Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1859-09-21

by the act of State Legislature; while others con-
tend that unlimited control over private rights
may be exercised by Territorial Legislature Us
soon as the earliest settlements are made.
So strong are the sentiments of Mr.. Douglas in
favor of the latter doctrine that if it be not cstab
liShed he threatens lis with Mr.. Stewards "lrrepres
siLle conflict" which shall end only with the uni
versal abolition or the universal dominion Of slavery
On the other hand the President the judges Of the
Supreme Court, nearly all the democratic members
of Congress, the whole of the party South, and a
very large majority North, are penetrated with a
conviction that no such power is vested in terri
tral Legislature and that those who desire to con-
scate private property of any kind must wait until
they get constitutional convention or the machin-
cry of State government into their hands. We
venture to give the following reasons for believing
that Mr. Douglas is in error:
The Supreme Court has decided that territorial
legislature has not the power which he claims Tor it.
That alone ought to be sufficient There can be no
law, order, or security for any mans right unless
the judicial authority of the country be upheld
Mr. Douglas may do what he pleases with political
conventions and party platforms, but we trust he
will give to the Supreme Court at least that decent
respect which none but the most ultra republicans
have yet withheld.
The right property is sacred and the first object
of all human government is to make it secure. Life
is always unsafe where property is not fully protect
ed This is the experience of every people on earth,
ancient and modern. To secure private property
was principal object of Iagna Ch"rta Charles
l. afterwards attempted to violate it. but the people
rose upon him, dragged him to the block and sever
ed his head from his body At still later period
another monarch for kindred offence was DRIVEN
out of the country, and died fugitive and an out
cast Our own Revolution was provoked by that
slight invasion upon the right of property which
consisted in the exaction Of trtng tax. There is
no government in the world, however absolute,
which would not be dsgraced and endangered by
wantony sacrificing private property even to small
extent. For centuries past such outrages nave
ceased to be committed in times Of peace among
civilized nations
Slaves are regarded as property in the Southern
States The people of that section buy and sell, and
carry on all their business provide for their families,
and make their wills and divide their inhertances
that assumption. 1t is manifest to all who know
them that no doubts cross their minds about
the rightfulness of holding such property. They
believe they have direct warrant for 1t, not only IN
the examples of the best men that ever lived, but
in the preceps of Divine revelation ITSELF and they
are thoroughly satisfied that the relation of master
and slave is the only one which possibly exist
there between the white and the black without
running both. The people of the North may differ
from their fcow-citizens of the South on the whole
subject, but knowing, all do that these scnt-
cannot wonder that they feel the most unSpcakablc
Indignation when any attempt is made to interfere
with their rights This sentiment results naturally
and necessarily from their education and habits Of
thinking They cannot help it, any more than IN
honest man in the North can avoid abhorring thief
or house breaker.
The jur>ts Legislators, and people of the Northern
States have always sacrcdlv respected the right of
property in slaves held by their citizens within
t,rir urjS,l * rEahl ct
well worth noticing, that no Northern State ever
passed any law to take negro from his MASTER
All laws for the abolition Of slavery have operated
only on the unborn descendants of the negro race
and The vested rights of masters have not been dis
turl,c,l in the North more than in the South.
In every nation under Heaven civilized, seminar
barous or savage where slavery has existed in any
form at all analogous to ours the rights of the
tiers to the control of their slaves property have
been respected and on occasion has any govern
ment struck at those ri h,s except as it would
strike at other property. Even the British Parlia-
ment when it cmancipated the West India slaves,
though it was lcg.Slating for people three thou
sand miles away and not represented, never denied
either the legal the natural right of the slave
! owner. Slaves were admitted to he property, and
the Government acknowledged it by paying their
masters hundred millions of dollars for the priv
cge of setting them free.
Here, then. is a species of property which is of
transcendent Importance to the material interests of
the South-which the people Of that region think it
right and mcritorious in the eyes Of God and good
men to hold-which is sanctioned by the general
sense of all mankind among whom it has existed
which was legal only short time ago in all the
States of the Union, and then treated as sacred
by every one of theni-which is guaranteed to the
owner as much any other property is guaranteed
by the Constitution and Mr. Douglas thinks that
territorial legislature is competent to take away
! We say No; the supreme legislative power of a
sovereign State alone can deprive man OF his pro
| pelty.
This proposition is so plain, so well established
and so universally acknowledged, that any argument
| in its favor would be mere waste of words. Mr.
Douglas does not deny it. and it did not require
the thoussnlth part of his sagacly to see that il
WITS undcnable. He claims for the territorial gov
ernments the right of conscating private property
on the ground that Mose gorernments ARE sovereign
have uncomfortable and independent power
over all their internal affairs. That is the poin
which he thinks is to split the democracy and i'm
pale the nation. But it is so entirely erroneous
that it must vanish into thin air as soon it come!
to be examined.
\ territorial government is merely provisional ant
temporary. 1t is created by Congress for the ne
cessary preservation of order and the purposes o
police. The powers conferred upon it expressed
in the organic act which is the charter of its cxis
tence, and which may be changed or repealed at thu
pleasure of Congress. In most of those acts tn
power has been expressly reserved to Congress o
revising the territorial laws and the power to re
peal them exists without such reservation. Thi
was asserted in the of Kansas by the most dis
tinguished Senators in the Congress of 1856. Tn
President appoints the Governor judges, and al
other officers whose appointment is not otherwis
provided for, directly or indirectly, by Congress.
Even the expenses of the territorial government ar
paid out of the Federal Treasury. The truth i
they have no attribute of sovereignty about them
The essence of sovereignty consists in having n
superior. But a territorial government has a supe
rior in the United States Government upon who's
pleasure it is dependent for its very EXISTENCE
whom it lives and moves, and has its being-wh
has made and can unmake it with breath.
} Where does this sovereign authority to depriv
men of their property come from? This transcen
dent power, which even despots are cautious abou
using, and which constitutional monarch neve
| -hOv inf, ia