Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1856-01-02
LEWIS CLEPHANE, Secretary.
SILVER SPRING, Nd, Dec. /, 1855.

SILVER SPRING, Nd, Dec. /, 1855.
GENTLEMEN:-Having relinquished
political employment, and to avoid en-
countering again its anxieties, addicted
myself to country life, l am constrained
to decline your invitation to Join the Re-
publican Association of Washington City,
although tempted by the honor of becom-
ing its presiding officer. Yet l feel it
my duty to say, that in the mainI concur
in the aims of the Association. To ex-
clude Slavery from the Territories of the
United States, and TO rebuke the violation
of the Compromises, which were made
to stand as covenants between the Slave
and the Free States TO effect that ex-
c%luSion, are, in my opinion, the most i'm
portant movements 10 which have engag-
cd the public mind since the Revolution.
The extension of slavery over the new
Territories would prove fatal to their
prosperity but the greatest calamity to
be apprehended from it, is the destruc-
ton of the Confederacy, on which the
welfare of the whole country repoSes.
Every conquest of this element If d. =
cord, which has so often threatened the
dissolution of the Union, increases the
danger. Every surrender Of The Free
States invites invasion.
The cause which your organization is
intended 10 promote may well draw to
IFS support men of all parties. Differences
on questions of policy, of constitutional
construction, of modes of administration,
may be well merged, to unite men who
believe that nothing but concert of action
on the part of those who would arrest
the spread of slavery, can resist the
power of the combination now embodied
to make it embrace the continent from
ocean TO ocean.
The repeating clause of the Kansas bill
is predica.ed on the nullily OF the clause
in the Constitu ion which gives Congress
the power "to make regulations respect
ing the Territories of the United States.
Yet nothing is Clearer in the History Of
our Government, than that this phrase,
giving power 10 Congress 'to make re-
gulations respecting the Territories, was
meant 10 give it the power to exclude
slavery from them.
Nj. Jcfferson's resolution of 1884, de-
claring .'that there shall be neither Slav.
cry nor involuntary servitude in any oil
the States laid off in the Western Fer
rilory, was subsequently renewed in the
Corgiess of 1885, which added, "lhai
this regulation shall be an article ofcom-
pact !" and it was voted unanimously by
the delegations OF eight States out of
twelve.
1t was passed by the unanimous votes
of all the States by the Congress of 1887,
which sat contemporaneOusly with the
Convention forming the Constitution, and
that Constitution, gave Congress the
power "to make regulations respecting
the Territories" and moreover affirmed
before the adoption Of the Constitution"
by the Confederation-one of which
engagements was that made by the re-
gulation excluding Slavery from the Ter
ritories. Thus the Congress of the Con.
federation and the Convention framing
the Constitution united IN giving a double
sanction 10 the exclusion.
The first exerted the power of enacting
Mr.. Jeflerson's interdict of Slavery in the
Territories then held by the United Sta
ties, to which it had previously given an
impressive sanction BY adding, "Ihis re-
gulation shall be an article of compact"
&C.; and the Convention guaranteed this,
engagement" entered into under the
Confederation, by declaring it valid
and employed the same terms, "regula-
ton Of the Territories" TO transmit the
power exerted to future Congress. In
The face of this history, and the letter of
the Constitution granting the power to
make whatever regulations it deemed fit
respecting the Territories of the United
States, the author of The Kansas and Ne
braska Bill deny the Consti:utionality of
all the regulations which exclude SIav-
cry from Tie Territories, and set at naught
all the precedents that confirm them.
which have followedin uninterrupted sue
cession, from the foundation of the
Government.
The other clause in the Constitution,
empowering Congress 10 pass laws topre-
rent the migration or importation" Of
slaves after 1903, shows the fixed pur-
pose of the founders of our Union 10 limit
the increase of this evil. The consequence
was an inhibition, which presents ! South
Carolina planter, who has slaves in Cuba
from br;ngingthem to his home plantation
and to remove this obstruction TO the in
crease of Slavery within the Urion, and
open Africa to supply the demand made
by The new act, the Northern nulliiers
are already called on by their Southern
allies TO lend their aid ; and certainly
those who embrace Mr.. Calhoun's doc
trine. as stated by Mr.. Douglass. that
"every citizen has an inalienable right to
move into any of the Territories with his
property, of whatever kind or descrip-
tion," the Constitution and Compromises
Notwithstanding, can hardly refuse it. Ii
was on the annexation of the Mexican
Territories that Mr.. Calhoun asserted this
principle, to unsettle the fixed policy of
the Nation, beginning with the era of
the Declaration of Independence andhe
applied it alike to the Compromises of
1920 and 1910. Mr.. Douglas thus sums
up the position taken, and the result.
Under this section, as in the case of
the Mexican law in New Mexico and
Utah, it is a disputed point whether Sla-
very is prohibited in the Nebraska coun-
try by valid enactment. The decision of
this question involves the constitutional
power of Congress to pass laws prescri-
bing and regulating the domestic institu-
tons of the various Territories of the
Union. In the opinion of those eminent
statesman who hold that Congress is in
vested with no rightful authority to legis-
late upon the subject of Slavery in the
Terri cries, the eighth section of the act
preparatory, to the admission of Missouri