Worcester daily spy., 1858-09-22
WORCEsTER DAILY



Dses the Republican Party Endorse
Popular Sovereignty"
Mr.. Editor The speech of Hon. Eli Thayer
at the late State Convention published in the
daily Spy of September 9th,) can hardly fail to
excite surprise in the mass of Mr.. Thayer's con
stituents.
That Republican member of Congress should
formally repudate the fundamental principle
upon which the Republican party is founded
the bond which holds it together for a single day
and not content with that, should adopt the
doctrine of the Kanzas Nebraska bill, is, indeed,
the last of wonders.
Mr. Thayer says 81 find that there are some
in this party who are still inclined to adhere to
the old opinion that it is the right and duty of
Congress to legislate for the territories. So far
as the affirmation Of the right is concerned, l
agree, but concerning the duty do not agree
for, fellow citizens, by accident or by Providence,
we have found better way" Again, sin my
opinion, the true ground for any party desiring
TO the freedom OF the territories, is work
for G5SOl5te non lRterUeptioa, either By Congress,
the federal executive, any other resident
power whatever"
In other words the practical application of this
"old opinion in the ordinance of 81, and in the
Missouri Compromise have ceased 10 be the "ttue
ground" for the opponents OF slavery extension
to occupy ; the Wilmot ProvisO was unnecessa-
Ty and the issue on which the Fremont party
united was a mistake Nay, more. Seward,
Sumner, and the other anti slavery men in Con-
gress, should not only have struck hands with
Douglas, Pierce and the propacandists in pass
ing the Kanzas-Nebraska bill, but should also
have supported Mr.. Buchanan (basing the Os-
tend business in the last Presidential canvass.
Aye, and the Republicans of Illinois should, to.
day, be rallying round MI Douglas, in his strug-
gle for political life upon this very doctrine of
popular sovereignty" Mr.. Thaver, if he were
in that State, would be bound to tell his Re.
publican friends that "we have found a
better 1Cay" than to adhere to the " old opinion
of prohibition. The concession of the mere
''rtght" of Congress to exclude slavery from the
Telrtories-a question about which Mr.. Thayer
differs from Mr.. Douglas of no practical con-
sequence. We only value the Fright" because
wish to exercise it.
But what is Mr.. Thayer's "better way? EN-
igration from the free States, which, he says,
was stimulated by the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise, so that freedom has gained by that
" breach of plghted faith " True. So did the
passage of the Fugitive Slave Bill nerve the op-
position of the North against the recapture Of
fugtives. Shall the anti.slavery party therefore
resolve that Congress- in that BILL took the "true
ground"
In a word, shall great national party do all
the evil in its power, leaving it to some better
way of Providence, Mr.. Thayer, to educe
good therefrom Is this the course by which we
are TO become a victorious party (as Mr.. Thay-
er predicts) in 1860, to wit by abandoning the
policy to which our existence, and ap-
preaching that of Stephen A. Douglas One
cannot help asking which represents the party
that elected Mr.. Thayer to COngress-the Phila-
delphia platform or popular sovereignty"
Sept II, 1858, H.