Dallas herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1849-1873, 1858-11-10
Jeff Davis in New York.

minor State Offices, grand ratiAca ton meeting OF
the Young Mems Democratic Union Club held in the
City Of New York on the 10Th ult, Gen, Jefferson
Davis in response to call delivered of his usual
ly fclicitous speeches. We have only room for the
following:
Gen. Jefferson Davis was next introduced,
and we make an extract from his speech which
defines the exact issue now before the Ameri-
can people:
What now is the basis of opposition to the
Democratic Party? It is two.fold: interler.
cnce with the negroes of other people, and in.
reference with the right Of foreigners to come
to our land. ["Rear, hear" and applause
To each community belongs the right TO decide
what shall be property. You have decided it
for yourselves. Who shall goinsay your de-
cision! Mississippi has decided it for herself.
Who has the right TO gainsay her decision p
II lies at the foundation Of that Declaration OF
Independence to which you owe your existence
among the nations of the earth; 10 that Decla.
ration which led your fathers into and through
the War of the Revolution. 1t is that which
constitutes to-day the doctrine of States rights,
upon which it is my pride and pleasure to
stand. [Applause.] Congress has no power to
determine what shall be property anywhere. -
Congress has only such grants as are contain
ed in the Constitution. And the Constitution
confers upon it no power to rule with despotic
hand over the inhabitants Of the Territories.
Within the limits Of these Territories, the com.
mon property Of the Union, you and l are
equal; we gre Joint owners. Each Of US has
the right to go into those Territories with what
ever property we may carry so that It's recog-
nized by the Constitution Of the United States.
|Applause,] Congress has no power to limit
or abrdge that right But the people of the
Territory when they come to form State
Government when they receive that jurisdic-
tion which belongs TO The people of New-York
or any other State, have the power to decide
that question, and no power upon earth has the
right to decide it before that time. (Applause.)
After thus stating very clearly this impor-
tnnt point, Mr.. Davis proceeded to more fully
explain it, and then referred to the position of
the "Americans" in regard TO foreigners. His
remarks throughout were very eloquent, and
were received with unbounded applause. Mr.
Davis closed his eloquent speech as follows:
You have among you politicians of philo-
sophie turn, who preach high morality
They say, it is true the Constitution dictates
this, the Bible breaches that; but there is a
higher law than all that, and we call upon you
to obey that higher law. Laughter and ap-
plause. Men who are traitors to the very
compact of their fathers, men who have per-
iured the oaths they have themselves taken,
they who wish to steep their nands in the blood
of their brothers these are the moral law-gv-
crs who proclaim higher law than the Bible,
the Constitution, and the laws Of the land.
This higher law doctrine, it strikes me- is
the most convenient one ever heard of, for
the criminal You. no doubt, have a law
which Furnishes a man for stealing horse or
a bale of goods. But the thief has higher
law which would Justify him in keeping the
property. This is the pill which is gilded to
conceal its bitterness; but it will react deeply
upon you yourselves if you accept it. What
security have you for your own safety if every
man of violent temper, Of low instincts, of
base purpose, can find in his own heart high.
or law than that which is the rule of society,
the Constitution and the Bible ea These high
er-law preachers should be tarred and feather.
ed, and whipped by those they have thus inst-
gated. This, my friends, is what was called
in good old Revolutionary times, Lynch law.
1t is sometimes the very best law, because it
deals summary justice upon those who would
escape from all other kinds of punishment
And when hear a man, with sycophantic
face and studied phrase and with assumed phi
losophic morality, preaching treason to the
Constitution and the dictates of all human So
cety, think that man is fit object for a
lynch law that would be higher than any he
could urge. Applause.
My democratic friends, am deeply gratifed
by the exhibition which is before me. | see
here field Of faces, assembled in the name Of
Democracy, and over it shines mutitudes o
lights, the lights that float over the heads ol
Democratic principles, which, pointing upward
are to guide our country to that haven Of peace
and prosperity which our fathers saw in the
distant future, and which they left for theil
sons to reap. Ii we are true to ourselves, true
to the obligations which the Constitution I'm.
poses upon US, and if we are wise and energet
lc in the struggles which lie before US, our path
is onward, TO more Of national greatness than
ever people before possessed. We are held TO-
gether by that two-fold Government which j:
susceptible of being made perfect in the small
spheres of State limits, and capable of the
greatest imperial power, by the combination Of
these MUNICIPAL powers into one for foreign ac
ton. 1t is form Of government such as the
wit OF man never devised until our fathers, with
the wisdom that approached inspiration, framed
the Constitution and transmitted it as legacy
TO Us. it should devolve upon you, upon eve.
ry one Of you, to see that that Constitution i.
cordially and faithfully observed.
Ifcordially and faithfully observed, the pow
ers Of hell and Of earth combined can nevei