New-York daily tribune., 1858-07-12

Bsruburnsrs Of the stamp Of John Van Buren add
John Cochrane-took tie same side. 1t Judge
Douglas, almost or quite alone among our Dem
| ocratic sspirants to the Presidency, perceived
that the de.ertion Of Popular Sovereignty
and the adoption instead of the wretched
tissue Of legal quibbles and tschnic,Ites
whereby the forcing of the LecomPton Con
sttotion upon the protesting People OF kan'as
was sought to be justified wss certain to ruin both
himself and his party, and therefore assumed bis
position Of active, invncibo hostility, then has he
evipced rare and profound sagaclty-a sagacity
which many who lately howed on bis track will
live TO admire and thank him for-wtie, il, defy
ing or disregardiDg consequences, he was actua'ed
solely by stern devotion to principle, then is he
emitted to still higher praise. We pretend to no
special knowledge of bis motives; but, where the
act is unmstskabIy right, We are not accustomed
to presume the motive bad one. If the Demo-
cratic party is saved from utter wreck AID dissou-
tion in the Free States the credit will be justly
due TO the saaacity aud courage Of Judge Doug.
las in resisting and defeating that most monstrou'
imposture and villsiny, the Lecompton Codstitu-
ton; and we cannot but feel that his course
throughout the late Session has achieved for him
| high place among our Statesmen.
| But while We thus do honor to the man aud his
bold and tenacious resistance 10 a fragrant public
wIoDg we do not find the principle on which he
based that resistance embodied in the Nebraska bill
with those accessories which Mr.. d. recognizes as
leeitmatey and inseparably united to it. The right
of the people Of Territory to legalize or forbid
Slavery in their midst, is proposition that We
clearly comprehend, though We do not accept it. 1t
rests on precisely the same foundation to our mind,
with the right of Territory or State to make
Theft, Adultery, Burglary, Forgery, Rape and Muir
der lawful and reputable. The rights Of msorlties
tho power of the State-have limits; and we
deny that any community, whether BY majority OF
ten against nine or of nineteen against one can right
fully con,train portion Of its men and women to
spend their lives and their strength as the chattes
Of Others Unless the State has authority to repeal
the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, it
has no night and no rightful power to establish or
uphold the relation Ofmaster and slave.
Thus far, We are at issue with Mr. Douglas on
principles very grave and vital One-but we are
equally at variance on a moneutOus question Of
fact. We hold that the Nebraska bill did not en-
body and establish the principle on which its author
rests its justification. We do not say that he did
not mean or wish to establish it, because his course
on the Lecompton bill justfes the presumption
that he did, but it 10 the less certain that such
effort, if honestly made, resulted in failure. There
can be no question of the fact that Mr. Douglas and
bis supporters, when challenged by the anti
Nebraska Senators in 1854 to embody in their bill
provision directly affirming the right of the Terri
tories to exclude Slavery if they chose, voted No
not once only, but repeatedly; we know that no
such proviso cas embodied in the bill as enacted
We know, too, that the BILL as reported BY Mr.
Douglas and ss passed. contains the ominous decls-
ration that it leaves "the People of the Terri
"tories perfectly free to form and rega-
"late their domestic institutions in their own
"way, subject only to the Constitution Of the
" Uaitsd States" Now Mr.. Douglas is too good
lawyer to be ignorant that this latter provso was not
necessary to save any rights secured BY the Con-
stitution, since no act of Congress has power to
modify or in the smallest degree override the Con.
stitution, no matter what may be its provisions or
omissions. What uas, then, the object of that
proviso7 Why was it deemed necessary or expe
dent to enact that the right of the People Of
Territory to establish or exclude Slavery was "sub.
"iect to the Constitution of the United States 7"
Can there be any doubt that it was the intent OF
whoever devised and suggested to Mr.. Douglas this
proviso to 10y an anchor to wndward in such man
ner that, if the People of Territory should ever
attempt to exclude or prohibit Slavery by law, the
Supreme Court might step in and authoritatively
declare that no power to do this inhered in Terri
torial Legslsturel
We do not say that Mr.. Douglas cherished any
such occult purpose as this-He hope he did not
but he was somehow made the instrument of those
who did. And whenever he was asked during the
la.t (XXXlVth) Congress, "Do you hold that
Territorial Legislature has riehtful power to
"absli,h or prohibit Slavery '"-his uniform au-
swer was--"That is question for the Supreme
"Cour." He is thus clearly precluded, whatever
may be the case with others, from challenging that
Courts jurisdiction or decision.
Well: The Supreme Court has made its long.
heralded, much-trumpeted decision. 1t WAS ready
to make it in the Spring of 1856; but the political
sky was then lowering, and it was deemed polite
to keep it secret till after the then pending Pres
idential Election. Then it was launched; but not
till Mr.. Buchanan, in his Inaugural, had gwen it a
puff preliminary, and e1horted every one to re.
ceive it with implicit Difference. That decision,
unless We and nearly everybody else grossly misun.
derstand it, denies to the Territorial Legislatures,
as well as to Congress, any right to abolish or in
hikt Slavery in the Territories. And-to make the
es.a comnlata-Mr Douolss made a snsarb az