The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1860-08-16

Democracy on the Subject.
No. 2.
Under this caption we last week
presented history of the origin of the
modern dogmas of the pro-slavery
democracy" that the Federal Consti.
tuition by its own provisions carries
slavery into every Territory of the
United States; that it does this by
making slaves absolutely and merely
property that, therefore, neither Con-
gress nor any Territorial Legislature
has any power to exclude slavery from
a Territory; that the Federal Supreme
Court has exclusive jurisdiction for
deciding these questions, in other
words, for determining whether slavery
may or may not be established in the
Territories; and that upon its decision
in the affirmative, it will be the Consti-
tutional duty of Congress to provide
Slave Code for its full protection in
each.
We traced the progressive adoption
of these dogmas into the creeds, plat
forms and Congressional enactments of
the democracy" showing that Doug
las and his faction had SUCCESSFULLY
and expressly adopted them all with
the exception of those which deny the
right of Territorial Legislature to
exclude slavery and affirm, the duty of
Congress to enact Territorial Slave
Code.
We showed that he and his faction
had SO adopted them, by voting for,
endorsing and supporting those pro-
visions of the organic acts of Utah,
New Mexico, Kansas and Nebraska,
drawn by Douglas himself as Chair
man of the Committee on Territories,
which give the Federal Supreme Court
appellate jurisdiction of all cases in
volying title to slaves arising in the
Territorial Courts, and thereby con-
ceding the Constitutional, existence of
slavery in those Territories and which
Tin the Kansas and Nebraska acts
declare the "Missouri Compromise"
prohibition of slavery, "inoperative and
void" and thus deny the right Of Con-
gress to prohibit Territorial slavery.
We also showed the processes by
which Douglas and his leaders had
gradually seduced the rank and file of
the democracy" of the Free States,
from Wilnaot Procisioisns and siren
uous opposition the extension of slavery,
into an open and formal adoption of
these heresies as prime articles of their
political creed; and that the adoption
Of these, implied also the adoption of
the other two corresponding heresies
that a Territorial Legislature has no
power to exclude slavery, and that it is
the duty of Congress to enact Slave
Code for its full protection as Consti-
tutional property" in every Territory
of the United States.
We further showed how the apostacy
of Douglas himself from Wizmot Pro
visoism, and his adoption of these
heresies, together with his whole course
on the subject of slavery including his
infamous attempts to justify the beastly
outrages of Border Ruffianism in Kan
sas, followed by his opposition to the
Lecompton Constitution, had all been
induced by his selfish and corrupt am
bition as a persistent and standing
candidate for the Presidency.
We proceed to present further proof
, that such has been and is still the
character of his motive, preparatory to
showing that he and his faction have
now brought themselves to full and
| unqualified adoption Of all the heresies
of their" Southern brethren" Having
done this, we propose in subsequent
number or numbers, to lay before our
readers, thorough refutation of the
heresies themselves, based upon and
fortified by provisions of the Consti
tuition, acts of Congress whose Consti
nationality has never yet been ques.
toned by any party, and by decisions
of the Federal Supreme Court itself.
i We remarked last week, that Doug
las improved the opportunity afforded
by the effort to bring Kansas into
the Union as slave State under the
fraudulent Lecompton Constitution, fol
an attempt at desarming the hostility
! to himself, of large bodies of his own
party in the North which his multiplied
moral treasons to the Free States had
arrayed against him. To give as little
offence as possible to the South by this
attempt to eonciiate the North, Douglas
put his opposition to the Lecomptor
!. Constitution, not upon the ground that