The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-03-02

among it's members, and that Il Is especially
the duty Of the Senate, which represents the
attempts to discriminate either il relation to
person or property, 50 as, in the Territories
which are the common possession Of the Unltcd
States--to give advantage to the citizens Of one
State which are not equally secured to those OF
1. RssoIvED, That neither Congress, nor .
Territorial Legislature, whether BY direct Leg
islation or legislation of an Indirect and I'M
friendly nature, possess the power to annui or
impair the constitutional right OF any citizen OF
the United States to take his slave property in.
to the common Territories; but it is the duty Of
the Federal Government to afford for that,
as for other species of property. the needful
projections; and if experience should at any
time prove that the judiciary does not possess
power to insure adequate protection, it will
then become the duty of Congress to supply
such deficiency.
s, REsoLvED, That the inhabitants of an or.
ganized Territory of the United States, when
thew rightfully form constitution to be ad.
mitted as State into the Union, may then,
for the first time, like the people of State
when forming new constitution, decide for
themselves whether slavery, as q domestic in
stitution, shall be maintained or prohibited
within their jurisdiction and if Congress shall
admit them as State "they shall be admitted
into the Union with or without slavery, as their
constitution may prescribe at the time of their
admission"
6. RESOLVED, That the provision of the con.
sttution for the rendition Of fugitives from SER
vice or labor "without the adoption of which
the Union could not have been formed" and
the laws of 1898 and 1850, which were enacted
to secure its execution, and the main features
of which, being similar, bear the impress Of
nearly seventy years of sanction by the highest
indiciQl QuthOritv have nn0QatiOnQhla claim tn
the respect and observance of all who enjoy
the benefits of our compact of Union and that
the acts of State Legislatures to defeat the pur.
pose or nullify the requirements of that provis-
ion, and the laws made in pursuance of it, are
hostile in character, subversive of the consti-
tuition, revolutionary in their effect and if per-
sisted in, must sooner or later lead the States
injured by such breach of the compact to ex-
ercise their judgment as to the proper mode
and measure of redress.
The modification referred to above, as
made by the committee, consists in defining
and charging the fourth resolution, so as to
say, substantially, that, when Territorial
Legislature and Judiciary find themselves
incapable Of furnishing protection to slave
property, under the Southern Interpretation
of the bred Scott decision, Congress must
provide remedy for the right there af-
frmed. Or, in other words, whenever it is
needed for the full protection Of slave pro-
perty in the Territories, the Democratic
party, as represented in the Senatorial eau
Gus, stands pledged to the enactment of a
Congressional Slave Code.
The infamy of this attempt to sectional>
ize, or ito coin wordl slavocratise, the
Democratic party, is surpassed only by the
impudence of the men who are engaged in
it. We would ask from what source these
Senators derive their authority to construct
platforms for the Democracy? Not, Ger
tainly from the Democratic masses, either
directly by warrant, or implicitly by custom.
The Senate is the last political body in the
government to which any political party,
pretending to be Democratic, would go for
an Interpretation of its creed. The farthest
removed from popular influence, it is the
last body which receives, appreciates, and
needs, the popular sentiment. The Demo-
cratic party is based upon the popular will
its creed springs from the intelligent convic-
tions of its masses--and the expression of its
creed can only find authoritative utterance
through its legitimate conventions, directly
representing such masses, and specifically en-
powered to give form to the substance of
their faith. Democratic Senators stand in no
such relation to the Democratic masses.
Congressional intermeddling in the man
agement of the affairs of the party has been
repudiated by the Democracy for more than
a quarter of century. The abuses of
Capitalization under the old Congressional
system became so enormous, that the party
was forced to adopt the system of conven-
tions. This system still prevails and there
isIlittle likelihood that it will be supplanted
by that which has been once abrogated, and
which takes party power from the hands of
the honest masses, and concentrates it in
the hands of dishonest politicians. The
Democracy will continue to receive its creed
from its national conventions, instead of
from Senatorial caucuses. And, with the
jealousy which encroachments upon the
rights of the masses always excites, it will
be strange if the doctrines set forth by these
Senatorial dictators are not all the more
signally rebuked, and the true Democratic
doctrines of Popular Sovereignty are not
all the more triumphantly sustained, at the
Charleston convention, simply by reason of
this impudent attempt to influence the senti-
ments, and forestall the action, of the i'm
mediate representatives of the National
Democracy.
SENATOR DOUGLAS will receive the vote
of the following States on the first ballot
in the Charleston Convention--Maine New
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