The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1860-09-15

r,nrtv WAS the party hGiGiug lhe principles
Of the ful hers lie asked any of his hear
ers to correct him ifbe was in error Ia any OF
his statements.
What are the doctrines of the Republican
party? There was one great question now
a,itating the public mind-the extension or
non-exSensiOu OF slavery. It ought not to
be here, but had been forced on us by others.
All the Republican party proposed to do
was to keep their hands entirely free from
the institution. The constitutional rights Of
the State must be preserved intact. LIE! the
States where slavery exists do as they please
with it, while we fulfill our constitutional
obligations in regard to the return of fugi-
tives. Nothing further than this is in the
Republican platform, 30 far as the States are
concerned. He alluded to Dir. Breckinridges
complaint that the Fugitive Slave Law was
| nullihrd He undertook to say that that law
| was as we'll executed in the North as any
other on the statute book. In regard TO
| MODS to prevent its execution, there were
mobs in other matters. He had known men
| to be ruined in Ohio for resisting that law
turned out of house and home.
Does Abolitionism Turk under the Repub
lican party? Dir. Breckenridge has made
| some charges of this kind, because there
were few extreme men in the Republican
I y.
| his own rule Because there are some fire.
eaters aud disunionists in the Breckenridge
and Douglas parties, do they consider them
! selves disunionists Yet they make charges
| of aboltiOnism against US on as himsy
| ground. Mir. Corwin indignantly disclaim-
! ed being an aboiIiOnist. Ii airy man
| wants to see me commit assault and bat
| terry (said he with n serio-comic air) let
| him call me one. There were the fewest
| imaginable Abolitionists in this country
such men al Wendell Phillips, VIM. Lloyd
| Garrison and Gerrit Smith-so few that
! $50 had been donated by Gerrt Smith to
| print all the election tickets that will be
| needed to vote for their candidate for Pres
| ident-Gerrit Smith. They are all down
| on Old Abe Lincoln; Phillips calls him he
"slave hound of Illinois" They bestow
on him every opprobrious epithet that their
rich knowledge of language enables them
| to use.
| Breckenridge has said the Fugitive Slave
! Law is not carried out in the North. 1t is
better executed in every State, said Mr.. c.,
! than the law against the Internal Slave
| Trade in the South. He denounced in with
| ering terms this piratcal business, and said
| death was the proper punishment of those
| who carried IL on. lie acknowledged that
they generally went from the North, but
| their hellish traffic was carried on at the
South and there it ought to be punished,
| but was not. Yet il was as unjust to charge
every Breckenridge aud Douglas man with
| being slave traders, as TO call the Republi-
cans abolitioniss, and say they interfere
with slavery in the States where it exists
| as unjust TO do this as to charge all the
human race with being murderers, because
Cain killed Able. hese accusations against
\ slu
cans would die by their real principles, but
would not interfere with slavery in the
States They would rather march to the
| defense of their Southern brethren ii insur-
rectiOn endangered them. The South were
safe in the vicinity of over $4,000, 600 in
telligent white people, to protect them from
the horrors of civil war. 1t slavery eX-
tended indefinitely, and they were laid
| the mercy OF a vast and barbar0us slave
population who might rise 10 insurrection
| against them, what would they do ? Or in
case England ever declared war and seut
| her black regiments here, would not the
Southern slave join his brother negro and
ennihiate the whites without some aid
Negroes would join our enemies in war
white men wouldn't. Slavery was great
evil in this respect.
Let the people imagine themselves iurys
| The Republican party proposes TO prohibit
slavery from going into the territories By
law of Congress. 1here is a question of
power-of lava question for every voter
to decide. Does Congress possess the pow
| er If so, is it expedent TO exercise it Mr..
! Corwin took the affirmative of both cues
/ tions. Breckenridge and the South say
| Congress has power to protect, but not
| to prohibit. Douglas says it has no power
on the subject, and if so, that it usurps it,
| Here the lawyers disagree, as they generally
do, no two of them giving the same con-
struction to disputed point. How would
you decide in a difficult case like this if you
! had doubts? Wouldn't you say that, if
wise men for seventy years had decided
that Congress had power to prohibit, and
that it was expedient TO exercise that pow
er, and they had exercised it, your opinion
would be in accordance with such proceed
ent -? What did the makers OF the Consti-
! tuition mean? How did they decide ON this
question When we get their opinions and
practices we know just where We are.
Language is imperfect, but it is the only
means we have of communicating what we
mean When we hear what au intelligent
man has said we know what he means if he
is not liar. He knows better himself
what he means than does any oody else
Now let us see what those who framed the
! Constitution meant. has congress this
power and does it exist in the Constitution?
Was it meant to be put there The men
who made it have expouuded it. Many Of
those who composed the first Congress in
1871 had been members of the Constitution
al Convention. They were employed near
| ly year in the Convention in weighing
carefully and discussing fully every word.
The question was How much of their SOW
ereignty will the States give upto Congress?
1t had been decided by the Convention that
Congress should possess the power under
consideration, and in the Congress of 1891,
composed in great part of the same men
who decided thus, this power of Congress
under the Constitution was affirmed. The
Ordinance of 1887, prohibiting slavery in
the Northwestern Territory, was distinctly
recognized as valid by that Congress.
And now in this year OF grace 1860, men