The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-02-26

ployees to the number which may be necessary; the
messengers to furnish each horse and carryall al
{ price not exceeding 81 per day.
r Mr.. Spinner, of New York, from the same com
nttee' submitted minority report, with a bill
printed. ~
Mr.. Campbell, of Ohio, from the Committee ot
ways and Means reported a bill to authorize the
Secretary of the Treasury to change the present
system OF providing relief for sick and disabled sea
men; which read twice recommitted to tba
Committee of Ways and Means, and ordered TO be
printed. " ~
Mr.. Maynard, of Tennessee, from the Committee
OF claims, made an adverse report on the memo
rial of James Marsh and others; which was laid an
the table and ordered to be printed.
Mr. Crawford, of Georgia, from the same com
i1lttee made an adverse report upon the letter of
fne secretary OF State, in relation to the claim
r. G. Murphy, late Consul at Shanghai: which was
lald on the table and ordered to be printed.
DEBATE ON KANSAS.
On motion of Mr.. Harris of Illinois, the House
went into Committee of the Whole Mr. Green
wood, of Arkansas, in the chair and nominaly re
sumed consideration of the Indian Appropriation
| bill.
Mr.. Crawford, of Georgia, addressed the commit
| tee IN favor OF the admission of Kansas into the
| Union under the Lecompton constitution, contend
ing that all the clamor against that constitution
arose from the hatred of the Republican party of the
! North against the institution of slavery He de-
nounced the efforts of the emgrant aid societies of
the North to abotionize Kansas. and read a COPY
| OF the reasonable oath taken by the "Regulators'
OF the free-State party in Kansas, who banded
together to subver the laws and to establish
| their revolutionary Topeka government. No man
mad yet objected that the Lecompton constitution
was not republican in form. or that the population
was not sufficient; the opposition was only based
upon the desire TO sustain the lawless and rebellious
Iopekaltes, and Overturn law and order, for the
sake OF driving out the pro-savery settlers and abo-
! litiOnizing the Territory.
Inc Lecompton recognised and protected slavery
] which hut hat, l,l
oeen decided by Congress in advance in Che passage
of the KansasN Nebraska bill, which authorized the
people of Kansas to form and regulate their insttu-
! tons in their own way. 1t only remained to see
! whether Congress would redeem its pledges or
whether it would aid and abet those who were in re-
bellion. If the doctrine of 'No more slave State"
was to prevail in this matter, then the Union would
| be the btterest foe of the South. and would cease
to exist except upon paper. In conclusion; he ap-
! pealed to the Democracy not to desert the South
| In this last struggle with abolitionism.
Mr.. Goodwin, of New York, said the Kansas
! struggle was direct conflict between freedom and
slavery, between liberty and tyranny. The attempt
was made, in the face of the world to force upon
| the free people of Kansas a system which they alb
horred under the flimsy pretence of permitting them
to govern themselves. The boasted doctrine of
'squatter sovereignty" was a fraud and delusion
From the beginning it determined to make
Kansas slave state, and it never intended to
permit her people to govern themselves He re-
viewed the history of the Outrages in Kansas and
conended that the President in his special message
concealed some important facts and distorted Others
lie contended that it was the duty of Congress to
pass an enabling act for Kansas and refer the whole
subject OF State constitution back to the people OF
that Territory.
Mr.. Millson. of Virginia. defended his past oppo-
sitlon to the kansas-N ebraska bill. The time had
now come when the correctness of his views were
shown by the results; and in the midst of predic-
| tions fulfilled and forebodings realized he could
feel that no part of the responsibility for the dis
tur6ed state OF the country rested upon him. The
subject Of Kansas was, in his opinion, of the more
| Importance because they had yet to legisate for
! Utah. His Southern colleagues had agreed with
him on the Interpretation and construction of the
Kansas Nebraska BILL with but a single point of diff
ference. He had held that scarcely anything could
be adduced to support the Nebraska bill but the
promised repeal of the Missouri compromise, which
was denounced on the hand as unconstitutional,
and defended on the other constitutional The
only proper course for Congress, them was either
to repeal it or let it alone as the the other
sentiment prevailed but Congress would do neither
Had Congress simp Y repealed its own act of 1870,
it would have fixed the condition of the Territories,
and no harm would have resulted.
