Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1860-06-02
The Doctrine of Congressional Protection to
Slavery in the Territories.

Slavery In the 1eEIuOElcSs
Non-intervention by Congress with questions of
slavery has been the motto of the Democratic party
for the last twelve years. The Wilmot Proviso was
intended to prohibit slavery in all the Territories
Its advocates had no respect for the Missouri line
Its opponents urged Congress to let slavery in the
Territories alone so to leave it to make its way
and be established where climate and soil should
call for it That was all they asked. If the climate
and soil do not call for it said the South, do not
wish to force it unwilling people; if the insti-
tuition cannot pass into the Territories and maintain
itself under the Constitution as expounded by the
Supreme Court and under the operation of the laws
of nature let it remain in the States where it exists
That we we'll remember, was the feeling and Ian
guage of the South in 1913. The Wilmot Proviso
was defeated, and the compromise measures of 1850
were adopted. large majority of the people of
the South opposed to those measures, but they
acquiesced in them. We did not like them, but we
acquiesced in them. We objected to the manner in
which California was hurried into the Union as a
free State, by sort of squatter military
eighty, by which the people of the Territory were
prevented from having fair hearing on the subject
of slavery; and We objected also to the law, which
was part of this compromise, aboishing the slave
trade in the District of Columbia But the doctrine
of nonntervention to the remaining Territories,
which was substantially embodied in those meas
ures, reconced US to them. They substantially re-
pealed the Missouri restriction, which, with the flu
gitive-slave law, was what the South got by their
adoption. We accepted them as the price of the
Union, and we have stood by them in good faith
CIR nj h1y fbarr
votes united with the votes of Northern Democrats
They received the support of Douglas Clay, Web
ster Cass, and other leading men of the two great
parties of the country. In 1854 the Kansas-Ne-
braska act was passed That act for the purpose of
more completely establishing the doctrine of non-
Intervention expressly repealed the Missouri rcstric
tion and left the people of all the Territories "per-
fectly free to form and regulate their institutions in
their own way, subject only to the Constitution Of
the United States" That act was also mainly passed
by Southern votes and Northern Democratic votes.
Its great object was to give peace to the country,
and especially to the South, by excluding the ques
ton of slavery from the halls of Congress- and by
committing it to the people of the Territories who
were most deeply interested in it for their consider
atioE and action.
To show our consistency on this subject, as well
as to confirm the foregoing brief narrative of facts
We will quote from the Standard of different dates
FOR the last ten years. In April 1850, speaking of
the compromise measures then pending we said:
"The South is not unreasonable in regard to this
question. AU she asks u.s. that Congr, IS will let
Slavery alone, whether in the District Of Columbia
or in the Territories and compel the restitution of
fugitive slaves. Here she rests" $3.50.
In the Standard of May, 1850, after urging the
Importance of a fngitiye-slave law we said:
Slavery should thereafter be an unpronouncable
word in the halls of Congress It must be- or every
expectation of repose and harmony will be idlc.".
We might fill several numbers Of the Standard
with extracts from the same paper in 1S48, 1850,
and 1854, all of the same substance and tone of the
foregoing, but it is not necessary. All the South
asked in 184S, 1850, and 1854 was non-interyenton
oy Congress with slavery in the Territories In the
Standard of March 49, 1859, we said:
But if Congressional protection to slavery in the
territories should be granted would it be an availa
Sle remedyl Could Congress force upon people
ue institution of slavery against their will ? And
would not demand for this remedy by Congress-
ana Its discussion in that body, tend to n1ame more
tnan ever the North against the South and the South
against the North? Messrs. Davis, Brown Green
au otner Southern Senators declare they must have