Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-05-03
mLa nin.rn.,nh Parry.

4
Northern portion Of il, has had the credit OF
having pretty easy stomach. u has eo'ted
camels without an prolonged digestive dis
turbance; but now It is most unaccountably |
strainine at the merest gnat of q political
abstraction; refusing to put the right Of pro-
lection to slave property in the platform, but
willing 10 make the Dred Scott decision,
which declares the right of slave property to
protection, part of the platform. This is
nothing better than the dog at the stream
dropping the substance and diving after the
shadow. The great Democratic party has
split asundef on an infinitessimal point, which
consists only of the difference between the
expression Of a thing as proposition, and
the Endorsement of a decision which de-
clares the same proposition. -.t- .
We give below the resolutions of the ma
jority and minority of the Committee on Plat
form, in which the Convention found so rad
ical difference in principle that nothing but
rupture of the party was equal TO the occa-
sion. The majority report was as follows;
Resolved, That the platform adopted by the
| Democratic party at Cincinnati be affirmed,
with the following explanatory resolutions:
| First That the Government of Territory
organized by an act of Congress is provis-
ional and temporary, and during its existence
| all citizens of the United States have an equal
right to settle with their property in the Ter
ritory, without their rights, either of person
or property, being destroyed or injured by
Congressional or Territorial legislation.
Second: That IL is the duty Of the Federal
Government in all the departments to pro-
tect the rights Of persons and property in the
Territories, and wherever else its constitu-
tional authority extends.
This is nothing but what the Dred Scott
decision clearly declares.
The minority resolutions reafirmed the
Cincinnati Platform, and, on the slavery ques-
ton, added; s. ...- .....r.
That inasmuch as differences Of opinion
exist in the Democratic party as to the nature
and extent of the powers of Territorial
Legislature, and as TO the powers and duties
of Congress, under the Constitution of the
! United States, over the institution OF Slavery
> within the Territories
Resolved That the Democratic party will
abide by the decision of the Supreme Court o
the United States over the institution o
: Slavery within the Territories.
The latter was adopted by the Convention
}. whereupon the South withdrew. One fac
y ton comedies the justice of what the othel
e asks and admits that it has been so decided
i by the Supreme Court; but will not affirm
e the principle, while ready to give in its ad
: hesion to the Supreme Court, now and fo
e all time. On this distinction the great Dem
e ocratic party is now playing double-headet
), farce at Charleston. ...
) 1t can not be denied that although thu
# South have the best claim to principle, yet TIN
S Northern faction are best grounded in thepre
cedents and usages of the Democratic party
Is The South asks no more than the clear ex
n preston of what the North concede to be thei
y right under the Supreme Court; but on tn
lie other hand, the Northern faction can forcibl
e. claim that it has never been the Democrat
to custom to put their progressive and salier
E. points into the platform in clear and positiy
Ig language, and may well challenge the prC
D. priety of this change of policy now, when, O
l. the gentleman remarked who was crossing
IS stream, clinging to the tail of his steed, it
the worst possible time to swap horses.
r On the other hand, the South claim wit
Is equal force that it has never been the Demo
; cratic usage to indorse the decisions of tn
d Supreme Court, except when they suite
. them, and that such a policy at this tint
's when Republican Court is not an impo:
st sibe contingency, may bring the party I
in sudden grief On the whole, it seems les
n dangerous to the party to indorse sing
proposition, which is already Democrat
Is practice, than to indorse the Supreme Court
y, a faith to which Democratic conversion is tc
fresh to be reliable.