The Cadiz Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1854-1864, 1859-10-19
THE DIVIDING LINE BETWEEN
Federal and Local Authority.
Popular Sovereignty in The Terri
tories.
BY STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.
fCONCIUDEDO
tCoNcLUDED.)

|
Now let us examine the main provisions o
| the Jeffersonion Plan;
| FiYyt.-''That the Territory ceded or to b
ceded by the individual States, to the United
States, whenever the same shall have been pur
chased of the Indian inhabitants and offered fo
sale by the United States, shall be formed int
additional States,' etc, etc.
The plan proceeds to designate the boundaries
and territorial extent of the proposed addition
al States" and then provides:
Second .--"That the settlers within the terri
tory so to be purchased and offered for sale, shall
either on their own petition or on the order o
Congress, receive authority from them, with ap
pointments of time and place, for their ire'
males full age to meet together for the purpost
Of establishing temporary government to a
dopt the Constitution and laws of any one o
these States the original States so that sucf
laws nevertheless shall be subject to alteration
by Their ordinary legislature; and to erect, sub
ect to like alteration, counties or townships lo
the election of members for their legislature
Having thus provided a mode by which The
first inhabitants or settlers of the territory may
assemble together and chose fer themselves the
Constitution and laws Of some one of the org
nal thirteen States, and declare the same il
force for the government Of their territory ten
porarily, with the right on the part OF the peo
pie to change the samo; through their loca
Legislature, as they may see proper, the Plai
then proceeds to point out the mode IN they
may establish for themselves "a permanent
Constitution and government" whenever they
Shall have twenty thousand inhabitants as fol
lows:
Thi,d.-"That such temporary government
shall continue in force in any State until 1t shaI
have acquired twenty thousand free inhabitants
when, giving due proof thereof to Congress they
shall receive from them authority,wlth appoint
mentS Of time and place, to call Convention 0
Representatives to establish permanent Con
sttution and govei nment for themselves"
Having thus provided for the first settlers e
temporary government in these 'additiona
States," and for "a permanent Constitution ant
government" when they shall have acquired
twenty thousand inhabitants, the Plan contem
plates that they shall continue to govern them
selves as States, having, as provided in the Vlr
gnia deed of ceSSon, "the same rights Of soy
eregnty, freedom and independence" in re
spect to their domestic affairs and internal pol
ity, las the other States" until they shall have
population equal to the least numerous of the
original thirteen States; and in the meantime
shall keep sitting member in Congress, witt
right of debating but not Of voting, when they
shall be admitted in the Union on an equa
footing with the other States, as follows:
F0rrth.-"That whenever any Of the sale
States shall have Of free inhabitants as shal
then be in any one of the least numerous OF the
thirteen original States such StoteS shall be ad
mitted 10y its delegates into the Congress OF the
United States on an equal footing with the sale
original States" ............ And
Until such admission by their delegates into
Congress any of the said States, after the esab
lishment Of their temporary government, shal
have authority to keep sitting member il
Congress, with the right of Debating, but MOI
Of voting"
Attached to the provision which appears ir
this paper under the "thild" head is proviSC
containing five propositions, which, when agreed
to and accepted by the people OF said additiona
States, were to "be formed into a charter o
compact" and to remain forever "unalterable, ;
except by the consent ofsuch States as well al
of the United States.--to wit
"Ey0Uided that both the temporary aud per
manent governments be established on these
principles as their basis" ......,r
lst--"That they shall forever remain a par
of the United States OF America"
2nd-"That in their persons, property, ant
territory they shall be subject to the govern
ment Of the United States in Congress Assem-
bled, and 10 the Articles Of Confederation in al
,h.se Cases in which the original States shall b'
SO subject"
3t-"That they shall be subject to pay +
part of the federal debts contracted, or to bt
contracted--to be apportioned on them by Con
gress according to the same common rule anC
measure by which apportionments thereof shal
| be made on the other States"
| 4h--"1hat their respective government
shall be republican in form, and shall admit NJ
person to bo citizen who holds any hereditary
! title' .....
The fifth article which relates to the prohib
tion ofslavery after the year 1900, having bceI
rejected by Congress, never became part o
the Jeffersonian Plan of Government for thu
Territories, as adopted April %, 1884.
The concluding paragraph OF this Plan o
Government. which emphatically ignores th
right of Congress to bind the people Of the Ter
rtories without their consent, and recognize
the people therein as the true source of all egit
innate power in respect TO their internal polity
is in these words:
"That all the preceding articles shall b,
lOI lucu lHlO Ii Utbtcf " tOHtputbj DC QuII
executed by the President OF the United State
in Congress assembled, under his hand and tn,
seal Of the United States, shall be promulgate
and shall stand as fundamental conditions be
tween the thirteen original States and thos
newly described, unalterable but by the Join
consent of the United States in Congress Assem-
bled, and of the particular State within whcl
snch alteration is proposed to be made"
r. 30 ~
bodies and carries out the ideas and principle
Of the father Of the Revolution that the peo
ple of every separate political community (de
pendent colonies, Provinces and Territories a
we'll as sovereign States) have an inaiienab,
right to govern themselves in respect to thei
internal polity, and repudiates the dogma Of th'
British Ministry and the Tories of that day tina
all colonies Provinces, and Territories were tn,
property of the Empire, acquired with the com
mon blood and common treasure, and that tn,
inhabitants thereof have no rights, privileges, o.
iinmunities except such as the Imperial gov
ernment should graciogsly condoscend to be
stow upon them. This Plan recognizes by Law
and irrevocable compact" the existence of twt
distinct classes of States under our American
system of Government--the one being members
of the Union, and consisting of the origina
thirteen snd such other States, having & req
uisite population, as Congress should admit int
the Federal Union, with an equal vote in the
management Of Federal affairs as we'll as the ex
elusive power in regard to their internal polity
Respectively the other, not having the requi.
site population for admission into the Union
could have no vote or agency in the control o
the Federal relations, but possesse the same
exclusive power over their domestic affairs and
internal policy respectively as the oriena
States, with the right, while they have less
than twenty thousand inhabitants, to chose fol
their government the Constitution and laws o
any one of the original States; and when they
should have more than twenty thousand, but