Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1860-08-14
lFrom the Chicago Press and Tribune.I
DOUGLAS AND THE MISSOURI COM
PROMISE.

! OOOOAAS AND THE MISSOURI COM
PROMISE.
i PoRT BYRON, July 10.
A question has arisen in this conmu-
nifty in regard to the course pursued by
Mr.. Douglas in the Congress in which
he introduced the Kansas and Nebraska
bill. It is contended by Republicans
that he (Douglas) changed his course in
the same session-that is, that he first
went against the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise, and subsequently, in the
same session, went for its repeal This
is denied by the leading Douglas men,
who say that sir gears elasped before he
changed his views in regard to this Com
promise, having spoken against its re-
peal in '49 and for it in 81.
Will yeu please publish the record Of
this matter in the Press and Tribune?
Your obedient servant.
N. B. Ellis.
! We are able to furnish the informa-
ton desired by our correspondent. On
the 4th day of January, 1854, Mr. Doug
las, as chairman of the Committee on
Territories, reported to the Senate a bill
for the organization of the Territory of
Nebraska. The bill was accompa-
MED by report, from which we take
the following extract:
"Your Committee do not feel them
selves called upon to enter into the dis
cussien of these controverted questions.
They involve the same grave issues
which produced the agitation, the Sec
tional strife and the fearful struggle of
1850. AS Congress deemed it wise
and prudent to refrain from deciding the
matters in controversy then, either by
affirming or repeating the Mexican laws,
or by an act declaratory of the true in
tent of the Constitution and the extent
of the protection afforded by it to slave
property in the Territories, so YOUR
COMMITTEE ARE NOT PRE-
PARED NOW TO RECOMMEND A
DEPARTURE from the course pursued
on that memorable occasion EITHER
BY AFFIRMING OR REPEATING
THE EIGHTH SECTION OF THE
MISSOURI ACT, or by any Act declar-
atory of the meaning of the Constitu-
tion in respect to the legal points of dis
pute. y Douglas Report as Chairman
of the Committee ON Territories, in Sen
ate, January 4, 1854.
Here the matter rested for nineteen
days. During that period Senator
Dixon of Kentucky introduced his
amendment, repeating the Missouri
Compromise. Senator Atchison of Mis-
souri, was also engaged in privately ma
nipulating Douglas. In speech deliv-
cred at Atchison City, in Kansas, in
September, 1854, the former thus alludes
to this fact:
For myself I am entirely devoted to
the interests of the South, and I would
sacrifice everything but my hope of
Heaven to advance her welfare. He
thought the Missouri Compromise ought
to be repealed; he had pledged himself
in his public addresses to vote for no
territorial organization that would not
virtually annual it; and with this feeling
in his heart, he desired to be the Chair
man of the Senate Committee ON Terri
tories, when bill was introduced.
With this object in view, he had
private interview with Mr.. Douglas, and
informed him Of what he desired-the
introduction of bill for Nebraska like
what he had promised to vote for, and
that he would like to be Chairman of
the Committee on Territories, in order
to introduce such a measure; and if he
could get that position he would imme-
diately resign as President of the Senate.
Judge Douglas requested "a hours to
consider the matter, and if, at the expi-
ration of that time, he could not intro
duce such a bill as he (Mr. Atchison)
proposed, which would at the same time
accord with his own sense Of justice to
the South, he would resign as Chairman
of the Territorial Committee in Demo
cratic caucus, and exert his influence to
get him (Atchison) appointed. At the
expiration of the given time, Senator
Douglas signifed his intention to intro
duce such bill as had been spoken of.
Accordingly, on the 23d day of Janu-
ary 1854, Mr.. Douglas brought in a bill
which he offered as substitute to his
bill presented nineteen days previously,
dividing Nebraska into two Territories
Kansas and Nebraska-and repeating
the Missouri Compromise in the follow
ing terms:
''That the Constitution and all the
laws of the United States, which are not
locally inapplicable, shall have the same
force and effect within the said Territory
of Nebraska (and Kansas) as elsewhere
within the United States, except the
eight section of the act prepatory to the
admission of Missouri into the Union,
approved March sixth, eighteen hundred
and twenty, which being Inconsistent aoith
the principle Of n'on-interuention By Con-
gress acith Slavery IN the States and Ter
ritories, as recognized by the legislation
Of 1850, commonly called the Compro-
mise Measures, is hereby declared in
operative and void"
This, in brief, is the history of the
matter. On the 9TH of January Mr..
Douglas was opposed to the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise, asserting that
such a course would be departure from
the legislation of 1850; nineteen days
thereafter he introduced bill for its
repeal, ON the ground that it was incon
sistent with the said legislation of 1850.