The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1859-09-03
The Douglas Manifesto.


In procuring the insertion of his late ar
ticle on :" Popular Sovereignty in Har-
pers Magazine, Judge Douglas appears to
have overlooked the fact that the contents
OF that publication are each month copy
rightcd, and thus newspapers are preclud-
ed from copying the article. Even Judge
u. himself who intended 10 have it print
ed in pamphlet form finds himself unex-
pccteily deprived of the right to do SO.
The accident i god-send to the Repub-
ruh!ican and DANTE papers; for now they
can i1lsify and pcrycrt the article al Abi-
f.,l while no one, unless he happens to
have 4 copy Of Harper, can detect the
fraud
Thus we find the Chicago Press e. Trt-
bne, the Uerdld, Sansamon Journal, &c,
.cc-, simultaneously raising the cry, that
judge d in this article takes entirely new
ground on the subject of popular sover-
G ;-nty, and that all his former speeches on
the Nebraska bill, approval of the bred
Sect decision dc are abandoned. Where
- t. subscribed fully TO the doctrine that
the Constitution carried slavery into the
Territories he aban'lons this doctrine, say
these papers, and maintains that the
titution does not carry slavery into
tie Terri,ories-that slavery is the crea-
turc of local law-that it is not on foot
i,.r with other descriptions of property
a,.G that it may be excluded by Terrific
III! legislatures, i.y positive enactment
tuo: in the roundabout method of neglect
~ % pass local police regulations as as
serted in the Freeport speech).
Now we have neither time nor space to
quote at length from the article of Judge
D. to 4how the utter pervcrsion and ttlsIty
81 all this. 1t may be sufficient, however,
10 state the simple proposition with which
n starts out, and to prove which the
whole argument Is made 1t Is this, in
hi- own words:
That the Constitution neither establish
- uur prohibits slavery i'll the States or
Territories beyond the power of the people
l. -a!lv - control IL but leaves the people
thereof perfectly free to form and regulate
their domestic institutions i'll their own
WY. subject only to the Constitution of
the L.
II show 10y irrcfragible proofs, that at
tie time of the adoption of the constitu-
ton. the word State was understood to
lreIu u distinct. organized political COM
Huuily, whether member of the con-
federation or not, and that i'll this sense
the word i, used in the Constitution, while
the word territories" referred only To
property; that what are row called terri
tories. therefore, have under the constit,l-
t'pa the same unlimited control over their
domestic affairs that the States have.
lie accepts in its length and breadth the
bred Scott decision, that the constitution
recognizes slaves rs property, and makes
nr distinction between such and any other
property; and that under the constitution,
I-c-.f1re. shareholders have exactly the
same right 10 carry slaves into the terrific
RS that they have to take any other pro
I..Tty with them; but that slaves are no
lich"r species OF property than any 9th
-. and therefore, as the territories have
- ample control OF their domestic affairs
- The States have, the constitution nc
I..r~e establishes slavery in them beyond
tac power Of the people legally to control
il ,han in the States
Ihi- is the gist of the whole article II
the oil popular sovereignty doctrine OF
tn Nebraska bill, of the Freeport speech
O. julie Dis speeches i'll the L. s Senat,
l,.~t winter, and of the recent Maine, Yer
mont. and Wisconsin Conventions, "tha
the Constitution does not establish slave
~ III The territories beyond the power O
tn people legally 10 control it. The pc
>;tipa Is fortified by new arguments ant
proofs, that Judge d. may well defy hi
enemies 10 meet and overthrow, but Their
30 ctaags of position. That is all ther
,, about IT,