Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1858-11-11
UTT. INDIANA THURSDAY, NOVEMBER IN, 1865.

Congress sovereign Legislative power in
that District. anu although the Democratic
party is tenacious Of the principle of strict
construction, it violated the express pro-
visions of the Constitution in suppreSsing
petition and debate on the subject of slave
ry through fear of disturbance of public
harmony, although it claims that electors
haze right to instruct their representa-
tives, and even to demand their resignation
in cases of con:umacy 1t extended slave
nv over Texas and cOnniyel at the attempt
to spread it across the Mexican Territory.
even to the shores OF the Pacific Ocean,
unlcr plea of enlargng the area of free
dom. 1t ajrogated the Mexican slave law
and the Missouri compromise restriction in
Kansas, not to open the new Territories to
slavery, but to try therein the new and iaS-
cinating theories of Non Intervention and
Popular Sovereignty, and finally it over
threw both these new and elegant systems
by the English Lecompton bill and the
Drcd Scott decision, on the ground that
the free States ought not TO enter the Union
without population equal to the repre-
sentative basis of one member of Congress,
although slave States might come in with
out inspection as to their numbers.
Will any member of the Democratic
party, now here claim that the authorities
chosen by the suffrages of the party. trans
ccnded their partizan platforms, and so
misreprescnte,l the party in the various
transactions have recitcd? Then | ask
him to name one Democratic Statesman or
legislator. from Van Buren, to Walker, who
either timidly or cautiously, like them, or
boldly and dcGantly, like Douglas, ever
refused to execute behest of the slavehold-
crs, and was not, therefore, and for no 9TH
er cause, Immediately denounced and de-
posed from his trust, and repu,liated by
the Democratic party for that contumacy.
There is one significant fact, the same
paper remarks, connected with this pro-
grcssivc tendency to pure pro- o-slaveryism
in the Democratic party, that Mr.. Seward
does not alludc TO, but which the recent c.
lection make very prominent and instruc
tive. AT each decided step towards COM
Iplete submission to the slave power large
g Z15 pc party have fallen of from
u to so any further in that di
rec Ii 1850, when the party aban-
doned its "Wilmot Proviso" position, a
number, though not SO many as moro re-
cent dciections have containel, determined
to stand fast and let the party go if it
would go. In 1854. when the Kansas bill
opened the way to slavery in Kansas. a
vast section of the party resolved that they
would stand by their old principles and re-
ject the dangerous experiment of open
ing a territory to slavery to see if the peo-
pie could not drive it out again. So hinge
was this detection that the party was almost
crushed at the ensuing election. But plclg-
ing itself most solcmnly to the doctrine OF
popular sovereignty" which, in itself,
and not as a pretcXt to get rid Cf a slave
ry prohibition that had been made by COM
pact between slavery and freedom, was a
good thing, and which, so far a States were
concerned, had always been sustained by
all parties, the Democratic party revived,
and carried the desperate contest of 1856.
But it then abandoned its popular sovcr-
eighty" position, which alone had saved it
in 1856, another huge section stood fast,
and refused to follow any further towards
slavery than the doctrine OF pupular sovcr-
eighty would lawfully lead them. If IL
made slave States Of territol les they would
stand it, but they would not endure the in
fanny of making slave States of territories
in defiance of that principle. Thus, as
each step of the party has carried it nearer
and nearer to slavery, the dcfections have
grown larger and more dangerous. One
more step and one more detection will
probably occur this winter in the effort of
the President to make party test of the
English exclusion and then the Demo
cratic party will be pure pro-slavcry all
through, without particle of strength or
sympathy in the North. 1t will thus be
openly sectional, as it has always really
been.