The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-03-15

seen gathering itself together with much
earnestness, but with little show Of organ.
zatioh, to rescue, if it were not now too late
the cause of Freedom and Labor, so unex.
pectedly and grievously imperiled in the
Territories Of the 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 m the
OF an arbitrary and cr,ief cofe The perfect
freedom proved to be a hateful and intoler.
able bondage. From 1855 to $780, Kansas,
sustained and encouraged only by the Re-
publican party, has been engaged in success.
sive and ever-varying struggles, which have
taxed all her virtue, wisdom, moderation.
energy and resources, and often even her
physical strength and martial courage, to
save herself from being betrayed into the
Union as Slave State. Nebraska. though
choosing freedom, is, through the direct ex-
ercIse of the Exective power, overriding her
own will, hold as a Slave Territory; and New
Mexico has relapsed voluntarily into the prac.
tice of Slavery, from which she had redeemed
herself while she yet remained a part of the
Mexican Republic. Meantime the Democratic
party, advancing from the ground of Popular
Sovereignty as far as the ground is from the
Ordinance of 1887 now stands on the position
that both Territorial Governments and Cnn-
gress are Incompetent to legislate against Sla-
very in the Territories, while they are not
only competent. but are obliged, when it
Is necessary, to fegislate for its protection
| there .....
In this new and extreme position the
Democratic party now masks itself behind
the batter Of the Supreme Court, as If it were
possibly a true construction of the consti-
tuition, that the power ofdeciding practically
forever between Freedom and Slavery in a
portion of the continent far exceeding all that
is vet organized, should be pronounced by
Congress, which alone possesses any legisla-
tive authority. and should be assumed and
exercised bya court which can only take
cognizance Of the great question collaterally,
| in private action between individuals, and
which acton the Constitution will not suffer
the court to entertain, fit involves twenty
collars Of money, without the overruliny in
tervention ofa jury oftwelve good and Lawful
men of the reighborhood where the ltigati IN
arises. The independent, ever-renewed
and ever-recurring representative Parliament
Diet, Congress, or Legislature, is the one
chief, paramount, essential, Indispensable in
Stitution in Republic. Even liberty, guar.
anteed bv organic law, vet If it be held by
other tenure than the guardian care of such
representative popular assembly, is but
precariously maintained, while Slavery, en-
forced by an irresponsible judicial tribunal.
is the completest possible development of
despotism
Mr.. President. did ever the annals of anv
Government show a more rapid or more
complete departure from the wisdom and
virtue of its founders? Did ever the Gov
ernment ofa great empire, founded on the
rights of human labor, slide away 50 fast
and so far, and moor itself so tenaciouslv on
the basis of capital, and that capital invested
in men? Did ever fee representative
Legislature, invested with powers so great,
and with the guardianship of rights 80 im-
portant, of trusts so sacred, of interests so
precious, and of hopes at once so noble and
comprehensive, surrender and renounce
them all so unnecessarily. so unwiselv, so
fatally, and so ingloriously9 fit be true,
as every instinct Of our nature, and every
Iprecept of political experience teaches US,
that -......
| "fll fraes the land, to Fastening Ills prey
Where wealth accumulates, and men decav."
then where In Ireland, in Italv, in Poland.
or IN Hungary, has any ruler prepared for a
generous and confiding people disappoint-
ments, disasters, and calanities equal to
those which the Government of the United
States hollis now suspended over so large
portion of the continent of North America?
Citizens Of the United States, in the spirit
Of this policy, subverted the free Republic OF
Nicaragua, ard orened it to slavery and the
African slave trade, and held it In that con-
dItion waiting annexation to theU UnitedStates
until its sovereignty was restored by CON-
b'nation ofsister Republics exposed to the
same danger, and appre hensive of similar
subversion. Other citizens re-opened the
foreign slave trade in violation of our laws
and treaties; and, after suspension of that
shameful traffic for fifty years, savage Afri-
cans have been once more landed ON our
shores and distributed, unreclaimed and
with impunity, among our plantations.
For this policy, so far as the government
has sanctioned it, the Democratic party avows
itself responsible. Everywhere complaint
against It is denounced, and its opponents
prescribed. When Kansas was writhine
under the wounds of incipient, servile war
because Of her resistance, the Democratic
press deridingiy said, "let her bleed" Of
fetal integrity has been cause for rebukc
and punishment, when it resisted frauds de.
signed to promote the extension OF slavery
Throughout the whole Republic there is not
one known dissenter from that policy re-
naming in place, II within the reach Of the
; executive arm. Nor over the face of the
! whole rvnrI1 ;c thara To he f,,pd ora ra,ro