The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1858-02-24
NO. 80.

whole scope of together, aud give it
fair construction; not the construction of
the critic who is bunting for something to
which to find objection, but q fair, reasot-
able constructions; and that construction
is in strict Conformity with what have
before stated it to be.
When the Senator says be wants COM
stitution that will reflect the will of the
people, respond to him as heartily, and
say Lwant no other kind of constitution.
must say, however, that when his bill
says to the people of the Territory they
may fx this constitution in their own
way, and they have seen proper to take
way he did not approve, no has no power
to supervise them unless, indeed, he is
prepared to trample under foot the very
principles asserted in that bill.
have also asserted, and again repeat,
that the people car act as effectually, and
completely, through delegates represent.
ing them in conventions as In auy other
way. Who in this government would
rise and say that the presu nption is, not
that the laws passed bysCongress are az
proved by the States and peoplei Who
would rise aud say the presumption is
that the laws of the Stale Legislatures af-
ford no intendment that they emanate
from the people It is subsersive of the
whole representative principle it strikes
at the foundations of republican govern
tnent in this great Confederacy. Even il E
another way be preferred and be believed
TO be most in accordauce With what De-
mocracy requires, still it is for the Terri
tory and not for the Federal Government
/ to decide
Mr.. DOUGLAS. Ths Senator from
! Missouri will not find On enabling sct in
the treaty with France True, the treaty
| provides that the inhabitants of the terri.
tory ceded by France to the United States
shall be admitted into the Uhion as soon
as possible, according TO the principles Of
the Federal Constitnsion-not when there
shall be sixty thousand Inhabitants, not
when there shall be any particular NUM-
Der of Inhabitants, but as soon IS may be
consistent with the principles of the Fed
eral Constitution. Nor does it provide
with what boundaries they should bo ad-
mitted We admitted the inhabitants of
Louisiana, then those of Missouri, then
those of Arkansas, then those of Iowa,
until we had thus admitted all the inhab!
itauts there were in the country acquired
from France. There was waste country
] still left, but there was no time fixed by
the treaty, no data laid down by which il
could be determined when OF how they
sonld be admitted into the Union. Thus
it has been reserved to Congress to deter
mine when they may have the requisite
population. 1t is for Congress to deter
mine what shall be the boundaries It il
not for the people of a territory to say
authoritatiyely what boundaries they
shalt take. On The contrary, Congress-
has always reserved and insisted on the
right of establishing the boundaries, and
such is undoubtedly the case in the Kan
SASH ebraska act.
Congress never intended that Kansas
should necessarily have right to come
into the Union with her present bounda4
ries; for the organic act expressly re-
serves to Congress the right to alter and
divide the Territory, and attach parts Of
it to other Territories. In the enabling
act which the Senate passed last year, NE
cut off about one third of the present ter.
ritory of Kansas, and provided for the
admission of the remainder as a State
We never contemplated bringing her into
the Union with the boundaries fixed By
the organic act, and by the Lecompton
constitution. viii it be conteD6ed that
the Kansas Nebraska bill contemplated
bringing The whole of Nebraska into the
Union as one State? Does that act au-
thorize the people of Nebraska to form
constitution when they please, and to
come into the Union with territory eigkt
times as large as New York Certsinly
il was Eever the intention of that organic
act to confer Oh tho people of territory
the authority of saying that they will
come in when they please, With ne few or
many inhabitants as they please, with
such boundaries as they choose, absorbing
the whole waste country of the United
States, and making an empire instead Of
a State.
The meaning of the Kansas NsbraskG
act was, that " hen the time should come
for them to form "a State government,
they should be admitted into the Union
with OF With 5ut siapary As their constitn-
tion might prescribe. and that they should
be left perfectly free to decide on their To-
cal ,nd domestic institutions for them
selves; bnt there was no pledge, no su-
thnrity given TO them to form State
with the extended limits Included with
in the territory, nor to form State at eli
until Congress should determine that they
were authorized TO form State. Il wss
for the very reason that the KaDsas-Ne-
braska act did not contain an enabling
message at the first session of the last
Congress, recommended to Congress to
pass an enabling act authorizing the peo-
pie of Kansas to form q constitution when
they should have the requisite population,
The President said:
&c This, it seems to me ,can be best accomplish-
ID by providing that, when the inhabitants Of
Kansas may desire it, and shall be of sufficient
number to constitute State, a sconsention of
delegates, duly elected by the qualified voters,
hall assemble TO frame constitution, and thus
'repare through regular and lawful means for its
omission into the Union a State. respect-
ally recommend the enactment of law to that
.fTect.''
This message proves that, 10 the esti
nation of President Pierce and his Ad.
in the beginning of 1856,
he time had not then arrived for the ad-
mission of Kansas, because che had not
be requisite population, and also that an