San Andreas independent., 1858-08-21

l
ricultural districts of Pennsylvania and New
York, would be utterly unfit for the large mi
ming districts of the Pacific or the lumber re-
gions of Maine. The trainers of the Consti.
tuition well understood that each locality, hav-
ing separate and distinct interests, required
separate and distinct laws, domestic institu-
tions and police regulations, each adapted to
its own wants and own conditions; and they
acted on the presumption also that these laws
| and institutions would be as diversified and
dissimilar as the States would be numerous
and that no two would be exactly alike, be-
cause the interests of no two were precisely
the same. Hence, assert that the great fun
damental principle which underlies our COM
plex system of State and Federal Government,
contemplated diversity and dissimilarity in
the local institutions of each and every State
in the Union or hereafter to be admitted into
the confederacy.
Silence conceive that my friend, Mr.. Lin
coin, has totally Inexperienced the great
principle upon which our Government rests
Uniformity in local and domestic affairs
would be destructive of State rights, of State
sovereignty, of personal liberty and personal
freedom. Uniformity is the parent of despot-
ism the world over, not only in politics, but
in religion. Whenever that doctrine is pro-
/ claimed, that all States must be Free or all
must be slave, that all labor must be white or
all must be black, that all persons in each
State must have the same privileges, and be
governed by the same regulations, you have
destroyed the great safeguard of the citizen,
thrown around him by the Constitution
How is this uniformity to be. accomplished
if it was desirable and possible? There is
but one mode in which it could be brought
about, and that one mode would be to abolish
the State Legislatures, blot out our State
sovereignty and merge the rights and sove-
reignty of the States in one consolidated en-
pire, vesting Congress with plenary power to
make all the police regulations and domestic
concerns and local laws throughout the limits
of the Republic. When you shall have done
that, you will have uniformity then you will
have all the States free or all slave; then slaves
will vote everywhere or nowhere then you
will have uniformity in all things local and
domestic by the authority of the Federal 60
vernment But when you have uniformity,
you will have constituted these thirty-tw
| States-independent at present-into one con-
solidated empire, with a uniformity of despot-
ism reigning paramount throughout the length
and breadth of the land.
x X
THE other proposition advanced by Mr.
Lincoln in his speech, is a crusade against the
Supreme Court of the United States, on the
ground of the Dred Scott decision. On this
question also, desire to say to you, unequiv
ocally, that | take direct and distinct issue
with him. l have no warfare to make on the
Supreme Court of the United States, either on
account of that or any other decisions which
they have pronounced from that bench The
Constitution of the United States has provi-
ded that the power of the Govcrnment-and
the Constitutions of the several States had
the same provisions-shall be divided into
three departments-the executive, legislative
and Judiciary. The right and the province OF
expounding the Constitution and the construc-
ton of law is vested in the judiciary estab-
lished by the Constitution. AS lawyer |
feel at liberty to appear before a court and
controvert any principle of law while the
question is pending before the tribunal; but
when decision is made, my private opinion,
I your opinion, all our opinions, must yield to
the majesty of that authoritative adjudica-
tion-and wish you to bear in mind that this
involves the great principle upon which our
rights and our liberties and our property all
depend. What security have you for your
property-for your reputatons-for your per-
sonal rights, unless the courts are to be up
held and their decisions respected, when once
finally rendered by the highest tribunal known
to the Constitution
The issue between Mr.. Lincoln and myself,
as the respective candidates for the United
States Senate, is made up in direct, une-
quivocal, fair issue. He goes for uniformity
of domestic institutions, for the war of Sec
tions until one or the other shall yield. ! go
for the great principle of the Nebraska bill,
for the right of the people of each State to
decide for itself. On the other point Mr.. Lin
coin goes for warfare upon the Supreme
Court of the United States because of their
judicial decision. yield obedience to, and
acquiesce in, the final determination of the
highest judicial tribunal of the nation upon
our Constitution. He objects to the Dred
Scott decision, because it does not put the ne
gro in possession of the rights of citizenship
on an equality with the white man. / am ut
terly opposed to negro equality with white
men. | repeat that this nation is a nation of
white people, a people composed of European
descendants, people that have established
this Government for themselves and their pos
terity and am in favor of preserving not
only the purity of their blood, but the purity
of the Government, from all mixed races or
amalgamations We have seen the effects of
these mixed races of superior and inferior ra
ces, this mixture of white men, and Indians,
and negroes We have seen it in Mexico, in
Central America, and in South America, and
in all the Spanish American States. It's re-
suit has been deterioration, decentralization,
and degradation, below the capacity for self
government am opposed to taking any step
that recognizes the negro or Indian as the
equal of the white man, to have voice in the
execution and administration of the Govern
ment would extend to the negro and Indian
and all dependent races, every right, every
privilege, and every immunity consistent with
the safety of the white race, but equality he
never should have, either political or social,
or in any other respect whatever. Then, my
friends, you see the issue is very distinctly
drawn. stand By the same platform that
have so often proclaimed to you and to the
people of Illinois heretofore. | stand by the
Democratic organization, yield obedience to
its usages, and support its regular nominees.
| endorse and approve the Cincinnati Plat
form. | adhere to and intend to carry out as
part of that platform, the great principle of
self-government, which recognises the right of
the people of each State and Territory to de-
eide for themselves upon their domestic insti-
tutions.
Thus you have the outline of the PROPOSE
tions which intend to discuss before the pco-
pie of Illinois during the coming campaign.-
have made up my mind to appeal to the peo-
pie against the combination that has been