The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1858-07-31
Douglas ut Home.

Senator Douglas is now in Illinois, going
from city to city anu from district TO district
seeking popularity with the people which
shall cns6rc him recollection 20 Congress.
Great efforts are put forth by hts rItG1ts u
convince the people that lis receptions have
heeu triumphant ONES, and that they have
borne down all opposition but We believe
without effect. We believe the Republicans
Of Illinois will not "hurrah" for a man whose
course for the past few years presents so
many Bi5Tiu6 Inconsistencies,
lie tells us that he is devoted to the great
doctrine Of state righls} but he endorses the
infamous bred Scott decision Of Judge Toney
which he not only defends, but whose defence
hc makes prominent feature in the contro.
versy now going on That bred Scott de-
cision says that the shareholders of X cntucky
Missouri or any other slave state, have the
right to bring aud hold as slaScs their hu.
man "chattels' in Illinois, whose State Con.
stitution explicitly provides that no human
being on the soil Of Illinois shall be deprived
Of his liberty, unless he be arrested for some
crime and that there shall be no slave within
the States boundaries, This article in the
State Constitution is tramplcd upon rough
Ihod by the bred Scott decision in defiance
to all State rights it virtually empowers the
citizens Of any of the slave states to establish
slavery in any Of the free states contrary to
the will Of their people and in violation Of
their laws and yet Senator Douglas defends
that decision in the same breath in which he
processes to be devoted to the doctrine of
Estate rights"
Judge Douglas says he is in favor of Pop
ular Sovereignty in the TcrritoricS--that is,
of letting the people Of the Territories form
their own institutions and manage their own
affairs in their own way. But he originated
the Nebraska Kansas bill, by which tho en-
tire government of t1p Territories was placed
IN the hands of ere mantle President of
the United States, who appoints their Gov
crnors, their Judges, and NIL the rest of their
Territorial officers. These appointces are the
Presidents partizans, and arc but the instru-
ments Of his will. They rule the Territories,
and rule them just exactly MS the President
instruots thom, whether it pleases the people
or not. This has been the case in Kansas
ever since tho Nebraska bill was passed. and
it is the case now. There is no more popu-
lar sovereignty about it than there is in the
rule Of a dcspetism. This iSN what Douglas
Calls "p0putaF sovereignty"
Senator Douglas endorses aud defends the
bred Scott decision. That decision declares
that the Federal Constitution carries Slavery
into every Territory of the United States,
and protects it there until the Territory shall
have been adnaitted Rs a state. This, then. Ia
an dirost antagonism with the great principle
81 popular SOY ereignty. by which Douglas
claims that the people of the Territories shall
ho allowed to Gasie their own insiltutions
and to regulate their osn Internal sfFairs in
their own way. If the Federal Constitution
protects the shareholder In the Tcrritories,
of course the Territorial Legislatures have no
right 10 pass . law for excluding or expcllinR