The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1860-01-12

4
the institution, clothed in its most odious and
revolving features, to every mans door, and com
PEELED him to bow down and sacrifice to it his
manhood and his moral sense.
But the slave power was still unsatisfed.
The Union was still unsafe, and another sacri-
| fee on the altar of Slavery was demanded. 1t
was ascertained, after sixty years of acquies-
cence in the policy, that the laws excluding
Slavery from the territory north and west of
the Missouri-in other words, the Missouri
compromise their own fathers had
made, was unconstitutional; that it made an
odious discrimination against the equality Of
the Southern States, and must be repealed. In
vain the Opposition from the North and por-
ton of that from the South urged that the South
was bound by every obligation of honor and
good faith to stand by the law as it existed !;
that the slave interest had received the benefit
Of the compromise, and could not, without incur
ring the charge of perfdy, fly from the bargain.
| The Democratic party was sllpowerfnl in both
branches of Congress, and pressed the measure
through, as allessential to the safety of the
| Union. 1t is needless to remind Mr.. Curry that
this act of Democratic and Pro-Slavery perfidy
was the immediate cause of the organization
of the Republican party. 1t was regarded as
an act of gross injustice and of bad faith; and
as the Southern Wings failed to stand by their
Northern friends in opposition to the measure,
the disarmament of the Northern Wing party
was matter of course
| The American party was but an episode of
the times, and soon passed away, while the
great event produced by the repeal of the Mis-
souri, compromise was the formation of the
Republican party. If Mr.. Curry and his slave
holding constituents have cause to regret the
existence of that party, they must lay the blame
upon the long series of Democratic" meas
ures for the extension of Slavery to which we
have called attention, and, above all, to the re-
peal of the Missouri compromise. This meas
ure gave rise to the party; but the same policy
which dictated it has never lost an opportunity
Of adding fuel to the hame-of giving new pro-
vocatives to Northern Anti-Savery agitation,
and thus giving new yigor, courage, and nu-
merical strength, to the Republican party.
| We know not what might have been the
/ effect OF an honest administration of affairs in
Kansas, after the passage of the Territorial
bill. That bill was very odious to the North /;
but if President Pierce had rigidly restricted
the Border Ruffian interference from Missouri,
and secured to the people from all sections a
fair and equal opportunity of asserting their
| views-if he had appointed honest and impair
tial Governors, Judges, Marshals, and Dis
trict Attorneys-if, in a word, President Pierce
had taken the side of law and order, instead
Of unfolding the ballot-box suffers, the robbers
and murderers- his successor, Mr.. Buchan-
an, and the Democrats in Congress- had not
made themselves parties to all these outrages
and gone beyond them, if possible, by their
completely in the Lecompton fraud-it is diff
cult to say what might have been the conse
quence. The Republican party would proba-
bly, never have taken root in the hearts of the
people and the North would have done, as
it has so often done before-it would have Gc
guessed, and its people would have gone to
their farms and their workshops and have left
the Government in the hands of the slave
holders.
trine of States Rights, and at the same time
processes to have an abiding confidence in the
Democratic party. Again we feel called upon
to hold him to his candor. We ask him, in
all sincerity, if he regards the Democratic
party, with the bred Scott decision as the basis
of it's creed, and James Buchanan as its chosen
head and leader, as States Rights party?
The Democratic party of the present day is
pledged to the position that the Supreme Court
is the final arbiter of constitutional questions
that its decisions override and control the &C.
ton of Congress and of the Executive and
that when particular course of legislation has
been decided by the court to be unconstitu-
| tional, all good citizens ITO quote the Ian
guage of Mr.. Buchanan, reechoed by the
Democratic party North and South - will
submit. Indeed, the presses and politicians of
the party denounce as traitors and enemies of
the Constitution all who dare to call in ques-
ton the authority of the court.
Now, will Mr. Curry depart so far from the
spirit of fairness which characterizes his speech
as to assert that this doctrine of passive sub
mission to the decisions of the Supreme Court
are consistent with the old Republican States
Rights creed of Thomas Jefferson, Nathaniel
Macon, Giles, Randolph, and John Taylor of
Caroline We will not believe it. The respect
we have for him forbids it. Need we say to him,
that Mr.. Jefferson was the deadly foe to the doc
trine of the supremacy ofthe court in political af
faris? Shall we remind him that that doctrine was
the cornerstone of the old Federal party, and
that Mr.. Jefferson regarded it as dangerous aid
destructive to constitutional Freedom? We
might quote a score of his letters in denuncia-
ton of the courts claim of political supremacy
He declared the judges to be the subtle corps
of sappers and miners" who are constantly Ia
boring to undermine the Constitution John
Taylor, the Ajax of States Rights Republican
ism, wrote volumes in refutation of the Federal
heresy which the modern Democracy have now
made the first article of their party creed.
How inconsistent, then, is the position Of Mr..
Curry as a member of the Democratic party of
the present day, pledged as it is to to the
idea that the Supreme Court is paramount to
Congress and the Executive, when he lays down
the doctrine of States Rights as follows:
~ said that the existence of two Govern
ments implied a division of power. This diyis-
ion of power implies superior. The exist
enee of limitations and restrictions presupposes
the power to control, and to enforce. Right
here arises the great questionable greatest
which can possibly be submitted to the people