' was under consider
alton. 1t was proposed to admit Texas into
the Union, and it was agreed in the resolution
of the House. that so much of Texas as lay
south Of the line of SO degrees so minutes,
should be admitted as States when the people
thereof fit to divide it, and ask admission
to the Union; but that from much of it as
lay north of that line, slavery, or Ito use the
language of the ordinance of Jefferson) Gin
voluntary servitudc except punishment for
crime, should be prohibited forever. Mr. Bu-
chanan was speaking upon those resolutions.
WAS it desirable,'; said he. ''agan to have the
Missouri question brought home TO the people to
! gOad them to fury -
What was that Missouri question? When
| Congress had prohibited the extension of Sla-
very north of SO deg. so min., while the whole
north has stood up almost one man resist
ing-or, at any rate, when every man from the
north. with solitary exception, who had voted
| to give up one inch of territory to slavery
| North or South of that line had been left out
! of the succeeding Congress, the whole South
/ had voted for it-every Southern Senator and
all the Southern Representatives except thIr-
teen-and it had been made. 1t was of that
! legislation excluding slavery from all the Ter
/ ritories North of Sc deg. so min, that Mr.
/ Buchanan speaking. s
WAS it desirable said he ''again to have the
At. 10
( goad them into fury! That question between the
two great interests in country had been wei
/ discussed and well decided. and from that momen
he had set down his foot on the solid ground theI
established. and there he would let the question
stand forever. Who could complain of the terms
| of that compromise! -.
at was then settled that north of Sc degrees 81
minutes. slavery should be forever prohibited
The same line fixed npon in the resolutions re
Gently received from the House of Representatives
now before us. The bill from the House for tn
| establishment of Territorial government in Ore
! gon excluded slavery altogether from that vas
country"
Is our position reasonable Is it one cal
culated to promote union? If 1t is, James
Buchanan was, / presume, of discreet age whel
he made that speech in the Senate of the Uni
ted States, although in regard to some OF hl
speeches 1t was said he was boy when III
made them, and therefore onght not to be hei'
responsible. Laughter
| have read brief quotation to show yol
what the doctrine was wheh we were upoh VI
threshold of the agitation that now disturb
the country. 1t was in lS45 that Mr.. Buchan
an made the speech from which have quoted
On the 10Th of February, 1S41, John G. Cal
houn arose in the Senate of the United States
and. without business before the Senate t
which the resolutions referred, proposed thes
resolutions =
aResolyea, That the Territories of the Unite
states belong to the several States composing tn
Tnion. and are held by them their joint an
common property