Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1860-09-20
Keen II before the PeODlc.

That on the 25th day of January, 1S45, the Hon.
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, in the United States Sen
ate, offered the following amendment to the
joint resolution for the annexation of Texas,
which had been presented by Mr.. BRowS of
Tennessee:
ed out of said Territory north ef said Missouri
Compromise line. slavery, or involuntary servi-
tude-except for crime shall be prohibited.
Mind, this does not mean Territories, but
States. This amendment became part of the
law for annexing Texas, and will be found on
page 1888 of the United States Statues at Large,
for 1s36-1s45. The Republicans certainly can
not ask Mr. Douglas to take stronger ground than
this. The great Squatter Sovereign opposed to
slavery being allowed in new States,even though
the people wanted it'll
KEEP 1T BEFORE THE PEopLE-That Stephen
A. Douglas, in speech delivered in ;he Senate
on the 18th day of March, 1850, distinctly as
serted the right of Congress to prohibit the in
PRODUCTION of certain species Of property into
the Territories, as "unwise, impolitic, and con-
trary to the principles ofsound public policy"
He said:
Nor can a man 90 there and take and hold his
slave for the same reason. These laws, aud
many others involving similar principles, are
directed against no section, and impair the
rights of no State of the Union The
law also prohibits certain other descriptions of
business from being carried on in the Terrific
ries. l am not, therefore, prepared to say that
under the Constitution we have not the power
to pass laws excluding negro slavery from the
Territories. 1t involves the same principle.
KEEP IT BEFORE THE PEoPLE-That Stephen
A. Douglas, in a speech at New Orleans, on the
9Th of December, 1858, said:
Slaves are recognized as property, and placed
on an equal footing with all other property
Hence the owner of slaves-the same as the
right to remove to a Territory and carry his
property with him.
And again in debate with Jeff. Davis, in
the Senate on the 23d of February. 1859, he
said, in reference to the decision Of the Supreme
Court:
There is just as much obligation on the part
of the Territorial Legislature to protect slaves as
any other species of property-as there is to
protect horses, cattle, dry goods, liquors, &c.
Congressional Globe, 1855. page 1858.
KEEP IT BEFORE THE PEopLR-That on the 4th
of January, 1854, Stephen Arnold Douglas, as
Chairman of the Committee on Territories, in
report accompanying bill to organize Nebras-
ka, said:
Your committee are not prepared now to re-
commend departure from the course pursued
on that memorial occasion-the Compromise
of 1s50-either by affirming or repeating the
eighth section of the Missouri Compromise act
or by any act declaratory of the meaning of the
Constitution in respect to the legal points of dis
pute.
And on the 23d day Of January, 1s54--just
nineteen days after the above report-Mr. Doug
las introduced another bill dividing Nebraska
into two territories-Kansas and Nebraska
and repeating the Missouri Compromise,
As being inconsistent with the principle of
non-intervention by Congress with slavery in
the States aad Territories as recognized by the
legislation of 1850.
KEEP IT BEFORE THE PEoPLE-That Stephen
A. Douglas, in his Chicago speech of October
I'D, 1850, gave expression to the following
"higher law" sentiments:
The general proposition that there is a law
| paramount to all human enactments-the law
| of the Supreme Ruler of the Uniyerse-I trust
| that NO civilized and Christian people are pre.
pared to question, much less DENY. We should
recognize, respect and revere the divine law
lShehnm's Life OF Douglas, page 1874.