Nebraska advertiser., 1860-02-09
United States. than can a territorial leg

ra~
United States, than can a territorial leg
islature. Both bodies are necessarily
Limited in their powers by that instru-
ment, and vet, Gov. Sam Black, in Fee
bic imitation Of Attorney General Jere-
miah Black. holds that the Territorial
Legislature cannot over ride the Cdnsii-
tuition Of the United States, that being
the special ~prerogative of a state conven-
ton. The argument is fimsy, idle and
preposterous, and the legislature inflicted
the severest possible punishment upon Its
author by having the message printed
and circulated. No one who reads il
will fail to pity the individual who has, in
order TO screen and support the presi-
dent, put his name to a document SO full
of glaring aud laundering absurdilies.
The Philadelphia Press, the editor Of
which is an old political associate Of Gov.
Black, says of him and his message:
1.-THE Executive authority of the Ter
ritory is vested in Col. Samuel w. Black,
of Piusburg, who was appointed Cover
ernor by Mr.. Buchanan, and who, while
always an ardent Democrat, was at no
very remote period, a warm advocate of
the Wilmot Proviso. and we believe the
author Of the resolution Incorporated into
the Platform Of the Democratic State
Convention. adopted at Pittsburg in lS49
i favor of the Wilmot Proviso. In the
campaign of 1856, Col. Black was an
earnest champion Of the doctrine Of Pop
ular Sovereignty as then understood in
u State; and few who heard his elo.
quent speeches at that time could have
doubted that when he advocated the right
of the people of the Territories TO con-
troll ";heir domestic institutions, with
special reference to the slavery question,
would have supposed that he entertained
the SLIGHTEST doubt about the power to de-
eide whether slavery should or should not
be tolerated among them. However,
since the recreancy of Mr.. Buchanan to
his pledges in 1856, and the ~disSemina-
ton of the peculiar and abstruse doc
trines Of the Jeremiah S. Black pam
phlet, Governor Samuel w. Black lasfelt
himself constrained to veto the law pub
lished above. The reasons assigned in
his veto are Of SO intangible a character
hat it is difficult TO comprehend them; but
they appear to be based partly upon the
provisions of the Louisiana treaty, by
which the Territory of Nebraska was
acquired, and partly upon the reasoning
of the Attorney General, in his reply to
the Harper Magazine article of Judge
Douglas. The argument based upon the
Louisiana treaty unfortunately proves
too much because treaties are the para
mount law of the land, and if, in conse-
sequence Of hat treaty, the people of a
Territory, during the continuance of their
Territorial condition, cannot abolish slas
very. it is idle TO suppose that the peo-
pie of a State, when a State Constitution
is formed, or after they have been ad-
mitted into the Union, can abolish slave
ry. This same objection applies, TO a
great extent, to the supposed arguments
founded upon the alleged unconstiturion-
atty of the law quoted above. If the
Constitution prohibits the abolition of sla-
very by the people of a Territory; it is
difficult to understand how the people of
a State formed out of a new Territory,
acquire that right.
The Pittsburg Post, of which place
Gov. Black was a resident. before COM
ing to Nebraska, thus speaks of it:
"Governor Black is an appointee of the
President, and not a Governor elected
by the people. It would seem from this
fact, that the doctrine of non-interFention
with slavery in the Territories has been
regulated, for, in yetoing this bill Gov.
Black has interfered with the will Of the
people, expressed through their chosen
representatives. The only true doctrine
is, that the people of the Territories, as
of the States. must be left to decide npon
this question as they may choose. Gov.
Blacks fine-drawn arguments that the
Legislature is not the people in the sense
of the organic act, will not do. His veto
of this bill is directly in the teeth of the
doctrine of the majority of the Demo-
cratic party on popular sovereignty"
The Cincinnati Enquirer says:
"The action of Governor Black of Ne
braska, in vetoing a law which the peo-
pie of the Territory had passed prohibit
ing slavery, thus violating the great prin-
cipIe of local self-government, meets with
the condemnation of the Democratic
press.
"The veto, in every respect, was mis-
and improper.
"The people of the Territories, since
they have been told by the ultra Southern
that they should have slavery
whether they want it or not, are much
more likely to legislate hostile to the in
s%titution than if such threats had never
been made. The people of the States
and Territories will do as they please
about slavery"
NP DOugIaS and the niSuniOniSfs