The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-06-01
NOn.Intsyention on the Slavery Question.
THE GREAT SPEECH
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS,
DELIVERED IN THE U. s. SENATE
On Nay 18th and 10th, 1860

DELIVERED IN THE U. s. SENATE
On May 18th and 10th, 1860
The Senate having under consideration the
resolutions submitted by Mr.. DAVIS on the
LIST of March, relative to the relations of the
States, and the rights of persons and prop.
erty in the territories and the duty of pro-
tecting slave property in the territories,
when necessity for so doing shall exist:
Mr.. DOUGLAS said /:
Mr.. PRESIDENT 1 have no taste and
very little respect for that species of dis.
cussion which consists in assaults on the
personal or political position of any Senator.
have no desire to elevate myself by at.
tempting to pull down others nor to place
any Senator in false position before his
constituency. ] have no assault to make on
anybody no impeachment of the record of
any gentleman. am willing that each Sen.
ator shall stand before the country and his
own constituency on the record which he has
made for himself. do not complain of so
much of the speech of the Senator from
Mississippi (Mr. Davis as arraigns my po-
litical position, for he seems to have deemed
it necessary to draw parallel between his
opinions and my own, as we have been &C
tors for many years in the same scenes, in.
volving the same issue that is now presented,
he taking the one side and the other. In
self>defence it may be necessary for me also
to refer to the position of that Senator at
various periods view of illustrating
my own position-by way of contrast to my
own, as we always differ on the isolated
point.
shall not indulge to-day in the discuss
ion OF any abstract theories of government,
much less in the discussion of the legal ques>
tions which have lately been attempted to
be forced on the Democratic party as political
issues. On former occasion, when forced
into discussion by the attorney general of
the United States, the law officer of the gov.
eminent, l did amuse myself in the discuss
ion of certain legal propositions; not because
they had anything to do with the political
issues before the country, but because that
law officer seemed to have no official duties
to occupy his time, and had the leisure to
reply to him.
The principal points to which shall di.
rect my remarks to-day, and the sole cause
of my making any speech, will be found in
certain extracts from the speech of the Sen.
ator from Mississippi, a few days since. I
have put three extracts upon paper together,
and will send them to the secretary's desk,
that they may be read. They will consti.
tute the chief text to which my remarks will
be addressed.
1.-THE Clerk here read the extracts from Mr..
Davis speech
The facts stated in the copious extracts
from the Senator's speech, which have been
read, conclusively show that the doctrine of
squatter sovereignty, or popular sovereignty,
or n0n~interventiOn, as the Senator has in
differently styled it in different parts of his
speech, did not originate with me, in its app
plication to the territories of the United
States that it was distinctly proclaimed
by General Cass in what is known as his
Nicholson letter that the issue was then
distinctly presented to the country in the
contest Of l848; that General Cass became
the nominee of the Democratic party with
full knowledge of his opinions upon the
question of aon-intervention that he was
supported by the party on that issue that
the same doctrine of non-intervention was
incorporated into the compromise measures
of 1850, in opposition to the views and
efforts of the Senator from Mississippi,
and in harmony with the views and efforts
of myself; that it was re-affirmed by the
Democratic party in the Baltimore Conven-
ton of 1852 that General Pierce was
elected President of the United States upon
this same doctrine Of non.intervention that
it was again affirmed by the Congress of the
United States, in the Kansas, Nebraska bill
of 1854, and that it had its first trial, and
yielded its first fruits upon the plains of
Kansas in 1855 and 1856.
These facts are distinctly and positively
affirmed by the Senator from Mississippi
They conclusively disprove and refute
the charges so often made in the Senate
chamber within the last year, so erroneous
ly and unjusty made against me, that l have
changed my opinions in regard to this ques.
ton since 1856. The Senator from Missis>
sippi has done me service he has search
ed the records with view to my condemns
ton, and the result of his researches is to
produce the most conclusive and incontest-
able evidence that this charge of having
changed my opinions on this question, and
which was made the pretext for my removal
from the Committee on Territories, was not
true. He tells you frankly, what the world
knew before, that he had always opposed
this doctrine of non-intervention that he
and always differed on that point. He
always regarded it as fallacy as
sound principle. He claims that after it
has yielded its blighting effects upon the
plains of Kansas, the Supreme Courts has
come to the rescue, and that he now is tri-
umphantly sustained in his opposition to
this doctrine in 1848, 1850 and 1851. Sir
whether we have been sustained and our
consistency INDICATED is not so material as
to find out which is right in the point at ISSUE
then and now, between the Senator from
Mississippi and myself.
ORIGIN OF NoN-INTERvENTIoN ON THE SLAVE.
RY QUESTION.
propose, in the first place, to invite the
attention of the Senate to the fact, that the
doctrine of non.intervention by Congress
with slavery in the territories was brought
distinctly before the American people, and
especially before the Democratic party, in
l847, with view to its decision by the
convention of the party that was to assem-
BILE at Baltimore in 1848. The Senator has