Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1859-03-11


say- The debate in the Senate, on the
Of the Nebraska bill, is the
most laughable farce that has been acted
by the stock company of grave and
reverend Senators. The southern mem
bers had their eyes opened, on that oc-
casion, to the fraud practiced upon the
South, and stared about them in utter
amazement on the announcement that the
doctrine of non-intervention Invested
Congress of the right to interfere for the
protection of slave property in the terri
tories The northern members were rather
amused at the wry faces of the southerners,
and somewhat tauntingly told them to
seek their remedy wherever they could
find it. The South has no just cause of
complaint, because the fraud was fully
exposed before it was consummated, and
the representatives of the slave interest
swallowed the hook with the bait-looking
not to the interests of the South, but of
the democratic party for which the bill
was to make political capital. Non-inter-
vention, at the North, meant, hold off un-
til the squatters can exclude slavery, and,
at the South, it meant everything for de-
mocracy and nothing for the country
There seemed to be charm in the declara.
ton of the Nebraska bill, that Congress
has no power to legislate slavery into, or
out of Territory, that took captive the
understandings of southern members Of
both Houses, and they could not see the
simple and plain point, that though Con-
gress can not legislate mules into, or out
of, territory, it is nevertheless bound,
under the Constitution, to interfere for
the protection of mules, provided an effort
be made to wrest them from their owners.
The power of Congress over the Terri
tories, is perfect farce, if it has not the
right to protect persons and property
therein, and that clause of the Constitu-
ton which confers that power, is null
lily.
Non.intervention, then, so far as il
means that Congress shall not discriminate
between different kinds of property, in
any legislative enactment, is the true
doctrine; but when it is construed tt
mean that Congress shall not interfere tC
protect the property of citizens agains
unconstitutional and iniquitous territorial
legislation, it is subversive of the Consti
tuition, derogatory to the powers of Con
gress, and violative of the inherent rights
of individuals. If Congress can not legis
late slavery out of Territory, it can not
constitutionally, confer that power upol
territorial Legislature, and simply be
cause it can not give what it has neve
receivcd-the creature can notrise superio
to the creator. And if southern member
) had been more intent upon southern rights
they could scarcely have overlooked thi
point, or failed to have provided agains
the latitudinous construction now given t.
the doctrine of non intervention blu
eager to retain the spells, they fell, head
: long, into the trap which northern demo
cracy had set for them, with SO muc'
skill. The repeal of the Missouri Com
promise was such munifcent concession
to the South, that, like the Grecian horse
~ uoS rooa;voJ u;tb aooI,n,,t;ons Nth ~,
a thought of the evil concealed within il
But what are the powers of Congress
over the terrtories2 If it has not powe
, to protect property-one of the leadin
objects of all governmental cannot pun
ish crimes connected with the violation G
property, and intervention, as inter
. preted by the North, gives, as Buchana
argues, powers to a territory as absoulut
- as those that belong to a State, and a.
that remains to Congress, practically,
the right to organize a territory. TIL
= Constitution is nulliied, parcel of free
hooters, alien paupers and convicts ca
settle upon territory belonging to all tn
States, in common, resolve themselve
into Legislature and say to the Soutl
your property shall not come here
and Congress has no power to interfere
This is the doctrine of the North and no
. that Kansas has passed law which rot
southern immigrants of their property
: what do southern members of Congress
say? Why, that they didn't understan
the Nebraska bill in that sense. Such
. southern locoloco legislation for the pre-
,, lection of southern rights; and the peopl
u ought to have learned, by this time, thu
i if locofocos cab retain Office and enjoy il
perquisites-can plumber the Treasury {
= buy votes, and buy votes to plumber th
!, Treasury, the South and its institution