Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1858-09-15
Douglas Popular Sovereignty.

las Popular sovereignty
I shall not weary You by reading
further from the record Of Judge Doug
! las, but will refer to few we'll disclos-
ed facts in his political history. a few
years ago he proclaimed the Missouri
Compromise sacred thing, which no
hand was ruthless enough to disturb.
Shortly afterwards his was the hand
that stretched forth to abolish it. In
January, 1854, he stated in a written
report tl.at the repeal Of the Missouri
Compromise in the organization OF Ne
braska, ecou7a be q departure from the
Compromise measures of1850. In less
than sixty days afterwards he inserted
provision in the Nebraska bill declar
ing the existence Of the Missouri Com
promise Inconsistent arith the legjsla-
ton Of 1850. In 1854, after the re-
peal of the Missouri Compromise he
declared that the people of the terrific
Try Of Kansas had the right, WHILE
IN A TERRITORIAL CONDI-
TION, to regulate the subject of sla-
very for themselves. Now he indors-
es the Glitter dicta decisions of the Su-
preme Court declaring that neither
Congress nor the people of territory
have the right to exclude slavery. To
show how fully he indorses the dict0
in the bred Scott case, [ Will read YOU
IN extract from his speech, delivered
i'll Springfield, June 18th, 1857. AL
luding to the opinions of the Judges
be said:
"The court did not attempt to avoid
responsibility by disposing of the case
upon technical points, without touching
the merits nor did they go out Of the
way to decide questions not properly
before them, and directly presented by
the record. Like honest and conscien-
tious judges, as they are, they met and
decided each point as it arose, and
faithfully performed their whole duty,
and nothing but their duty to their
country, by determining all the ques-
tons in the case and nothing but what
was essential to the decision of the
case upon its merits"
To show how completely the opin-
ions Of the Judges in the bred Scott
case uproot everything like Popular
Sovereignty in q Territory, I will read
a single sentence from the opinion of
the court, as pronounced by Judge Ia
ney. After stating that Congress had
no power under the Constitution to ex-
clude slavery from a Territory, Judge
fancy says:
eff Congress itself cannot do this
if it is beyond the powers conferred
upon the Federal Government-it will
be admitted we presume. that it could
not authorize Territorial Government
to exercise them. It could confer no
power on any local government, estab-
lished by its authority, to violate the
provisions Of the Constitution
The idea Of sustaining popular SOW
ereigntv in a Territory and the doc
times of the bred Scott decision in the
same breath, is SO utterly inconsistent
that one or the other had to be aban-
doned; hence We now find Mr. Douglas
contending that popular sovereignty
means the right Of a people of q Terri
tory, when they come to form State,
to regulate their own a1fairs-u rigAt
nerer denied By any one.
Douglas has very lately declared
that he repealed the Missouri Compro-
mise because it was contrary to the ma
tlonal policy established by the COM
promise measures Of 1850, and so he
said, according to this little bit ofLcg-
islative history revealed by TrumbulI
within sixty days after he had dcclar-
ed the other way. We do not believe,
no man can believe, that man of the
ability and Legislative experience pos
sesscd by Senator Douglas could have
been 50 loose in his understanding of
the principles he helped establish in
1850 as to have occasion to totally re-
verse his opinion in sixty days. What
sort of a man to entrust with great ma
tional interests is he who performs acts
which he discovers SO suddenly has cs-
tablshed principles of action impel-
ling him to traverse his previous rec
ord, and trample down that which he
had regarded as wise and patriotic, and
declared to be sacred? Is the man
who does not know for sixty consecu-
tive days what his acts may result in,
the kind Of man to legislate for the in
tcrcsts Of great nation? Should vast
national interests be entrusted to such
an unsettled understanding If Sena-
tor Douglas was so greatly in error as
to where the compromise measures of
1850 led him to, he is equally liable at
all times to be equally in error on all
great and important subjects of legis-
Iaton. This whole subject, therefore.
bears directly upon the Senator's quail
: ;tications as legislator, and conyicts
him Of unftness for the responsible pos
ition
rs. \ man named Brown arrived in
st. Louis on Saturday week, without
, money or friends, and finding no en-
ployment, resolved to commit suicide.