Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1860-10-03

Common, Prayer, but that is no argument against
equal rights Of conscience in religion,
Now, then the logic follows infexibly that it the
States are to have equal rights in the Territories
they must have equal rights to carry there every
species Of lawful property, Hence, if labor in aco-
ored man is lawful property in State it follows ne
can be carried as property into q Territory. :.
Now take the next step in the argument-and II
the equal rights Of the States require having an
equa; right in slave States to go with slave properly
which free States have to go with their property m
to the common Territory, does it not follow that all
must have the right not only to enigrate with tnel
property butalso the right not to be robbed OF ~ as
soon as they get there? Why shall the Northern
emgrant be protected from robbery OF his properly
any more than the Southern emgrant? Is that
equality ..-s- ~
The only way to jump this logic clean over the
Constitution is to GO with the extreme black repuo
licans who deny the existence of property in man
everywhere Ihave studied this question earnestly,
and can see no middle ground between the TWO
propositions Either the antslavery doctrine OF no
property in slave labor is right or our doctrine Is
right that the emigrant. into Territories shall be
protected from robbery Of his property OF that de-
scrptlon the same all others protected against
robbery of their property And that is all that IS
meant by protection in the Territories, and if we
mean to be fair and constitutional and national We
must all admit that it is no more legal just or rlght
to rob Southern in the Territories of his slave
property than to rob Northern man of his horses
and oxen.
.. Equality of the States" means no such thing as
slave code by Congress to protect slave property
any more than it cattle code to protect prop
erty in CATTLE but it does mean that there shall be
no such slave code in the Territories or in Congress
as will drive the STAKEHOLDER out of the Territory, or
rob him of his property when he gets there. That
is the slave code which our opponents 60 for, and
against such UNI just code comes with sound logl-
cal force the resolution of the National Democratic
Convention at Baltimore, which affirms THAT it is
the duty of the Federal Government, in all its de.
partments to protect when necessary, the rights OF
persons and property in the Territories and wher-
ever else its constitutional authority extends"
That is every word in the Baltimore platform ex-
planatory of the Cincinnati platform which alludes
to protection of property in the Territories
And here let me add that it only a6irms the same
proposition in the Cincinnati platform, for that plat
form declares in so many words, "that every cit-
zen and every section of the country has right to
demand and insist upon an equality OF rights and
privileges, and to complete and ample protection of
persons and property"
That provision covers the precise equality OF the
States" which Mr.. Breckenridge and the platform
on which he is nominated affirms. And really !
should be glad to be informed how any man of COM
mon sense and constitutional honesty can deny the
manifest duty of the General Government to exer-
else all its constitutional authority wherever it ex-
tends to protect when necessary, the rights Of per-
sons and property under the Constitution.
The whole question is, does the Constitution give
this protection? If it does not there is end of
the question fit does, then it is the duty of the
Government to enforce it. And hence say, be-
cause logic says so, that there is middle ground
between the denial that the Constitution recognises
and guarantees slave labor property, and the ad
rnff IF fho Non.
stituton the is extended to all other prop
erty. And so has the Supreme Court authoritative
ly interpreted the Constitution, and that puts an
end to all controversy on this point with men who
regard law and respect magistracy.
Again, the issue is not that that Southern party
any party desires to use the General Government
to force slavery upon people who do want it. but
it is that the equal rights of the States in the Terri
tories under the Constitution demand that terrific
rial legislature shall not ROB citizens who 20 into the
Territories to settle with Their property
Now, as ! understand it, there are three PROPOSE
tons maintained touching the equal rights of the
States in the Territories
]. The republicans contend that Congress shall
prohibit the South ioing into any Territory with
slave labor, and shall expel them conscate their
property if they do go there. This is plump de-
NAL of all right.
2. The sguattersovereignty dogma, which is
directly opposed to popular sovereignty afrms that
the South may 60 into the Territories with their
property, but they shall have no security from rob-
berry and confscation by the Legislature when they
get there
8. The national democrats, North and South, who
mean to hold this Union together under the Consti-
tuition maintain that the right existing to 60 there
with slave labor property neither Congress shall
prohibit the territorial legislature destroy the
rights of property.
And this affrms just what the Cincinnati platform
declares viz: "the right of the people Of the Terri
tories mot the legisatnre) whenever the number of
their inhabitants justiics it, to form constitution
with or without domestic slavery, and be admitted
into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with
| the other States"
| And I here affirm, as have done on their occa-
sions, that having had the honor to draught that
platform, and having some right to understand it,
there is no such idea as squatter sovereignty in it.
Squeeze it. and put it under the impossible conflict
and you can't get particle of squatter sovereignty
out of it. Applause. Nowhere does it recognise
any power in a mere territorial legislature to pro-
hibit slavery or to abolish slavery The popular
sovereignty which it afrms is that great paramount
popular sovereignty of people which exists only
when they begin to frame constitution of Govern
ment and that is the right Of selfgovernment which
belongs to the people of Territory as it belonged
to every State in the Union when it first had the
power to frame a constitution and never before
Popular sovereignty can exist nowhere but in q
sovereign State of the Union and the right of SOW
ereignty begins only when the people have right
to frame a constitutional of seEgovernment and are
admitted into the Union. All other attempts to ex.
ercise popular sovereignty is either rebellion rev.
olution. And this leaves the people of Territory
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic
institutions in their own way, subject only to the
| Constitution of the United States"
Now, then, we national democrats believing in
the Constitution and its Interpretation by the Su.
preme Court, stand upon our political faith in the
equality Of the States We say leave the common
territory open to settlers with their property from
all the States. They will carry such property own
ed at home as they please, and the people of the
Territory will be left Free without robbery, without
grow up to the point where thew are fit to make "a
constitution forming their domestic institutions by
the laws Of profit and loss, supply and demand,
L ode fok;o oc ol:,, y..s