The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1860-06-13

" repuulateS the doctrine, ana declares
openly that his judgment always repudi-
ed it.
Mr.. HEDGES declares his perfect will
ingness to have ALEXANDER IT. SrEPH-
EMS, of Georgia, placed on the Demo-
cratic Ticket as the candidate for Presi-
dent Now let us see how this accords
with his assertion that sooner than de-
part one hairs breadth from the princi-
pie of Popular Sovereignty, he would
prefer to see the Democratic party broken
up. No man in this country has been a
more un;iring advocate of slavery than
| Mr.. STEPHENS. No man has more clear
ly planted himself upon the morality of
that system than he. No man more full
ly believes, or has more fully enunciated
the doctrine, that It's expansion is de-
manded by its own existence and by the
interests Of the country. Nay, not only
this, no man prominent in the country
has given so unconditional an approval
of the opening of the African Slave
| Trade, as he. AT every time, and on ev-
cry occasion, he has declared his fidelity
to Slavery, because he believes it to be
just, right and proper-founded in ma
ture and standing upon the higher law.
In a speech made at Augusta, Georgia,
last year, on retiring from public life,
he reproved those who condemned Mr..
SEwARD's doctrine of higher law, and
declared that he himself believed in a
higher law of the Creator, upon which
the Constitution must rest and be sus-
tanned. He said, as reported in the Geor-
gia Conshtut,onazist::
The opponents of slavery were endeavoring
to make things equal (black and white pcoplc7
which the Creator has made unequal. Our on
ponents, then, are warning against a principle
while we are warning for it. Negro slavery is
but in its infancy-it is a mere problem of our
government; our fathers didn't understand it,
l grant that all the public men of the south
were once against it but they didn't nder-
stand it. 1t is for us to meet questions with The
firnness which they did. The problem is yet
unsolyed Ours is not only the best, but it is
the only government founded upon the princi-
pies of nature. Statesmen never looked
to the principle of graduation, but our govern
ment is the only one founded on it: and our
policy, our institutions, and African slavery are
founded on it. If slavery is not best
for the African and doesn't increase his happi-
ness, it ought to be abolished. If it does, then
our institutions are founded on nature--we are
fulfilling our destiny, and we stand upon this
higher law. He wouldn't support constitu
ton that was inconsistent with this higher law
Of nature And until the leopard can change
his spots or the Ethiop his skim don tell me
he said, that it is unlawful to hold slaves.
And while Mr.. STEPHENS thus argues
for the morality of slavery, he has no
doubt Of its ultimate triumph. He said !:
Fanaticism had been spreading at the North
but slavery is getting stronger, and will contin-
ue to get stronger, whether in the United States
or out of it. Slavery will grow strong
as time goes on. When he entered Congress the
Missouri Compromise excluded slavery from the
/ Territories now it is not excluded from n por-
tion of land over which floats our national flag !!
! he alluded to the anti-slavcrv sentiment which
prevailed in Virginia in the early DAYS of the
Commonwealth, and argued that it is useless to
war against the progress of events. Every re-
strlction has been taken off slavery n Fugitive
Slave law has been granted. There are more
men at the North to-day who believe in the So
cial and moral condition of slavery than when
he went to Congress.
Mr.. STEPHENS also argued the necessi-
ty for expansion, and in this argument
demonstrated how thoroughly he is oppo-
sed to that view of Popular Sovereignty
which assumes that the people of Ter
ritory have the right to prohibit slavery
while in territorial condition-the very
doctrine 10 which our neighbor declares
such undying fealty. After abiding to
the annexation Of Texas, and his part in
securing thereby FIVE slave states to the
Union-which he pronounced one of the
most gratifying acts OF his life-he goes
on to say:
| great and fearful crisis arose--that was the
question OF the power of Congress over the Ter
rItories-whether new slave states should be ad-
mitted, or whether the South should never ex
pand or enlarge; whether our institutions should
be starved out whether the South should sub
nit to degradation. AS much as he
loved and admired the Union, il the South was
TO be hemmed and hedged in, he was for resist
ance ; sooner than submit TO practical or theo-
retical questions Of wrong, he was or resistance
The great principle to be carried out is
cypansion--the right Of the people of the South
to 90 10 the Territories with their slave proper
ty, protected hy the constitution OH platform
of equal rights. The principle is now
settled that Congress shall abstain from III leg
isation on the subject of slavery in the Terri
tories, whether ms 10 the North or the South :
and the Territories now open TO all sections
and have the privilege of adopting slavery or
not, rs the people may choose, 1rica hcy came 10
form constitutions These measures, however,
did not go as far as he wished he ,couid hare
Congress fogice protection 10 sLare property in The
public domain as tong as remained in territori-
al condition.
In pursuance of his theory of expan-
sion he also advocated the absorption of
chihuahua, Sonora, Central America,
Mexico and Cuba. lie was not in favor
Of paying more than one or Two millions
for the latter, but would repeal The neu-
tralily laws and allow the people OF the
United States TO help the Cuban3 into the
Union. This expansion, il will be seen,