Nebraska advertiser., 1859-09-22
Mir. Douglas and Popular SOTeT-
eighty.


las recent paper on popular sovereignty.
The author Of the Constitutions article is
undoubtedly Attorney General Black.
Such being the case, it may be set down
as illegal decision" The President and
his Lecompton followers may as well,
however, give up as a "bad job" the idea
Of. bolstering themselves up. Judge
Douglas sky is clear-the people arc
with him..
The ST. Louis Republican says: "The
reply in Harper's monthly, which appear
ed in the Constitution on Saturday, and
the authorship of which is ascribed to
Attorney General Black, says, probably,
on his side of the question all that can be
said. No doubt any rejoinder that may
be made to it by the author of the essay,
will dc. equal Justice to its ability and ar
guments. We may remark that, howev-
er we may deal with the question in the
abstract, popular sovereignty is a Practi-
cal fact. The people of the Territories
feel that they have a right to exercise It
if we may Judge Of their feelings from
their acts; and, indeed, it would be a
hard case, if it should be required that,
no matter how much opposed ninety-nine
hundredths Of the people of a Territory
might be to the establishment Of slavery
among them, it might, nevertheless, be
established, and no power could avert it,
80 long as they remained in the Terrific
rial condition. But the truth IS, the ques-
ton is no longer a living question: has
no vitality in it, and this the South ought
20 see. Slavery will go into just suchter-
RritoFy is made Congenial to it by clirl-
ate and productions. 1t cannot go into
Nebraska nor DacOtah, nor into divers
others of the Territories-future States
which are being pushed upon US with
indecent haste-and this the South and
the s~laveholding States ought to see and
admit.
awe do not propose TO examine Judge
Blacks essay as a whole. But we cannot
avoid saying, in passing, that, with all
his professions of intended fairness, il
does notdeal fairly with one position Of
Judge Douglas. The latter had compar-
ed the claims Of citizens of the States
under the Federal Constitution, to those
of our fathers on Great Britain, as Colo
,nists of that power. Judge Blacks sta
tement and reasoning are exhibited in
the following extract from his essay:
He (Mr. Douglass says that the
States gave to the Federal Government
the same powers which as colonies they
had been willing to concede to the British
Government, and kept those as colonies
which they had claimed for themselves.
If he will read a common school history
of the Revolution, and then look at arti-
Gle l, section s., of the Constitution, he
will find the two following facts fully es-
tablished : /. That the Federal Govern
ment has power TO levyand collect taxes,
duties, imposts and excuses, and 2. That
the colonies, before the Revolution, ut
terly refused TO be taxed by Great Brit
ain; and so far from conCedlng the pow
er, fought against it for seven long
years. ...
alt is scarcely fair to deal thus with
Judge Douglas position. Have we, as
citizens of States, no voice In choosing
our federal rulers? Have we taxation
without representations 1t was this that
our fathers, as colonists, protested against
They did not object TO be taxed. What
they objected to was, that they were tax
ed without being represented-that is,
taxed without having a voice in saying
what their taxes should be, and how le-
Wed. Judge Black does not so represent
1t, and in failing to do so misrepresents
his opponent. We may add, that Judge
Blacks notions cannot be considered &C
ceptabfe to the President. since he has
never formally retracted that part of his
letter TO the Cincinnati Convention, in
which he declared, that the people of a
Territory, lake those Of a State, shall de-
eide for Themselves whether slavery shall
or shall not exist within their limits. ,"
Senator Iverson of Georgia thus ex-