The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1860-04-26
Au"Old Doctrige.

|. wiser statesmen Of the Repablic, that II
Y Consultation Of the United States sas Il
!. reference ornpplication to the Territol
Q les, whether acquired before. or after 70
I. adoption ofthat instrument. That epln
ion is unquestionably correct; and tn
only one upon which the Republican
, party can be maintained in its effort, il
face of the quasi decision OF the Supreme
g Court, to prevent the extension Of slave
? ~; and logically and necessarily we mus
come back to it, Nowhere does the Con
stitution speuk Of the government o
Territories. Its provisions are ak foI
the States 1t contains nothing BY
, which the acquisition of territory IL per
United, inasmuch as acquisitions never
we're contemplated 1t is a compact be,
tween States between Territories
and Territories, or Territories and States;
but between STATES alone. The terrific
ny claimed and owned by the government,
at the date Of the adoption of the Cou-
stitution, was governed by the Congress
as sovereign power, as father governs
his minor children, without reference to,
in fact 10 defiance of, the plainest pro
visions Of the fundamental law aud that
practice was continued in all the terrific
ry comprised in Louisiana aud Florida,
acquired subsequent to 1889. Mr.. Ben
ton in his able and conclusive review Of
! the bred Scot. decision, makes this SO
plain that even Democratic audacity has
never undertaken to deny his facts, or
the inevitable deduction therefrom.-
He shows by an unbroken chain of evil
dence, one end Of which extends back to
the Constitutional Convention and the
eighth bill passed by the first Congress,
and thence reaching down through every
territorial act, that until the introduction
into the Senate of Mr.. Calhoun's famous
resolutions, in 1917, the subsection of
the Territories to the Constitution had
never been seriously asserted, and that,
until the ill-starred, unnecessary and
traitorous measure, the Kansas. Nebraska
bill, nothing ever catered into Terri
terial bill by which the supremacy of
the Constitution in the Territories was
asserted, even by implication. The Or
dinance Of 1850, was gross violation Of
the Constitution, II modeNed upon and
restrained in its operations by that in
strument; yet it was framed by the men
who made the Constitution, aud knew
exactly what its provisions meant. This
Ordinance was the work of the South,
and was the FIRST and most imperative
and beni6cent Of all Congressional pro.
hibitious Of slavery. So the various acts
for the government of newly acquired
louisiana and subsequently of Florida
in every one Of these the limitations Of
the Constitution in its grants of power
to Congress over the States, were motor
iously disregarded, aud measure after
measure passed both Houses aud .ec.i,
ed the approval of the President and his
acknowledgements and the Cabinet being
composed of the men who assisted in
framing the Constitution and VIII could
not be mistaken as to what it was inten.
ded to cover--in which, vMe C,ns'i,u.
tttn s9as III .t"rce IN the Ierritories,it was
utterly dcied.
One of these acts for the government
of Lousiaua--a bill drawn by Mr.. Madi.
son, presented by Mr.. Breckenridge, ap-
proved by a nearly unanimous vote of
both Houses, end sigrcd by Mr.. Jener-
n,-put the President in the place of
the King Of Spain, as far as the Terrific
~ was concerned; made him an absolute
monarch within the territorial jurisdic-
ton clothed Mr.. Claiborne with the du,
ties and powers Of an irresponsible Span
lsh Governor ; and made the Judges the
administrators of the royal Spanish cdicts.
And the reason alleged for this extraor-
binary proceeding was the fact that Con-
gress governed the Territories, new and
old by virtue Gifts sovereignty and with
out reference to the Constitutions When
Florida was acquired, sixteen years later,
this legislation was repeated, aud for the
same reason which was then, as before,
sustained by the almost unanimous opin.
ION Of the country aud OF the government
I'D all It's branches. And so OF all sub
sequent acts, down to the period which
We have mcnticn,d-cvery one Of them
was violation of the Constitution il il
extends to the Territories for any purpose
or IN any manner whatever Where is
the authority in the fundamental law for
the acquisitions that have been made
from Spain and Mexico Where the
authority by which the President ap.
points Governors, and by which he ap.
points and ren'ores Judges at his pleas
uae . There Is but one answer: In the
sovereignty Of Copgress-the right Of
governing dcduced from the fact of ac-
QUESTION
Until Slavery needed justification for
extension, this doctrine Of Mr.. Calhoun,
by which the Territories are made sub
Ject to the Constitution, was never heard
OF from statesman. That madman saw
that the determination of Congress to
provide for circumscribing slavery, by
acts OF restriction and limitation, could
not be shaken His ingenuity led him
to the Supreme Court, where he found a
more plant body Of men and there his
victory, by an important amendment III
the fundamental law, by denial Of the
binding force Of the presidents extend
ing back over period of seventy years,
and by revisal Of the principles upon
which the government had been admin
istcrcd since its organization, was OBJ
tanned. We shall see how much the tri.
umph is worth-how that tangled
notion which stretches the Constitution
of an area to which it cannot apply unit
that area is populated aud organized in.
to States and admitted into the Union,