Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1860-11-02

4ssssse .aaassszssss .-ass...
ed that the term thew States meant the
same thing ss is now designated by "rerri-
tories, he comes to the conclusion that the
spirit pervading that plan was in exact &C.
cordance with his doctrine Of popular SOW
ereignty." Mr.. Douglas SYSTEMATICALLY calls
this the "Jefersonian plan" ut was" says
he, 1.-THE first plan Of government for the
territories ever adopted in the United States.
1t was drawn by the author of the Declare
ton Of Independence, and revised and
adopted by those who shaped the issues
that produced the Revolution, and formed
the foundation upon which our whole system
of American government rests" But Mr..
Douglas skips rather nimbly over the signi6-
cant fact, that the same "author Of the Dec
laration of Independence put into that plan
proviso, excluding slauery from the Terri
tories. Was that mere accident ? Mr..
Jefferson showed, thereby, conclusively, that,
in his opinion, the exclusion of slavery by
Congressional legislation was by no means
inconsistent with the spirit of popular
sovereignty" which Mr.. Douglas discovered
in the plan OF 1884 but this does not dis
turb Mr.. Douglas. "The fifth article" says
he, "relating to the prohibition of slavery,
having been rejected by Congress, never
became part Of the Jeffersonian plan of gov
eminent for the territories, as adopted April
-2Sd, 1884" Although with large numer-
ical majority in his favor, (sixteen to seven
this article did indeed fail to obtain q
constitutional majority, the vote of New
Jersey not being counted, in consequence of
there being but one delegate from that State
present; yet it had been drawn up by Mr..
Jefferson, introduced by Mr.. Jefferson, and
sustained by Mr.. Jefferson's voice. Never.
theless, Mr.. Douglas persists in calling plan,
from ,ohich the peculiar Jefiersonian feature
had been struck out, tho "Jetersonian plan. -
This is the play of Hamlet with the character
of Hamlet omitted. Laughter.
"This charter of compacs,' proceeds Doug
las, with its fundamental conditions which
were unalterable without the joint consent
of the people interested in them, as well as
Of the United States, then stand upon the
statute book unrepealed and irrepealable,
when, on the 18th day Of May, 1887, the
Federal Convention met at Philadelphia. y
Does Mr.. Douglas not know thai on the 10th
of March, 1885, aproposition was introduced
In Congress by Rufus King, to exclude
slavery from the States described in the
resolve of April 23d 1884, and to make this
provision part of the compact established by
that resolve? Does he not know that this
provision, restoring the Jefersonian feature
to the "Jeffersonian plan" was committed by
the vote of eight States against four Does
he not know that the plan of 1884 nevel
went into practical operation, but was ex
pressly set aside by Congress in 1887 P
Does he not know that the ordinance O
1887 was the first legislative act ever practi
cally organizing Territory Of the United
States, and that one of its most prominen
features was the proviso excluding slavery
from all the Territories then in possession
of the United States
Mr.. Douglas historical recollections of tn
ordinance of 1887 seem to be very indistinct
Indeed; he deems it only worthy of a occa
sionsl, passing, almost contemptuos notice
lie speaks of it as "the ordinance of the l2tl
of July, 1887 which was passed by the rem
nant of the Congress of the Confederation
members were at Philadelphia, as delegate
to the Federal Convention" For three GUAR
tiers of a century, people were in the habit o
thinking that the ordinance Of 1857 was al
act of the highest order Of Importance, bu
we now learn that it was rather an indiffer
ent aff,ir, passed on an Indifferent occasion
by an exceedingly Indifferent set of fellows
while the plan OF 1884, mere abstract pro
gramme, completely overruled by subsequen
legislation, is represented as the true glor,
of the age. How is this? The reason i
obvious. Mr.. Douglas belongs to that elias
of historians who dwell upon such facts a
suit their convenience, and uncerimoniousl,
drop the rest I once heard of Jesuit Col
lege where they used text book of history
in which the French Revolution was neve
mentioned, while the Emperor Napoleo,
figured there only as modest Marquis Bona
parte, who held commission under Loui
XVII, and fought great battles for the glor
I of the Catholic Church. Laughter and ap
, plause. So it is with Mr.. Douglas and tn
! history of this country. He ignores tn
universal principles of the Declaration o
independence, and represents the grea
founders of the Republic as merely pawn.
the way for his ''great principle" while {
few village politicians get up an obscure ordi
nance, adverse to the general tendency o
things But as those Jesuits never coult
prevent their students from peeping out o
their college windows into the wide world
where they perceived very different state
of things, so Mr.. D. cannot prevent US from
travelling out of the yellow covers of Har
per's Magazine, into the open records of his
tory, where we find Mr.. Jefferson's anti
slavery cause, although accidentally lost ir
1884, strenuously insisted upon by the lead
ing spirits of the Republic, incorporated ir
the great act of 1887, solemnly re-aHirmed
by the first Congress under the Constitution
and firmly maintained even against the po
sition of the people of one of the Territories
(Cheers. This is the true "Jeffersoniar
plan," the plan which Jefferson framed, voteG
for, and which was carried outin his spirit
not that mangled report of 1884 which Mr.
Douglas wants us to take as the foundation
of all territorial government, because an
historical accident comedies with his
schemes.
That true Jefersonian plan rested, indeed
on the principle of popular sovereignty; bu,
it will be conceded that Mr. Jeferson's great
principle was as widely different from that of
Mr.. Douglas rs the ordinance Of 1857 is diff
ferert from the Nebraska bill. While Mr..
Jeferson's notion of popular sovereignty
sprung from the idea that man has certain
inalienable rights which the majority shall
not encroach upon. Mr.. Douglas doctrine
rests upon the idea that the highest develop
ment OF liberty consists in the right of one
class of men to hold another class of men as
slaves, if they see fit to do so. Applause
While Mr.. Jefferson excluded slavery from
the territories, in order to make room for
truepopular sovereignty, Mr.. Douglas invents
his false popular sovereignty, in order to make
1 e. u. TO-