Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1860-03-16

only repealed the Missouri prohibition o
Slavery, but it pronounced the people of Kan
sas and Nebraska perfectly free to establish
Freedom Or Slavery, and pledged Congress II
admit them in due time as States, either o
capital or labor, into the Union. The .Whi4
representatives of the capital States in al
hour of strange bewiderment, concarred ant
the Whig party instantly went down, never tt
rise again. Democrats seeded, and stoot
aloof the country was confoundcd; and, annie
the perplexities of the hour, Republican
Party was seen gathering itself together witt
much earnestness, but with little show of or
ganization, to rescue, if it were not now too
late. the cause of freedom and Labor, so un
exrectedly and grieveousiy ilnperilled in tht
Territories Of the United States.
[ will not linger over the sequel. The pop
ular sovereignty of Kansas proved to be the
State sovereignty of Missouri, not only in the
persons of the rulers, but even in the letter o.
an arbitrary and cruel code. The perfect free
dom proved to be hateful and iIito1erablt
bondage. From 1855 to 1860. Kansas, sus
tanned and encouraged only by the Republican
party, has been engaged in successive and
ever-varying struggles, which have taxed all
her virtue, wisdom, moderation, energies and
resources, and often even her physical strength
and martial courage to save herself from being
betrayed into the Union as aSlave State. Ne
braSka, though choosing freedom, is, through
the direct exercise of the Executive power
overriding her own will, held as a Slave Terri
tory and New Mexico has relapsed volunta-
rily into the practice of Slavery, from which
IL
ed a part OF the Mexican Republic. Mean
time, the Democratic party, advancing from
the ground Of Popular Sovereignty as far as
| that ground is from the Ordinance of 1881
now stands on the position that both Terrific
rial Governments and Congress are incompe-
tent to legislate against Slavery in the Ter
ritories, while they are not only competent
/ but are obliged, when it is necessary, to legis-
late for its protection there.
! In this new and extreme position the Dem
ocratic party now masks itself behind the bat
! terry of the Court, as if it were possibly a true
! construction of the Constitution, that the pow
er of deciding practically forever between
Freedom and Slavery in portion of the con-
/ tinent far exceeding all that is yet organized
should be renounccd by Congress, which alone
possesses any legislative authority, and should
/ be assumed and exercised by a Court which
can only take cognizance of the great question
! co!laterally. in a private action between indi-
/ vduas, ana which action the Constitution
will not suffer the Court to entertain, if it in
! wolves twenty dollars of money, without tht
ovcrruling Intervention of a jury of twelve
! good and lawful men of the negllborhood
where the litigation arises. The independent,
ever-renewcd, and cvtr-recurring representa-
! tive Parliament, Diet, Congress or Legislature,
! is the one chief paramount, essential, indispen-
sable institution in a Republic. Even liberty,
guaranteed by organic law, yet if it be held
! lay other tenure than the guardian care ol
such representative popular assembly. is but
pr cariousy maintained, while Slavery cnforc-
ed by an irresponsible judicial tribunal, is the
conp!etest possible development Of dcspotism.
! Mr.. President, did ever the annals of any
Government shcw a more rabid or more COM
pcte departure from the wisdom and virtue
of its founders Did ever the Government OF
a great empire founded on the rights Of hu-
man labor, slide away so fast and so far, and
moor itself so tenacious!y on the basis of cap
itaI, ard that eett;trf invested in laboring men?
!
vested with powers so great, and with the
guardianship Of rights SO important, Of trusis
so sacred, Of interests so precious and Of hopes
at once so noble and so comprehensive, surren-
der and reEounce them all so unnecessarily, so
unwisey 50 fatally and so ingloriously? II
it be true, as every instinct of our nature, and
every precept Of political experience teaches
us that
| Ill fares the land, to fastening ills prey,
Where wealth accumulatcs and men decay,
! then where in Ireland in Italy. in Poland or
in Hungary, has any ruler prepared for gen
erous and conidng people disappointments,
disasters and calAmities equal to those which
! the Government of the United States holds
now suspended over so large a portion OF
i North America. t.....
! Citizens of the United States, ir the spirit
/ of this policy, subverted the free Republic OF
/ Nicaragua, and opened it to Slavery and the
African Save trade, and held it in that condi,
ton waiting annexation to the United States,
until its sovereignty restored by combi-
nation of sister Republics exposed to the same
danger, and apprehensive of similar subver-
sion. Other citizens re-opened the foreign
| Slave-trade in violation of our laws, and trea-
ties and after a suspension of that shameful
traffic for fifty years, savage Africans have
| been once more landed on our shores and dis
tributed, uDreclamed and with impunity
among our plantations.
For this policy, so far as the Government
has sactioned it, the Democratic Party avows
itself responsible. Everywhere complaint
against it is denounced, and its opponents pro
scribed When Kansas was writhing under
the wounds of incipient, servie war, because
of her resistance, the Democratic Press de-
ridngly said, Let her bleed" Official integ-
rity has been cause for rebuke and punishment
when it resisted frauds designed to promote
the extension of Slavery. Throughout the
whole Republic there is not one known dissen-
ter from that policy remaining in place, il
within reach of the Executive arm. Nor over
the face of the whole world is there to be
found representative of our country who is
not an apologist Of the extension of Slavery.
1t is in America that these things have hap.
pened In the nineteenth century, the era OF
the worlds greatest progress, and while all
nations but ourselves have been either abridg-
ing or altogether suppressine commerce in
men at the very moment when the Russian
serf is emancipated and the Georgian captive
the Nuban prisoner and the Abyssinan saw
age are lifted up to freedom by the successor
of Mohammed. The world, prepossessed ii
our behalf by our early devotion to the rights
of human nature as no nation ever before en-
gagged its respect and synpathies, asks, in won
der and amazement what all this demoraliza
ton means. 1t has an excuse better than the
world can imagine-better than we are gener-
ally conscious of ourselves--a virtnous excuse
We have loved not Freedom so much less, bu
the Union of our country so much more. W.
f have been made to believe, from time, to tim,
that, in crisis, both of these precious institu
, tions could not be saved together; and therefore