Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-03-27
The pegeaeraey ID Nlodern Dsn.eorney

luacItAuh.
The Degensracy Of Modern Democracy.
One The most foreboding signs Of tie times
is the sad degeneracy in sentiment andiaction,on
the question Of slavery, exhibited by the Democ-
lacy Of the free States, within the last few years
Onls ten Years since, the Democracy in every
State North Of Mason & Dixon's line, in their
party conventions, and through their respective
State Legislatures, (Which were then nearly ali in
the hands of the Democrats,) were nearly unani-
nous in the passage of resolutions affirming the
principle Of the wlmOt Provisp, or the exclusion
of slavery from all the national territories by con
gressional action. But they soon wh.rled round
90 far as TO sanction the Cass doctIine of squat,
ter sovereignty" thinking that the utmost limit
10 which they would be required to go, in repudi.
alton of their old sentiments. But, how still
more sadly disappointed mnst they have been, to
find themselves obliged after wallowing for a Sc
ries of years in the slough OF ssquatter sover-
eiguty to renouuce that, too, at the beck Of the
five slaveholding justices Of the Supreme Court,
and plant themselves firmly and squsrely, in or
der to be feckoned " sound national Democrats, .
on the ground OF the nationality of slavery all
over the Union. and its right to exist in all the
national territories, in spite of either territorial
or congressional prohibition, both being pro-
nounced equally unconstitutional"
In illustration of the position once occupiedIby
the Democracy of the North on the slavery que:-
ton, we give the following extract from the plat
form adopted by the Massachusetts, Democracy,
in ls49, at their State Convention in Springfield,
in September of that year, which was presided
over by Erasmus D. Beach Let our Democratic
friends recollect that these resolves were unani-
moosly adopted amid shouts of applause" by
six hundred of their own delegated represents
tives, including all their leading in the State;
that they were reported to the Convention, by
the Hon. Benjamin F. Hallett, as Chairman of
the Committee, on which were such staunch ina.
tional Democrats as Whiting Griswold of
Greenfield, E. X. Whitaker of Needham, A. M.
Ide, Jr., of Taunton, C. W. Chaplin of SPRING
field, &c. Just listen to them -
ResoiUed, That we are OPPOSED TO
SLAVERY IN EVERY FORM AND COLOR,
and in favor of FREEDOM AND FREE SOIL
t0hereUer man llves Throughout God S heritage.
ResolUed, That, BY common law and common
sense, as well as by the decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States, lin Prigg VS.. Penn
sylvania Is Peters, the state of slavery is mere
municipal regulation, founded upon and limited
to the verge of the territorial law that is, the
limits Of the State creating it.
Resolced, therefore, That as slavery does not
exist by any municipal law in the new territories,
and Congress has power to institute it, the To-
cal laos OF any State alaort=tIlg sLaUery neUer
be transported there, NOR CAN SLAVERY EXIST
THERE But By A LOCAL LAW OF THE TERRIFIC
RIEs sanctioned By Congress, the legislative act
of a State IN its sovereign capacity.
ResolUed, That we are opposed to the extension
Of slavery to free territories, and in favor Of the
exercise Of all constitutional and necessary
means to RESTRICT 1T to the limits within which
it does or may exist by the local laws of the
States"
Such were the sentiments of the Massachusetts
Democracy, deliberately and unanimously ez-
pressed, in lS49. In the next resolution, as an
excuse for not making these noble principles
party test. they resolved, that these sentiments
are so msiOersal at the North, as to belong to no
party, being held in common by nearly all men
North Of sectional line, while they are repudi.
ated by most men South of that line" And the
resolves Of the legislatures and all the party con-
ventons in most of the other Northern States,
two or three years previous, were in confirmation
of the above.
Bot, after this committal of the whole North
ern Democracy to the principles of the Free Soil
or Republican party--after this dividing of them
selves by sectional line from their Southern
brethren, BY laying down doctrine totally oppo-
site and antagonistic to theirs, thus flaming the
flames of sectional discord, - what do we find our
Northern Democrats afterwards doing? To their
shame be it said, after diverging for while into
the mi of - hat mt a-
ing sufficiently pro.slavery to suit their Southern
masters in the exigencies of new crisis, we find
these loud-mouthed Democrats now endorsing,
BY their support of the Cincinnati platform ana
the late decision of the Supreme Court, the ultra
pro-slasery doctrine Of the complete nationalist
ton of the institution of slavery, in both the
States and the Territories, establishing it beyond
the control Of popular action in the latter.
Oar Northern Democratic friends were once
"opposed to slavery in EVERY FORM AND COL
Or, and in favor of freedom and FREE SOIL,
whereye man lives, throughout Gods HERITAGE"
but now, by their submission to the infamous de-
cree of the FIVE slaveholdng Justices, they recog-
nize slavery as national institution, to be pro-
tected in the Territories and in the States, and
the colored race as fit only to be made slaves Of
Once they believed, and declared in the above
resolves in accordance with "common sense"
and former decision Of the Supreme Court, in
its better days, that slavery mere municipal
regulation" to be confined sOithin State limits;
and that the locaI laaos Of any State authorizing
slaU@y can neoer be transported into the Terri
tories, nor can slavery exist there but by local
law Of the Territories, sanctioned by Congress or
the Legislative act of State in its sovereign ca
paeiiy." That is true Democratic doctrine, com
ing up to the Free Soil standard, on this point,
in denying the right OF slavery to exist in the
Territories, without the special sanction of Con-
gress, and denying the power of Congress to in
Stitute it. Of course, them it could not go there
at all.
Noic, the whole Northern Democracy are asked
to eat their own words, and swallow the opposite
doctrine, prepared for them by Roger B. fancy
and four ofhis associates on the Supreme Bench,
that slavery is national institution, everywhere
existent, within the national domain, well as
in all the States, and to be protected as such
Slavery is no longer ga mere local institution"
to be confined within the States, in accordance
with former decision Of the Supreme Court made
in its better days, but is now, according to the
modern Democratic construction Of the Constitu-
tion, the great national institution Of the coun.
try.
In l84o, Mr.. Hallett, who has occupied the i'm.
portant post Of Chairman Of the National Demo-
cratic Committee, reported the above resolves as
~. .rnhoS;r,.ent ~ Nnvtbev, Da,,,ooratio Joo..