Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1856-10-04
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Douglass and Fillmore,

William II. Seward the Black Republican
leader, the originator of the "higher law
doctrine, the arch agitatorsand sworn enemy
of the South, who would place the negro on
an equality with the white man, to Stephen
A. Douglass, because as It says, he is
too ardent in his support of the Constitution
al rights of the South The Spectator
thinks his ardor in the support of the Con-
stitution (for we contend the Constitution
does guarantee the rights of the South, } is
evidence that he is not reliable, but Seward
is preferable, who has boldly declared in
the Senate of the United States, although
he was solemnly sworn to support the Consti-
tuition, that he felt bound by higher law of
mad fanaticism to disregard the Constitution
when his opinions of slavery conflict with
it. In other words the Spectator prefers
an avowed assailant of the Constitution and
the South, to one who zealously assists the
South in maintaining her Constitutional
rights Strange preference this. for aSouth
ern paper :!
The Spectator justifes this singular
choice, after diligently searching the long
record of Douglass in the Honse Of Repre-
sentatiyes and Senate for many years past,
by presenting declaration, made in a running
debate last session by Douglass, in which
he said that from reading the amendment Of
Trumbull to the Kansas bill it inclined him
to the opinion that the amendment, was
substantially the same as the Kansas Ne
braska bill, but declined voting for. the
amendment, because it was not pertinent to
the bill then under consideration.
Trumbulls amendment was designed to
declare the meaning Of the Kansas Nebraska
bill to be that the people of the Territory of
Kansas have fullpower at any time, through
their Territorial legislation, to exclude slave
~ from the Territory, or to recognize and
regulate it therein.
The position which VIC, and the Democracy
of the South generally take upon this poin
is, that tile people of a Territory have not
the right to exclude slave property taken III
to the Territory, until the Territory is being
organized into State, by the adoption Of
State Constitution. Up to that period the
Territory is the property OF the States in
common, and the citizens of tie South have as
good ri sht there with their slave property
as northern citizens have with their property;
and that the Constitution being made to
protect property aud not to destroy it, and
recognizing slaves as property protects it in
the Territories where the Constitution of
the L s. is supreme, and that not until the
Territory is organizing into a sovereign
State have the people of it the right to ex-
clude slaves.
The declaration of Judge Douglass, that
he inclined to the opinion that Trumbull's
amendment conveyed the meaning of the
Kansas Nebraska bill, is the first indication
of the tendency Of his mind to that view of
that act.
But this inclination of his mind, is the
sin which renders him more odious in the
estimation Of the Spectator than Seward
But the Spectator defies us to show zone
instance in which he" (Fillmore) "has +
ever endorsed the monstrous dogma of
Squatter Sovereignty"
Mr.. Fillmore has gone so far beyond
Squatter Sovereignty that he is not so much
as willing to allow the South to have the
poor chance, in the Territories, that Squat
ter Sovereignty would afiord--to allow the
majority of the people of the Territories to
say whether slavery shall be tolerated. He
believes that Congress has the right by one
fell swoop to imperiously prohibit the in
PRODUCTION of slaves into the Territories at
all The South are by his doctrine, denied
entirely the poor boon which squatter Soy
eroignty would afford.
Here is the evidence. In the House of
Representatives on the 18th December 1888,
Mr.. Wise asked leave to submit the follow
ing resolution, together with five others, as
containing his sentiments, and
what he believed to be the real sentiments
of the whole South.
81. Resolved, That Congress has no
power to abolish slavery in the District Of
Columbia, or in the TERRIroRIEs or THE
UNITED STATES; whether such power in the
said District OF Territories be exercised ''as
a means, or with the view, of disturbing
and oserthrowing slavery in the States or
not"
Objection being made, Mr., Wise moved
a suspension of the rules, calling for the
yeas and nays; which, being ordered, were
yeas 113, nays 96-Eillmore in the mega
tive. See Congressional Globe, page 80,
House Journal, n.
On the 18th January, 1910, Mr.. Lin
n y ,I.I