Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1858-06-09

I the distinguished Senator from Georgia bowed
his assent, and l saw him and no member OF
| the Democratic party in the Senate protested
against that doctrine. / say, when such men
express such sentiments, the time has arrived
when the national men of the country should
unite to rebuke such sentiments, and vote them
down here, and vote them down elsewhere.
These are the men, are they, to taunt the loyal
old State of Massachusetts with having legis-
lated herself out of the Union, because she has
declared that of two given offices, it is incom-
patibe for one of her citizens to hold both OF
them She had right to pass such a law.
No court has decided it to be unconstitutional.
When the Court shall so decide Massachusetts,
with her accustomed obedience to law will sub
nit. She simply says this: If you desire to
carry men ssback to old Virginia-to old Vir-
ginias shore';-you must do it with your Off
GERS, ,and not with hers. That is all. But am
not here to-day to defend her l am not here
to plead for her. She denies the jurisdiction
of this House. She is not responsible to it for
her local legislation. l stand here npon the
great doctrine, which believe In, that the will
of the majority, constitutionaly expressed,
must stand until it shall be constitutionally re-
versed and SO far as the threat which has been
made is concerned, I-disdaining to argue in
its presence-stand here, before the people of
this great country, and trample that threat of
disunion scorntully under my feet.
Why have you brought this sectional ques-
tion here? Why do you seek to force Con-
sttution upon people whom you know abhor
It? That are you to gain by it Did not the
gentleman from SouthCaroina Mr.. Miles]very
truly say that it would be barren victory
that it would wither in your grasp? And he
said, speaking more fully in the interests of
the South Than most of you, that he did not
care now much about the passage of the Le-
compton Constitution. What are you to gain /?
Is your dogma that there can be property in
man, borne in the bosom of that Constitution,
recommended by such course more warmly
to the hearts of the American people 3? Will
you more easily persuade them, at some future
time, to be more willing to admit States from
other Territories, where the system may be
more congenial to the climate? VIII not the
people say, and with truth, that this system,
which requires such means as these to strength
en- and sustain itself, is dangerous to the peace
and prosperity of the Republic? VIII they
not hate your system, because Of your conduct
in this case What will two Senators from
that State, who must be tugitives from theState
that they will pretend to represent-will that
State, held down, as the gentleman from South
Carolina said he would hold it until 1861
compensate you for the ilfeeling you have ere
ated Will they compensate yon for the alien
alton of the people which will take pace? viii
they compensate you for your party dismem-
bered, broken, and lost {? The gentleman from
South Carolina Mr.. Milesl gave US statistics
of the last election. 1t is true, that with the
suspicion that you would do this thing, we
swept the North, and the East, and the West,
with, as he says, more than 1900, 600 votes.
We swept the great and populous States Of the
country with the mighty ten-wave of the peo-
ple's enthusiasm. We brought down the VIC
tory into the very shadow of your malign sys-
TEN. five did it then, what will now be your
fate at the polls, when You go back to an in
dignant and betrayed constituency? You can
no longer say you are for Free Kansas aCe will
nail you TO the record. You cannot say any Ion
ger that you are in favor of the great doctrine
of popular sovereignty Ue ciH nail you 10 the
record. You cannot say any longer that we
are mere Freedom shriekers, because there
shall stand side by side with us the great chief
of Democracy, the distinguished author of the
Kansas-Nebraska bill, and he will tell you that
you have betrayed your constituents.
We will summon clouds of witnesses from
all the winds of heaven. We will summon them
from the South, the East, and the West. We
shall summon the gallantWise of Virginia who
desires that the State shall be slave, but who
is too honest to cheat the people. We shall
summon Walker, who has added new empire
to strengthen the South. We shall summon
Stanton, and Forney. and Bancroft, and a host
of others and above all, we shall summon
those gallant Senators fromkentucky and Ten
nesse, the acts of whose lives for aquarter of
century shine along the annals OF their country.
We will call upon them, and they will tell you
You have betrayed the people; that your are
forcing upon the people of Kansas a Consti-
tuition conceived in fraud and violence. And
how are you to meet those charges? How are
you to answer to great and indignant people
for they will question you with a lounge of fire.
They will go back beyord your proceedings
here; they will question you as to the doings
and purposes of the Administration; they will
xyb IN he
trine of popular sovereignty? why, after you
had maintained that the people of a Territory
could exclude slavery you changed around,
and said they could do it when they formed
State; and why it is that your popular sover-
ignty has vanished away into the Hibernian
suggestion of the President that the quickest
way to make Kansas a free State is first to
make it slave State. Theyiwill ask you why
you have substituted the dogmas of Calhoun
for the doctrines of Jefferson. They will ask
you how it is that the President of the United
States, after having, in 1919 and lS4l, held
that Congress had power over the Territories,
in 1857 expressed his amazing surprise that
ANYBODY should have ever held that doctrine.
They win desire to know why it is that there
was a completely between him and theSupreme
Court of the United States, by which, under
' yonaer steps of the Capitol, he was enabled to
foreshadow what they afterwards announced as
an opinion. They will ask you why it was that
that Court, wearing the ermine of Jay,
and Story, when there was no case
before the court calling for it, went beyond the
line of their duty, and published political O.
pmions. They will ask you why the army of
the United States have shot down American
citizens in the streets of Washington, and why
it was held in terrorem over the people of Kan
sasso long. And they will ask you, doughfa-
ces of the North, why you sat still in your
seats, and allowed men to call your constitu-
ents, because they toiied, mud-sills and slaves.
ou will have to answer all these things. You
cannot do it, and we shall beat you like a