The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1860-07-06

uOIe Vi tlc8oh ~ " lAtitudo to ueg ees
40 minutes, was clear and unquestiona
ble." He declared, that " he never would
now or hereafter yield up one inch of
Oregon, either to Great Britain or any
other government" He advocated the
policy of giving notice to terminate the
joint occupation, Of establishing terrific
rial government over Oregon, protected by
sufficient military force; of putting the
country at once in state of preparation,
so that if war should result from the asser-
ton of our just rights, war might drive
Great Britain and the last yestiges of
royal authority from the continent Of
North America, and make the Uuited
States an ocean bound republic"
He denied the right of the federal Gov
ernment to prosecute system of internal
improvements in the States, though he
maintained the constitutionality and ex.
pediency of improving rivers harbors and
navigable waters, and advocated a scheme
of tonnage duties for that purpose to be
levied and expended by the local authori-
ties. lie was main y instrumental in Sc
curing the passage of the law extending
the MARITIME and admiralty Jurisdiction of
the Federal Courts over the great chain OF
northern lakes, having reported the bill as
a member Of the Judiciary Committee, and
put it on its passage, when a member of
the House of Representatives.
He was among the earliest advocates of
the annexation of Texas, and after the
treaty for that object had failed in the
Senate, he was one Of those who introduc-
ed propositions, in the form of joint reso-
lutions, as substitute for that treaty. As
chairman of the committee on Territories
in 1916, he reported the joint resolution
declaring Texas to be one of the United
States of America, and he vigorously sus-
taiued the administration of President
Polk in the measures which it adopted for
the prosecution of the war with Mexico,
which was the ultimate consequence OF
that act. AS chairman of tie Territorial
Committee, first in the House of Represen-
tatives, and afterwards in the Senate, he
reported and successfully carried through
the bills to organize the territories Of Mn
nesota, Oregon, New Mexico, Utal., Wash
ington, Kansas and Nebraska, and also
bills for the admission into the Union OF
the States Of Iowa, Wisconsin, California,
Minnesota and Oregon.
So far as the question of slavery was in
yolved in the organization Of Territories
and the admission of new States, be early
took the position thai Congress should not
intefere on the one side or the other, out
that the people Of each territory and State
should be allowed to form and regulate
their domestic institutions to suit them
selves. In accordance with this principle,
he opposed the :" Wimot Proviso" when
first passed in the House Of Representatives
in 1S47 as an amendment to the bill APP
propriatins S3,O00,000 to enable Presi-
dent Polk to make a treaty of peace with
Mexico, and afterwards in the Senate when
offered as an amendment to the bill for the
organization of the Territory of Oregon
In August, 1S48, however, he offered an
amendment to the Oregon bill, extending
the Missouri compromise line Indefinitely
westward to the Pacific ocean, in the same
sense and with the same understanding
with which it was originally adopted in
1920, and extended through Texas in o45,
prohibiting slavery in all the territory
north OF the parallel of &c degrees, 80
minutes, and by implication recognizing
its existence south Of that line. This
amendment was adopted in the Senate BY
a decided majority, receiving the support
OF every Southern, together with several
Northern Senator'S, but was defeated in the
House Of Representatives by nearly sec
tlonal vote.
The refusal of the Senate to adopt the
policy of Congressional prohibition OF
slavery in all the Territories, and the re-
lection in the House of Representatives of
the proposition to extend the Missouri
compromise to the Pacific ocean, gave rise
to the sectional agitation of 1S49 so,
which was Temporarily y quieted by the
Legislation known as the compromise meas
ures of 1850. Mr.. Douglas supported
these measures with zeal and vigor, and
CT lis return 10 his home in Chicago. find
ing himself assailed with great violence,
he defended the whole series in speech
to the people Oct. "a, 1850 which is re-
7t1ihC'i pJ uls liithIlS ds one Oi tuS dDlest
he ever made. In this speech he defend
ell the principles on which the Compro
mise Acts of 1850 were founded, and upon
which he subsequently defended the Kan
sas Nebraska bill in these words: "These
measures are predicted on the great funda-
mental principle that every people ought
to possess the right of framing and regu-
lating their own internal concerns and
domestic institutions in their own way :
These things are all confded BY the Con
stitution to each STATE to decide for itself,
and | know no reason why the same prin
ciple should not be extended to the Terri
tories"
Judge Douglas received the high COM
pliment of ninety -three votes as the Dem
ocratic candidate for the Presidency in the
National Convention at Baltimore in 1852
when he was only thirty nine years OF age
At the Congressional session of 1853 -'54
he reported on the committee from Terri
tories the celebrated bill to organize the
Territorie. of Kansas and Nebraska. The
passage Of this bill caused great excitement
in the free States of the Union, and Judge
Douglas as its author was widely and We
hemently denounced, and in many place;
was hangad and hurnad in effipv Ths