Arkansas true Democrat., 1859-10-05

lfu one another; until the policy of the ter ttory IS settled by some experience; and y'ove all. until the great powers of sover- Ign State are regularly conferred upon nem and properly limited, so as to prevent
 e gross abuses which always accompany .lrestrlcted power in human hands? ? Ihere IS another consideration which Mir. fouglas should have been the last man to e'erlook. The present administration of 1e federal government, and the whole 5 mocratic party throughout the country, cludlng Mr. Douglas, thought that in the l SC of Kansas the question of retaining or polishing slavery should not be determined
 any representative body without giving the whole mass of the people an oppor- nlty of voting on it. Mr. Douglas car ) 'd It further, and warmly opposed the institution, denying even its validity, be- use other and undisputed parts of it had .pt also been submitted to a popular vote.
 pw he is willing that tbe whole slavery lspute Tn any territory, and all questions at can arise concerning the rights of the
 ople to that other property, shall be de-
 led at once by territorial legislature,
 thout any submission at all. Popular
 verelgnity in the last Congress meant the Pedom of the people from all the restraints
 law and order: now it means govern 'lent which shall rule them with rod of pn. It swings like pendulum from one
 ie clear over to the other.
 Mir. Douglas opinions on this subject of iverelgn territorial governments are very pgular; buVthe reasons he has produced
 support them are infinitely more curious Ell. For instance, he shows that Jefler- Tn once introduced into the old Congress < the confederation plan for the govern.
 ent of the territories, calling them by the
 me of "new States" but not making
 fm anything like sovereign or indepen-
 mt States; and though this was mere
 perlmental project, which was rejected by
 Pngress, and never afterwards referred to
 Jefferson himself, yet Mr. Douglas
 Eues upon 1t as if it had somehow be-
 me part of our fundamental law.
 |Agaln: He says that the States gave to
 e federal government the same powers
 hlch as colonies they had been willing to
 ncede to the British government, and
 lpt those which as colonies they had
 llmed for themselves. If he will read a
 mmon school history of the revolution,
 d then look at article second of the con-
 tutlon, he will find the two following
 cts fully established: l. That the feder- I government has "power to lay and col ,Ft taxes, duties, imposts and excises;'' Id, 7. That the colonies, before the revo- ltlon, utterly refused to be taxed by Great Irtaln; and so far from conceding the Pwer, fought against it for seven long bars.
 There is another thing in the article Inich, Ii 1t had not come from a distin.
 nshed Senator and very upright gentle Ian, would have been open to some mpu-
 ton of unlainess. He quotes the Presi- ent's message, and begins in the middle ot
 e sentence. He professes to give the very
 ords, and makes Mir. Buchanan say, "that
 avery exists in Kansas by virtue of the bnstltution of the United States"
 w hat Mr. Buchanan did say was a very Ifferent thing. It was this: "It has been Iolemnlx adjudged by the highest iudicia I1bunal known to our laws that slavery ex- it's in Kansas by virtue of the constitution f the United State" Everybody knows nat by treating the Bible in that way, you an prove the non-existence of God.
 The argumentum cd hominem is not fair md we do not mean to use it. Mr. Doug IS has right to change his opinions when yer he pleases. But we quote him as W, would any other authority equally high il avor of truth. We can prove by himsel hat every proposition he lays down il 4arper's Magazine is founded in error- Never before has any public man in America o completely revolutionized his poitica opinions in the course of eighteen months We do not deny that the change is heart cit and conscientious. We only insis hat he formerly stated his proposition 2uch more clearly. and sustained them witt lar greater ability and better reasons thai he does now.
 When he took a tour to the Soutb q the beginning of last winter, he made speech at New Orleans, in which he an nounced to the people there that he and hi friends in Illinois accepted the Dred Scot decision, regarded slaves as property, am fully admitted the right of southern ma to go into any federal Territory with hi slave, and to hold him there as other pro perty is held.
 In lS49 he voted in the Senate for wha was called Walkers amendment. by whic1 it was proposed to put all the internal af fairs of California and New Mexico unde the domination of the President, giving hin almost unlimited power, legislative, iudicia and executive, over the internal affairs 0 those territories. Undoubtedly this was strange way of treating the sovereignties If Mr. Douglas is right now, he was guilt then of most atrocious usurpation.
 Utah is as much sovereign State as an, other territory, and as perfectly entitled t, enjoy the right of self-government. On tn l2th of June, 1857, Mr. Douglas made speech about Utah, at Springfield, Illinois in which he expressed his opinion strongl, in favor of the absolute and unconditiona repeal of the organic act, plotting the terri torlal government out of existence, and put ting the people under the sole and exclusiv, of the United States, like fort arsenal, dockyard or magazine. He doe, not seem to have had the least idea thel that he was proposing to extinguish sov or to trample upon the sacred lights of an independent people.
 The report which he made to the Senat, n 1856, on the Topeka constitution, enun rates very different doctrine from that O he magazine article. It is true that tht anguage is little cloudy, but no one cal understand the following sentences to signi y that the territorial governments hay, sovereign power to take away the propert, ,f the inhabitants:-
 "The sovereignty of the Territory re mains in abeyance suspended in the Unitec States, in trust for the people until the, shall be admitted into the Union as q State n the meantime they are admitted to enio, md exercise all the rights and privileges O elf government in subordination to the of the United States. and ir obedience to their organic law, passed b, Iongress in pursuance of that instrument These rights and privileges are all derived rom the constitution through the act O Congress-, and must be exercised and eniov- d in subjection to all the limitations and estrictions which that constitution i'm. )oses"
 The letter he addroscaJ +o Dl :,I1,