The independent press. (Abbeville C.H., S.C.) 1853-1860, 1857-08-07
FOR THE INDEPENDENT PRESS.
Tho Address of Samuel Jordan, Esq, on
Saledav.

Tho Address of Samuel Jordan, ESQ, on
Saleday.
The readers Of the Press n notice in the
issue before the last, that Mr.. Jordan would ad
dress his fclowcitizens on Monday, on State and
Federal Politics. lie redeemed his promise
handsomely, and set fortl, his political creed,
with force and ccarncss.
Mr. Jordan labors under the misfortune of
having an impcdimcnt in his speech aided to
which the weakness of his voice and the bad
construction of the Court house, made it lili.
Guilty, If not impossihlc for all TO hear him
sufficiently well, to understand exactly the
DRIFT OF his remarks.
III we did not mistake his meaning, without
attempting 1" ri i've minute detail of all lie
saId,) he set out by declaring that, in his opin-
ION, neither Of the three great parties into
which the country was now divided, could
protect our rights under the Constitution, if
Their doctrines were pushed to the wall that
all. either OF these parties, the Wing, the Demo
cratic, and the Know Nothing was contcntlimp
for, was power, without regard to the means
they were using to accomplish their ends or
The interests Of the masses in the meantinc:-
that the %!"fc E;yh's docfrim", as heretofore
ontcndcd for by our State, and now so con-
slicul"usly characteristic Of the cfrurts Of the
aboitionizcI North TO Dissolve the Union was
the prolific source of error from which all, or
most, of iii" cala:nitics now rife in this gov
crnncnt, hal sprung that that doctrine was
not only unconstitutional, but wrong per- Sc
that it placed sovereignty where that power
did not reside, in the Legislatures Of the States;
that it was in the Icotc Of the several States in
their individual and unorganzed capacity, and
not III the Legislatures of the several States,
that sovereign I"wr: resided and So of the
Congress of the United States; that Mut, with
all its machinery and diversified ramiiications
of departments, was only the agent Of aW the
peoples Of the United States, rs the Lcgisla.
! lures of the several States, was that of Mcir
respective pcoples-for specific purposes, and
that those purposes were i'll extension, ami,lili.
cation, and the greater and surer, protection
Of the rights then enjoyed by, and cxistin. a.
m"ng: the pt"rlcs-that, consequently, neither
the constitutions Of the several States nor that
OF the United States, authorized, or would per-
NIT the enactment Of c<poM .t;tcto laws, or
laws imrairing the obligation of contracts;
(here Mr.. Jordan read extensively from the
Constitution and the original articles of con-
federation, in support of his doctrine y an.l
that therefore, all rights existing ut the forna
tion of the Constitution, must assurcIly exist
now.
lie contcndcd, further, that the power to
amend the Constitution by twothirts of the
States, was power to am'"d, as the word
| imports to make better more ample and Sc
! cure, that which already had nh existence :;
and not power to destroy, to curtuil, or in
any manner, to affect, injurio,lsly. From this,
he concluded that i'll mucl, as slavery exist
c'l i'll all the thirteen States, when the Consti-
tuition was formed, ami the citizens Of any one
OF the States, were protected i'll the enjoyment
of that property in any of the other States,
the States have acquired no right since TO
! abolish those rights, and that, consequently,
We have as much right now, under the Consli-
tuition, to go into any Of the States, will, our
slave property rs we had then, anil if the
question we're made in the proper court, in
the proper manner, the law would, so pro-
nouncc otherwise, it would be co'fsc for rcvoiu-
ton, not for secession, or mmiifcufiom.
lie made distinction, further, between the
coming into the Union rs States, of Florida,
Of the territories Of the United States, Us
States. The former were forciym and had no
rights which we were under obligation to pro-
tect. and could. therefore, impose terms upon
them when they came into the Union rs States
but not so with the latter. They were joint
property, i'll which each citizen of the United
States had interest," and to the extent of his in.
| tercst therein, each citizen had n right to 90
there, and take, and enjoy. his property there,
| without "lct hinlcrancc," whether before,
or after, its organization us n State, into the
Union; and this could be done under the
broad shield of the Constitution otherwise n
power had crept into tho country since the adop-
| tion of tho Constitution unknown to the peo-
! pie beforc-a power which had abolished most
OF the rights of some Of the States and rem
dered their enjoyment perfectly nugatory when
transferred to other States and would, unless
checked, ultimately destroy the Union itself
lie went further, into detail, in the enforce
ment and illustration of his political faith, by
examples drawn from the States, both in their
organized forms, and when they were unor-
ganized MS territories, and when they were in
position which qualified them to come into
the Union rs States; but to follow him through
all his illustrations. would unnecessarily extend
this already too protrncted notice. We will
content ourself, therefore, by simply noticing
another view lie presented in connection with
tho rghtto hold property in slaves Ms existing
| Mt tho formation nf tho al -,