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


Have you heard the news from Maine. bows
(Ireat Appiause1. Such were the words
with which L commenced an address TO the
friends OF Polk, Dallas and Skunk in 1874 "A
bout this season of the year, in the district of
Spring Garden; and the Democratic news
that had come that day,-the day succeeding
Gubernatorial and Congressional election
was esteemed as the sure prestige of victory to
the party, as We esteem the news to-day
(Cheers.)
We live in curious times, politically, my
friends. Why is it that the Democratic star
OF the last, and the young Democratic Giant
OF the West, have wheeled into line and put
themselves on either side of the Wing Gibral-
tar, Fermontl Why stand Democratic Maine
ana Iowa supporting Wing Vermont There
is significance in the fact. 1t tells, to those
who understand it, the whole secret of .he up
rising of the people which has made party
ESQ far as Pennsylvania is concerned, but a few
weeks old j the master of the destinies of the
Commonwealth, and the party to settle the
coming election. Immense applause].
The Wings of old and the Democrats of old,
however they differed upon other questions,
agreed upon one indeed their agreement was
so entire that no question was made upon the
subject. They differed as to National Bank;
they differed as TO a Tariff; they differed as to
the distribNtion of the public lands they diff
fered as to the improvement of rivers and har
bors by the General Government but they a
greed as the patriots who framed the Constitu-
tion and who gave our government consistency
by the earliest action under it-they agreed
between themselves, and with the great men
who had moved before them that slavery
local domestic institution that, being such,
the General Government had no concern with
II within the limits of any one of the States
They agreed, in esteeming it great social
and political evil. They held that the Terri
tories, being the common property of the
States and of the people, and having been con-
fded by the ConstiA iAtion of the United States
to Congress, lit having been made the duty of
Congress to make all necessary regulations
for the Territories it was the business of
Congress to legislate for Territories, and to
exclude from them great social and polit-
icai evil .as Slavery. There was no diversity
of opinion on this subject among those who
established the confcderacy and governed the
country during the existence of the confed-
Grafton. There was no disagreement among
the earlier members of Congress during the
Administration of George Washington, or be-
tween that great man and the great men who
made up his cabinets. L have stated the doc
trinc held by them all--that the States were
sovereign and independent-that over the in
stitutions of the States Congress had no con-
trol--that the Territories were the common
property of the States. and that it the du-
ty OF Congress to legislate for the Territories
and by all their action they showed that they
agreed in the opinion, that, it being the duty
of Congress to legislate for the Territories, it
was their duty to legislate in such manner
should promote the welfare of the people, and
therefore, TO exclude Slavery from the COM
mon domain. loud cheers.1
/ shall not detain you by dwelling upon the
circumstances of the great ordinance of 1887,
which gave freedom to Ohio, Indiana, Michi-
gan, Wisconsin and Illinois. That territory
was the property of Virginia, slave State,
and, had no confederation taken place, no
Union been framed, it would have been slave
territory, as the mother State 1t was
ceded, though in the Southern portions of it
contained considerable numbers of slaves,
especially in Illinois. 1t was ceded first to
the cOnfederacy, and subsequently 10 the Uni
ted States; Thomas Jefferson himself drafted
the ordinance, by which ssinyoluntary servi-
tude, except as punishment for crime,'' was
prohibited from all that territory forever
That was the draft of the great Virginia states
man. Quibblers tell yOu that that was the ac-
tion of the cOnfederacy- Itell you that If was
the action of the confederacy, and that the first
Congress assembled under Constitution,
made that the law of Congress which had been
made the ordinance of the confeGeracy. 1t
was re-enacted, in the very language of Jetier-
son, as the sixth section of the act of the gov
ernment of the Northwestern Territory.
The territory eeded by North Carolina and
by Kentucky, ceded with stipulations, and
Congress was not free to legislate beyond
those stipuations; but there came a tiric
the territories, and it came speedily. We ac-
Qured the Louisiana Territory. We bought
1t, Mr.. Jefferson taking an active part in Its
purchase, he having succeeded Washington
and Adams in the Presidential chair. Now,
what were the provisions for the government
of that territory, thus acquired by purchase
It was slave territory. The French had ad-
mitted slavery into louisiana; it had its ex-
istence there money was invested in slavery !;
the habits of the people were adapted to slave
labor. That territory, slave territory as 1T
was. was acquired by purchase in lSO3 and In
alSO4. Thomas Jefferson being President, the
Congress of the United States legisated upon
the subject. Did they legislate upon the sub
ject of slavery in the territories-for mark
you, we are now called sstraitCrs'' and disu-
nionists," !" because we assert the doctrine that
it is the duty of Congress to legislate upon the
subject of slavery in the Territories. Upon
that one proposition all the grave charges are
based, and L propose to show you that If we
are traitors and disunionists, our great eXem-
plar was George Washington; that the next
in rank, and perhaps even greater in efficiency
in this work. was Thomas Jefferson; that we
have had in the reasonable and disunion
ranks every President, beginning with ash
inpton and ending with Millard Fillmore II
we are a set of traitors and dlsuni0nists, the
first great set we're Washington and his cabl-
net. and the Senate and Congress OF his day
and the last who legislated especially upon
the subject were James h. Polk with MS Gao
inet cot whom James Buchanan was ohe) anu
the Congress of their day, so that II we are
traitors and disunionists, we have briliiah
example and bright array of patriotic names
to lead US on. (Great applause.J
But, my friends, if were asked to sum ul
IN single phrase, from patriotic lips, the sen
timent that prevades the Republican party,
should utter in the language OF the w his