The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1859-09-28
Senator DohgIas ON Judge Blacks
! Pamphlet.

senator DobgIas ON Judge Black,
! PaihphIet.
In a speech delivered at Wooster, Ohio
on the 18th of September, Mr.. Douglas tool
= up the reply to his recent article in Harper,
Magazine, and discussed 1t as follows:
The pamphlet is anonymous, but thG
. New York Herald says it is by Jerry Black
the same who, last year, wfote letters t
Illinois. advising Democrats to vote thu
Black Republican ticket. Whether he dit
write II or not he could not say, but the copy
he had seen came to friend under Black
frank. He said he should not consider 1
worthy Of a reply had it not contained infa
: nous falsehoods, and aimed to strike down
by such means, host Of noble men, now
leading the Democratic columns in the State
campaigns under the banner OF popular sove
reignty."
Upon reading the last sentence of Black
review "we are called upon to make con
test, at once unnecessary and hopeless, will
the Judicial authority Of the ma ion. W.
object to it. We will not obey Mr.. Douglas
when he commands US to assault the Su
preme Court OF the United States. w,
believe the court to be right, and Mr.. Doug
las wrong"
And also the following: "In case he i.
elected President, he must see the laws
faithfully executed. Does he think he can
keep that oath by fighting the judiciary 90
"Judge Douglas said he invited all to read
with the closest scrutiny the Harper article
of which this purports to be review anC
to judge for themselves whether this above
charge of assOulting the judiciary of the
country was not an in famous fQlSehOod The
author kne,o full ,oeH that ii waS an infamous
JdlSeho0d! To Vindicate that decision OF the
Supreme Court he hud made his most effect
ual efforts. In over one hundred and thirty
speeches in Illinois last year, he had every
time and everywhere spoken in vindcation
of the opinion Of the court. He quoted that
decision TO prove that his devotion to the
Democratic doctrine of popular sovereignty
was constitutional and well founded. The
man who wrote that could not look him ip
the eye and repeat the assertion that the
Harper article contained any occasion for
such u charge"
He again read from Bllck's article:
"He claims for the Territorial Govern.
ments the right OF conf'cating property on
the ground that M0Ss Governments ARE Sove.
rei9n-huving uncomfortable and independ
ent power over all their internal afflrs."
"Ihat, too, as taiSe," said he. IL deny
that l ever claimed either that q Territory
could confiscute private property, or that
those Governments are sovereign. 1t is
doubly false. deny that State even Gun
Confscate private property, except by due
of In nasi ha 1
not but have known that had not claimed
the Territories to be sovereign Governments,
because the very article he writes coItoins
extracts from my letters and reports which
distinctly declare the contrary doctrines, as
follows, in my letter to Philadelphia and my
report OF the Senate Committee On Terri
tories:
"Under our Territori.l system, it requires
sovereign power to ordan aud establish
Constitutions and Governments. While
Territory may, und should, enjoy all the
rights OF self.government, IN obedience TO its
organic Ld,c, it is NOT A SOVEREIGN POWER
The sovereignty of Territory remains in
abryance, suspended in the United States, in
trust for a people when ttey come a State and
cannot be 1Ojthdrawn from the hands of trus-
out the consent of Congress.
"This committee in their report have al.
ways held that Territory is nota sovereign
poWer that the sovereignty OF Territory
Is in abeyance, suspended in the United
States. in trust for the people when thev be.
come a State; that the United States, as
trustees, cannot be divesled of the sovereign
ty, nor the Territory be Invested with the
right to assume and exercise it without the
consent OF Congress. Ii the proposition be
true, that sovereign power alone can instt-
tute Governments, and that the sovereignty
of Territory is in abeyance suspended in
the United States in trust ior the people
when they become State, and that the
sovereignty cannot be dvested from the !
hands OF the trustees wi h Jut the assent oil
Congress, it follows as an inevitable conse-
quence, that the Kansas Legislature did not
and could not confer upon the Lecompton
Convention thu sovereign power of ordain.
ing Constitution for the people of Kansas,
in place Of the organic uct passed by Con-
gress."
"He continued: Il am sorry for the me-
cessiy Of aluding to the article, and the in.
famous falsehoods it contains, and would not
do so if it was not, while aimed at me, in
tended to strike at the great Democratic
principles which the gallant standard-be
ers OF the Democracy of the West-our
OobIy Ranney, Dodge of Iowa, Hobart OF
Wisconsin, and Becker Of Mnnessota-are
oe-ring SO learIessly at the head Of their
Democratic hosts. The attempt, however,
% deteut the success Of this grert doctrine
must fail. If New NJ xico knocks at the
loor OF Congress with slavery code as the
:hoice OF her people, and Kansas without,
10 power without their territory shuII pre-.
rent their having the institutions they have
lecided upon as best for their own welfare
md prosperity" "