Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1860-07-14

question as involved IN the organization OF
and the admission of new States. He held
that Congress should not Interfere one
way or the other. With this view he op-
posed the "Wilmot Proviso" in SAT when
it passed the House as an amendment to
the SO 600 900 bill for the peace treaty
Mexico, and afterwards in the Senate,
when introduced as an amendment to the
Oregon, bill extending the Missouri Com
promise line SO deg. and 80 westward
to the Pacific Ocean, in the Sc Use in which
il was adopted in 1890 and extended
through Texas in ls45. The amendment
passed the Senate, having the support of
all the Southern and several Northern
Senators. In the House it was .defeate
by an almost sectional vote.
In the month of January of the session
of lS49-50, Mr.. Clay offered his celebra.
ted resolutions, which became the basis Of
the subsequent legislation of that sesson,
known as the Compromise measure.
On the 25 of March, Mr.. Douglas, from
the Committee on Territory, reported to
the Senate two bills-one for the admission
of California as State, the other for the
establishment of Territorial Governments
in Utah and New Mexico, and for the ad-
justment of the Texas boundary. On the
10th of April, on motion of General Foote
Of Mississippi, committee of thirteen was
appointed, of which Mr.. Clay was made
aharman, and to which was referred all
the subjects pertaining to the question of
Slavery. On the 9Th of May, Mr.. Clay,
from the Committee of Thirteen, made an
elaborate report, accompanied by bill
generally known as the "Omnibus bill. -
By reference to the original bill, as report
ed by Mr.. Clay, and as it now appears on
the files of the Senate, it will be seen that.
instead of preparing new bill, the Com
mittee Of Thirteen took the bills reported
i by Mr., Douglas, on the 25th of March,
and converted them into one by putting
| WdlefS between them,
No sooner had this report been made by
Mr.. Clay than it Wa, fercely assailed.-
The discussion proceeded at great length
upon the question whether the Territorial
Legislature should have the same authori-
ty over tho Slavery question as on all 9TH
er matters affecting the internal policy of
the Territory, when on the 3lst of July,
Mr.. Morris Of New Hampshire, renewed
the motion Of Mr.. Douglas, which was
carried by vote Of 33 to 10; thus estab-
fishing, as the fundamental principle of
the Compromise measures Of 1850, the
doctrine that the Territorial Legislature
was to have the same power over the ques-
ton Of Slavery that it possessed on all
/ other matters Of domestic policy.
Mr., Douglas, in 1854, introduced the
Kansas-Nebraska Bill declaring as its fun
damcntal principle, that ''it was the true
intent and meaning of the Act not to leg
slate slavery into any State or Territory,
nor to exclude ii theretIom, but to leave
the people thereof perfectly free to form
and regulate their domestic institutions in
their own way, subject only to the Consti-
tuition of the United States" His speech
in the Senate in support of the bill and
against its adversaries, was regarded as the
greatest speech of his life. "
After the passage of the Nebraska bill D.,
Mr., Douglas was iercely and savagely de-
nounced for advocating the principle that
the people Of Territory might have slave
ry if they wanted, and should not be COM
PEELED to have it if they did not want it
lie was burned and hung in efigy in every
town village and hamlet in the United
States VIII re an Aboltioni could be found.
When he arrived in Chicago, he was met
by another mob, more numerous than the
one which greeted him in 1850, when he
made his great speech IN defence of the
Compromise measures. Mr.. Douglas gave
notice that he would address the people in
the open square in front of North Market
Hall, in defence of the principle involved
in the Kansas.Nebraska bill.
On the day of the meeting, the flags of
the shipping in the harbor were hung at
half mast, in pursuance of previous ar
rangement by the Abbolitionists in their
Know Nothing lodges, and the church
bells were rung as signal for the mob to
assemble, They did assemble, ten thous-
and strong armed with clubs, brick bats,
bowie knives and pistols, and organized
into companies, with their leaders, ready
for violence or tumult at the given signal.
When Mr.. Douglas appeared upon the
stand, he was greeted with the most un-
aorthly bovls. when he commenced TO