The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1858-01-13

acted In the matter forming the basis OF
the charge, in pursuance of any Federal
law or warrant. No act Of Congress, in
my judgment, sanctions this principle
Such an act. indeed, would be clearly un
constitutional, because IN plain violation
of the express provision which requires
that the trial of all crimes shall be BY ju-
ry.
1t is deeply to be regretted that coils.
ions of this kind should occur. The au-
thorities of Ohio lave never failed in
due consideration for the constitutional
rights of Federal Court, nor will they
thus fail. But they cannot admit, with
out dishonor, thatState process is entitled
to less respect than Federal, nor can they.
ever concede to Federal writs or Federal
officials a Difference which is not canceded
to those of the State.
The true course is one of mutual re-
spect and mutual Difference. Whenever,
in any inquiry upon habeas corpus, by any
Court, State or Federal, it may be ascer-
tanned that the applicant for the writ is
detained under valid process in pursuance
of a constitutional law, he should be re-
handed at once to the custody from which
he may have been taken for trial in due
course. No investigation should take
place into the guilt or innocence of the
party charged, or, what is substantially
the same thug, whether the facts were
justified by the authority under which the
applicant was acting at the time. Inqui-
ries of this character are for, juries upon
a regular trial and in open court not for
a judge at chambers. If made upon one
side upon habeas corpus, they must also
be made upon the other. If Federal
courts are to protect Federal officials from
prosecution by Sta.e courts for alleged
violation of State Law, State courts, in
their turn, mnst protect State officers
from prosecution in Federal courts under
similar circumstances. Hence dangerous
conflicts must arise, and imminent peril
both to liberty and union.
IF such conflicts must come, to the ex-
tent of the power vested in me, I shall
maintain the honor of the State and sup
port the authority of her courts. 1 prefer
to hopesthat they may be averted by the
abandonment, on the part of the Federal
authorities, of the indefensible positions
which they have assumed.
The same disposition to extend the
range of Federal power in d-isparagement
of State sovereignty aud popular rights,
has been conspicuously manifest IN the
action of the Federal government in re-
gard to the Territory of Kansas From
the day when that territory was deprived
of the safeguard of the Missouri prohibit
ton by the passage of the Kansas ebrss
ka act, the whole action of the Federal
government seems to have been directed
to the establishment OF slavery within its
limits Instead of committing, in good
faith, to tho people of the Territory, the
formation aud regulation of their own in
stitutiops, all the Influence of the national
administration has been exerted for the
~subjugation of the people to the will of
the p~ropagandists ofslavery. The whole
practical effect of the Kansas Nebraska
act has been the substitution of Presiden-
tial Intervention for slavery, instead of
Congressional Intervention against slavery.
Without resistance or rebuke from the
National Administration, the actual resi-
dents of Kansas were driven from the
polls at the first territorial election, and
a pretended legislature was imposed on
an unwilling people by the fraud and
force of invaders from an adjoining State.
The people, harrassed aud outraged be-
yond endurance by the tyranny of the
usurping legislatu; and its instruments,
who were c-ountenanccd and aided by Fed
eral ofice-holders, sought relief in a State
Organization. Through a convention as
sembled at Topeka, they framed a State
constitution, aud, after it's ratification by
the popular vote, sought admission under
it into the Union. Their prayer for such
admission, though granted by the House
of Representatives rejecting the will of
the people, vas denied by the Senate re.
f%ectiDg. in this, the viii of the Slave Iu-
terest.
Every Federal officer in the territory
who manifested any sympathy with the
people, was, from time, removed, the boz
dies of troops were sent to compel submis-
sion to usurping power.
A few mouths since, under an act which
practically DISTINGUISHED a vast majority
of the citizens, a pretended election was
held for members of a convention to frame
another constitution. This convention
was constituted, as was intended, exclus-
lively of the partizans of slavery. It
framed of course, a slave state constitution
and provided for its transmission to Con-
gress without previous. submission to the
people for ratification. 1t proposed in
deed to submit to popular judgment the
question of slavery or no slavery, but so
the terms of submission that no
how the people might vote, slavery
would in any event exist in the new State,
if admitted into the Union under that
Constitution.
Happily, subsequent to the election of
the Constitutional Convention the period
for the second election of a Territorial
Legislature arrived, and at the election
then held, the actual residents of the Ter
ritory succeeded in election a majority of
its members in both branches. The peo-
pie, Knocked and insulted by the proceed
just narrated. now invoked from the
Secretary of the Territory, acting as Gov
ernor, the convocation of this body. For
with this just demand, the
Secretary was removed from Office. For
expressing himself in opposition to the
admission of the State into the Union,
under the Constitution of the Convention,
and without previous submission to the
Governor of the Territory fell
under such displeasure of the Admins
that be was constrained to resign