Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1859-08-04
TIE WILMor PaovIso--THE WAY rae

TIE WILMoT PRovIso--THE WAY THE
WORLD Turns. I'VE catch up Cincinnati
Journal, and we find in it the following:
| from the Hon. Linn Boyd, of kentucky. j
"By the legislation of Congress, it is clear
| ly the right and duty of the Territorial Leg
islatures to give protection to persons and
property (slaves included) in the Territories
and earnestly and most confidently hope that
that duty will be so performed as that no &C.
casion will ever arise for an appeal to Con-
gress on that subject. 1fhowever doomed te
disappointment in this confident hope, and
! from bad faith on the part Of the people Of
the Territories, tie rights of SHAREHOLDERS
should be disregarded and outraged, I trust
that very few will be found to deny that to
Congress belongs the poioer and the duty t.
offer just protection"
| (From the Hon. Thomas Corwin, OF Ohio
"Upon the subject Of the power Of Congress
in relation to legislation for Territories, it was
his fixed opinion that Congress had the right,
and it is its duty, 10 prohibit sterey IN them.
| All the laws Of the United States upon this
subject, from the organization of the govern
ment down to the Kansas Nebraska bill, had
expressed the right cfCongrcss to legislate
for the Territories. The Territory Of Mississ-
ippi was organized in 1899, Congress enact
ed law imposing a fne Of three hundred
dollars npon any person who would import
slave into that Territory for sale. 1t did
permit man owning slaves, who went there
to live The same law required the Territori-
al Legislature to send up its laws for the APP
| proval of Congress, and if disapproved they
,,,,n Will
| John Marshall on the bench, sustained this
power. In the Louisiana Territory, organized
| 1885, the same provision was applied, and
this in the face of the Jaw of 1893, extending
the slave trade twenty years-a law applica-
bic exclusively to the States "
Toe Hon. Thomas Corwin, it is plain, has
made a convert Of the Hon. Linn Boyd. In
1850, Corwin was Wimot Proviso man, as
he is now; but then Boyd, as Speaker of the
House. did all he could against t,-whereas
now he agrees with Corwin in the principle,
that Congress has 'the right, "the power, -
and "the duty" to legisate upon the subject
Of slavery in the Territories.
The Southern Democratic party, we now
see, have been largely converted upon the
subject of Congressional slavery legislation by
Wilmot g. Co. What their conversion is to
gain for them in u Congress, whose power is
now the strongest in the Free States remains
to be seen. Indeed, their argument in 1850
was,-that as the North had the majority, the
Union ought to be dissolved Congress
exercised the power.
But ia 1850, in view of the great difficult
ties and dangers of Con gressional slavery leg
slation, it was decided in the Compromise
Bills, that the whole matter ought to be, and
should be, left to the Territories themselves
In 1854, in the Kansas act, Congress rc-af-
frmcd this principle. Now, Boyd contends
for the Congressional exercises of the power
his way, and Corwin his way. Both are po-
litically right in Meery,--Lut the practice
hencefurth is imposSlle