St. Paul weekly Minnesotian. (St. Paul) 1860-1861, 1860-11-09

ness, what is man that he has so much Q
inconsistency in his conduct" In formin,
+ our confederation we had probably to-
!, good an opinion of human nature. A pur
democracy had almost driven him to th,
verge of absolution
The people, rising TO the necessity Of th,
occasion, as the American people have
ever done, carle together and established
our present government, pure republic
| They placed in the hands of Congress ths
, exclusive control of all those questions
, which under the old confederacy had given
, rise to turbulence and discomfort, the right
, to levy taxes, to borrow money, to regu-
late commerce, to declare war, etc. Prom
ment among these questions. and the most
prolific OF all in turmoil and popular anger,
was the question Of the territories.
Said Alexander Hamilton:
Territorial disputes have at all times
been found one of the most fruitful causes
OF hostility among nations. Perhaps the
grea test proportion Of the wars that have
| desolated the earth have sprung from this
origin Il 3 sssss = /.
at has been the prudent policy Of Congress,
continues Mr.. Hamilton, "to appease this
controversy by prevailing upon the States
to make cessions to the United States, for
the benefit OF the whole. This is SO far
accomplished as to affo d, under the con-
tinuation of the Union, decided pr ospect
of an amicable termination of the dis
pute."
One, then, my friends, of the distracting
questions which compelled the foundation
OF this Government, was that of terrific.
rial rights, then question Of States, now
a question of sections. And to meet and
settle that question the Congress was con-
sttuted. 70 it was given the power in
language broad enough, it was supposed,
to meet all contingencies, to pass all needful
rules and regulations for the government
of Territories. 1t accepted the trust in a
long and unbroken chain of Legislative acts,
reaching from the re.aftirmance of the
Ordinance of 1877, almost to the present
time, declared its right to speak as to the
question of Slavery in the Territories.
In our own day and generation, my
friends, the solution of the Slavery aues-
ton was to be reached. That solution was
speedily drawing on. True, great power
dies hard. But the agitations Of popular
assemblies are usually more terrible in their
sound than fatal in their effect. A few
years more, and the creeping food of pub
lie sentiment would have mounted over
everything, and few spits of agtated
foam alone have marked where the great
fabric of Wrong lay buried.
AT this moment, when the weak backs
became weakest and the cowardly were
seeking, in every direction, some outlet of
escape; when frightened wrong brawled
loudest, and even impetuous virtue hesita-
ted at her own advance, Mr. Douglas sprung
upon the nation an unheard Of doctrine,
as plausible as it was novel, and which
came like salvation 20 the weak, and like
a respite to the desperate.
1t was in effect, this to decide by a
Democratic tribunal that which he feared,
or was unable to decide by Republican
one. This Government had been built up
to great apex with an especial view to
this question. Mr.. Douglas proposed to
ling 1t down at the feet, and amid the pas
sions of the multitude; to reverse the course
of development; to acknowledge the inabil-el
ity of the selected representatives, with
wisdom, learning, and all the restraints of
law around them to do that, which, not all |,
their constituents, but a remote portion of
them are called upon to do without wis
dom, restraint or law.
1t was therefore substitution of a De- |
mocracy for a repubic--a substitution of |
the first rude fabric of barbarism for the |
carefully adjusted elimination of civiliza- |
ton.
1t has no authority, for it is without au-
thority. 1t has no antiquity, for it is with
out history. 1t springs from, it lives in, it |
represents Douglas. 1t is home made |
God, the work of his own hands. The
panegyrics he has heaped upon it issue
from its parent womb,
Egyptian gardeners thus are said to,
Have sown the leeks they after prayed to-"
And to what, my friends, does this
question, SO surprisingly hurled down from
the arena Of republican debate to the
stormy field Of popular strife refer2 Is it
weak, temporary, or an unimportant
issue? Does it touch subjects little calcu.
lated to arouse the multitude Does it lie
far away from the human heart?
No! For thirty years it has in one form
or another agitated the nation. 1t was
cast out by Mr.. Douglas because of the
very shocks it had inflicted on the body
polite. 1t was flung forth as fearful,
overwhelming, tyrranous evil with which
he believed Congress incapable Of coping.
1t was driven into the territories as the
devil was driven into the hogs,-it had
torn, distracted, maddened its former pos
SCISSOR.
Pity it is, my friends, that barbarian
wrong needs rough treatment. Pity it is
that through years, il W. would leave the
world better than we found it, we must
stand up and strike blow on blow ON the
hard front of error. 1t would be smooth
sailing if We but acgui"sced IN the career
of evil. We must often attain happy
peace at the expense of an unhappy strug-
gle. This government was made for Lib
erty, and Liberty was there, wrestling for
years, tor life in that Congress; wrestling
for life against a foe as potent and as dan
gerous as any she encountered on Ameri-
can soil. Can it be complained of if her
stalwart figure rose up uncalled in her own
house? The illimitabls principle which
exceeds all law, and lies at the base of all
nature, was there, claiming her own.
" She had ta'en the giant world by the throat,
And thrown him, and made him swear to
maintain
Her name and fame at peril of his life'
To what did the question so to be re-
moved refer To the Territories those
fertile futures; those States yet to be !
those seats of population, Of power, Of
wealth hereafter. 10 that way lay aggran-
disement and dominion. No party could
hope for permanence against the hostility
of those rising generations of states.
Says Alexander Hamilton, arguing the
necessity for national Congress, and the
fearful alternative without one: In the
wide field of our Western Territory, we
perceive an ample theatre for hostile pre-
tensions WITHOUT ANY UMPIRE OR COMMON
JUDGE, Of there be no Congress, TO INTER
POSE BETWEEN THE coNTENDISG PARTIES.
To reason from the past to the future We
have good reason to apprehend that the
ssoord aoould sometimes be appealed to as
tie 0rbiter Of their differences"
And yet, my friends, the whole sum
total and result Of this doctrine of Mr..
Douglas, is to remove that umpire" that
i" common judge" who can alone enforce
peace, and leave the contending parties"
on the breast of nature, in the great viii
derneSs, with no law but the law of the