Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-07-21
From the N. York Tribune.
"Equsl Rights" in the TERRITORIES.


ted with regard to practical measures, the
American People are heartily agreed as to
the abstract. underlying principle Of Equal
Rights in the Federal Territories, organ
lied or unorganzed Republicans, Dong
las Democrats, Breckenridge Democrats,
alike affirm and insist on this principle as
the true solution OF our great controversy
they differ only but widely as to the true
exposition aud application, of that priuci.
pleas follows
l. The Republicans affirm and maintain
the natural, inalienable, equal right of eve
ry rational adult human being now or here
after residing in the territories to the full
possession, disposition, and enjoyment of
his own faculties, energies, and capabilities,
with the full and fair product resulting
from their employment. An individual
may indeed forfeit this right by crime, or
by insisting on the employment Of his pow
ers in some manner inconsistent with the
public veal but his right to nse bis own
God given powers for his own benefit and
that of those dependent on and dear to him
is natural primary, intrinsic, selrevdent,
and only to be vitiated or suspended by
some cnlpablo and malevolent action on his
part whereby the public veal is assaled or
endangered. Such is the Republican con.
reption of Equal Rights in the Terrific.
ries"
II. The Douglas Democratic idea is that
of the Equal Right Of SIarsry scih Free
La6or in any and srery territory. This idea
denies that slavery is a natural or moral
wrong-denies that Man has natural
moral right to the direction OF his own en-.
ergieS, the products of his own Industry,
and maintains that the ownership of his
own limbs and faculties by the laborer or
by master is question Of political econo.
my aud social expediepcy, to be determined
by considerations Of climate, soil, products,
&c. In temperate, mainly Graiu-grow-
ing region, DouglasiSm intimates that slave
ry will not usually be found profitable,
therefore will not be established or not be
maintained while in a tropical or semi
tropical Cotton, Rice and Sugar-growing
district, enslaved negro labor will usually
be found most profitable, if not indispeRsa-
BILE therefore will be preferred. But, in
any and every case, the People-that is,
the resident white male adultS-must of
right decide TO have or not have slavery,
and the votes of majority of their num-
Der must determine the issue. If terri.
tory, when it comes to form State Con-
stitutlon, shall have five thousand male
adults, of whom four thousand are negroes
and but one thousand whites, the whites
alone are to have voice in determining
the future condition of Labor in that com
munity and if FIVE hundred and fifty Of
these vote to have slavery to four hundred
and fifty against it, the votes of these five
hundred and fifty overbear those of the
four hundred and fifty opposed, with the
unexpressed but notorious choice of the
four thousand blacks, making that a slave
sta4e. And this, according to Mr. Doug
las, is popular Sovereignty"
So much is clear but when we ask Mr..
Douglas and his supporters, "What shall
be the status of Territory with regard to
slavery prior to such decision Of the ques-
tion by its people ?" the answer elected is
vague or eQuivocal At first, the Doug
las canvassers maintained with US that herc
can be no legal Slarsry in any county or DIS
trict until 1t has been established or Guth0r-
ized there by Some pOsitire law-hence that
every man residing in territory must own
himself until some valid law of that Ter
ritory or of Congress shall have constitu'
ted him the property of another. Under
this view, it was stoutly and not unpIausI
bly, argued that the Kansas-Nebraska bill
was an Anti-sIavery measure--at least not
Pro,sIayery one. But Mr.. Douglas and
his disciples have been gradually driven
from this ground, and now say that the
status of the negro in any Territory is
question to be settled by the Federal Courts
ultimately by the United States Supreme
Court. In other words, the mainly slave
holding Judges who made the bred Scott
Decision are to decide all questions respect
inc slavery in the Territories. How they
will decide this one, we need go no fnrIhe
than the Dred Scott case to learn. Prac
tically, therefore, though indirectly ant
ambiguously, Mr.. Douglass platform con
cedes the Territories en- masse to slavery.
III. Mr.. Breckenridge'S creed attain
the same end by far simpler and drecte
method. His doctrine sfirms the EqUa
Rights of the States and their citizens IN III
Territories-that is, the equal right of an
and every STAKEHOLDER to migrate thithe
with his horses, oxen, hogs, plows, an
wagons, and demand protection of proper
ty in slaves; but be demands protection fo
that property under the general laws whie
secure TO every man his own and, if tn
Territorial authorities should neglect or re
fuse to afford this, he looks to the Fedora
Government to supply the deficiency.
Such, according to our understanding
the manifestoes of the rival parties an
candidates, their relative positions an
they seem to us to preclude the idea OF &C
alilion electoral tickets supported by an
two of them. The Breckenridge and Doul
las parties are as clearly if not as wldel
antagonist as the Douglas and Lincoln
and the triumph of either is the defeat
both the Others. ultimately, the Dout
las position must be abandoned for that
one of the other parties, as our "Soits
have receded from the position SO stonlI
maintained by them in lS4S to the presel
Douglas platform. Their leading organ
Tie Albany Atlas, for example--weI
Just as positive then that they would neV'
surrender their cornerstone" platform
they now are that they will never take the
next plunge into the abyss OF slavery fr'