The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-09-28
NO.17.' :

any Territory, and all questions that can arse
concerning the rights of the people TO thai or
other property shall be decided at once by 4
Territorial Legislature, without any submission
at all Popular sovereignty in the last Com
gress meant the freedom of the people from all
the restraints of law and order; now it means
government which shall rule them with a rod
of iron. It swings like a pendulum from ono
side clear over to the other. ssl5iif ~
Mr.. Douglas opinions on this subject Of SOW
ereign Territorial governments are very singu-
lar; but the reasons he has produced to sup
port them are infinitely more curious still
For instance, he shows that jefferson on go in
troduced into the old Congress of the Confedi
Grafton plan for the government of the Ter
ritories, calling them by the name of "New
States, but not making them anything likB
sovereign or independent States; and though
this was mere experimental projct, which was
rejected by Congress, and nes erafterwards re-
ferred to by Jefferson himself, yet Mr.. Douglas
argues upon it as if it had somehow become a
part of fundamental law.
Again He says that the States gave to the
Federal Government the same powers which
as colonies they had been willing to concedc to
the British Government, and kept those which
as colonies they had claimed for themselves
If he will read a common-school history of the
Revolution, and then look at Art. I, sec g, of
the Constitution, hewill find the two following
facts fully established l.. That the Federal
Government has "power to lay and collect tax.
es, duties, imposts, and excises n and 2. That
the colonies, before the Revolution, utterly re-
fused to be taxed by Great Britain and SO faf
from eonceding the power, fought against 1t for
seven long years. tsi I. rlssiy.s. Is IL,
There is another thing in the article which,
if it had not come from distinguished Senaa
tor, andia very upright gentleman, would have
been open to some imputation of tihfairfess--
He quotes the Presidents message, and beginA
in the middle of a sentence. He processes to
give the very words, and makes Mr.. BIchataH
say: 'sThat slavery exists in Kansas by virtac
of the Constitutions of the United Statgss'e-e
What AIr, buchanan did say was a very diffef=
ent thing. 1t was this "Ithas been solemn
ly adjudgen by the highest judicial Tribunal
known to our laws, that slavery exists iii Kan
sat by virtue of the Constitution IF the United
States Everybody knows that BY treating
the Bible in that way, you can prove the nom
existence of God. y ~ - ff
The drgumeuum all hon,inen, is not fsiif and
we do not mean to use it, Mr. Dotgias has d
right to change his opinions Whenever he plea=
ses. But we quote him as We would any other
authority equally high in favor of truth: W6
can prove by himself that every proposition he
lays down in Harper's Magazine is founded In
error Never before has any public man i'll
AneT1cif so completely revOiur10nIzed his polifz
ieal opinions in the course of eighteen months.
We do not deny that the change is. heartfelt
and conscientious. We only insist that he for
merly stated his propositions much more eleat=
ly, and sustained them with far greater ability
and better reasons, than he does how:
When he took tour tc the South, at tho
beginning of last winter, he made speech at
New Orleans, in which he anioiihced to the
people there that he and friends in Illinois ac=
cepted the Dred Scott decisfoii, regarded sInres
as property, and fully admitted the right of
Southern man to go into any Federal territory
with his slave, and to hold hin there as Other
property IS held. eitsFSs - Eah
In 1S49 he voted in tic Sefiate for what
was called Walkers amendment by which it
was proposed to, put all the internal affairs of
California and New Mexico tifidsf the dofnina-
tion of the President, giving him almost dnlih1s
tied power, Legislative, judicial, ,ad e1ecutive,
over the Internal affairs of thosB Territories
(See 10th Cong, p. Undoubtedly this
was strange way of treating soyereightics If
Mr.. Douglas is right now, he was guilty then
of most atrocious usrirpation
Utah is much sovereign State as any
other Territory, and as perfectly entitled to en-.
joy the right of self-goverhment. On the 18th
of June, 1857, Mr.. Douglas male speech
about Utah, at Springfield, Illinois, in which
be expressed his opinion strongly in favor Of
the absolute and unconditional repeaL of the or
ganic act, blottiag the Territorial goueynn,ent
ont Of eristence, and putting the people under
the sole and exclusive Jurisdiction of the Uni
ted States, Ike a fort, arsenal, dock;ynfH Of
magazine. He does not seem to have had the
least idea then that he was proposing to extifs
giisb sovereignty, or to trample hbbh tho
sacred rights of an Independent people.
The report which he made to the Senate, in
1856, on the Topeka constitution, enunciatesa
very different doctrine from that of the magas
zine article It is true that the language is
little cloudy, but no one can understand the
following sentences to signify that the Terri
torial governments. have sovereign power to
take away the property of the Inhabitants.
1.-THE sovereignty Of a Territory remains,if aJtS-
ance suspended in the United States in trust for the
people until they shall be admitted into the Union as
STATE. Is,fhe mean time they admitted to enjoy
and exercise all the rights and pttileges of self
government in subordnaton to the Consultation Of tc
United States, and OBEDIENCE TO THE ORGANIC
LAW passed by Congress in pursuance of that nstri-
ment. These rights and privileges sfe all derived
from the Constittiti6f through The actof C6nqress and
must be exercised and enjoyed in subsection to all
the limitations and restrictions which that Cohstit
tion imposes" -eS~-
The letter he addressed to a Philadelphia
meeting, in February, 1858, is more explicit,
| and, barring some anomalous ideas concerning
the a5eyance of the power and the Suspensions
of it IN trust, it is clear enough: -, s,..ss
"Under our Territorial system. it requires sovsr-
egn power TO orain and estaBlish constitutions and
governments. While a Territory may and should
enjoy all the rights of efgoyernment, IN obedience
to its organic ldto, it is NOT sovEhEi6N PowEK.4-
The sovereignty of Territory remains an o6eyaaes
suspended in the United States for he peots
,chep they become State and cannot be cthGrd,e from
the hands of the trustee and vested IN the people of
Territory sithout the consent of eoAgresss'.5ss
The report which he made in the same month,
from the Senate Committee on Territories, is
equally distinct, and rather more emphatio
against his new doctrine:
'This committee in their reports have alsays held
that Territory is not a sovereign possy that the
sovereignty of territory is in allegiance suspendedin
the United States, in trust for the people when they
become State that the United States, trustees.
cannot be diyested ofthe Sovereignty nor the Terri
it. without the consent of Congress. If the propo-
sition be true that so7ereign power alone can nati