St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1860-11-01

Continues Mr. Hamilton; ito appsass this con.
pon tie States Is make
oeasions to the United States for the benefit Of,
the whole. This is so far accomplished as to-
sfford under the continuation of the Union, a
decided prospect Of an amicahlc termination Of
the dispute"
One, then, my friends, Of the distracting
questions which compelled the foundation Of
this government, was that Of territorial rights,
then question Of States, now q question&of
sections. And to meet and settle that question
tho Congress was constituted To it was Civ
"a the power, in language broad enough, it
Was supposed, to meet an contingencies, to
pass all needful rules and regulations for the
government Of the Territories Il accepted
the trust, and in long chain OF Legislative acts
reaching from the re-adirmance Of the Ordi-s
nance.of 1857, almost to the present time, de-,
clared its right to speak a. to tho question Of
slavery in the territories.
In our day and generation. my friends, tho
solutions OF the slavery question swas 10 DO
reached. That solution was speedily drawing
on. True, great power dies hard But the
agitations of popular assemblies are usually
terrible in their sound, than fatal in their
effect. A few years more aud the creeping
Hood Of public sentiment would have mounted
over everything. and few spits Of agitated
foam alone hive marked where the great fab
ric Of wrong Ivy buried At this moment, when
the weak backs became weakest, and the cow
ardly were seeking in every direction same
outlet Of escape; when frightened wrong
itatel at her own advance, Mr., Douglas sprung
upon the nation an unheard of doctrine, A.
plausible as !. was novel, and which came like
salvation to the weak, and like . respite TO
the desperate. ... 49,
1t was in effect thistle decide by demo-
cratic tribunal that which he feared or was I'M
able to decide by 4 republican one. This gov
.ernment had been built up to great apex with
an especial view to this absorbing question:
Mr.. Douglas proposed to fling it down, at the
feet ana amid the passions Of the multitude; to
reverse the course Of development, to acknowl-
edge the inability Of the selected represents.
tives, with wisdom, learning and all the re-
straints Of law around them, to do that which
not all their constituents, but remote portion
OF them, are called upon to do without wisdom,
restraint or law.
1t was therefore substitution Of . democra
cy for q repuo1ic-a substitution of the first
rude fabric Of barbarism for the carefully ad-
justed elimination of civilization.
1t has no authority for it is without prece-
dent. 1t has no antiquity for it is without
history. 1t springs from it lives init rep
resen,s Mr. Douglas. It is homemade god,
the work of his own hands. The panegyrics
he has heape3 upon it issued from its parent
womb.
Egyptian gardeners thus are said to-,
Have sown the leeks they after prayed to-"
And to what, my friends, does this question,
80 surprisingly hurled down from the arena of
republican debate to the stormy field Of popu
lar strife refer? Is it weak, a temporary, or
IN uuimportant issue? Does it touch subjects
little likely to arouse the multitude? Does it
lie far away from the human heart? >
49, No. For thirty years it has in ono form or
other agitated the nation. 1t was cast out by
Mr. Douglas because of the very shock it had
inflicted On the body polite. 1t was flung forth
as fearful, overwhelming tyrannous evil with
which he believed Congress incapable Of CO.
ping. 1t was driven into the territories as the
devils were deiven into the ho-s-it had torn.
distracted, and maddencd its former possessors
Pity it is, my friends, that a barbarian wrong
needs rough treatment. Pity It's through years,
five would lcayeth world better than We found
it, We must stand up and strike blow on blow
on the hard front Of Error. It would be smooth
sailing II we but acquiesced in the career of
evil We must often attain a happy peace at
the expense Of an unhappy struggle. This
government was made for Liberty, and Liber
ty WAS there wrestling for years for life in that
Congress: wrestling for life against foe as
potent and as dangerous as any she ever en-
countered on American soil. Can it be COM
planned Of if her stalwart figure rose up un-
called in her own house? The illimitable prin-
c'ple which exceeds all law, and lies at the
base Of all nature was there claiming its own.
s'It had taken the giant world by the threat
And thrown it, and made it swear to maintain
rs nan1e aud fame at peril of its life sid
r. -loa h.
refer? 49,. ~ 49, r--. ~.s.''"
To tho territories-to those fertile futures
those states yet to be-those seats Of popula-
ton, Of wealth, of power hereafter. In that
way lay ACKNOWLEDGMENT and dominion. No
party could hope for permanence against the
hostility Of those rising generations of States.
Says Alexander Hamilton, arguing the ne
eessity tor national congress and the fearful
alternative without one: sin the wide field of
our western territory we perceive an ample
theatre for hostile pretensions, without any UNI
pir:e Or common judge, (if there be no congress)
to interpose between the contcnuing parties
10 reason from the past to the future. we shall
have good reason to apprehend that The sword
would sometimes be appealed to - the arbiter
Of their differences. :-. .,.-... 80 .. IT,
And yet my friends the whole sum total and
result Of this doctrine of Mr.. Douglas, is to re-
move that ''umpire,' that ''common judge
who can alone enforce peace and leave the |
"contenaing parties On the breast of nature,
in the great wilderness. with no law but the |
law Of the strongest no God but him who fights |
with the heaviest artillery; while the federal
government, which the wise and good erected
to appease sectional strife and terminate armed |
territorial conflicts, waits with folded hands at
Washington to receive from the victors the |
bloody trophies which announce success.
Pennsylvania, my friends, is not Slave
State. There is NO effort to est ablish slavery |
there. There is not the most remote possibil- |
itY that slavery ever will be established there
and yet, when the other day, Mr.. Curtis, .
scholar and gentleman, proposed to address
the people Of Philadelphia upon the question
Of slavery in territories thousands Of miles !
distant, the lecturer was interrupted and the
house mobbed. So deep, 80 violent, 90 fierce
il tho pubic feeling on this question of slavery