St. Paul weekly Minnesotian. (St. Paul) 1860-1861, 1860-11-09

. in the sadness of his heart, "God ofgood
ness, what is man that he has so much
inconsistency in bis conduct In formin
: our confederation we had probably tC
J, good an opinion Of human nature. A pun
democracy had almost driven him to th
verge of absolution.
The people, rising to the necessity Of th
occasion, as the American people hav
ever done, came together and establishe
our present government pure repu6li,
They placed in the hands of Congress tn
exclusive control of all those question
| which under the old confederacy had give
rise to turbulence and discomfort, the RICH
to levy taxes, to borrow money, to regu-
late commerce, to declare war, etc. Prom
ment among these questions. and the mos
prolific Of all in turmoil and popular anger
was the question Of the territories.
Said Alexander Hamilton:
Territorial disputes have at all time
been found one of the most fruitful cause:
OF hostility among nations. Perhaps tn,
| grea test proportion Of the wars that hav,
desolated the earth have Sprung from thi,
origin. ~ ~ III g 80
at has been the prudent policy Of Congress
continues Mr.. Hamilton, Ito appease thi:
controversy by prevailing upon the States
to make cessions to the United States, fol
the benefit of the whole his is SO fal
accomplished as to atfo d, under the con-
tinuation of the Union, a decided pr ospec'
of an amicable termination of the dis
pute."
One, then, my friends, of the distractine
questions which compelled the foundation
OF this Government, was that of terrific.
rial rights, then question of States, now
question Of sections. And to meet aud
settle that question the Congress was con-
stituted. To it was given the power, in
language broad enough, it was supposed,
to meet all contingencies, to pass all needful
rules and regulations for the government
of Territories. 1t accepted the trust in a
long and unbroken chain of legislative acts,
reaching from the re. affirmance of the
Ordinance of 1887, almost to the present
time, declared its right to speak as to the
question of Slavery in the Territories.
In our own day and generation, my
friends, the solution of the Slavery cues
ton was to be reached. That solution was
speedily drawing on. True, great power
dies hard. But the agitations of popular
assemblies are usually more terrible in their
sound than fatal in their effect. A few
years more, and the creeping food of pub
lie sentiment would have mounted over
everything, and few splits of agitated
foam alone have marked where the great
fabric of Wrong lay buried.
AT this moment, when the weak backs
became weakest. and the cowardly were
seeking, in every direction, some outlet of
escape; when frightened wrong brawled
loudest, and even impetuous virtue hesita-
ted at her own advance, Mr.. Douglas sprung
upon the nation an unheard Of doctrine,
as plausible as it was novel, and which
came like a salvation 10 the weak, and like
respite to the desperate.
1t was in effect, this to decide by
Democratic tribunal that which he feared,
or was unable to decide by Republican
one. This Government had been built up
to great apex with an especial view to
this question. Mr.. Douglas proposed to
fling it down at the feet, and amid the pas
sions of the multitude; to reverse the course
of development; to acknowledge the inahils,
ity of the selected representatives, with
wisdom, learning, and all the restraints of
law around them to do that, which, not all
their constituents, but remote portion of
them are called upon to do without wis
dom, restraint or law.
1t was therefore substitution of De-
mocracy for republic-a substitution Of
the first rude fabric of barbarism for the
carefully adjusted elimination of civiliza-
ton.
1t has no authority, for it is without au-
thority. 1t has no antiquity, for it is with
out history. 1t springs from, it lives in, it
represents Douglas. 1t is home made
God, the work Of his own hands. The
panegyrics he has heaped upon it issue
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, SO surprisingly hurled down from
the arena Of republican debate to the
stormy field Of popular strife refer? Is it
a weak, temporary, or an unimportant
issue? Does it touch subjects little calcu.
lated to arouse the multitude Does it lie |
far away from the human hearth
No! For thirty years it has in one form
or another agitated the nation. 1t was
cast out by Mr.. Douglas because Of the |
very shocks it had inflicted on the body
polite. 1t was flung forth as a fearful,
overwhelming, tyrranous evil with which |
he believed Congress incapable of coping. |
1t was driven into the territories as the |
devil was driven into the hogs,-it had |
torn, distracted, maddened its former pos |
SCISSOR.
Pity it is, my friends, that barbarian |
wrong needs rough treatment. Pity it is |
that through years, if w. would leave the |
world better than we found it, we must |
stand up and strike blow on blow ON the |
hard front of error. 1t would be smooth |
sailing if We but acquiesced IN the career
of evil We must often attain happy
peace at the expense of an unhappy strug-
gle. This government was made for Lib |
erty, and Liberty was there, wrestling for |
years, for life in that Congress; wrestling
for life against foe as potent and as dan
gerous as any she encountered on Ameri- |
can soil. Can it be complained of if her |
stalwart figure rose up uncalled in her own |
house? The illimitabls principle which |
exceeds all law, and lies at the base of all |
nature, was there, claiming her own.
" She had ta'en the giant world by the throat,
And thrown him, and made him swear to |
maintain |
Her name and fame at peril of his life"
To what did the question so to be re-
moved refer2 To the Territories to those |
fertile futures; those States yet to be
those seats of population, Of power, of |
wealth hereafter. In that way lay aggran-
disement and dominion. No party could |
hope for permanence against the hostility |
of those rising generations Of states.
Says Alexander Hamilton, arguing the
for national Congress, and the
fearful alternative without one: g In the
wide field of our Western Territory, we
perceive an ample theatre for hostile pre-
tensions WITHOUT ANY UMPIRE OR COMMON !
JUDGE, (if there be no Congress- TO INTER |
POSE BETWEEN THE coNTENDTNG PARTIES. |
To reason from the past to the future we
have good reason to apprehend that the
ssoord soouI sometimes be appealed to as
the or5iter Of their differences"
And yet, my friends, the whole sum
Douglas is to remove that " UMPIRE" that
/" common judge" who can alone enforce
peace, and leave the contending parties"
on the breast of nature, in the great will
derness, with no law but the Inv 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 ter
minete armed territorial conflicts, waits