The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1857-03-20

pcactHbIy Wlstly
trench upon the doctrine Of local sovereignty or encroach
upon the right of local legislaon2 These Territories
framed their enactmens and, unless plainly volatve
OF some fundamental law always ratified by Congress
The people migrate territories until they
organized by law They go from the States where c
zens they have had voice in that legislation by which,
Inhabitants OF Territories they afterwards governed
When then should radical theorists insist that the wild
the reckless the busy-who make the of the early
population in those new settlementsbe permitted 10
indulge their vagares of social novelty without the posi-
bility OF amendment the chance Of corscion2 That
people who whatever their training and previous habits
are unsheered from the weather. and who to procure sub
sstence and animal convenences Obliged to smooth
the rugged paths of wilderness life i'll qualified by
stndous leisure and calm reflection be the founders
empire. And is it just that parent should maintain a
child who claims exemption from parental restraint and
aspres to the independence aud discretion of maturity
But have done with the Kansas Nebraska act 1t is a
legal anomaly kind of Legislative discovery of the
of introducing discord boodshed and disgrace where all
might have been peace and raernal kindness "a po,-
cal blunder' said TaleyraDd lis worse than crime"
The apohegm Is just in its application to this for the
bunder of passing this has been the prolific parent OF
many crimes and sorrows.
There is fear that the principle of the act which
discovered for the temporary purpose of getting at
thing else will be applied territory Its vital
iy has already passed away The doctrine of surrender
ing all the rights OF Congress to Territory with delegate
represent its people who are by the very law which
aed him, wholly independent of the body TO whom he is
too great absurdiy for any subsequent act The
notion OF congressional non-nervention implying abso
lutte territorial sovereignty, is faacy and fgment 1t
is capM mortuun at best to remain hereafter In per-
peual abeyanc 10 be revived Only when other Mis-
souri, Compromise is to be declared imperative and void
In botting out then, the discoveries which in with
the Kansas-Nebraska act come back TO the compro-
misses of 1885, which hereafter trust the North and the
South will in pursuance of written pledges invio
laby observe They have been wantonly infinged
both sideson the part Of southern members chiefly by
doing unwise unnecessary and booess act as
pealing the Missouri Compromise and introducing the
ghost Of squater sovereignty when looked for
flesh and substance the only plea upon which that
peal could be ostensiby justified On the NORTH
travened In attempting to get rid of evade the laws
| against fugitive slaves.
do not charge upon the large class who will harbor and
fugitves from labor the offences of melting
them fight and resisting the law for their restoration
There few of the northern States who would be
thus indifferent to law, to good citizenship moral ae-
glance to political justice enlightened benevolence For
myssand trust in this that represent the sentiment of
the law abiding vruous citizens Of the whole great North
the marshal OF my district charged with the duty of
storing fugitive to his owner wee to summon me as
part OF his posse either to resistance to at
tempted arrest to prevent and flight would at
obey the An officer commissioned with the
execution of writ the performance OF duty represents
the majesty of the law, and mans house person il
safe If he be not obeyed and assisted The reasoning and
thoughtful citizen who looks to the law for his protec
ton would not ask the question: whether the runaway
sought to be reclaimed ugtyefrom justice ugi-
tive from labor? These two classes OF ugves stand side
by side in the constitutions and the law makes dis
ncon between them except in the Of their deiv
cry, 1t s not the part of good and awabding freeman
to neutralize or counterfeit its behests.
All who honestly lock into this question of runaway
proposition Of enlarged charity, acknowledge
that the conduct Of the North th opposed
good citizenship to practical Justice 10 enlightened and
Christian beneyolence Inquiry is seldom made whether
the runaway well i'll treated by the master whose
protection he has deserted, about hs capacity to
take care of himself Often untaught children in the
knowledge of providence and thrift ignorant of the
of life and the world these secreed runaways frequent
doomed to wander about in large cities under the
pressure OF hopeless destituon temporarily relieved per-
haps by crime thence to be plunged into the greater mis-
cries of prison. the statistics of census reports
would follow these piabe outcasts, that all
conscientious and women would shrink appalled, from
this Lconsdered form Emancipation We CLEAN from the
statistics OF pauperism and crime amentabe picture
the degradation and ruin of many hese unhappy beings
Shut out from the paterna shelter of those upon whom
they depended for the supply Of every necessary from child
hood-of those whose family bond, whose direct interest
and whose legal duty alike enlisted their
fort in youth and health, and their infancy
age and sickness they exchange life thus free from care
and want for of nominal freedom truly but of real and
unmitgated wreichedness. Lett not the form Of
mediate emdncpaon--that mad offspring of an insane
modern philanthropy Coupled with injustice to the
MASTER and with multiplied evils to th existing system of
slavery does it not threaten also the social and political
prospects OF the country Does 1t not throw additional
restraints upon those who still in bondage and post
gene indefinitely all consideration remedy for grievances
in the system ITSELF which, with greater security in the
persons of the aborers there would be inclination
the South to regard and apply Does it iname and
ALLEVIATE the South that for The indulgence
stac sentiment they should be deprived of their aboers
by their own countrymen in mode not merely unjust
themselves and their dependents but involving dsloyay
to the plainest edict Of our supreme national law
In this country our sympathes much in favor of
abstract freedom that we act as il it the pa6uu
natural food of life and the great panacea of other ills
has Its origin in noble sentiment of nature which,
If it unduiy carry avay may oveshadow and blight
many other virtues which lean upon il for support,
freely admit that liberty is abstract good but this like
all general distractions has many practical exceptions 1t
IL good to those who know how it, and are capa-
BILE of making it subservent to their happiness But under
that name and ostensbly to promote and it, have
been pepetated some of the greatest crimes which have
afflicted humanity. "Oh Liberty" said Madame Ro-
land she passed the statue of the goddess her way TO
execution, what crimes committed in Thy name In
the under review, tho wprbppers of freedom while
falling down at the feet of its cold and insensbe marble
would interpret their deity favorable to the commission
of those crimes and which, like the tabled Asra
mons Of France, drunk with the human gore they were
shedding mady proaned the temple by numbering all the
attributes of the goddess whom they proesed worship
Our worshppers of freedom not merely to do this but
evince disposition by kindng the elements of civil war;
to fire far beautiful and costly temple than that of
Ephesus-the temple of American freedom tself-that
rest temple of human liberty which the long ages of time
yealed.
On what plea is 1t that SYSTEM the inevitable results of
which, however unseen by the multitude be plain
thoughtful observers be deliberately persisted in by
sensible men2 The friends of freedom profese to be the
friends Of the save but instead of uniting like good c
zens in solemn pledge to the constitution under which
they live and like good men, intent upon his happiness to
send him back, intelligent persons found willing, on
the ground of intangible and abstract sentiment in
fame sectional feeling, while they do lasting injury to
the unconscious object of their exerops The free States
is said be the consecraed soil of freedom and EN-
uate England in the glory of her free constitution As
English poet has described that constitution;