Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-12-18

States. Thus the very act of acquisition negatives
the idea of the Territories subsection to the SOW
ereignty Of residents, whether citizens the saw
ages or adventures who ore the pets of the red
theory.
The next acts we hear of in tho history ofI
the new Territory relate to the establishment of
land Offices for the sale of its lands by the Federal
Government all reserviug the right Of eminent
domain expressly to the Federal Government with
reversion to the State into which is in the future
to mature, Here, again, is emphatic negaton
of the red'repu blcan notion of the absolute indi
vidual sovereignty Of the squatter* in the new do
man
Whose right there is none to dispute
From the center all round to tho sea.
The next step we see taken in the progress of
the Territory is its organization into Territorial
Government. within prescribed territorial metes
and bounds, by act Of Congress. Here again is
emphatic negation Of the sovereignty Of the
individual squatters for Congress, Of lis own du
Mority and right, prescribes the form of Govern
ment and the territorial metes and bounds of its
authority, with utter indifference TO the pretea
sons of its sovereign" occupants. Moreover, it
not only delegates in express terms to the new
Government the specific powers which it is author
lied to exercise, and to the Territorial Legislature
the specific subjects on which it may legislate but
it expressly reserves to itself veto upon all the
acts of this Government and Legislature, and all
powers in the Territory not expressly delegated to
these subordinate tribunals Thus the squatter
has voice in determining the form of the
Government under which he lives, or the area
Of the Territory which is to limit the new
community or State which he has entered or the
subject matters of Jurisdiction delegated to the
new Government which is erected over him by a
foreign agency. Thus, up to this point in the
history of the Territory, we find that he has had
no voice in affairs whatever, except in the election
of members to the Territorial Legislature-a body
Of narrowly defined powers, every act of which
is subject to Congressional veto.
! Nor. indeed in the organization of some of the
earlier Territories, did the squatter enjoy any
voice whatever in selecting legislators-the Gov
ernor and his Council. composed of the judges Of
the courts, (all appointed by the Federal Execu
tive,) constituting the Legislature. Thue there
was not an elective Office in the whole economy oil
the Territorial organization.
Here then. we have seen an utter and complete
ty, authority and right, whatsoever, in the squat
ter, from the time of the Territorial purchase
through the whole period of Territorial adoles
ense, up to the time of the erection of the Terri
tory into State.
And even at this eventful period, and in this fin
al act which closes the existences of the Territory
the squatteT is not the actor, but Congress alone
For Congress, usually by enabling acts" pre-
scrbes the time, place, and circumstances, of hold
ing the Territorial Convention for the framing Of
q State Constitution-designatin the place fol
taking the polls and the officers and judges of the
election, and prescribing the qualification of voters
1t is only after the framing of that instrument,
and its ratification by the inhabitants of the Ter
ritory that this discretion of Congress is limited
by the Constitution; for the iDcipient proceed
ings have been all regular Congress has, then, on
y discretion to decido,whether the form of Govern
ment provided for by the Convention of the pro-
posed States is republican or not. If it be repub
can, all other proceedings being regular, then the
sovereignty. not of the squatters Individually, but
of the new aggregate community, appears for the
first time, emitting the new sovereign State to be
acknowledged and recognised by Congress as such
whatever be the organic provisions incorporated
in its Constitution.
Thus we have explored the source of the dogma
of squatter sovereignty; and, tracing the progress
of each Territory of this Union we have seen that
dogma negatived in every act Of its history. We
have seen that sovereignty in the Territory cannot
come from the idividua uatter We have seen that
it does come FROM and does reside in, during every
hour Of the existence of the Territory different
antagonistic source; that is to say, from and in
Congress. representing the Union at large, under
the Federal Constitution.
We regard with unspeakable contempt all efforts
to prove that the Kansas Nebraska sct OF
any other Territorial act ever passed by
Cngress contains scintilla of this doctrine, or
gives wink or blink Of countenance to it. I,
has seemed to US that to assert that the dogma is
recognised in any word of that act is as preposter
Gus as to assert that fire is ice or that black is
white.
ave the term in the popular aud not in
sens