/ The grave and fatal error was that, while appa-
rentlv believing the compromise to be uncOnstitu
tional, Congress legislated upon the opposite idea
declaring its provisions imperative and void but
only upon condition that slavery should not exist in
the Territories by force of law and that previous
laws on the subject should not be revived. Con.
gress said in effect, 'the law of 1920 which trans
formed a slavehoding into a nOn-slavehOding Ter
ritory, was wrong and shall not stand; but we will
not restore the Territory to the condition it was in
before that law. We will not revoke our interdict
but whether it shall be renewed or not, whether
slavery shall be allowed not shall depend upon
the people who 90 into the Territory. Run then
men of the North and of the South, let us
see who will go first and in greatest numbers. To
the swift and the strong shall be given the prize"
That there was a mad rush was not to be wondered
at nor that the men who Joined in the contest should
be zealots and bigots. 1t ought to have been fore
seen that they would meet not merely opponents,
but enemies and strangers
1t was urged that Congress had no power to es-
tabsh or prohibit slavery in the Territories but if
Congress had no such power, how could it grant or
delegate that power to a Territorial government
the creature of Congress.
Southern men had contended that the bill only
authorized the people to decide on the question OF
slavery when they came to form a State constitu-
ton. Was this, then, all there was of the great
doctrine OF public sovereignty? No man denied
that State could exercise the power of establish
ing or prohibiting slavery, and the same power
must necessarily be possessed by Territory in the
act of framing its constitution.
A State could not frame constitution for Ter
ritory, nor Territory for a State. State gave
power to Congress, but Territory received power
from Congress. \ Territory was the creature of
Congress, while Congress was the creature of the
States. Congress, then, not the source of the
power exercised by people in forming State con-
sitution, but it the only source of the power of
a Territory. There was a peculiar and distinctive
feature in the Nebraska bill from the effect of which
it impossible to escape 1t was plainly license
or permission to the people of the Territory. while
yet Territory to establish exclude slavery. If
that power could not be exercised, it not the
fault or the bill, but only because, under the de
cision of the Supreme Court, Congress had no CON
stitutiOna right to grant the power He was told
that this grant OF power was eXpress V made
subject to the Constitution of the United States
but every act of Congress subject to the Const
tuition, whether so declared or not. 1t novelty
in legislation to pass laws for the purpose of having
their intent and meaning tested by the courts.
If the powers in question could be only exercised
in the formation of State constitution. slavery
could not possibly get into the Territories legally
and if slayery now existed in Kansas it in spite
OF all the Missouri compromise and the Nebraska
bill had done. He told that these people had
right to pass laws in favor of slavery, but none
against it. Indeed! Then the power to form and
regulate their institutions lin their own way
meant only Sin one way" ''in the Southern way"
A few years ago Senator Douglas. in supporting
an amendment to a Territorial bill, first made
of the words 81 wish to have them free to regulate
! their own institutions in their own way" little
supposing that that part of his speech was after
wards to be enacted into law Then it was the
sentiment of Il single Senator, and it was condem-
ed by the votes of all the Southern Senators ex-
cept Clay and Underwood. 1t must be proud re-
Election to him now not only that he has establish
ed the sentiment upon the statutebook in spite of
the South, but that they have become so charmed
with it as to make the newborn dogma the touch
stone of political fealty He (Mr. NJ had not
yielded to the influences which produced these re-
markable changes Perhaps the light of this new
risen doctrine had not yet penetrated into his hum
BILE sphere, overshadowed by loftier inteligences.
He protested against auy attempt to deprive Con-
gress OF Its proper control the Territories
The power of Congress could not be withdrawn by
any body of emigrants. The general welfare might
demand that other should be made of the Terri
tory than the settlers desired. Must the public in
terests and perhaps the public safety yield to the
caprice of selfish men, who claimed no other right
than that Government had suffered them to dwell
upon its land? 1t was both the right and the duty
thn
in Congress- to their rights in the Territories
Bad men might inhabit them, who wonld pass laws,
to sanction their own lusts, and betrayed women
might call their wckedness religion. Disgusting
licentiousness and blasphemy might impudenty
claim to be tolerated as domestic institution
and national reputation would be tarnished.
The Territories being originally slaveholding,
and the Supreme Court having decided the act of