The Cadiz Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1854-1864, 1857-01-21

I
Congress has no authority, under The Conctution,
to enact such laws "
I find in the Republican platform q substantial
assertion of the power ofcongress to prevent"
slavery within the States find that rcpudia-
ted. in the stronges terms, by the Democratic
platform.
A Lastly, sir, find in tie Republican platform
an exhortation to the disunonists-whom the
Senator from New Hampshirc'has mover seen,
but whom the Senator from Massachusetts, has
seen and now denounces, and whom the Scna-
tor from Maine denouRees also. whether he has
seen them or not-an exhortion to these and all
other hctionists, of every sort and hue,
"Black spirits and white,
/. Red spirits and grey"
TO Join crusade TO lie prosecuted against the
southern States; and upon the other hand find
IN, the Democratic platform..an earnest appeal,
both to the southern States and the northern
States, by all they have attained and all they
can hope, by the memories ofour heroic age, by
the argument Of ancient concord, by the adjura-
ton of common ancestry, common history, a
common glory, and a common destiny, to rise
above the squabbles of ofsectiOnalism, the arts Of
dernagogues, and all the cant ofthese distemper-
times, that they, together, in union and in peace,
may run their great careers and fill the world
with fame.
The issue thus Joined by the two parties in
their platforms has gone to the country; and
upon it, after much argument aud deliberation,
the country has pronounced final verdict.
The president has clearly interpreted that
verdict in one admirable sentence:
'''Thcy have asserted the constitutional equal
ity Of each and all the States Of the Union as
States; they have affirmed the constitutional
equality Of each andeall OF the citizens of the
United States as citizens, whatever their rell-
gion, wherever their birth, or their residence;
they have maintained the inviolability OF the
Constitutional rights of the different sections oi
the Union, and they haveiprpclaimed their de
voted and unalterable attachment to the Union
and the Constitution, as objects Of interest su-
peror to all subjects Of local or sectional con-
troversy, as the safeguard of the rights of all, as
the spirit and the essence Of the liberty, peace,
and greatness Of the Republic"
The question'to which the Senator from llli-
nos adverts did not enter into the issue; nor is
, it of the least consequence. What Territorial
f Legislature can do, or cannot do, in respect oil
slavery, is no question for question for US. II
it should exclude slavery, or tolerate slavery,
whichever you please, the man who wishes to
f!contcst its power, one way or another, can be-
take himself to the judicial tribunals and have
his case decided e. The issue is not what Ter
ritorial Legislature can do; the issue is what
/ CONGRESS can do; and that, in my opinion is
, nothing at all
. If Congress will leave this whole question to
the inhabitants of the several Territories, to be
decided in each case without its intervention,
and when, and as the inhabitants may choose,
or may be able to decide it, I'VE shall have no
further occasion of controversy and schlsm,--
And Congress must do that, or the Union will
totter to destruction.
do not declare this in factious spirit;
express only the deliberate convictions Of my
: Judgment; and express them not in anger, bu'
in sorrow.
D.
has not dared, in some of the Northern States
g to defend the principles and policy Of the Kan
: sas Nebraska act should not allude to thj'
at all but for statement in the Globe newspa
. per yesterday, purporting to have been made BY
Il two of the Representatives from Ohio in the
: other House of Congress. ! have great person
+ al regard for those two gentlemen, and do no
n believe they would intentionally misrepresen
u the position of their political opponents No
l. can undertake, at this late hour, to contro
vert the various details which they have related
l. The Democratic party of Ohio will be defende
o in that House at thc next SESSION by its ow'
g able and gallant champions. Suffice it for tn
present, to declare that do not know Demo
J crat in the State-and my acquaintance is a
D. extensive one--who dissents from the princl
& pies expressed in the Cincinnati platform an
n embodied in the Kansas Nebraska BILL Ther
le may be such man; cannot say there is non
'S such; but can say, and will say, that hay
u not been able to find him. In all the spoeche
10 which heard, and upon all the banners whic
VI | saw, during the late canvass, there was
y sentiment should hesitate to affirm in tn
NJ presence, or before the Union at large.
Why, sir, We could not have avoided that il
y, sue if we had chosen. Besides the Cincinna
in platform, which was printed in all the newsp;
mt pcrs and was the theme Of incessant discours
en- there is the platform Of the Democratic Sta
IS; Convention, which assembled at Columbus
IN January last. 1t declared
m "That slavery is a domestic institution, ar
les that Congress has neither the power to legisla
rr it into any Territory or State, nor exclude
I" tectly free to form and regulate their domest
institutions in their own way, subject only
,at the Constitution of the United States"
in This is the very language Of the Ncbrasl
M bill, The platform then adds:
HThat the right of the people of each parti
:, ular State and Territory to establish their ov
- constitution or form Of government, to choo
Ut and regulate their own domestic institutions
lr every kind and to legislate for themselves, is
n- fundamental principle of all free govcrnmer
m and that il is the self saIseright to secure wh
our ancestors waged the war of the Revelutit
'fe "a right lying at the very foundation of all o
u- free Institutions recognized in the Declarati'
en- Of Independence, and established by the Cons
=. tuition Of the United States; and we hereby j
dorse and reaftirn this nowdisputed principle
= These resolutions only assert what the Der
oeratiS State Convention ef Ohio asserted in ia
T. i uary, 1S4S, upon the issue as then pressnte