Arkansas true Democrat., 1857-11-03
Remarks of Hon B. F. Hallett, At the Democratic State Convention in
 Boston September l6. 1857

sasm. He said-I have recently left sicl, bed and am not in physical condition to make speech even if you were not so wearied as to not be ln moral condition to listen to one: hut cannot refrain from making some response to the generous and friendly call you have made upon me. have not enjoyed the honor of at. tending as delegate State convention for six years, until to-day; for though my democratic 1 lnehds nave done me the honor annually to comPhmeht me With an election, have not deemed 1t advisable, while holding a nublic of. flee under the United States, to Darticinate in State conventions l am now private in the ranks, and ready to fight with you under our national banner of UNION NORTH AND sorJr4 to the last man at the guns and the last shot in the | locker
 stand here now, gentlemen of the conven ton, as one of you, with very great pleasure, because although have declined for several years to take part in the conventions, I think l may say, without much assumption that I left behind me some little marks of prominence Tn the form of resolutions affirming the nation- ality of the democracy of Massachusetts The whlg presses used to say that wrote resolu. tions by the cord. l am happy to find that whether or not they constituted cords by mea- surment, they did help to form that strong cord cf Union which has bound together the north- ern and southern democracy in that bond of brotherhood that has achieved all our demo- cratic triumphs. When, after much conflict and division among us they became embodied in our State platform, had DO further desire than to see them faithfully carried out in all our relations to the democracy of the whole Union, and since that time have not been in State convention. The spirit of the same national resolutions proclaimed by Massachu | convention haS Sinca bnap o6op.ol ;, .Lo | platforms of democratic national convention upon which two Presidents have been elected. and now to-day I take great pleasure in saving 1 that the resolutions which my friend from Springfield has just reported from the commit tee, and which have been adopted with such unanimous applause, are precisely in essence and substance, the principles for which the na- tioual democrats of Massachusetts have been contendlng for years; and we can now honestly say to our democratic brethren in all the States. that upon these principles of the Union of the States-the rights of all the territories, and the rights of property in slaves in States and terri tories under the constitution, there is no division in the ranks of the democratic party of Massa- chuSetS.
 Where are the men who, when We announc- ed the principles of nationality in our demo- cratic assembages, used to rise in their section
 
 who, when we proclaimed the equal rights of all the States in all the territories--when we affirmed for the south as well as the north. all the rights of property which were reserved and maintained in the constitution as the unifrom rights pertaining tu every old State and to every new State coming into the Union; when we in. voked the oaths taken to support the constitu- ton of the United States for the sanction of the duty of every free State to return to the slave States their iugtlves from labor; where are the men, who then stirred up strife among us and clamored for a northern party to make war upon the south? Where are they now? In the black republican ranks. in the Know Nothing ranks, any where-no where, and ready to prove as false to them as they were to us. Thank God they are not here, they are not even by false pretences any longer with the de- mocracy. We are purged as with hyssop and made clean; we washed and made aUtite bv the process which has made the democracy of Massachusetts to-day as 1t was in the days of our republican fathers a sound portion of the ochole dody Of the democratic party of the whole Union, And now we stand on our national plat form, relying not meraly upon present numeri- cal strength in this uneasy State of Massachu- sets, but upon the moral element of our nation al integrity, our fidelity to the constitution, our love of the Union and respect for the laws and a conservative judiciary to expound them- This it is that makes up the grand, the noble character of the democracy of Massachusetts
 l wish could impress upon all democrats the important position which the democratic party of Massachusetts, if true and constant will always command in its relations to the par ty in the whole Union; especially in it's moral influences and its power to defeat northern dis union.
 1 see before me my old associates, veterans of the light of twenty years in the democratic cause, and 1 know, friends, that you are now where we ever have been, in union with the democracy ot the whole Union. see also. and 1t giadS me to see them, young men who are coming up to the help of their country against SedltiOn and sectlonalism. l want them to study and understand and make the ingenious young men of Massachusetts comprehend that simple but great principle in the constitution which constitutes the fundamental principle of the democratic party in regard to slavery. and in all the relations of State to State. and the United States to territories It is the union in government which makes us one people. Why cannot any conscientious citizen understand that? It is the definition of our federal govern ment used by Washington in his farewell ad dress
 THE UNITY OF GOVERNMENT WHICH CoNsT(-
 TUTEs US ONE PEoPLE"-
 a most remarkable expression, rarely quoted but peculiarly applicable to the present position of the democratic party in its contest with fa- naticism and sectionalism.
 Whence comes that unity of government which is to cover all the States and all the territory?" Solely from the express grants o powers in the constitution given by the States to Congress; and all powers of government, and all rights of property not there granted are re- served to the States and the people. And upon that unity' the general government can es- tablish, and the supreme court can enforce laws only that are universal touching the do mestic concerns and inherent rights ofthe States and of the people of all the States touching their rights of property in the new territories Therefore you cannot assume for the old State, who made the constitution, to impose restric tons upon the new States or the new territories about to form States which do not exist in re gard to the old States. Hence the Missouri compromise being founded on no grant of powe m the constitution was mere usurpation by Congress, and the recent decision of the su preme court pronouncing that act unconstituti onal and void, is only an affirmation of tn, original reserved rights of the States and of tho limited delegated powers of Congress, and i sound and just and eminently conservative O the Union
 Why Mir. President, it is amazing. that witl the extent of education that there is in thi commonwealth and in New England, ther, should be as much ignorance, positive ignorance upon the constitutional principles of our form: of State and United States governments, among large class of our own citizens, as could b, found in Yorkshire in England. I undertak, to say that those forty Doctors of Divinity, ant that geological professor who assumed to in struct that most eminent statesman of our coun try, President Buchanan, upon his constitution al duties, have exhibited downright ignoranc of the constitution of the United States and O the laws for the government of territories tha would disgrace public schoolbovs of the fftl form! In the face of the obligation upon tn l President ito take care that the laws be faith fully executed" they tell him that it is his dut , not to execute the laws of the United State