Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-03-17
expectation when congress assembled. H

"When the grave shall have closed over a
who are now endeavorng to meet the oblirs
lions OF duty, the year 1850 will be recurred L
as period filed with anxiety and apprehension
A successful war has Just terminated peac
brought with it great augmentation of terrific
ry. Disturbing questions arose bearing upol
the domestic institutions of portion of th
conledaracy, and involving the constitutions
rights OF the states But Notwithstanding dii
ierences OF opinion and sentiment, 10 relation t
details and specific provisions, the acquiescencC
oil distinguished citizens, whose devotion to thu
union can never be doubted has given renewed
vigor to our institutions, and restored a sense q
security and repose to the public mind through
out the copledracy That this repose is to suE
Ter no shock during my official term. if have
the power to aver it, those who placed me here
may be assured
Hardly, however, had these inspiring
sounds died away, throughout a treasured
and delighted land, before the national re.
pose was shocked again shocked indeed,
as II had never before been, and smitten
this time by blow from the very hand that
had just released the chords of the national
harp from their utlcrance of that eybalted
symphony of peace
Kansas and Nebraska, the long devoted
reservation of labor and freedom. saved in
the agony of national fear in 1920, and saw.
ed again in the panic of 1850 were now TO
be opened by congress, that the never end
ing course of seed time and harvest might
begin. The slave capitalists of Missouri
from their own well-aSsured homes on the
eastern banks Of their noble river looked
down upon and coveted the fertile prares
OF Kansas while sudden terror ran thro'
all the capital states, when they saw seem.
ing certainty that at last new labor state
would be built on their western border. in
evitabIy fraught, as they said, with near
or remote abolition Of slavery. What could
be done Congress could hardly be ex.
pected to intervene dircct& for their safety
so soon after the compromise of 1850
The labor hive Of the free states was dis
tant, the way new, unknown, and not with
out perllS Missouri was near and watch.
fui, and held the keys Of the gates of Kan.
sas. She might seize the new and smiling
Territory by surprise, if only Congress
would remove the barrier established in
1920. The conjuncture was favorable
Clay and Webster, the distinguished citi-
zenS whose unqucstionable devotion to the
Union was manifested by their acquescence
in the compromise of 1850, had gone down
already into their honored graves. The
labor states had dismissed many of their
representatives here for too great fidelity
to freedom, and too great diStrust of the
efficacy of that new bond of peace, and had
ron apn1 tlnnn with norf;,on,
ly timid, but not unwilling. The Democra.
tic President and congress hesitated, but
not long. They revised the last great COM
promise, and found with delighted surprise,
that it was so far from confirming the law
of freedom of 1920, that, on the other
hand, it exactly provided for the abrogation
of that venerated statute nay, that the
compromise itself actually killed the spirit
of the Missouri law, and devolved on Con
gress the duty Of removing the lifeless let
ter from the national code. The deed was
done The new enactment not only repeal
ed the Missouri prohibition of slavery, but
it pronounced the people of Kansas and
Nebraska perfectly free to establish freedom
or slavery; and pledged congress to admit
them in due time as states, either of capital
or of labor, into the Union. The Whig re-
representatives. Of the capital states, in an
hour of strange bewilderment, concurred
and the Wing party instantly went down,
never to rise again Democrats scceeded,
and stood aloof the country was confound-
ed and, amid the perplexities Of the hour,
Republican party was seen gathering it.
self together with much earnestneSs, but
with little show of organization, to rescue,
if it were not now too late, the cause of
freedom and labor, so unexpectedly and
grievousy imperiled in the Territories of
tie United States.
| will not linger over the sequel The
popular sovereignty of Kansas proved to
be the state sovereignty of Missouri, not
only in the persons of the rulers, but even
n the letter of an arbitrary and cruel cole.
The perfect freedom proved TO be hate
'ul and intolerable bondage. From 1855
TO 1860, Kansas sustained and encouraged
only by the Republican party, has been
engaged in successive and eYer-varying
struggles, which have taxed all her virtue,
moderation, energies and resour-
,es, and often even her physical strength
and martial courage, to save herself from
being betrayed into the Union as a slave
state. Nebraska, though choosing freedom,
IS, through the direct exercise of the Ex-
ecutiVe power, overriding her own will,
leld as a slave Territory; and New Mexico
mas relapsed voluntarily into the practice
Of slavery, from which she had redeemed
herself while she yet remained part of
The Mexican Republic. Meantime, the
Democratic party, advancing from the
ground Of popular sovereignty as far as
hat ground is from the ordinance of 1851,
low stands on the position that both terri
orial governments and Congress are incom-
Detent to legslate against slavery in the
Territories, while they are not only compe.
.ent, but are obliged, when it is necessary,
% legislate for its protection there.
In this new and extreme position the
Democratic party now masks itself behind
he battery Of the Supreme Court, as if it
we're possibly true construction of the
Constitution, that the power of deciding
practically forever between freedom aud
slavery in portion of the continent far ex-
,eeding oil that is yet organized, should be
'enoaneed by Congress, which alone pos
iessess any legislative authority, and should |
Do assumed and exercised by a court which |