Pointe Coupee Democrat. [volume] (False River [i.e. New Roads], Parish of Pointe Coupee [La.]) 1858-1862, 1859-10-29

: North may differ from their fellow citi-
zens Of the South on the whole subject,
but knowing, as we all do, that these
sentiments are sincerely entertained, we
cannot wonder that they feel the most
unspeakable Indignation when any at
tempt 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 an honest man in the
North can avoid abhorring a thief or
housc-broaker.
The jurists, Legislators, and people of
| the Northern States have always sacred
y respected the rights Of property in
slaves, held by their own citizens with
IN their own jurisdiction. 1t is re-
markable fact, very we'll 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 descend
| ants OF the negro race, and the vested
! rlShtS OF master have not been disturb !
ed IN the North more than in the South,
In every nation under Heaven, civil !
lied, semi-barbarous, Or savage. where
slavery has existed in any form at all!
analogous to ours, the rights of the mas
ters to the control Of their slaves as pro-
perty have been respected; and on no
occasion has any government struck at
those rights, except as it would strike
at other property Even the British
Parliament when it emancipated the {
West India slaves, though it was legis-
latlng for people three thousand miles
away and not represented, never denied
either the legal or the natural right of
the slave owner Slaves were admitted
to be property, and the government ac-
knowledged it by paying their masters
one hundred millions of dollars for the
privilege Of setting them free.
Here, then, is a species of property
which Is OF transcendant Importance to
the material interests of the South,
which one people Of that region think it
right and meritorious in the eyes of God
and good men to hold-which is sane
toned by the general sense of all man
kind among whom it has existed-which
was legal only a short time ago in all
the States of the Union, and was then
treated as sacred by every one of them !
Is guaranteed to the owner as +
much as any other property is guaran-
teed by the Constitution; and Mr. Doug 3
las thinks that territorial legislature :
IS competent to take it away. We say r
No; the supreme legislative power of a !
sovereign State alone can deprive man q
Of his property. I
This proposition is so plain, so well Ii
established, and SO universally acknowl- e
7ged, that any argument in its favor
would be mere waste OF words. Mr.. D
douglas did not deny it, and it did not c
equire the thousandth part of his sa- tt
sacity to see that it was undeniable.- G
lie claims for the Territorial govern !
nents the right of confscating private NJ
property on the ground that those gov i
aresovereign-have an uncon Get
.ollable and independent power ov6 mai
II their internal affairs. That ia thine
oint which he thinks is to split the De Il LIE J.
locracy and impale the nation But Get Get
; SO entirely erroneous, that it tnushssig
'anish into thin air as soon as it comes
o be examined.
A territorial government is merely :
Provisional and temporary. 1t is crea- ca
ed by Congress for the necessary pres til
rvation of order and the purposes of al
olice. The powers conferred upon it OF
re expressed in the organic act, which W
) the charter of it's existence, end which llt
lay be changed or repealed at the ia
leasure OF Congress. In most of those III
cts the power has been expressly re- m
eryed to Congress of revising the ter ma
torial laws, and the power to repeal tn
lem exists without such reservation. w
his was asserted in the case of Kansas GU
the most distinguished Senators in r
le Congress Of 1856 The President pc
opoints the Governor, judges, and all tn
her officers who are not otherwise pro- he
ded for, directly or indirectly, by Con- sa
'ess. Even the expenses Of the terri
rial government are paid out of the pl
ederal Treasury. The truth is, they by
I've no attribute of sovereignty about w
EN-. The essence of sovereignty con- &C
SITS IN having no superior But the tn
government has a.superior in ro
e United States Government, upon no
hose pleasure it is dependent for it's by
'ry existence-in whom it lives, and do
owes, and has its being -w who has las
ade and can unmake it with breath. go
Where does this sovereign authority ha
priving men of their property come ev
'm? This transcendent power, which de!
en- despots are careful about using, ga
d which a constitutional monarch new arr
exercises-how does it get into ter ke
orial Legislature? Surely it does not tel
op from the clouds; it will not be con- fey
nIed that II aecnrnraniac tho cottla., IL