The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1856-01-17

exceeded sixty millions OF dollars. The
proportion of Ohio was of course si1 mil
| lions.
While we have thus paid for the very
soil we live on, an amount which no other
people has ever paid under like circum'
stances or under any other circumstances,
and while we still contribute thus amply
and freely to the annual revenue, it is not
an agreeable reflection that, of all the
States in which the General Government
has asserted proprietary right to the soil,
Ohio has received the least in grants of
lands for education, Improvement, and 9TH
er like purposes and that while millions
are expended for theprotcction and benefit
of Commerce on the Ocean Coasts of the
Republic, the property and lives of our
own people are exposed to continual peril
and enormous loss upon our Rivers and
Lakes for the want Of comparatively in
significant appropriations for the improve
ment of their channels and harbors. The
injustice of unequal grants of lands is per-
haps beyond remedy; but it will be our
own fault if our Rivers and Harbors con-
tnue to be thus neglected.
While in these and many other impor-
tant details of administration the interests
of our own State are deeply affected by
the action of the National Government, we
are even moro vitality concerned in the
great principle by which that action and
The progressive development Of our coun-
, try are regulated and controlled.
J AS man is more than his circumstances,
as freedom is better than wealth, as rights
are more important than institutions, it be-
comes us to look well to the fundamental
f ideas wich determine the character OF
5 Government and the course of its practi-
g c'e operation. (. ... L#A##
: The basis of American Institutions is
r the democratic principle ofequality among
= men. They rest upon the solid founda.
ton Unpopular consent. The primary OBJ
: ects of their es abishment are the defence
Y and protection of fIersonalrights. If they
9 fail to secure these ends, it is the duty Of
a the people who established to amend OF
e change them. TO organize and admins
Y ter government upon those principles is
e the true work of a republican people.
5 While the democratic idea thus consti
i tutes the basis of American Institutions
various exceptions, under the pressure o
0 real or supposed exigencies, have been ad
> mitted to its universal application. A
= mong these, Slavery, the creature Of des
r potism and deadly opposite of democracy
/, claims Eal ,ful pre-eminence.
e When our country asserted her indie
c pendence, slavery existed in all the States
It's evil influences, social and political
i were, however, we'll understood, and its
s rreconcilable antagonism to the rights o
i human nature and the principles of jus
: government, was universally acknowl
+ edged.
= The founders OF the Republic in fran
d ing our institutions, were careful to civ,
no national sanction 10 this porteniou,
S anomaly; butthey attempted no lnierie
= renee with its existence in the States. -
II Outside OF State limits. they allowed i
C no shelter. Within State limits, they
left it to the exclusive disposition Of tht
Il States Immediately concerned. No fac
: i, better established by the records of tht
l. past, than the prevalence, during the ear
e Iier period of our history, Of an almos
= universal expectation that slavery, eXcIu
= ded, by positive prohibition, from all ma
h lionaI territory, would gradually but Ger
: tainIy. and at no dist nj day, under tht
= operation of ihe principles OF the Decla
l. ration OF Independence, and through The
/ action Of the Stale authorities, disappear
II wholly from every State of the Union.-
l The foremost champions OF freedom were
;, citizens OF slave States, and occupied the
+ highest places in the State and Naliona
1t Governments.
e In 1874, Immediately after the parla
II adjustment Of the conflict between the
d claims of the Union and the pretenslon'
= Of the States in respect 10 the territory
3 between the Al'eghenieS and the Missis
Vt Sippi, though the cession, by Virginia, o
't territory northwest of the Ohio, JEFFER
+ SON proposed to provide forever agsnS
the extension Of slavery. by a positive
II prohibition of its existence after 1900. in
o any territory ceded or to be ceded, or r
: any Safe TO be created Cut Of such terri
It tory. This proposed prohibition receiv
= ed the votes OF sixteen out OF twenty.
d delegates, and six out Of nine Stales in
;, the Congress Of the Confederation /
= failed TO become law by reason Of tha
e provision of the Articles OF Confederation
r which made the concurrence Of at eas
e seven States necessary 10 an affirmative
!, decision ofany question, The great ma,
| jority in its favor 10 dicates, however, the
= prevalent sentiment of the time
Three years later, the Ordinance o.
e 1887 impressed upon the soil oi the ter.
: ritory north west Of the Ohio an indelibIt
3 prohibition OF slavery. That Ordinance
t was adopted by the unanimous votes o
+ all the States in Congress. 1t covered
. eyv;,v inch Of territory subject to the ex
elusive regu!S'on of the General Gov
: ernmOnt.
l In the same year the National Consli,
1 tuition was framed, Mr.. MADISON de.
: cared it wrong TO admit in the Consli
: tuition the idea that there could be prop
i eriy in man. No such word as slave Of
slavery found place in any Of its proyis.
=, ions. All recognition Of the righ,lulnes'
i OF Slaveholding and all nutionaI sanction