The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1858-01-20
Gbe 9sblaro Clinton.
ASHLAND:
Saturday, January Is, 1858.

Saturday, January Id, 1898.
EE The following article was per-
posed by one of the ablest and most pop
ular Democratic ex-editors in Ohio
Read it:
For the Ashland Union-l
The AdnInistratiOn.Pop SOver.
eignty.The Powers OF Congress.
The New complication of the Kansas
question, has been seized upon by certain
Editors and politicians, in different sso-
tions of the Union, who have never been
remarkable for their devotion to sound
Democratic principles, to fan and keep
alive The fame Of sectional discord, with
a.Yiew of self aggrandizement, and in the
hope Of disparaging and defeating the
Administration in the settlement of this
complicated and yexed question. With
in the memory of man, some of these
same Editors and politicians occupied
very different position They not only
advocated an extension of the Missouri
Compromise line to the Pacific, but were
loud and eloquent in their eulogies of the
Wilmot Proviso, and deaounced aad viii
fed those of less pretentiou for maiAtain-
ing the inalieDable right of the people of
the territories as well as Of the States, to
govern themselves, and to regulate their
domestic institutions in their own way,
without the Intervention of Congress or
any other extraneous authority. How
great the change Then, no epethet was
too approbrious against those who denied
the constitutional power of Congress to
pass the Missouri Compromise, or the
Wilmot ProEiso, or in any other manner
to legislats for the people of the terri
tories. Now, without seeming to COM
prehend the position they occupy, they
denounce the present t-A.dniSistss.ioa-fa
not violating one of the most sacred prin-
ciples upon which it was elevated to pow
er--the principle of nan intcrvention in
the affairs of tho people of the territories
Well might we exclaim. in reviewing the
various phases of these political hernia
phrodites, o Otemporai O nioyesi!
The principles of popular Sovereignty
are not new principles interpolated into
the Democratic creed. they are as old
at least as the foundation of our govern
ment, and were maintained by the early
fathers of the Democratic party, as funda-
mental axioms of the Democratic creed
Hence they maintained that
1.-The feudal power of annexing con-
ditions to the settlements of a conquered
or acquired territory, by the government
of the country making the acquisition, has
ever been exploded as tyrannical both
here and in England. One of eur prinoi-
pies in the colonial state was, that emi-
grants to such territories carried with
them their native rights. The colonists
claimed the rights of Englishmen, and
not only obtained them, but have, we
hope, greatly extended them. But this
wonld not be the case if our emigrants
should be subjected to diminution of
their native rights by the pleasure Of
Congress. All of them enjoyed the righ.
Of forming local constitutions and laws
before their emigration. IfCongrcss can
not legislate over the States from whonce
they removed, and may do SO by annex
| ing conditions to trust, oyer that which
the emigraAts-fEem thesa States may ere
ate, it is obvious that these citizens mus
have lost some very important nativ'
rights by an emigration from one part o
our country to another. II the colonist
emigrating from England were correct ii
asserting by force of arms that the,
brought with them all the rights conferre,
| by the English System of government
ovr emigrants may also contend that tho,
carry With them all the rights confsrre,
| by our System. Among these, the IN,
conditional right to make their own looa
constitutions and LAWS, without being sub
jeet to any conditions imposed by an ex
traneous authority, has been the most i'm
portant, and universally exercised by ev
cry State in the Union"
These principles constitute the basi
of our political system, and hence wS re
joiced when the Kansas N ebraska act re
affirmed this old and well settled dectrin
of non-interyention by declaring that il BE-
ing the true intent and meaning of thi
act not to lsgislate Slavery into any tel
ritory or State, nor to exclude it there
from, bat to leave the people thereof pei
fectly free to form and regulate their d.
usstic institutions in their own way, sui
ject only to the Constitution of the Un
ted States.n The President, who is Il
|. Executive branch of the Goyernmen
was solemnly sworn to see this law faitl