Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-09-06
LATEST BY TELEGRAPH.
SPEECH OF
HON. JOHN G. BRECKINRlD6E,
AT LEXINGTON, SEPTEMBER s.

,XDlenatiOn OF the manner IN WhiCh no OAnO
to lie broughtout as q candidate, against his
r;sbes Then he met the statement, that he
,vas not regularly nominated, by showing
fbat Douglas was never nominated according
To the rules of the Democratic organization.
Then he proceeded to deny the charges
made against him. He denied that he signed
a petition for the pardon of John Brown.
and that he was favorable to the election OF
General Taylor. He participated in a meet
ing to bring forward General taylor sup
posinp his sentiments were all right, but on
his return from Mexico he found General
Taylor running in opposition to the Demo-
cratic ticket, when ne at once took the stump |
for the Democratic nomination. AS tor
losing his vote, he paired of with n par'y
of six or eight Wings. If others had zone
as well, they would have elected rass and
Butler
sQUATrER SOVEREIGNTY N 1856
He then denied that in la"e ,.-,
Iana and other .ates he had nommittsd n1S rUGt s
himself to The doctrine of souaiter sover-
eighty, and produced the letter of General
Miles, who heard the sneech at Tippecanoe,
and some other correspondence, to show
t!hat his position then was the same as now.
Then he proceeded to
DOUGLASS VIOLATION OF THE NEBRASKA BAR
GAIN
Now, gentlemen, having vindicated nv
self and the Constitutional Democracy from
the charge of having abandoned the position
they took in 1854 and 1856, turn upon my
accuser and undertake to show that he him
self abandoned the agreement he solcmuly
made at the time the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
passed the Congress OF the United States
[great applause1, and do not make myself
witness against him to do it; will prove it
by himself [Voices-"Good; good, and ap-
plause.l
On the second day of July, 1856, in de-
bate upon bill to authorize the people of
Kansas to form q constitution preparatory
to admission into the Union as a State, when
the question arose as to what was the true
meaning of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and
the limitation of the power of the Terrific
rial Government, Mr. Trumbull offered the
following amendment as an additional sec
tion to the bill:
"And be it further enacted, that the pro-
vision in the act to organize the Territories
of Nebraska and Kansas, which declares it
to be the true intent and meaning of said
act not to legislate slavery into any Terri
tory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom
but TO leave the people thereof perfectly free
to form and regulate their domestic insttu-
tons in their own way, subject only to the
Constitution of the United States was in
tended to and does confer upon, or leave to
the people of the Territory of Kansas, full
power, at any time, through its Territorial
Legislature, to exclude slavery from said
Territory, or to organize and regulate it
therein"
That was Mr.. Trumbull's amendment
against which an overwhelming majority of
the Senate voted, including General Cass
and Senator Douglas.
Let me, however, do Mr.. Douglas the
justice to say that he voted against the
L
the Territorial Legislature had the power to
exclude slavery from the Territory, but be-
cause he did not believe it was consistent to
decide the question legislatively, which they
had agreed to leave to the Court.
General Cass says Mr.. Breckenridge here
quoted from General Cass to show that the
South and North differed about the powers
that might be given a Territorial Legislature,
and that the Kansas Bill left that to be ad-
jud ted by the Court by which alone the
constitutional question could be settled
fnally.l
Mr.. Breckinridge continued:
Mr.. Douglas, in the same debate, used the
following language in speaking of the at
tempt Of his colleague to coerce an opinion
| out of him upon the question whether the
Territorial Legislature had the power to
exclude slave property before they became
State and said-(Mr. B. read from Douglass
speech, an extract concluding with the
assertion, 'we agreed to refer it to the Judi
cary; we agreed to abide by their decision y
He then read from the Dred Scott decision,
and from the report of the Compromise
Committee of thirteen, in 1850, to show that
| the doctrine had always been non-interven-
tion against slavery by either Congress or
| the Territory, until it came to be State.
DOUGLAS AND THE wHIG FATHERS.
| Mr.. B. continued: Do you suppose that
Daniel Webster, after the opinion of the Su-
preme Court that have read to you, would
| have considered it becoming him to point
out some contrivanee or device by which tho
Territorial Legislature could violate the
| constitutional rights of the Southern States?
| Not he! Nor would Clay, nor would any of
the great good men who figured in the ear
lier days of your history. [Cheers] Judges
and Governors of these Territorial Govern
ments are appointed by the President and
Senate Of the United States, and paid out of
the public Treasury; so that the very legis-
iation which they invoke to exclude your
| property from the Territories, is one whose
daily expenses are paid out of the Treasury
out Of the money to which that very prop
erty contributes by taxation. Applause !
The practice of the Government has al
ways been different. Here Mr.. B. entered
into an argument to show that Congress has
power to protect property in Territories, and
| IN relutaIlOn OF tue position recently taken
by the Senator from Illinois, that Congress
had never exercised this power. The prin-
ciples / have tried feebly to vindicate here
are the principles upon which the Constitu-
tioDal Democracy stands to-day, and they
are the only principles upon which any hui
man being will pretend to charge them with
purposes Of disunion. If they are the prin-
ciples of the Constitution and the Union
then We are Constitutional and Unionists;
ferries Of "Thats so,"l and yet for two OF
three months you have heard loud and inces.
SAINT clamor that and those Democrats with
whom | am connected, are a disunion organ.
ization, who seek to break up the Contederacy
Of the States.
/ hardly know, so far as it is a personal
charge against myself how to answer it
"A voice, "Tell EN- it's lie.nl As repeated
by anonymous writers and wandering ora
tors over the country, their whole stock O
trade is "disunion, disunion; this man anC
his party attempts to break up the union O
the States" We say, how can principles b,
; sectional or disunionist which are baseC
upon the Constitution, and the large numbe
OF young gentlemen, who are engaged il
, ringing with tongues as long and heads a
empty as the bells which they ring, CT
disunion. Prolonged laughter and cheers
From sources yet more eminent comes th
, information that | and the political organi
: zation with which / am connected ar
labOring for the disruption of the Oonfed
eTacy. ] do not reply now to what Nj
Douglas says all over New England, in Vii
ginia, and wherever he goes, because il
, | nnifa natural for a gputleman as mucd / nfa,