New Oregon plaindealer. (New Oregon, Iowa) 1859-1866, 1859-10-22

NJ OR caadidate for President in 1860. TWE
NOHINEE OF THE CHARLESTON CONFEN.
TON.
POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY TRIED
BY DEMOCRATIC TESTS.
The Democratic party owes its present
existence and its past triumph to its strict
devotion and adherence to principles, ma
tional and conservative in character. All
other political organizations Of the coun-
try have sooner or later fallen under the
influences of sectional dogmas.
And the custom now to be decided is
whether the Democratic party shall MAIN
tain it's ~ascendency and its past character
by adhereing to the line of policy thathas
SO far been the rock of its safety, orwheth-
er it shall descend from this high posi-
ton simply for the elevation Of men to
station and favor. But every man who
claims to entertain Democratic senti-
ments, may not fully understand what
has been Democratic precedent and us
age upon this question, therefore we pro-
pose a brief review of the past, and such
suggestions of the future Of the party as
events seem to demand. President Polk
in his last annual message delivered pri-
or to the adoption Of the compromise
measures Of 1850, stated the true Demo-
cratic doctrine in regard to the govern
ment Of the Territories, and the very doc
trine that was incorporated into the bills
organizing Utah and New Mexico, and
afterwards Kansas and Nebraska, and
which finally was adopted into the Gin
cinnati platoon. Upon this topic he
said:
''The people of the acquird Territories, when
assembled in Convention to form State Consti-
~tutions, will possess the sole aud exclusive pow
er to determine for themselves whether slavery
shall or shall not exist within their limits. If
Congress shall abstain from interfering with
the question, the people Of the Territories will be
left free to adjust it as they may think proper,
when they apply for admission as States into the
Union"
And in keeping with the just and Dem
oc.atic sentiments here expressed, was
the report Of the justly celebrated CON-
mittee Of thirteen-a committee compos-
ed of the wisest statesmen and purest pat
riots of the nation.
This committee, composed of such men
as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Lewis
Cass, Jesse ID. Bright, Daniel S. Dick
inson, Willie P. Mangum and others,
says:
aThe true principle which ought to regulate
the act of Congress in forming Territorial Gov
eminent, for each newly acquired domain is to
refrain from all legislation on the subject of sla-
very in the Territory acquired; so long as it re-
tains the Territorial form of Government, leav-
ing it to the people of such Territory, when they
have attained to such a condition which entities
them to admission as a State, to declare for them
selves the question of allowance or prohibition
Of domestic slavery"
And it is strictly true when we assert
that the just sentiments here expressed,
are the very soul Of the series of meas
ures that followed their report, and which
principles were incorporated into the
bills for the organization of Kansas and
Nebraska. Again, the Democracy of the
nation, in convention assembled proclaim
ed as the sentiments Of the party upon
this question and upon it was successful
ly fought the campaign Of 1856:
"Resolred, That we recognize the right of the
people of all the Territories, including Kansas
and Nebraska, acting through the legally and
fairly expressed will Of a majority of actual res
idents, and whenever the number of their inhab-
itants j~ustifes it, to form a Constitution with or
without domestic slavery, and be admitted into
the Union upon terms Of perfect equality with
the other States"
Thus we see that the leading states
men of the United States comprising
among them the ablest %jurists of the land,
all agree in fixing the time when the peo-
pie may speak imperatively upon this
question as when they have a sufficient
number Of inhabitants to justify the form
alton of a Constitution, and when they
apply for admission into the Union as a
State and not till then. All reliable