Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-06-16
CONGRESS AND THE TERRITORIES.


ocrats, who control the Senate, seem to have
determined that nothing shall be done until
they have recovered sufficient power in Con
gress to put a slave code into every territorial
bill. Therefore they oppose, strenuously, not
only the bills reported by the committee on
territories but also any and all bills that may
be presented while they have not supreme con-
troll in the House. If the democrats, disliking
some of features of the bills reported, had new
ertheless desired to provide properly for the
people in the territories, they would have
sought, by proposing amendments, to make the
bills more satisfactory but they voted with
out ceremony to lay them on the table. 1t has
been said that the Wilmot proviso was incor-
porated into each of these bills but the pro-
vision concerning slavery was as follows
Provided, That whereas slavery has legal exist
ence in said territory, nothing herein contained snail
be construed to authorize or permit its existence
therein.
To vote down this provision is about the
same as to maintain that slavery already has a
legal existence in the territories. Bnt these
territorial bills had or were to have, some
other features which should have commended
them to the favor of every man in the house
who respects popular rights 1t was intended
that they should fully recognize the right of
the people in the territory to elect their own
governor, and other officers and to manage
their own affairs, subject only to such supervi
sion of Congress, as, from the very nature of
the case is indispensable. This feature of the
bills was proposed by Mr. Kellogg of Illinois,
and Immediately accepted on the republican
side of the house. After the bill to organize
the territory of Idaho Pixies Peak region,
was laid on the table, a new draft of it was re-
ported, which provided that majority of the
territorial legislature should be sufficient to set
aside ve.o of the governor, and then added
to the original bill the following sections:
SEC. Is. And be 1t further enacted, That whenever
the actual resident inhabitants of said territory shall
amount to twenty thousand, the territorial legisa-
tuTe shall, ana 1t is hereby made the duty of such
legislature to- provide by law for the election OF all
territorial officers hereinbefore by this provided
to be appointed by the president, all of whom shall
be commissioned by the governor of the territory,
except the governor; and the governor so elected
shall be commissioned by the president; and the
terms of office and the salary of such officers shall
be established and fixed by the legislature of such
territory.
SEC i9 And be it further enacted, That such terri
toral legislature shall provide by law for the
ner in which such officers shall be qualified before
entering upon the duties of their respective offices
and that when such officers shall be duly qualified,
they shall enter upon the discharge of the duties
of their Offices respectively and the term of the then
incumbents of said offices shall thereupon cease and
expire.
All the republicans in the House, excepting
Mr.. Thayer of this district, voted for this bill.
They all accepted the principle of Mr.. Kel.
loggs amendment. 1t was the same which
had been proposed in the federal senate by
Salmon P. Chase and his associates, when the
Kansas. Nebraska bill was before that body.
1t has been claimed that there are already
twenty thousand people in the Pixies Peak
region. Be this, however, as it may, it would
have been easy to change or strike out the
specification of twenty thousand inhabitants,
if necessary, by amendment. 1t did not exist
in the proposition of Mr.. Chase, and would
not have been insisted on now, if a change
would have secured the passage of the bill,
and, thus, formal adoption of the principle.
Mr.. Thayer voted against it because he holds
that Congress should not enact bills to secure
regular governments in the territories. The
democrats voted against it because they found
nothing in its provisions that would render aid
and comfort to slavery propagandism. 1t was
'laid on the table" After voting down such
a bill as that, the Douglas democrats should
keep very quiet on the subject of popular
sovereignty"
1t does not require much investigation for
any man to see that a regular government
cannot exist in any territory, unless Congress
does something to secure it. The people of
territory can form arrangements to secure or.
der and regularity, and provide an efficient
system of police but they need much more
than this. AS political community, they
need such an act of Congress as will give their
territory fixed and recognized boundaries, and
formally connect them with the political ma.
chinery of the federal government, and espe-
cialy with the federal courts. Without such
an act of Congress they have no power to
constitute single court that can be recognized
by the federal courts. They can establish
courts and other civil arrangements, outside
OF the federal government; but this is not
what they want They desire to be recog-
hized and treated as part of the country
they want regular government in which
such recognition is everywhere manifest and
operative; they want local courts from which
appeals can be taken to the United States
courts in word, they want, and must have.
from Congress, something like what it has al
ways done for territories at the commence
ment of their existence as political commune
ties The present Congress has refused to
give this in cases where it is greatly needed.
Well, the time is at hand when those in power
at Washington will not be so ready to sacrifice
important public interests to the demands of
the slave interest.