Delaware inquirer. (Wilmington, Del.) 1859-18??, 1859-12-10
POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY.


anu lNultS vi MS lNbOly Hot ouig hhIuNS-
toned by Territorial power, legislative, exeeu-
tive or judicial, but with the duty of each and
all to protect him and has the emigrant from
South Carolina, where such property may not
be recognized no such right? If there be
such disparaging and unjust distinction, il is
almost a just cause for rebellion. But if the
doctrine he sound, how is it practically 10 ope-
rate? The laws of the several States are often,
and may even be on the same subject conflict
ing This conflict must give rise in the Terri
tory to constant controversy incapable of jul
dicial adjustment il but the one law is observed.
What is to be done? Can any peaceful results
be attained? Certainly not, II both laws are
to be equally regarded, and what then is inevi-
table-conflision and violence; and then too
what "A singular appearance would an edition
of their statutes and common law present.
what heterogeneous mass its contents. Its
title would be, the statutes and other law of
the Territory; open it and you find statutes of
Massachusetts, and of Georgia, of Pennsylvania
and of Mississippi, and of the common law of
each, with head note that these apply respec-
lively only to the citizens who have emigrated
from such State. That he is still, and must
remain not only against the will of the Terri
torial government, but his own as to all his
rights and obligations, citizen of Massachn-
sets or Georgia, Pennsylvania or Mississippi,
until the period shall arrive when all will be
merged into one people, to be governed by the
laws of their own adoption, through the necro-
nancy of State Constitution, the only rene
dy for the inconsistencies, the absurdities, and
the paralyzing effects ofthe doctrine that Ter
ritorial legislative power has, if any, most
limited sphere. for Incorporation. In fact, the
more the principle is examined the more I'M
tenable if not absurd, it appears.
Will any man with any regard to his reputa-
ton, whether he has mastered the primer of
political science, or not, answer these enquiries
in the affirmative? If such one is TO be
found, he can point to no other dialectics as
the source of his error, and his apology, than
those of the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In word, the
whole question resolves itselfinto this:-What
is legislative power2 What are its legitimate
objects? If property, its existence, its regula
tons and its uses, and its protection by law,
subject only to such constitutional limitations
as may exist, is not, then is it Invested not
only of one but of its chief elements, its very
life blood. 1t can then deal only with man,
his physical efforts, his mere animal capacities,
obligations, and not at all where these involve
property and its application.
The Attorney General, in his Appendix,
tells U.S.. that ''no one who has mastered
the primer Of political science will de-
ny that II government unrestrained and I'M
checked by any constitutional prohibition, has
1.-THE power to coniiscate private property, even
without compensation to the owner" That
this power can only he obviated by limitation,
and that this is accordingly done in the Con
stitution of the United States, and in every
State Constitution. Is this so? II it he, the
present writer has not mastered the primer.
Arc there no great principles Of justice which
| lay nj the foundation of every form Of society,
and fashion and control it without express
incorporation, into its organic law? And il
there be, is it not one OF them that private pro-
perry cannot be taken for public use, without
compensation? Such principles may he yio-
lated. Property may be contiscated, and per-
sons, too, imprisoned and executed without
cause, in the mere qualification ola tyrannica
will. Eg post tacto ia@s may be enacted and
enforced, and acts declared crime, which in
the eye of man and of God were not only moi
criminal, but laudable when they occurred
But are these justified? There may be nc
physical power to resist them, but are they or
that account, in human or divine Judgment
legal? Are they not restrained by voice
which in the eye of civilization is mightiei
than armies, the voice of justice issuing from
the Blossom of God" to preserve ''the harmo-
ny of the world Gould then such acts he
perpetrated without redress, had there been
no such prohibition in the Constitutions of the
several States, and of the general government
Chief Justice MARSHALL, who, Attorney perhaps
| will admit had at least mastered the '.primcl
of political science in the case of Fletcher
and Pirate, Cra,, speaking too for the whole
court, his co-students of the same primer
says sit may well be doubted whether the
nature of government and society does moi
prescribe some limits to n legislative power
and if any be prescribed, where are they to be
found, if the property an individual fairly
and honestly acquired, may be seized without
compensation
| The historical reference too, of Mr.. Attorney
it is submitted, he clearly misapprehends