The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1859-09-22

doiuS Oy ltS dlulpled nanQS TO the grass
Like one who is afraid. 80 pae afe1 II
Like one afraid of the shadows dun
That on its bright banks lie, 9a
All day reproaching tn kingly Sun o
For shining in the sky.
Flying that way, no wild bird sings
The morning merry and brave,
Hides her eyes in her cloudy WINGS
Passing the little grave. J 33eas7 5es
The Copy-Right Essay Examined..All of
Douglas Witnesses Against him..The
Necessity of a New Construction of the
Dred Scott Decision. 5st
Senator Douglas in his copyright
essay upon his phantom of Squatter
Sovereignty, had purpose. His OBJ
ject evidently was to fortify and
strengthen his own position, and to ex-
plain and reconcile what seems to most
people contradictions in his own course
upon this subject. tits not my purpose
to meddle with Democratic platforms.
| leave it to be settled by his Demo
cratic friends in the Charleston Con-
vention, which of the factions of that
party are right, according to those plat
forms. Regarded as device to delude
persons anxious to be deluded, and to
strenthen himself with such of his po-
litical friends rs have free soil proclivi-
ties, it is ingenious. Regarded as an
argument in support of his phantom, it
is shallow sophism.
His argument is not that as ques-
ton of expediency it would be wise
and just for Congress to give the Ter
ritories power to regulate their domes-
tic affairs in their own way, but that
they have that power as a matter of
right independent of Congress. If
this be true, then every Territorial act
on the statute-book, from the Ordi-
nance of 1887 down to the Kansas Ne
braska act inclusive, is a palpable usur-
patton, for every one of them is in in
direct violation of this supposed right.
They all impose restrictions on this
right. None of them allow them to
choose their own Governors and Judges
and all of them impose limitations upon
their Legislative power. Some of them
give the whole legislative power to
Governors and Judges chosen not by
the people of the Territory, but APP
pointed by the President of the United
States; all of them give to Governor
appointed by the President veto upon
the legislative power, and some of
them give to Congress also veto up
on their legislative power. But it may
be that all the men who passed and
approved these acts, including Senator
Douglas himself, were wrong, and that
he is now right. Then to his argu.
ment. His first witness is the Ameri-
can colonies previous to the American
revolution. The colonies he says
claimed nothing but Squatter Sover-
eighty, or in his own words: .eaI
Q" They acknowledged and affirmed
their allegiance to the crown, their af:
fection for the people, and their devo-
tion to the Constitution of Great Brit
ain and their only complaint was that
they were not permitted to enjoy the
the rights and privileges of lfgovern-
mcnt, in the management of their in
ternal affairs and domestic concerns,
I in accordance with the guarantees OF
that Constitution and the colonial char
ters granted by the crown in pursuance
of it. They conceded the right of the
Imperial government to make all laws,
and perform all acts concerning the
colonies which were in their nature
Imperial and not colonial. The recog-
nized the right of the Imperial Govern
ment to declare war and make peace
to coin money and determine its value
to make treaties and conduct inter
course with foreign nations to regu-
late commerce between the several col
onies, and between each colony and
the parent country, and with foreign
countries 4; and in general they recog-
nized the right of the Imerial Govern
ment of Great Britain to exercise all
the powers and authority which, under
the Federal Constitution, are delega-
ted by the people of the several States
to the Government of the United
States. a a23ew h.oE .
''Thus it appears that our fathers OF
the Revolutions were contending, not
for independence in the first instance,
but for the inestimable right of Local
Self Government under the British Con.
stitution; the right of every distinct
political community-dependent colo
nies, territories and provinces, as well
as sovereign States-to make their own
local laws, form their own domestic in.
stitutions, manage their own, internal
affairs in their own way, subject only
: to the Constitution of Great Britain
as the paramount law of the Empire.