Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1857-08-25

advocates of the election of James Bu-
chanan Its columns, however, were not
many months since polluted with the fol-
lowing: "The South now maintains that
Slavery is right, natural and neceSSdry.-
While it is far more obvious that negroes
should be slaves than the whites, for they
are only fit to labor, not to direct, yet the
principle Of Slavery is itself right, and
does not depend ona DIFFERENCE OF COM
PLExIoN."
We have yet to learn that the bonds of
fraternal sympathy, existing between the
Enquirer and the rest of the Democratic
press of this nation, have been severed.
Allwho read Duchanan's Inaugural Adj
dress, will remember that he endorsed the
decision of the U. S. Supreme Court, in
the Dred Scott case, beforehand, TO the
fullest extent. In that decision it is af-
firmed, in substance, that the Declaration
of '76 had reference, only, to the rights
of white men, and that it had no bearing
upon the natural rights of man generally.
This affirmation destroys its whole force,
besides throwing the lie into the teeth of
its authors. Nevertheless, throughout all
the land the praise of that decision is the
glory Of Democracy.
In his recent Springfield speech, s. A.
Douglas holds that when our fathers form
ed the Declaration of Independence, "They
were speaking of British subjects on this
continent, being equal to British subjects
born and residing in Great Britain" This
explaining away of the old document
amounts substantially to this /: that those
WI were not British subjects residing on
ihis.spntinent or in Great Britain, as the
Rench, Germans, &c, were designedly
excluded in the statement of rights which
was made the basis of the American Re-
public.
How such doctrine will suit the foreign
element in the Democratic party, We can
not say; although one thing is certain-it
out Herod's Herod, in the pureness Of its
Know Nothingism, We commend Mr..
Douglas to the tender regards of the Fill
more Native Americans; as lie has gone
deeper than they dared 20 themselves, by
asserting that the foundation principles of
our government extended. in their original
application, only to British subjects on
this CONTINENT and British subjects born
and residing (then) in Great Britsin."-
Thus we leave them together on this point.
We have now traced the repudiation, by
the Democratic party, of the great and
eternal principles upon which the right of
self-government is based, from its origin
with Calhoun, to its confirmation by S. A.
Douglas, who is the acknowledged expos
itor Of National } Democratic principles,
We have seen that in throwing aside these
principles, they have necessarily taken a
position identical with British Toryism,
from its origin to the deathblow which it
received at the hands of American patriots
in the war of the Revolution.
Thus is the great issue of our Revo!u-
tionary history again thrown upon US; but
not this time by distant nation. but by
politicians Of our own country. Again the
American people are to declare for the doc
trines of self-govelnment, as embodied in
the Declaration Of '76; as maintained by
Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Ham
cock, the Adamses, Henry, Otis, with all
the lovers of freedom in the old country
and new, or for the Tory doctrines from
which follow the "Divine right of Kings"
the right to establish, extend, and perpet-
uate, Slavery; together with all tie arro-
giant assumptions aud evils of absolute
despotism. Nor is there any escape from
one of these positions. Every contest for
popular rights which history records, con
firms this truth. English Wings and To-
ries saw and acknowledged it; American
Wings and Tories did the same. Either
equal rights for all, or no rights for any,
must be our motto.
Great changes, however, are effected
only by great causes. Filmer, in England,
found that he could establish the Divine
right of Kings" only by the destruction
of the doctrine of equal rights, and Cal
houn, in America, found the came process
necessary for the perpetuation or extension
of Slavery.
The English Wings, on the contrary,
found that popular rights could only be
maintained by preserving, in their purity,
the principles of natural liberty; the pa :
triots Of the Revolu ion saw and adopted
the same great truth thus leaving two
great examples on record. one of which
must be followed by their posterity.-
Where are the people ? With Filmer,
Calhoun, Petit, and Douglas ? or with
Sidney, Locke, Milton, and the founders
Of our Republic? l..
A case of pure and unmislakable Asiatic
cholera occurred in Newark, n. j., on Sat