Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1859-08-24
The SfapSato.
,SSana Views we'll Expressed.

SO0nA VIEWS VIGIL EAPtcoeous
We find in the last New York Times the BELOW.
ing extracts from letter from the Hen. +. W.
Pickens of South Carolina to George N. Sanders,
of New York Mr.. Pickens is at present American
Minister to Russia Our readers will no doubt be
impressed, as We have been with the clear, sound,
and sensible views which Mr. Pickens takes of the
questions he discusses
"You give gloomy view of affairs among our
friends. You speak of the South not being liberal
enough know not what you refer to, but my
own opinion is that at this juncture in our affairs
things ought not to be pushed to an extreme either
North OF South. The extreme and revolutionary
ground taken by large party North, has necessa-
rhy driven the South, or portion of it to take ex-
IRENE ground in defence. Mr.. Seward declared that
Free and Slave States could not exist in one Union
either the Slave States must become free, or the
Free States must become slave &C. Now all know
that the Free States never can become Slave States
and of course such declaration by an authorized
leader Of the great popular party North is nothing
more or less than declaration of determination or
subjugation and is direct war upon the Federal
Union. Yet the majority at the North seem to sus-
tain him. think it an error, and am glad that but
few persons South assume that there must be Con-
gressional legislation in advance to protect Slavery
by law in the new Territories. 1t is by no means
demand of the South. For legislation involves dis
erection and delberation, and that gives jurisdiction
in Congress over the whole matter. And yet if
popular sovereignty, in people of a Territory,
gives Territorial legislature the right to declare
before they are State, in what property shall con-
sist and in what it shall not consist, then popular
sovereignty" gives them more power than Congress
itself has for it is the Constitution alone that can
declare that To declare this, is the highest exer-
else of sovereign power and can cmanate alone from
the original law of society, made compact by
people or peoples, in convention assembled There
is no such thing as popular sovereignty" except
as expressed through forms Of law, unless in cases
of revelation; then it becomes a great national
right, inherent in man. Popular severe: gnty," in
habtual ordinary legislation, assuming jurisdiction
over property is mob law. territorial legislature
has no popular sovereignty" in any sense There
is no such thing the sovereignty of the peo
pie of the United States but there is such thing
as the sovereignty of the people Of the States-as
ascertained and expressed through the States
There is no sovereignty in the Government of the
United States for it is the creature of the Consttu-
tion which is a compact between real sovereigns.
What proves this is, that there is no power to alter
add to that compact except through fourths
of the States themselves in separate Conventions
assembed-and these States abolish the
Government, and make new Government entirely
There is sovereign power and this is the sovereign
ty of the United States. There is no power in the
Government of the United States to create even a
freehold and the grant of land in the new States or
Territories only vests freehold by the Govern
ment as the agent and trustee of the conoined SOW
ereignty of the States by special compact, giving
the Government power ito make all needful rules
and regulations to the public territory" &C.
The people O. Territory are in chrysas state,
and the very term Territory" shows it, for it is
not State. A State is not population alone; but
it is boundary land, water location, eminent do
main, organic and fixed law-flndamental and in
dependent right All this is in the idea of State
Population legisating against property before the
community have made comDact and organic law
to give them the attributes of State is solecism
That popular sovereignty which looks to the people
as the original source of all power-a great, nhe-
rent and inalienable right to be exercised in the last
resort great occasions to vindcate the liberties
and the power of people when there has been op-
PRESTON or to create and make new government
is great right and lies as the basis of American
Independence. But popular sovereignty to be exer-
csed in habitual and daily legislation by the people
assembled, is full Of confusion and mpracticabe
All mere legislative assemblies are derivative, and
in no point Of view have they any popular sover-
eighty. There is no power in Congress to create
State-that is an emanation of sovereignty and be-
longs to the people in Convention in that con-
vention making State, they can give no powers
and forms of State The only power Congress
has, is in these words, "New States may be admit
ted by the Congress into the Union" which pre-
supposes the State created, and under the power
given from the States in the compact of the Union,
which allows Congress to make all "needful rules
and regulations respecting the Territory &C., &c.
They can confer the right the people within GER
tain boundaries or their Territories to assemble un-
der certain regulations, to form State, and if it
has Republican FORM" and does not violate the
'needful rules and regulations which Congress has
hocor .y&1 II
are bound to admit it. and have no right to look de
hors the record making the State. This is all the
power they have and there is nothing short of an
organic law of any State that can saw in what pro-
perty shall consist or in what it shall not consist
popular Sovereignty" or "Squatter Sovereignty,
for any such purpose is revolutionary and assumes
rights in state of nature and leads directly to con-
fusion and conflict. And So too, does any iurisdc.
ton in Congress to declare in adrance, in what pro-
perty shall consist or not consist amongst people
of Territory previous to their becoming State.
This belongs to the Federal Constitution, and to be
expounded by the Federal judiciary in call cases
in law and equity arising under the Constitution. :"
and in the very terms Of the compact itself It
must be "case" arising between "meum and
teum," and on an issue presented in Court ANY
other doctrine coners upon legislation what belongs
to the Constitution alone and will lead to confusion
and dangerous assumption of legislative discrc.
amendment to the bill for the organization or acqu
sition of the territories from Mexico, which left that
precise power to the jurisdiction of the Federal
Court and in which Mr. Calhoun himself acquiesced
The Federal Constitution propriora uigora covers
all Federal Territories and alone defines in what
property shall or shall not consist; and any at
tempt by mere population alone to assume iuris
diction while Territory is usurpaton and revolu
ton, and involves solecism in constitutional law
What proves that the Constitution DroDr;orn ri1or
covers all United States Territory of every kind il
that clause which defines treason and how it shall
be proved, and limits the punishment even No &C
Of Congress can change or enlarge it, or carry gu
the Constitution more specifically on that most i'm
portant of all questions, than the instrument doe
ITSELF The Constitution is itself the law, and fed
eral officers can only enforce its provisions in ever
particular as long as it is Territory of the Unite
States And what is property and what is not prc
perty belongs 10 that instrument, also as much a
the definition and punishment of treason. Bot
belong to sovereign power, and it is usurnation +