The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-10-26
! THE ISSUE NARRowEp DOWN.

ss..E - b
THE ISSUE NARROWED DOWN.
The New York Tribune deyotes a column to the
canvass in New York, and runs the old subject
Of slavery in the Territories as the chief grounds of
objection to the election OF Judge Parker the dem
ocratc candidate for governor of that State. We
gather from the random FIRE of the Tribune, that the
opposition take issue with us upon the question of
the right Of the people Of Territory, in defiance Of
the decision Of the Supreme Court of the United
States, to abolish slavery There is doubt of the
right of such people to abolish slavery when they
form their State government. The Tribune goes
a step further and raises an issue upon the
question of their authority to do while in terri
toria condition, maintaining that they have such au-
thority. @
We are, then to meet the forces of the opposition,
in and out of the State of New York, upon this is
sue. Let US look into the matter for moment. A
party that puts in claim to respectability and de-
mands support, is based avowedly upon the merest
ephemeral subject--a subject which has praeti-
cal bearing, and if it had, that cannot be kept alive
from year to year. The New York Times, speaking
of the chief point in controversy upon this issue,
said q few days ago
" Kansas is played out No political movements out
side Of her own borders materially affect her future
condition She will be admitted upon her first asking
The administration dare not risk attempt to keep her
out Or If it should, its defeat will be overwhelming.
As political issue, therefore, the Kansas question be-
longs to the past In its nature it temporary Time
and events have settled it
Now il is proposed that the great State of New
York shall enter into controversy upon this tempo
rary question which thine and events have set
tied" The dead bodies of the grave to be dis
inferred, and the people Of the Empire State are
called upon to wrangle over their skeleton forms
and determine the nature Of the disease that carried
them off. Is it not more than apparent that the
hungry political buzzards and ackals who thus pro-
pose to feed on the dead and Brighten the living,
have other object in view than oppos-
lion to slavery? The issue is directed against the
decision of the Supreme Court of the United States
wedge to be driven, if possible, into the Union
itself. Those who have watched the progress
of anti-sayery in this country for few years
past, must by this time that it is an organ
izaton looking directly to the overthrow of the
government. AS events have demonstrated that
political parties in the States cannot control one
way or the other, the question of slavery in the
Territories, we have the aboliionsts throwing
off disguise and assaiing the fundamental principles
of our federal compact. They started with an
avowed purpose to prevent the admission into the
Union of any more slave States but in this they
overlooked the practical fact that the people of the
new States wonld settle that question for themselves
and turn away from their issue to assail and re-
the only obstacle that stands in the way Of d
tuition of slavery everywhere in the Union.
We bring this subject before the democracy of the
North, and we point them to the real purposes Of
the abolitionsts who thus insist upon the right of
the people TO abolish slavery by virtue of territorial
legislation. 1t is new opened for sectional
agitation, looking to hostile approach to the very
citadel Of our institutions and to the ultimate down
fall of the federal Union. There is not an intelligent
man in the whole country that does not know
that the question Of the right of the people of
Territory to abolish slavery is intended as cover
under which the abotionists expect to approach the
vital question of constitutional power conferred upon
the federal jadiciaryto assault and overthrow that
fundamental article of the government of the States
This work completed we see no way by which the
maiorities of the North be checked in whatever
measures they may propose against the institution
of slavery in the States What the anti-sIayery men
are seeking is supreme controls and this they cannot
accomplish SO long as effect is given to the compact
of union through the tribunals chosen to expound its
provisions. It is not, then, the question whether
the people of Kansas will or will not have slavery
but whethor the Supreme Court shall become or not
the tools Of the ntslavery menY whether that tri-
bunal shall be practically suppressed or be made
the mere instrument of faction and fanaticism?
The Tribune knows very well that the democratic
party maintain that the people of the Territories
when they come to frame their State institutions,
may prohibit abolish slavery will and equally
well that under the pressure Of population in this
country, their territorial existence is only for
day This is the utmost doctrine of popular SOW
,ereignty" 1.-The completest exercise Of sovereign
power by the people, and ample. in all respects to
give effect to their will concerning their domesc af
fairs The Tribune has been insisting for years upon
the right of Congress- to Iegislato the subject Of
slavery in the Territories; defending the Missouri
Compromise and the Wimot restriction. butnow turns
quickly round and claims that the people of the place
possess exclusive powers in the premises and denom
ces the Supreme Courts decision against their exercise
by Congress and it's denial Of the rights of such peo
4 L.. IL. -I<.I..l