Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1859-04-01
ULAIRIKSWILL1E.
Friday, April LIST, 1859.
FOR GOVERNOR
JOHN NETHERLAND, of Hawkins.
FOR CoNG"Ess.
JAS. M. QUARLEs, of Montgomery.

pG- 1t will be remembered that, near
the close of the last session Of Congress,
Brown, Mason, and other southern Sena-
tors took the ground that it is the duty of
Congress TO intervene for the protection Of
slavery, in the Territories, whenever the
right to hold that species of property is
violated. On the other hand, Douglass,
Pugh, and others argued that Congress
has no such power-a position which tends
to the grossest wrongs upon the South,
whilst il gives to the Constitution a con-
struction at variance with it's letter and
spirit That Congress has the power to
make all needful rules and regulations for
the government of the Territories, is a
provision Of the Constitution, "a grant of
power as clear and definite as any to be
found in that instrument, and it follows
thence, as a matter Of course, that if
territorial Legislature pass any law viola
tive of the Constitution and the laws of
the U. States, it is the sworn duty of Con-
gress to annul such act. The Constitu-
ton recognises slaves as property, and
that Congress is bound to protect it, as
such, is too clear aproposition to need argu-
ment for its elucidation. If Kansas
should pass law forfeting southern
mans title to land he had bought of the
general government, Congress would not
hesitate to declare such law null and void;
and where does it find authority for dis
eliminating between the different kinds of
property The fact that the land was
found in the territory, whilst the slave
was imported, furnishes no authority for
such discrimination-all that is property,
under the Constitution, is property wher-
ever found within the limits of the Union,
and this view is fully confirmed by the
fugitive slave law, enacted in accordance
with provision of the Constitution Is
it not the extreme of folly, then, to con-
tend that Congress has full power to in
tervene for the protection Of slave proper
ty, in sovereign free States, yet has no such
jurisdiction over the subject, in the ter
ritories ? If it has the right to do the
one, it has an equal right to do the other /;
but if it has no such right in the terri
tories, then the fugitive slave law is un-
constitutional.
Assuming these views to be correct, how
stands the democracy of Tennessee on the
subjectp The late Convention of that
party-as nearly as we can arrive at its
position from perusal of its studiously
ambiguous resolutions identical with
that Of Douglass and Pugh, That august
assemblage of statesmen professed to be
entirely satisfied to leave slavery in the
territories to the care of the Constitution
and the bred Scott decision forgetting
that the Constitution is passive until made
active through the agency of national
legislation, and that Congress is recreant
30 its trusts so long as it fails to make all
needful rules and regulations for the gov
eminent of the Territories-under which
comprehensive grant of power, the protec-
tion of property claims place second only
10 that of the protection Of life and liber-
ty. When Congress has done its duty,
and its laws arc violated, or its jurisdiction
denied, then, and then only, is the inter
vention of the Supreme Court Legitimate
and proper. To take any other position
is to invest the federal Court with legisla
tive powers, in the case Of the territories
and to call upon it to decide upon the
Constitutionaity of a law passed by AT
irresponsible Legislature, and in the alb
sence of any law, upon the disputed point
passed by Congress. Congress must frs
act, and then the Supreme Court has tn,
power to pass upon the constitutionalit,
Of that act, when the question is legitimate
ly presented but il has no authority 70
pronouncing constitutional, or otherwise
law that has never been enacted. Kan
sas has passed a law which the South be
lieves to be unjust and demonstrations
and where is tho rcmedy? The Constitu
ton has placed II ia the hands of Congress,
and the Supreme Court has no authority
in the premises, until Congress anuus tn
law, and its cunstitutionality comes befor
il as umpire between tho arties. The
\ TO leave slavery in Kansas to the proteC
ton of the Constitution and the Suprem
, Court without amy Intervention on tn
s\-sYt Of Congress, is virtually to conced
an, that the Black Republicans demanc
shed 10 surrender all that the South claims
nd OK, Is tho protection southorp locofocc
extends to slavery,