Daily national Democrat., 1858-10-24
Dnnrlns,s Frccport speeeh.

last As Douglas has never revised the re-
port of that speech, to our knowledge, nor
acknowledged its correctness, we cannot say,
with any degree of positiveness, that the
words reported are the identical words which
he used. But we give the question and an.
swer, as reported:
| LINcoLN's SECOND QUEsuoN-Ca the peo.
| pie of the United States territory, in any
lawful way, against the wishes of any citizen
of the United States, exclude slavery from
their limits prior to the formation of State
| CONSTITUTIONS
DOUGLASS ANswER-The next question
propounded to me by Mr. Lincoln is, can the
people of Territory, in any lawful way,
against the wishes of any citizen of the Uni
ted States, exclude slavery from their limits
prior to the formation of State Constitu
ton? | answer emphatically, rs Mr. Lincoln
has heard me answer hundred times from
every stump in Illinois, that in my opinion
the people of n Territory ean by lawful
means, exclude slavery from their limits prior
to the formation of State Constitution. Mr..
Lincoln knew that had answered that ques-
tion over and over again. He heard me ar
que the Nebraska bill on that principle all
over the State in 1854, in 1906, and in 1856,
and he has no excuse for pretending to be in
doubt as to my position on that question 1t
matters not what way the Supreme Court may
| hereafter decide as to the abstract question
| whether slavery may or may not 90 into a
Territory under the Constitution, the people
have the lawful means to introduce it or ex
clude it as they please, for the reason that
slavery cannot exist a day or an hour any
where, unless it is supported by local police
regulations. Right, right Those police
regulations can only be established by local
legislation, and if the people are opposed to
| slavery they will elect representatives to that
body who will by unfriendly Legislation eff
fectually prevent the introduction of it into
their midst. If on the contrary, they are for
it, their legislation will favor its extension.
Hence no matter what the decision of the
Supreme Court may be on that abstract
question, still the right Of the people to make
a slave Territory or free Territory, is per.
feet and complete under the Nebraska bill
! | hope Mr.. Lincoln deems my answer salts
factory on that point.
The whole gist of the above is simply this
That slavery may, an effect, be excluded from
Territory, by failure on the part of the
Territorial Legislature to enact any police
regulations for its protection. Douglas las
reported) does not say what the Territorial
Legislature ought to do but what it may do |
1t may omit to pass police regulations for the
protection of slave property. No power can
compel the Legislature to pass Them This
proposition will hardly be disputed by Dem
ocrats, at least. Douglas nowhere disputes,
in any of his speeches, but iterates and re-
iterates, time and again, that slave property |
may go into the Territories, under the Con-
stitution of the United States, with just that |
amount of protection which the Constitution
gives it, and the that Territorial Legislature is
'ohollv incompetent to enact lars excluding
slaue PROPERTY; but he denies that the Fede'
raj Government can compel the people of
Territory to enact encourdgementS to slavery,
if they are opposed to the institution.
Now this position of Douglas is distorted,
through the spectacles of Lecomptonism, to
mean everything but what it does mean. A
great bugbear is made out of it, and, seizing
upon their own distortions as an excuse, the
Lecompton press, that lately eulogized Doug
las in this State for the sake of getting Doug
las votes, are now reading him out of their
" Democratic Party" Well, poor excuse,
we suppose, is better than none.
Because Douglas says that Free Soil Ter
ritoral Legislature cannot be compelled to
pass laws encouraging slavery, why, in the
estimation of the Lecomptonites, he is no bet
ter than Black Republican" Now, this
is perfectly ridiculous. Everybody knows
that the Republican doctrine is that Terri
torial Legislature may pass laws prohibiting
slavery, but none in favor Of it. Douglas says
the Legislature cannot pass laws prohibiting
slavery, but that it may pass laws, if it likes,
for the protection of slavery. Slaves, he ad-
mits, can come into Territory, under the
Federal Constitution. The Republicans, on
the contrary, say, that they cannot The
two positions are wide apart, even if Doug
las went to the extreme of squatter sOver-
eighty, and asserted (Which he does mott that
Territorial Legislature can absolutely, of
its own innate power, exclude slavery or es-
tablish it in the Territory,--because the Re-
publcans say, that slavery cannot be en-
dowed with legal existence in any of the
Territories; in other words, to quote the Ian
guage Of their platform, they " deny the au-
thority of Congress, Of a territorial iegista-
t,Ue of any individual or association of indi-
viduals, to give legal existence to slavery in
any territory of the United States, while the
present Constitution shall be maintained"
So that, admitting that Douglas has actually
taken the position attributed to him by the
Lecomptonites, he is the very antipode of the
Republicans, even then
We have shown what ground Douglas has
taken, to wit: that, Territorial Legislature
cannot be compelled to enact laws for the
special encouragement and protection of
slavery, no more than it can be compelled to
enact laws against slavery And this ground
is admitted by leading Southern papers to
be entirely correct. For instance, the Rich
mond Enquirer says;
ain every Territory containing n majority
OF Pro Slavery men, the power of the Terri
torial Legislature is all sufficient for the pur-
pose. That is the protection of slave prop
erty-ED IN other Territories, it is at
least doubtful whether the Legislature will
exercise this power, and there IS no poper
elSechere to compel such erercise."
The identical position that is assumed by
Judge Douglas The Lecompton press of
this State must look ont for itsplf or IL will
shortly be in conflict with its Southern con-