The true Democrat., 1856-01-15

As to Florida, that was but the transfer by Spain to the United States of territory on the east side of the river Mississippi, in exchange for large territory, which the United States transferred to Spain on the west side of that rlver, as the entire diplomatic history of the transaction serves do demonstrate. More ever it was an acquisition demanded by the commercial interests and the security of the whole Union.
 In the meantime, the people of the United States had grown up to proper consciousness ot shelr strength. and in brief contest with France, and in a second serious war with Great Britain, they had shaken off all which remain ed of undue reverence for Europe, and emerg- ed from the atmosphere of those transatlan tic influences which surrounded the infant republic, and had begun to turn their attention to the full and systematic development of the internal resources of the Union.
 Among the evanescent controversies of that period, the most conspicuous was the question of regulation by Congress of the social condi- ton of the future States to be founded ill the territory of Louisiana.
 The ordinance for the government of the territory northwest of the river of Ohio had contained a provision which prohibited the use of servie labor therein, subject to the condi- tion of the extradition of fugtives from service due in any other part of the United States Subsequently to the adoption of the constitu- ton, this provision ceased to remain as a law; for its operation such Was absolutely super ceded by the constitution. But the recollcc- ton of the fact excited the zeal of social propa- gandism in some sections of the confederation: and when a second State, that of Missouri, came to be formed in the territory of Louisiana, proposition was made to extend to the latter territory the restriction originally applied to the country situated between the rivers Ohio and Mississippi.
 Most unquestonable as was this proposition in all its constitutional relations, nevertheless it received the sanction of Congress- with some slight notifications of line to save the exist ing rights of the intended new States It was reluctantly acquiesced ill by southern States as a sacrifice to the cause of peace and of the Union, not only of the rights stipulated by the treaty of Louisiana, but of the principle of equality among the States guarantied by the constitution. It was received by the northern States with angry and resentful condemnation and complaint because it did not concede all which they had exactingly demanded. Having passed through the forms of legsla- ton, it took it's place in the statute-book stand ing open to repeal, like any other act Qf doubt ful constltutonaty, subject to be pronounced null and void by the courts of law and posses sing no possible efficacy to control the rights of the States, which mi ght thereafter be organized out of any part of the ori 5na territory of Lou siana.
 In all this, If any aggression there were, any innovation upon pre-existing rights, to which portion of the Union are they justly chargea ble?
 This controversy passed away with the occa- sion, nothing surviving it save the dormant let ter of the statute.
 But, long afterwards, when by the proposed accession of the republic of Texas, the United States to take their next step in territorial greatness, similar contingency occurred, and became the occasion for systematizel attempts to intervene in the domestic affairs of one sec. tion of the Union, in defiance of their rights as States, and of the stipulations of the consti- tuition. These attempts assumed a practical direction, in the shape of perseverlng endeavors, by some of the representatives, in both houses of Congress, to deprive the southern States of the supposed benefit of the provisions of the act authorizing the organization of the State of Missouri
 But the good sense of the people, and the vi tal force of the constitution, triumphed over sectional prejudice, and the political errors of the day. and the State of Texas returned to the Union as she was, with social institutions which her people had chosen for themselves and with express agreement by the re-annexing act, that she should be susceptible of subdivision into plurality of States.
 Whatever advantages the interests of the southern States, as such gained by this, were far inferior in results, as they unfolded in the progress of time, to those which sprang from previous concessions made by the south
 To every thoughtful friend of the Union to the true lovers of their country-to all who longed and labored for the full success of this great experiment. of republican institutions, it was a cause of graduation that such an oppor- tuuity had occurred to illustrate our advancing power on this continent and to furnish to the world additional assurance of the strength and stability Of the constitution. Who would wish to see Florida still European colony? Who would rejoice to see Texas lone star, instead of one i'll the galaxy of States? Who does not appreciate the ncalculablc benefits of the &C., qusitou of Louisiana? And yetnarrow views and sectional purposes would inevitably have excluded them from the Union.
 But another struggle on the same point en- sued when OUT victorious armies returned from Mexico and It devolved upon Congress to pro- vide for the territories acquired by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The great relations of the subject had become distinct and clear to the perception ot the public mind, which appre- cated the evils of sectional controversy upon the question of the admission of new States In that crisis intense solictude pervaded the nation. But the patriotic impulses of the po pular heart, guided by the admonitory advice of the father of his country, rose superior to all the difficulties of the incorporation of a new empire into the Union. In the counsels of Congress there was manifested extreme an tagonism of opinion and action between some representives, who sought by the abusive and unconstitutional employment of the legislative powers of the government to interfere in the condition of the inchoate States, and to impose their own social theories upon the latter; and other representatives who repeled the interpo. sition of the general government in this respect and maintained the self-constituting rights ol States.
 In truth, the thing attempted was, in form, alone, action of the general government, whicl in reality it was the endeavor, by abuse of le gislative power, to force the ideas of interna policy, entertained in particular States, upon allied independent States. Once more the con stltutlon and Union triumphed sgnaly. The new territories were organized without restrc- tions on the disputed point, and were thus Jeff to judge in that particular for themselves; ant the sense of constitutional faith proved vigo rous enough in Congress not only to accomplish this primary object but also the incidental and hardly less important one, of so amending tho provisions of the statute for the extradition O ingltves from service, as to place that public duty under the safe guard of the general govern ment, and thus relieve it from obstacles raised up by the legislation of some of the States
 Vain decamatons regarding the provisions of law for the extradtion of fugitives from ser vice, with occasional episodes of frantic effor to obstruct their execution by riot and murder continued, for a brief time, to agitate certain localities. But the true principle, of leaving each State and territory to regulate its owl laws of labor, according to its own sense o right and expediency, hadacqured fast hold o the public judgment to such degree, that, b, common consent if wac ohcarvod in f ho orc,o