The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1857-08-22
From the New York Evening Post.
SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY ABANDONED
BY IT'S FATHER.

Senator Douglas has been considered the
embodiment Of pollical effrontry. His IA
cility in the employment Of arguments which
insult the Judgment, and of facts VIII .ch in
suit the memories of every common-scnse
man, have gwen him an unq fashionable pre-
emience among the leaders of his party.
But in the late exposition of his policy in
reference to the Territory of Utah, he ex-
ceeds himself. Mr.. Douglas was shrewd
enough to see that the Mormon question,
which has recently arisen, is one Of kind
which absolutely de6es his patent Terrific
rial medicine Of popular sovereignty that
the difficulty must Be healed by direct and
palpable disregard of the Kansas Nebraska
bill policy, "the true interest and meaning
Whereof" to use his own language, sis to
leave the people of Territory perfectly
free to form and regulate their own insti-
tutions." The question as to the govern
ment of Utah, however, has fairly broken
his cOnstancy down. He has abandoned the
last distinctive popularity Of his much
vaunted theory. Asa candidate for Presi-
dental nomination, finding that either his
aspirations or his principles must be aban-
doned, he naturally preferred to surrender
the latter. He is determined to be the author
TO h of Popular Sovereignty and Congress
8. s.onal Sovereignty-to supply both the bane
and the antidote-and, as an aspirant for
the nomination of 1860, to assert his patent
right to the successful policy, whichever it
may be.
Observe his exposition of evils in Utah,
his panacea for their removal. This Ter
ritory, says he, was organized by the act of
1850, "on the supposition that the in
habitants were American citizens, owing
and acknowledging allegiance to the United
States, and consequently entitled to the bene-
fit Of elf-government while Territory,
and to admission into the Union ON an equal
footing with the original States, as soon as
they should number the requisite popula-
tion."
1t turns out, however, says Mr.. Douglas,
it common rumor may be believed, that
this suppostion was not correct; that the
people were unnaturalized aliens; that they
do not acknowledge allegiance to our Con-
stitution, and that they violently resist the
laws and government Of the United States,
and therefore that they obtained a Territorial
organization on false pretences.
Nevertheless, they are Territory, and
"Popular Sovereignty" requires US to leave
them perfectly free to form and regulate
their institutions, without Interference by
Congress. 1t is also the duty of the Federal
Government to suppress Mormouism; but
how can it do so consistently with the poll
cy Of non-interference? Here ia the grand
exploit OF Douglas ingenuity. We cannot
interfere with the people of a Territory, but
We can deprive them of their Territorial
condition; we can repeal the law creating
them Territory, and then they lose their
power OF self.government, and fall back
under the direct authority Of the Federal
Government Of our country.
Srhe Territorial Government once abol-
ished, the country would revert to it's primi-
tive condition prior to the act Of 1850, sun.
der the sole and exclusive jurisdiction Of
the United States, and should be placed
under the operation Of the act Of Congress
Of tho 30th Of April, l790 and the vssioua
acts supplemental thereto and amendatory
thereof, providing for the punishment of
crimes against the United States within any