American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1858-07-22

have the same privileges, and be governed
by the same regulations you have destroy
ed the great safeguard ofIbe citizen, thrown
around him by the Constitution.
How is this uniformity to be accomplish.
ed. if il was desirable and possible? There
is but one mode in which it could be brou9 9bt
about, and that one mode would be to aboI
ish the State Legislatures, bot out State
and merge the rights and
sovereignty oI the Strtes in one cOnsolida
ted empire, vesting Congress with pIenary
power to make all the police regulations.
and domestic concerns, and local laws
throughout the limit of the Republic
When you shall have done that you will
have uniformity; then you will have all
the States free or al slave; then slaves will
vote everywhere or nowhere; then you will
have Maine liquor law in every State or
in one; then you will have uniformity in
all things local and domestic. by the au.
thonty Of the federal governmen; but when
you have uniformity, you will rave con-
sttuted these thirty two States independ-
ent at present-into one consolidated en-
pire, with a uniformity Of despotism reign
ing paramount throughout the length and
breadth Of the land. Applause.
Hence my friends am driven irresisli-
bly, TO the conclusion that diversity, dis
similarity and variety in our local and do
mestic institutions, are the safeguards oi
our liberties; that the trainers of our insti
tutions were wise and sagacious and patri-
oiic wbea they made this government a
confederation of sovereign States with a
Legislature for each; that Legislature hav-
ing the power TO make all domestic insti.
tutions and laws to suit itself; and five ex.
pect 10 maintain our liberties, we must pre-
serve the sovereigntes of the States--wt
must maintain and carry out that grea
principle Of self government incorporated
in the compromise Of 1850, endorsed by
the Illinois Legislature in 1851, and EN-
bodied and carried out in the Kansas-Ne
braska bill, and vindicated this year by thu
refusal to bring Kansas INTO the Union will
a constitution which she had voted down
Next came the Dred Scott case. HI
declared himself law abiding man, say
ing:
do not choose, Therefore, to 60 icto Al
argument with Mr.. Lincoln in reviewing
the various decisions that the Suprem
Court has maze either upon the Dred Scot
case or any other, and have no idea @
appealing from the decision Of the Suprem
Court upon Constitutional question to
decision of town meeting. Cheers. =
l am aware that an eminent lawyer Of thi
city, now no more, once said that the Stat
of Illinois had the most perfect judicis
system in the world, subject to one exceI
tion, which could be cured by slight &
mendment. The amendment was that tl
laws should be changed so aa to allow a
appeal from the decisions of ths Suprem
Court of Illinois, on all constitutional que'
tions TO two Justices Of the Peace. Cheel
and laughter. My friend Lincoln assure
me that that proposition was when / was
Judge Of the Supreme Court.
II that be true. don't think that til
fact adds any greater importance or weigl
to the suggestion. 1t matters not to n
who was on the bench, whether Mr.. Lii
coin or myself, Lockwood or a Smil
or VIII ther it was Taney or Marsha
yet the decision of the highest trit
bunal Of a nation on the Constitution Of Il
country must be final until it has been r
/ versed by equally high authority. Henc
l am oppossJ to the doctrine Of Mr.. Lii
, coins, by which he proposes tc take an a
peal from the decision OF the Supren
Court OF the United States, upon these big
constitutional questions, to Free'soil
Republican caucus situated in the count
yes, TO any other caucus or town NEE
ing. | resre ct the decision Of that agu
tribunal; shall bow in Difference to it..
1 am law abiding man; | will sustain Il
Constitution of my country as our fathe
have made it, and will yield obedience
5 the laws whether like them or not, as
find them on the statute book. | will su
tain the judicial tribunal and tie constit
ted authorities in all matters within Il
pale of their jurisdiction as defined by Il
Constitution.
THE "NtGaER" QUESTION.
But 1 am equally free to say that Il
reason assigned by Lincoln for resstiI
the decisidn of Il g Court in the Dred Sec
case, does not commend itself to my a
!. probation. He objects TO it because th
decision declares that negro descend
. from African parents, who were broug
|, here and sold as slaves, is not and cam
= be citizen Of the United States. In n
= opinion, this Goevrnment of ours is foun
ed on a white basis. 1t was made by VIII
men for the benefit Of white men, 10 be a
=, ministered by white men in such a ma
- - ner as they should determine. 1t is al
= true that negro or Indian, or any 9th
y man of an inferior race to the white ma
. should be permitted to enjoy, and human
. ty requires that he should have, all t
= privileges, and all the immuni'ies viii
b he is capable of exc. cising. consistent wi
the safety ofsociety. will give him e
:. cry right and privilege which his capOci
10 will enable him to enjoy consistent wi
l. the good of society where he lives. E
j. you may ask me what are thes, rights a
,e privileges? NY answer is that each Sti
al must decide for itself the nature and exte
i. of those rights. Illinois has determin
d for herself. We have decided that the l
- gro shall not be a slave. We have, at I
1t same time, decided that he shall not "