Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1858-11-18

5 Missouri Compromise, SO far as it exclude
8 Slavery from certain Territories, was dicta
ted by this spiri. -s....- ...........
, The Nebraska bill, in opening the Ma
4 tional Territories to Slavery, elevated Slay
; cry from the rank of mere obnoxious fac
to the rank Of a national principle. Ac
r cording to thai measure, Slavery shall hav,
) the right to exist everywhere by virtue of The
national law, where i is not abolished g. pro-
} hibitedby local legi lation. Before Mr.. Doug
las, Popular Sovereignty, Slavery e. Freedom
stand apparently as equal claimants. But
in fact, Slavery has acquired the right o.
precedence over Freedom. This is The
principle which Douglas has introduced in
to the policy OF This country, in place ul
the leading ideas of the revolution. He
may claim the merit of being the first man
who succeeded in displacing the political
development of this Republic from the solid
basis OF the Declaration of independence.
The Nebraska oill,very far from being pro-
gressive movement, was the boldest step in
the reaction against the principles o: the
Revolution.
Do not say that am indulg;ng in mere
play with abstract ideas ant theoretical dis
criminations, and that things might look
better in reality; for / tell yo", what is
nonsense in theory you will never make
sense in practice.
know MIR. Douglass principal position,
that the people of the Territories should be
left free to settle the question Of Slavery
Tor themselves, carries some plausibility
with it. But why could it not be fairly and
quietly executed! Because everybody tried
10 execute it as he pretended to understand
it. Yes, Sir, no sooner was the word spoken,
than the contradiction. which lay hidden in
the new measure, broke out in practical
conflict. This was not astonishing to me,
| for it cannot be otherwise, when the con-
structiGn- of ambiguous measures is put into
the hands Of antagonistlc interests. (Cheers)
Look at the Constitution of the United
States. Its words are the same for Mr..
Gerrit Smith of New York and for Mr..
Hammond OF South Carolina. But how
does it happen that these gentlemen UNDER
stand its meaning So differently! How does
it happen that the same words which signify
Liberty to Gerrit Smith signify Slavery to
Hammond! 1t is because their stand points
from which they judge it are different. The
one looks at it from the hills of Free New
York; the other, from the miry sol! Of
South Carolina cotien-feld. TIE antagon-
ism between Liberty and Slavery has drawn
in its whirl the current of human thought
and the reasoning faculties OF the human
mind. But If such is the case even with
the Federal Constitution, of which Madison
said thai it should contain nothing which
might remind coming generations that such
an abomination as Slavery every existed in
this Republic, what will be the fate OF such
measures, which are nothing bu: a new en-
bodiment oil the old contradiction and an
tagonisn between Democracy aid Slsvery
AS SOON as such measure is enacted, both
principles and both sections OF the country
representing them will seize upon it and try
to monopUlize its construction, anG what is
construed to mean Liberty here will be con-
strued TO mean Slavery there and this is na-
tural, for 10 the STAKEHOLDER the principal
meaning OF Liberty is that man shall have
right to hold his fellow-man as property
(Cheers.)
Was it not SO with the Kansas Nebraska
bill! No sooner was that measure passed
by Congress than the slavehotding Interest
succe ded in monopolizins It's construction,
and while our poor Democrats in the North,
ern States were descantiDg on the beauties
Of Territorial self-government, the South
put down Squa;,er Sovereignty with sneer,
and all that remained of The great prin-
ciple" was, that the shareholders acquired
the absolute right to hold their slaves as
property in all the Territories of the United
States, "by virtue Of the Federal Conslitu-
tom; (Cheers.) What means the Me-
braska bill now! All, look a. Mr.. Douglas
himself, how he is futtering between the
Northern and Southern Construction of his
"grea. principle" how that happy father is
hardly able to tell his own child, which is
white to-cay and black tomorrow great
laughter and applause); how he bows to the
Dred Scot; decision with his face toward
Charleston, and then TO Territorial Squatter
Sovereignty with his face toward Spring
aeld. (Cheers) Look at that disgusting,
ptiable exhibition of man who boasts Of
his greatness as statesman, with the
laundering voice OF brass cannon, and
who is rt-sighted enough not to see that
he, like boy, has fallen into the meshes OF
that eternal contradiction from which his
pettifogging sophistries VIII never extr:cate
him. (Thundering applause.)
Such has been the fate of Squatter Sow
ereignty and of the man who invented it.
And such W i'll be the fate of all measures
which at the same time concede TO Slavery
the right to spread and Liberty the right to
restrict it. So long as our national laws
coun:enance Slavery in auy way beyond
that measure of right which it derives from
the local Legislation of the States in which
it exists, the contradiction in our institu
tions viii be the same, the antsgonism will
be the same, the agitation and the wal will
be the same and no compromises, and no
mock Popular sovereignty will allay the
struggle. 1t will be repeated over and over
again as often and wherever Slavery has
the sighes: chance to intrude. All such
measures, which embody both the antag-
onistic principles, are like railroad train
TO which two locomotives have been attach
ed, one at each end. The name Of one is
Liberty, the name Of the other, Slavery. II
the Two locomotives pull in different direc-
tions, what will be the consequence! Either
the superior power of one will pull the