Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1857-12-11

wrote. | was adding something TO the
examination" and could hardly refrain
from postscript: "This is my political tcs-
lament written with dying hand" Wcll
did not die, but have to; and will die
upon tho truth and justice of what wrote.
Among tho heads sketched, but not filed
up, are the Florida Territorial transactions
of 1921, in which Gov. jackson, COM
missioncd with the power of Captain Gen
eral and Intendant of Cuba under an net Of
congress continuing temporarily the Span
ish system of government in that Territory,
and in which he found occasion TO act up
to the letter Of that law and commission,
uniting in himself the supreme, civil, mill
tary, executive, and Judicial functions, using
the military for his arm, and his own fiat
for authority, sending Gov. Callava to the
calaboose, and having Judge Fromcntin
brought before him at the point of the bay
onet for issuing writ Of habeas corpus in
behalf Of the imprisoned Governor; and
laying divers others by tho heels for COM
lplicity in Callayas fault, to wit refusing to
deliver up, and intending to carry off iudic-
, ial records on which depended redress to
orphan children who had been dcspoiled Of
: their fathers property for fifteen years; and
: all which actings and dongs of Gov Jack.
son, exercising over Florida the powers of a
!, Captain-General and Intendant of Cuba
were approved expressly by the Monroe adj
ministration, land you know who composed
that administrator and implicitly sane
? toned by each House Of congress in their
. refusal to act upon the complaints of the
y incarcerated officers; and all upon the
> ground that the constitution of the United
. States did not extend to Territory, and
;, that no act of congress had carried into
Florida any of its provisions-any habea'
Q corpus act, any jury trial, or any warrant
general or special, or any security agains
seizure Of persons, search of houses, or cap
0 ture of papers and effects. This head
i growing out of the transactions in Florida
) so recent in date and so up to the exigency
, OF our argument, was merely named anC
+ sketched in the "Examination," but well de
! veloped in the forthcoming sixth volume o
Il the Abridgment
l In that same "Examination will be seel
II the manner in which the act abrogating tn
u Missouri Compromise was passed, and tn
G objects for which it was passed, and of whicl
u it was only the first step and the wedge
$ whereof the good people of tho Unite'
9 States arc at present profoundly ignorant
q for telegraph reporting has about killed a
8 popular knowledge of congress proceeding
Is confning their reports to results, too brit
/ and meagre to show how congress acts an
Is yet this is almost the only report of COZ
:, gress doings which the people will read
ID go-ahead age of steam and electricity.
u 1t is long time since we saw each otl
- er; and what is called politics have sadl
D. run down since that time, and especially
'h the last Presidential term, presenting br
OF little for the attraction of any man who hs
ne nothing but the public good in view; b,
c' here is question of q new kind, nation,
le and elevated, on which all who arc for Ii
IL Constitution as our fathers made it, and ,
&c they administered it in their day and gel
IN Grafton, and as the next generation admin
Oh tered it, land that without distinction
party or default of man,) may como b
es gether and stand. For one, can give I
Is political aid or comfort to any man or part
III in any future election, who shall uphold Il
at opinion of the Supreme court in declarin
n; the nullity of the Missouri Compromise an
he in decreeng the self-extension of the COZ
l stitution to Territories, carrying slavery wit
er it, and preventing congress and the poop
u of the Territory from saying yea or nay
ID, its introduction or repulsion.
u am now we'll recovered, and working
lily usual, and expect to finish the Abridgeme
o; next Summer and then to add another vc
,h- ume to the two of the Thirty Years Vie
of bringing it down to 1860, if live tn
nal long; at all events, to the time of Il
in Pierce Administration, if we must call
me his name an Administration in which
ju- was imperative, and in which nulifers,
es- unionists and rencgades used his name al
de- his power for their own audacious a
lch criminal purposes. Respectfully,
en- THOMAS II. BENTON.
'cd Washington, Nov. l, 1857.