Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1857-07-01
soU.TTER SOVEREIGNTY IGNORED.

soUaTTER SOVEREIGNTY IGNORED.
The line of distinction, which the leaders OF
the pro-slavery Democracy have been COM
peIled to draw between Utah and 4 Kansas-Mor-
monism and Slavery-in the application OF the
sublime doctrine of sspopular sovereignty,
which has been promulgated with SO much
JUNCTION by the sarons of the party en- both
sides of Mason's and Dixon's line, must be
highly edifying to the disciples of that politi-
cal school who are presumed to swallow plat
forms and gulp down political manifestos, sin
all sincerity and truth" We can imagine the
perplexity with which member of this docile
and amiable class of partizans, who has been
soundly imbued with the interpretations of
constitutional law and the views of popular
government, advanced by Senators Douglas,
Cass and other eminent ssdoughfaces,' for the
purpose of fastening the peculiar institution"
on the free soil of kansas-we can imagine the
perplexity of such an individual when he reads
ssthe little gant's'' opinion, in regard to the
Utah question, wherein s'squatter sovereignty
is quietly ignored, and position more in ac-
cordance with common reason and common
sense substituted. We will presume that this
individual has had the advantages of the teach
ings of the greater and the lesser lights of the
campaign, and has, consequently, at his finger
ends the luminous notions advanced by that
party during its great struggle in behalf of
Slavery extension and Southern Aggression.
How he can reconcile the position, maintained
in the annexed extract, with all the other po-
stions assumed by his party leaders on this
subject, is matter for himself alone to deter
mine. In recent speech at Springfield, Il
linois, Senator Douglas thus disposes of his
former teachings. and turns his back upon the
confiding Mormon allies of the Democracy
ssMr. Douglas said he had heretofore advo-
Gated popular sovereignty for all the Terri
tories, but that he had now become convinced
that the Mormons were traitors-enemies of
the Union-were treacherous scoundrcls and
murderers. He was compelled to reverse his
old opinion. The organic act of the Terrific
ry should be repealed. When a people be-
come unfit for selt-government, other people
are empowered by law and Christianity TO take
hold and govern them, nolens rolens. He said
that the national government ought to act
with yigor-move quickly-and when there it
sought to apply the knife and cut ont this pes
tiferous cancer which was growing within, and
would destroy the body politic.''
Alas and alack for the great Democratic
doctrine, the saving clause in the creed of
modern Democracy, and the soundest of
planks in the famous Cincinnati Platform =
The mutabiity of the principles of the party
which elevatcdMr. Buchanan to the P residency
oil ,Iarc
another to-morrow-sssometimes pig and
| sometimes puppy''-no one can predict what
its position will be year hence. 1t is only
| Interchangeable in its attachment to the ssfesh
| pots'' of this great nation, and to secure them
there is no evil too monstrous for them to in
| fiict on their country.
We regard Mormonism with its hundred and
one abuses, merely an exaggcration of the
evils of slavery as tolerated in the. Southern
States. 1t seems as though Utah with its
harems and its disregard of the social and do
mestic relations, is but a reflex of the condf-
tion of Southern plantation life.and servitude
Polygamy is by no means original with the fol-
lowers of Brigham Young, who practice it on
the shores of Salt Lake. 1t is practiced by
the black population in the slave-holding COM
munities, under the encouragement and by the
connirancc of white men and women, who
| profit by the monstrous evil, and who at the
same time hold up their hands in holy horror
at the barbarous rites and ceremonies of the
''Saints' and ssElders'' in the territory of
Utah. Virginia husbands, as common
/ circumstance, have plurality of wives, and
no apologist for slavery has ever presumed to
| say that the domestic relations of the negro
married parties are respected either by the
customers or laws of slave-holding communi-
ties. Husbands and wives, and children at
tender age, are placed under the hammer of
the auctioneer, and sold off to various sections
of the country, and.separated for ever. When
| the free state men of Kansas made an effort to
save their territory from this blighting curse
/ by invoking the interference of Congress,
''popular sovereignty'' was the stumbling
block placed in their way by petty politicians
of the Douglas school. But it seems that.
while it could serve as support for slavery in
Kansas, it has no virtue in sustaining Mormon
ism in Utah
Strange there should such difference be
/ fIwlxt tweedle-dnm and tweedle-deel"
We regard the entire democratic doctrine
in reference to territorial government as mon
strous in the highest degree, and have pro-
nonnced it to be such on all occasions vet
we confess to a feeling of anxiety to have ex-
planned to US the difference in the political con-
dition of Utah and Kansas. This sspopular
sovereignty" doctrine is indeed wonderfully
mysterious in its operation, and poor Mr..
Douglas will have sorry time before he gets