Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1857-07-30
SPEECH
ST. iTOR TRUMBULL,
OF ILLINOIS.
ON THE POLITICS OF THE DAY:
n Reply to that of Senator Douglas.
Delivered at the Capitol Of Illinois,
JUkE 90, 1857.
OF ILLINOIS,

call of some of the citizens of Springfield
to address you upon the political question,
of the day, it will be my object to place be-
fore you, as clearly as can, the points al
issue between parties, and the views enter.
tanned by each. SO far as they can be gath.
cred from their acts and avowals Both the
great political parties of the day, the Re.
publican and the self-styled Democratic
contain within their ranks some persons
from all the political parties which have
heretofore existed in the country. This is
consequence resulting from the disruption
of parties in. 1854, Occasioned by the change
of policy which was then inaugurate6 in re.
gard to the power of Congress over the Ter
fitories, and particularly in relation to Sla.
very therein.
Prior to that time, the power of Congress
to govern the Territories was unquestioned
All the departments Of the Government
Legislative, executive and judicial-had ac-
knowledged and acted upon it from the
foundation of the Government. period OF
more than sixty years. Every President
from and including Washington, had in
some form recognized the power of Con-
gress to establish Territorial governments,
and acted upon the subject of Slavery-Con-
gress, in all instances where the Territory
was free when acquired, continuing it so;
in some instances, providing for making
free, territory which when acquired was
witkin slaveholding jurisdiction; and in
other instances Slavery was permitted to
continue in Territories where il existed at
the time of their acquisition. 1t is not
strange, therefore, that SO important de-
parture from the uniform and well-settled
practice under the Constitution, as denial
of the power of the Federal Government
over Territories. and particularly in regard
to Slavery, shoult have given rise to new
parties. As the Democratic party was in
power when this innovation was made. the
party opposed to the change in constituting
the Constitution, and in favor of maintain
ing it as it had always before been inter-
preted, took the name Republican, while
the advocates of the new version adhered TO
the name Democrat, thinking, no doubt, that
because the name once embraced a party
distinguished Cor its devotion to equal rights
and the Constitution, it could be used to ad-
vantage by those who were now about to
decry the one and undermine and subyert
the other.
Prior to the last Presidential election, the
Republican party had convention which
proclaimed its creed. 1t avowed itself in
favor of restoring the action of the Federal
Government to the principles of Washing
ton and Jefferson, from which the selEstyIed
Democracy had departed; declared that the
maintenance of the principles promulgated
in the Declaration of Independence and
essential to the preservation of our Repub-
lican Institutions; that the Federal Consti-
tuition, the rights of the States and the
Union of the States should be preserved; !;
that the Constitution conferred upon Con-
gress sovereign power over the Territories
for their government, and that, in the exer-
else Of that power, it was both the right and
the imperative duty of Congress to prohibit
in the Territories those twin relics of bar
barism-Polygamya and Slavery; and that
they were opposed to all legislation impair
ing liberty of conscience or equality Of
rights among citizens. These, in brief. are
the principles avOwed by the Republican
party.
The principles of Jefferson, ndorsed by
them and t. which they would bring back
the Federal Government, as announced by
himself, are:
Equal and exact justice>to all men, o.
whatever State or persuasion, religious or
political; peace, commerce, and honest
friendship with all nations, entangling ALI
ances with none; the support of the State
Governments in al their rights, as the most
competent administrators for our domestic
concerns, and the surest bulwarks against
an:i-republican tendencies; the preservation
of the General Governmen; in its whole
constitutional vigor as the sbeet-anchor of
our peace at home and safety abroad; a
jealous care Of the right of election by the
people, mild and safe correction of abuse S
which are Topped by the sword of revolution
where peaceable remedies are unprovded;
absolute acquiescence in the decisions of
the majority, the vital principle of republics,
from which is no appeal but force-the vital
principle and immediate parent of despo-
tism; weli-disciplined militia our best re-
lance in peace, and for the first movements
in war till regulars may relieve them; the
supremacy of the civil over the military au-
thority; economy in the public expense, that
labor NAV be lightly burdened; the honest
pavmeut of our debts, ard sound preserva-
ton of the public faith; encouragement of
apricu lture, and of commerce as its hand
maid; the diffusion of information, and an
arraignment of all abuses at the bar of the
public reason; freedom Of religion, freedom
of the press. and freedom of the person un-
der the protection Of the habeas corpus, and
and trial by juries impartially selected"
Those were the principles forming the
bright constellation which went before our
Revolutionary ancestors, and guided their
steps through an age Of revolution and re-
formation, and to the attainment of which
the wisdom of our sages and the blood of
our heroes were devoted. They were the
creed of the Republican party in the days
of jefferson, they are the creed of the Re-
publican party of to-day, and what friend
OF Humanity, of Freedom, and of Constitu-
tional Liberty can or will gainsay or assail
them? The enemies of republicanism, it
is true, assail that portion of Our creed which
asserts the power of Congress to govern the
Territories and prohibit Slavery therein;
but Jefferson, it will be remembered, was
The author of this prohibition. He it was
frst proposed excluding Slavery from the
North-Western Territory, and afterward, as
President, approved the bill establishing
the Territory of Illinois, which adopted the
provision of the Ordinance Of 1887, exclu-
ding Slavery.
have already stated that Congress, un-
der all administrations and with the con-
sent of all parties from the foundation of
the Government down to Pierce. exercised
the power of governing the Territories, and
excluding Slavery from them. Acts of Con-