Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1858-01-21

sdf. in fAe Judgment of the ldp At tho time of the
passage the Kansas Ne5rdska Act there sras ,ei-
fker saory nor inrolunfary servitude in any Of TIC
Territories of The Uasfed States tsder fke Coasti
tutton Of he United States. There local law
author. zing it, any act of Congress. There was
neither slave state free state having any ju-
risdict5on over them. The Constitution of the Uni
ted States never carried slavery into any free Terr-
tory of tho United States. The statesmen who made
it did not make 1t for that purpose. The people who
ordained and established IT, did not ordair and estab.
lisll it for that purpose.
There is neither express or implied power TO
establish slavery anywhere If there slavery
United States, it was without law, and in direct
violation of every principle upon which institu
tons are based, and in conflict with the declared
objects for which the Constitution itself adopted
Neither in regard to slavery any other subject,
does the Constitution do that for which 1t was not
intended or instituted that for which it does not
| itself declare il was intended or instituted No
partnership was formed by the Confederated States
at the time the Federal Constitution was adopted
for the purpose of creating sustaining slavery
There no article IN the partnership contract de-
claring slaves to be common property orregsterine
them among the list OF articles chattles universally
recognized throughout the civilized world as com.
nun subjects property. That cannot, by any just
law, be made property which is not the subject of
property. Men entitled to life and liberty are not
the subject Of property to entitled to life and
liberty. Equals are not the subject of property to
equals The Constitution of the United States was
never intended to establish or sustain and does not
now sustain this peculiar relation or institution in
any Territory of the United States
There is another serious aspect to this anti Re-
publican doctrine of slavery under the Constitu-
ton. If the right to hold slaves existed in Kan
sas at the time of the passage Of the Kansas act,
under, the common Constitution 1t existed in Utah
| and New Mexico and Oregon, and Washington and
Minnesota Territories. If the right to hold slaves
exists under the Constitution of the United States
Independent of local law, the Constitution being
the Supreme law OF the land as il expressly de-
cares then every act prohibiting slavery in any of
the Territories, the ordinance of 1887, and every
law and Con stituton of every free State abolish
ing or prohibiting slavery, were and are uncon-
sttutiona, and the right Of Shareholders to bring
into Wisconsin their slaves and to hold them here
as such, and to sustain the institution Of slavery
here, now exists, and slave labor, forced upon US.
is liable to come into competition with the free
labor of our citizens 1t is question which rises
far above all party considerations. The free peo-
pie of Wisconsin will never consent to any such
construction of the Federal Constitution.
/ We owe it to ourselves, and to the other free
States and to the spirit of our institutions, to re-
cord our solemn protestagainst it, Wisconsin was
born of Virginia when ideas of free government
i filed the minds of her great statesmen and when
Liberty was the theme of her Orators. The child
has not forgotten the early taught lessons of the
parent. There SHALL be neither Slavery nor in,
voluntary seruitude in the State of Wisconsin 9th
eroise than in the punishment of crime tclersof the
party shall hare been duly conricted."
The right to control, is a necessary incident to
the power to acquire Territory. Congress has nc
lpower to establish slavery in the Territories, be-
cause it derives no power from the Constitution
| and to establish slavery was not of the pur-
poses for which it was ordained and established
The Federal Government has no right to acquire
Territory except for purposes consistent with the
LII. 1F s-ufs k,,k.A IL A
is its duty to prohibit slavery in the rrtories and
slavery is the antagonist of that Liberty 70 secure
the blessings of which the Constitution was or
dained and established.
| The right of Congress to legislate for the Ter
ritories has been conceded by every President and
| sanctioned by every administration, from that o.
Washington down to that of President Pierce. Il
has been declared by the adjudication of the Su
preme Court of the United States. Every organic
law, organizing Territorial Government, passed
by Congress, is an act of Legislation. The act O.
Congress, organizing Territorial Government in
Kansas holds the same relation to that Territory
that State Convention does to the State. Goa
gress can confer no power of Legislation that il
does not itself possess, and every act of Legsla
ton by Congress establishing organic law i:
Legislation for the Territory and for the people othe
rerritoy;is legislation over the Territory and ovei
the people of the Territory, affecting the rights
/ L
/ is the duty of Congress to exercise that power OF
legislation the Territories in order to preven
the aggressions of an enemy to the common liberty
which the people have, under the Constitution,
right to enjoy, To certain extent, the people
have a right to regulate their own Institutions in
their own way. But the people have no right tc
do wrong. The majority of the people have nc
right to Cypress the minority. Constitutions are
adopted and laws made with view to protect the
81
tiles well as to protect the rights of the minor.
/ ity because of their intrinsic merits. Under a
constitutional government the power of the peo-
| pie is not unlimited. The people must be bound
by the law or there is the end of civil government
/ Our Government is not pure democracy, where
the will the of the people necessarily becomes the
law Otherwise, if the majority determined upor
a Limited Monarchy or absolute Despotsm, with
out regard to constitutional safeguards, our gov
eminent might be changed to morrow, and all eul
liberties oysrthrown. Under our present form Of
government, the people in every organized State
having regard to the bounds set to their action BY
the Constitution, and having in view the great OBJ
Ijects of the Government, have a right to say
through their legally chosen agents and represen.
tatives bv what kind of laws their lives and lib
erty and prosperity shall be protected and preser
we'd.
This applies, not to the rights of the majority OF
OF the minority, but to the rights of the whole
people. And when the objects fthe government
are to protect and preserve the life and liberty and
property of the whole people, the majority has nc
authority to will to order their rule to take
away the rights of the least and humblest individ-
ual in the State. The majonty Of the people have
no right under our constitution, or under the Fed
eral constitution, to declare as law that the min.
ority shall be slaves and the fact that the majority
should so declare would destroy the only really
democratic element in the government, and be a
solemn mockery sf every idea of Republicanism
1t is the business, therefore, of Congress- where.
ever it has jurisdiction, to prevent by every cons
shtutional means, the least attempt to establish
an institution or system of laws opposed to all
ideas of free government.
The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was a
great wrong done to the Free States and no benz
eft to the Slave States. 1t opened the door to
every species of fanatacism, and 20 wild sses,
! from the crilninaity of which an age of good
deeds and good government could bring no atone
men;, and the urgent effort still made to force up.
on the people of Kansas Constitution to which a
vast majority are VIGOROUSLY opposed against every
principle Of justice and constitutional obligation
is lighting up there the flames of civil war; which
may spread until the whole country shall become
involved. 1t is not the business of Congress to
make state constitutions force any state into
tile Union with constitution odous to Its people.
The Constitution gives to Congress a discretion.
AIRY power over the admission of new state 1t
may admit or it may refuse to admit 1t is the
duty OF Congress to prevent the admission Of any
move Slave States into the Cnion Slavery has
spread far enough 1t has diffused itself over more
| territory and has now more power over the Fed
eral Government than the Fathers ever intended
or expected. 1t is the duty Of every free State to
demonstrate against its further extension, and
against the admission of any more Slave States
Congress has no right to interfere with it in the
Slave States, but should confne it just. where it
is with all its blessings and all its woes by great
walls of law, supported by all the powers of the
national government.
Article 10 of the Constitution OF the United