Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-10-15
Buchanan, VS.. Clay, Douglas, and Him-
nnIC.

tional Democrats Of this time, upon the SLAYER,
question, so well seen as in comparing it witt
the position assumed by the leading statesmen o
all parties in the past, in all sections of TIL
Union, South as well as North. For instance
Henry Clay, whose position on the slavery ques
ton. at the time Of the passage of the famou
compromises of 1850, was deemed sufficiently
Southern to suit the most ultra pro-slavery advo
cate OF the national Democracy, at that period
used arguments and made admissions which
though coming from Southern man, and deem
ed sufficiently pro-slavery to satisfy the demand
OF the most ultra Of the Southern slavery exten
sionists, If repeated now by Northern man il
Congress, would be denounced as the rawlings o
some "rabid, fanatical abolitionist." just perust
what Mr.. Clay said in the Senate, July o. 1850
when it was supposed the position he assumed
was the ultimatum which the South demanded,
and compare it with the abominable doctrines
advanced by President Buchanan in his reply to
the New Haven memorialists =
81 am aware that there are gentlemen who
maintein that, tn virtue of the Constitution, the
right to carry slaves south of that line, (36 deg.
80 sec.) already exists and that, of course, those
who Inaintai that opinion, want no other secur-
liJ lOI tue VI slaves Sbutu OF
that line than the constitution. If 1 had not
heard that opinion avotOed, should hare regard
ed as one of the most extraordinary assumptions
and the most indeteasible position that a0as e0er
taken by man. The constitution neither created
nor does it continue slavery.
II the constitution possesses the paramount au-
thUrty attributed to it, the laws of the free
states of the Union would yield to that para
mount authority. If, therefore, it be true that,
under the laws now in force in California New
Mexico, and Utah, slavery cannot be introduced
IF such is the lee loci, the constitution Of the
United States is as passive and neutral upon the
subject, as the constitution or government of any
other country upon earth. In my opinion,
therefore, the supposltion that the constitution
OF the United States carries slavery into CALI
fornia, supposing her not to be State, is an as
sumption totally unwarranted by the Constitu'
ton = Con. Globe, uot. %, part 2.
For the sake of references in immediate juxta-
position with the above, we reprint the following
extract from Mr.. Buchanan's memorial to Pro-
fessor Slliman and others, that the wide con-
trast between the positions assumed by South
ern and Northern man, respectively, on the
slavery question, may be more wildly seen:
Slavery eSiSted at that period, and still er.
lists IN KaazaS under the constitution of the
Ustited States. This point has has been at last
finally settled by the highest tribunal known to
our laws. HoU 1t could ever hare been seriously
doubted, is a mystery. If confederation Of SOW
ereign states acquire new territory, at the ex.
pense of their common blood and treasure, surely
one set of the partners can have no right to ex-
elude the other from its enjoyment, by prohibit
ing them from taking into it whatever is recSg-
nized TO be property by tie common constitution
But when the people-the bona tide residents of
such territory-proceed to frame State constitu-
zion, then it is their right to decide the important
question for themselves, whether they will con-
tinue, modify, or abolish slavery. To them, and
to them alone, does this question belong, free
from all foreign interference"
To show that the leading Democratic states.
man Of the country coincided with Mr.. Clay in
1850, in the doctrine emphatically repudiated
by Mr.. Buchanan now, we give the following
quotation from what Mr.. Douglas said seven
years ago
'Some species of property are excluded by law
in most of the States, as well as territories, as
being unwise immoral, or contrary to the princi-
Piles of sound public policy. For instance, the
banker is prohibited from emigrating to Minnie
sofa, Oregon, or California, with his bank. The
bank may be property by the laws of New York,
but ceases to be SO when taken into State or ter
ritory where banking IS prohibited by the local
law. So, ardent spirits, whisky, brandy, all the
intoxicating drinks, are recognized and protected
as property in most of the States, if not in all of
them; but no citizen, sohetter from The North or
South, can take this species of property aoth
hin', and hold, SELL or use 1t at his pleasure an al
the IegFltoTleS-6ecdaSel 1t Is prohibited by
the local LGao--in Oregon by the statutes of the
Territory, and in the Indian country by the acts
OF Congress. Nor can man go there and take
and hold his slaves, for the same reason
And as late as 1856, even James Buchanan
himself, in his letter of acceptance Of the Pres-
dentian nomination, endorsed the "squatter
sovereignt" theory, which the position he as.
sumes in his letter to Professor Sillimon, SO ut
terly Tepudiates. Hear Mr.. Buchanan himself,
only little more than year since:
/" This legislation-the Kanzas and Nebraska
bills founded on principles as ancient as free
government itself, and in accordance with them,
mas simply declared that the people of Terrific
~, like those Of State, shall decide for them.
selves whether slavery shall or shall not exist
within its limits"
Now, President Buchanan says, the right Of
the STAKEHOLDER to take his slaves into any Of the
national territories, and hold them there is clear
and valid, even against any statute the Legisla.
iure of the territory may enact.
Thus, in the face Of the position SO short
time since assumed by himself, as well as BY al
other leading men, without exception, Of all par
ties, both at the North and the South, till within
few years, of the Illegally Of the existence o
slavery In the territories till established there b,
State law, President Buchanan now boldly take
the ground that slaves are recognized asq,opeyt,
in the territories, by the United States Consti
tuition, and that slaveholders must be protected
in their right to carry their slaves into Kan zas am
the other territories claiming now that the peopl
Of territory have no right to prohibit slavery til
they have framed State Constitution. If thi
latter doctrine Of Mr.. Buchanan can be sustain
ed, then it follows, as Mr.. Clay well says, tina
slavery oveF-rdes the laws Of the free States, tina
the .'patriarchal institution" is the paramoun
Law at the North as well as the South, and that i
is BY the suffeTance and courtesy Of our Southern
masters, that slaves are not introduced and hell
in any Of the free States, in defiance OF our Stat
Constitutions.
And this latter calamity may soon befall us,
things 20 on at the rate Of Democratic progress
which late years have exhibited In the most prom
inent leaders Of the party.
THE MoRMoNs.--The accounts from Salt LAX
city are Of the most revolving nature II is state,
from the most reliable sources that the great es
discomfort prevails, money is scarce, and provis.
ions scanty and scarce. Added to this, the mos,