Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1858-03-10


set forth in that case. | know that
''hope deferred maketh the heart sick" :"
still, most fortunately for the people of
the northern States, hope is one of their
most prominent faculties.
Will Senators forbear with me while
l 1present short review of one the lead
ing principles involved in the Dred
Scott case, as it is the one to which the
President so confidently refers as his
authority. The question arising under
it is simply this-Does slace1y eeist IN
Kansas by yirtste Of the Constitution
Of the United States? And if so, in
what clause of that instrument is that
virtue found? I answer sir, that there
is no provision IN that instrument con-
tanning any power establishing or up
holding slavery, or comforting upon it
any right or privileges. The existence
Of slavery at the time the Constitution
was framed cannot be told from itsread-
ing only by inference, and even that
inference is denied by many Of the
ablest statesmen in our land
The powers conferred upon the Gen
eral Government by virtue of the Con
stltution, are set forth in art. 10 of the
amendments, which reads as follows:
''The powers not delegated to the
United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it, to the States, are re-
served to the States respectively, or to
the people,"
propose to apply to this clause the
doctrine Of State Rights, doctrine that
had its birth in this same provision, was
nourished by the sunny South, and has
long been indulged as favorite child
by its proud stepmother, South Carroll
na. Until the adoption of the constitu-
ton there was no settled principle of
central power, no definite rule of action
that the several States had agreed to
recognize in common or independently.
When the constitution had been formed
-passed-the signatures Of the mem
bers Of the Convention that framed it,
placed upon it, and its ratification by
the several States, perfected, it became
at once the constitutional law of the
United States. All the life it possessed
had been breathed into it, and all the
force it contained was conferred upon
it by the several States through the ac-
ton Of their respective delegates to the
Convention that created it; and all its
virtue it now contains, was derived
from the same source Hence, the doc
trine Of State Rights-a doctrine which
claims tho tho coror,l C+,+oc o4.U ,,o+,;,>
intact all those powers which, through
the action of their delegates, they have
not yielded up to and conferred upon
the General Government, by the ex-
press provisions Of the National Consti-
tuition.
The State of Wisconsin has recog-
ni3ed this to be sound doctrine by the
decision of her highest judicial tribunal,
and by this law shall the slave power
be judged SO far as it applies to the
present condition of that so-called ''do-
mestic institution"
If then that instrument does not con-
tain any provisions protecting slavery
as a national institution, Or permitting
its extension by terms expressed,
whence arises that monstrous doctrine
held by the Supreme Court and advo-
Gated by the President in his last mes
sage, viz: that slavery already exists
in Kansas by virtue of the constitution ?
Again, sir, reasoning q prio7S, what
was the object and aim of the States,
in causing the constitution to be framed
and adopted? Was it not for the pur-
pose of mutual protection upon the
principle that 'Eunion is strength.' Let
the preamble to that instrument answer.
If from that preamble can be inferred
any disposition to extend, or protect
even, an institution which at the time
it was written, was almost universally
conceded to be great political as well
as moral evil, then I yield the argu-
ment, and if not, then whence this
Dred Scott decision.
Again, sir, have not the northern
States privileges i'll the nature of vested
rights under the Constitution Did
they consent when it was accepted by
them, that by virtue of any provision it
contains, slavery should be extended in
to all the territory of the Union? Then
where did this anti-Republican doctrine
of supreme central power emanate
from, if not from the avarice of the
black Democracy Of the southern
States.
This Dred Scott decision, then, never
will become the virtual law of all the
States. The northern States never can
be made to believe that slavery is a
free institution, at liberty to 90 wher-
ever it may elect-to plant its cloven
foot upon The virgin soil of our western
domain, and demand surrender of all
that is precious, in youth and beauty to
its licentious embrace Better, far bet
ter, that Columbus had never discover
ed America-a land at this day with
its government, and institutions-ex-
cepting slavery-the pride and boast of
every American, and the admiration of
the world-than that this self-same land
should be doomed to perpetual servi-
tude under an oligarchy which recog-
nize no law that does not minister to
its vile and insatiate nav.
Mr.. President, if the existence of
slavery in the territories is established
I II