Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1858-02-25

- be excluded from the soil. We were
,,ot nrenared for this; for if the act of mi
nority. or, at best, q doubtful majority,
can. for the time, establish a domestic
institution, an actual majority should be
able to form and regulate and perpetuate
other or all domestic institutions.
The Democratic party and the President
were honest in their support of popular
sovereignty. This was not only the case
before, but after the election. On no 9th
er hypothesis can you aeceut for their ear
ly, distinct, and repeated avowals of it.
The President intended to enforce it in
Kansas literally and truly. There had
never been but one Interpretation given to
it by the party of which he was, the head,
and he understood it clearly. 1t was, that
the fundamental law, the constitution,
which gave form and regulation, to their
institutions, all their institutions, should
not be imposed upon the people until sane
toned and adopted by vote of the ma
jority. If such was not the case, how
came it that the President did not at once
repudiate the action of Governor Walker
in giving assurance that the Lecompton
convention must submit their constitution
to vote, or it would be rejected by Con-
gress? How ccnld he pass over this SEN
tence, in the address of that officer to the
people of the Territory, without notice!
"Kansas never can be brought into the Union,
witror without slavery, except by previous
solemn decision. fully, freely, and fairly made
by a majority of her people, in voting for or
against the adoption of the State constitution.
1t must be conceded that the President
approved of Governor Walkers course, and
that it required him TO do so to make his
own course consistent, and the party true
to their ayowels.
/ here leave the discussion. l am un-
willing to repeat points raised in the earli-
er portion Of my remarks, to assist this
branch ofmy argument, and l do not think
it necessary to do so. can only use this
general expression, that, in my opinion,
the course now recommended to us by the
President in his message is unjust to, be-
cause inconsistent with, himself, and would,
if carried out, rob the Nebraska-Kansas
act of its vital principle, and stand as an
accusing record against the good faith of
the Democratic party, crppliDg it for years
to come, if not destroying it for the future.
In such an event, where is that strong hand
which is to lay hold of the rudder and still
direct the ship of State, freighted with the
hopes of mankind, in her course of materi-
al greatness and increasing glory? What,
in that day, will constitute the breakwater
against which fanaticism shall dash in its
wild fury as the hurricane may bear it
from the North or the South? How will
then fare the Union, with which we are
everything, without which we are nothing?
Do you believe you can satisfy the coun-
try of the propriety of planting slavery Oh
that soil, from which the Missouri compro-
mise excluded it, upon the newest doctrine
that it should be left to the laws of climate
and production alone, and that neither of
these will exclude it! that popular soverei-
gnty, applied by the legislation of 1854 to
the rule of the Territories of the United
States, may be trampled under foot upon
the pretense that forms of law have been
duly observed in establishing it that pop
ular elections may be carried under solemn
guarantees to the voter, and all pledges be
broken the moment they have performed
their work? that the principal may instruct
the agent, and the agent, by faithfully
obeying the instructions given, shall render
himself obnoxious to the Just indignation
of his superior? that that Territory is
selfgoverned whose highest law is made
and riveted upon it by convention in
whose composition one half of the Terri
tory was unrepresented and disfranchised,
which was ordained by Legislature never
acknowledged because never elected? in
short, that all is well, and that principle
and faith are inviolably kept in Kansas,
when they know that nine tenths of her
citizens, acting together, are unable to pre-
vent the adoption of institutions which
shey never can acknowledge without dis
grace?
Do you believe you can satisfy the coun-
try of all this? l tell you here to-day
plainly that the northern Democracy never
will be able to satisfy northern men of these
things. Unlike the ancient knight, those
who support this strange policy will be
known, although they may charge the col
or of their armor at every charge they
make hereafter. The time has come at
last, and not too soon, when new requisi-
tion will be made by northern constituencies
-an earnest and manly defense of northt
ern honor and of northern rights, willis
giving the utmost demands of justice to
their brethren of the South. If unpardon-
able to insist upon so much equality, then
we have reached the end of national plat
forms, and the beginning of sectional Pres
idents-to my mind the last calamity to
be survived; for them will begin those acts
of aggressive interference which, leading
to protracted and desolating wars, must
end II establishing among children of the
SAM olood the cruel relation of conqueror
and captive.
The Rnnuhlican'