Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1860-10-26
Popular Sovereignty the Tool Of
Slavery.

Slavery.
Gan any honest Democrat, who in 1856
voted for Buchanan as the exponent Of pol
icy that should make Kansas a Free State
by the will of the people, read the following
extract without indignation at the cheat prac-
ticed upon him
"But, we are told the necessary result of
this doctrine of non intervention, which gen
tlsmen, by way of throwing ridicule upon,
call popular sovereignty, is to deprive the
South of all participation in what they call
the common territories of the United States.
That was the ground on which the gentle.
man from Mississippi [Mr. Davis] predicated
in his opposition to the compromise measure
of lS49. He regarded refusal to repeal the
Mexican law rs equivalent to the Wilmot
proviso; refusal to deny to a territorial
legislature the right to exclude slavery as
equivalent to an exclu ion. He believed at
that time that this doctrine aid amount to a
denial of Southern rights but they doubted
it. Now, let me see how far his pr edictions
aud suggestions have been verified. infer
that he told the pc pie so, for he makes it
charge in his bill of indictmen: against Inc,
that am hostile to Southern rights, because
gave those votes.
"Now, what has been the result9 My views
were Incorporated into the compromise meas
ure Of 1850, and his were rejected. Has the
South been excluded from all the territory
acquired from Mexico2 What says the bill
from the House Of Representatives now on
your table, repeating the slave code in New
Mexico established by the people themselves9
1t isa rrt Of the history ofthe country that
under this doctrine of non-interUention, this
doctrine that you delight to Gull squatter SOC.
ereignty, the people of New Nerico haze
INfRODUOED AND PROTECTED SLAV
EBY in the schole Of that Territory, MORE
THAN FIVE TINES THE SIZE OF THE
STATE OF NEW YORK. Under this doc
trine, Slavery has been extended from the Rio
Grande to the Gulf Of California and from
the line of the Republic of Merico, not only
mp to SO deg. 80 min., but up to 50 deg.-giv-
ina YOU A DE iREE AND A HALF more
slave territory than you eoer claimed. In
have the line of 36 deg. so min. The Nash
offered it in the Senate in August lS4s,
and it was adopted here but rejected in the
House Of Representatives. You asked only
up I'd 90 utS. OO HILL, anu INSTRUMENTATION
has given you slave territory up to 39 deg,
a degree and halt more than you asked :,
and yet you say that this is sacrifice OF
Southern rights2
'These are the fruits of this principle which
the Senator from Mississippi regards as hos.
tile to the rights of the South. Where did
you ever get any other fruits that were more
palatable to your tastes or more refreshing to
your strength z What other inch Of tree
territory has been converted into slave
territory of the American continent, since
the revolution, except in New Mexico and
Arizona, under the principle of Don-interven-
ton affirmed at Charleston. If it be true that
this principle of non-intervention has confer
red upoa you all that immense territory; has
protected slavery in that comparatively
northern and cold region, where you did not
expect it to 60, cannot you trust the same
principle further South when you come to
acquire additional territory from Mexico? Il
| it is true that this principle of non interyen-
| ton has given to slavery all New Mexico,
which was surrounded on nearly every side
by free territory, will not the same principle
protect you in the Northern States of Next
co when they are acquired, since they are
now surrounded by slave territory; are sew,
eral hundred miles further South; have many
degrees of greater heat and have climate
aud soil adapted to Southere products Are
Won not satisfied with these practical results9'
From Senator Douglas Speech in thu
Senate, May 16, 1850.