Daily national Democrat., 1859-05-10
7lailp Natloual Qtmotrat.
Inception of the Slave Code.

,reparatory to opening the fight under the
lilac banner of a slave code for all the ter
rtories.
That paper suppose is the organ of, and
.orresents the Federal interests; while
tbe Standard may be said to represent only
the State Treasury pap-suckers,
The leader aforesaid lays the foundation
for subsequent full adoption of the fire
eaters black platform and that. it is evi
dent by the leader, and the nature of the
ease, will be speedily assumed. The Admin
istration is wholly and solely southern en-.
rine. Its whole object, end and aim has been
devoted to the sustaining of southern prepon-
derance in the federal government. Mr.
Buchanan before he left the Court of st.
James to come home aud receive his nomina-
ton, at Baltimore, was the pledged minon
of the South, mere but secret tool of South
ern statesmen. A condition to which they
could not reduce the heir apparent-after the
successes of the state elections in 1S56-Mr
Douglas, or he would have been the nominee
of that Convention. They went with Mr.
Douglas to lift off the Compromise line, which
he accomplished upon the principle of popu-
lar sovereignty. They did it to get north of
that line. But he was man of principle,
and having gone down to the bed rock, and
cleared away the rubbish of compromises pi-
1ed upon the Constitution, by weaker think
ers, and mere expediency statesmen, he could
not be moved from the Gbralter of his eX.
alted and impregnable position. Douglas
could not descend from his intellectual height
among the suns and stars Of principle and be
mere glow-worm among the southern fire
flies of expediency. Mr.. Douglas could not
he the choice of the south as the successor of
Mr. Pierce, a man but little less than Buch-
anan, the tool of the south. Witness his in
auguration of the Kansas policy of ,he rule
of minorities
And, Mr. Douglas never can get the nom!
nation of the south They have no use for a
man who thinks for himself, or looks to prin-
ciples upon the slave question They would
have repudiated jackson himself, if the ques
tion had been up in his day, and he had said
"maiorties shall rule" upon that as well as
ell other questions of the domestic relations
But the veil is rent and the Charleston Con
gention need not nominate a northern pan
derer. That game is up, and the south sees
it and knows it, and they will act according
ly.
That leader is the entering wedge. here in
California. 1t seeks in the past, basis Of
plausibilty, that desire to notice. 1t at
tempts to make the extension of slavery Il
matter of Federal obligation. To demand
for the south, that by placing herself in mem
bership with he north, the north became
pledged to sustain her peculiar institution
and to lend a hand to build her up in the line
of her interests, in the future OF the cunied-
Grafton.
This specious reasoning may look correct
enough for eXpedivncists, and will doubtless
serve for the next step, of the National the
advocacy of slave code.
Let us examine this position. The States
Joined in this Federation, as separate and sew
eral sovereignties, not as two parties of states
"a southern and northern. Each had a
right to do as it pleased in all questions of its
own reserved sovereignty Many of the
states abolished slavery Had the now south
ern states right to say to them, you owe
us obligation to retain slavery, and to keep
up our preponderance, because we outnum-
bered the north at the adoption of the Con
stituton ?" Is it $50 nominated in the bondY
The National does not contend that it is, but
claims it by implication Now let us see
Pennsylvania has an iron interest, she had her
ores and mines at the adoption of the Con.
stitnton has the south voted for protec
tive tariff to sustain and extend the peculiar
interests of Pennsylvania, or to protect the
manufacturing interests of the New England
states All, the south was ad Udlorem then
and the north is only ad vatorenl now, on the
domestic relations in new territories.
Clearly the state sovereignties are free, up
on all these questions of state interests, ano
may change their policy to meet the devel
opments of time, of discovery, of foreign and
domestic reciprocity: in fact to conform her
self to the fronts of progress. And these
changes will necessarily work into their fed
eral action and the only prohibition must be
what ?-only the barriers of the Constitution
Only its express covenants and concessions, a:
the Democratic party have always said:-
"Strict construction Of the Constituti on. -
Congress shall not legislate upon doubtful
Implications" said General jackson. The
south now say it shall legislate where no i'm
plcation exists For it is nonsense, it is so
phistry TO say that the states shall stand still
as they stood at the moment of the adoption
of the Constitution, because their movement
forward in any given direction. would effect
by implication, the interests for good or bad
of any other state. AS well might one neigh
Dor say, who lives in frame house, you shall
mine, and will effect my respectability, and
we came here together and form socia
'helehoorhcod, and vote, and make laws to
gether' Tor our mutual good and benefit, and
you hVed In frame house when we voted
although admit you o,cn your land, and may
do as you please with it, so you don't tres
pass upon me, or infringe the statute of law,
we have made together and agreed TO be
governed by.
A rrowinO nation n,nst na,aesou;l.. --