Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-01-21

must repeal the Missouri Compromise, an J take
the start upon the progressive area Of freedom,
and check this power ofconaietthat tho Louis
vile Courier aud Gov. Seward speak Of, and
thus we may maintain our supremacy. That
was It! Why, although you have divided the
territory between the North and che South,
that territory, you say, was purchased BY the
common blood and treasure, and therefore you
have q right to 60 into it and carry your slaves,
when you do not allow the man who goes there
from Ohio to carry them there. You have
passed your laws prohibiting the African slave
trade; you mOnopolize the carrying Of slaves
among yourselves.
Although you divide that territory ceded to
this government, and make out Of it Louisiana,
Arkansas ard MissouTi-three slave States.
and when the North comes to take possession
of her portion Of the bargain consisting Of all
the territory north Of SO degrees, 80 minutes,
you ssy, No, gentlemen; that game is Out.ws
must have q new deal" [LauPhter.l Well,
now my honest friend, what do you mean BY
new dealt Are you going to put up stakes and
begin anewi Arc you going to put up Louisiana,
Arkansas and Missouri, and see in the struggle
whether freedom or slavery iB the strongerl
"0h, no nothing of that kind; We hold all we
snatch and get all we can" Laughtsrl
DOUGLAS DREAx.
Come on again then Mr.. Douglas, for the
purpose of gaining political power to the loss Of
his constituents, and for the purpose OF main
tanning the interests of slavery and Shareholders
against the great voting population of the
country both North and South, and to make
Slavery predominant tells US that the Missouri
Compromise of 1920 is unconstitutional. This
man who few days before had come into the
Senate of the United States, admitting that this
compromise was sacred and must not be touch
ed, some two or three days after had dream
and the result is that he finds out he had been
mistaken, that our fathers were mistaken, that
the action taken in 1888 was mistake, that the
action against the non-extension Of slavery re-
enacted under the constitution in 1888, and car
ried out under every President from Washing
ton to Monroe, in having declared that they
had a right to restrain the spread of slavery,
was a mistake he suddenly found out that
our fathers did not know anything about the
matter; their action was unconstitutional, it
was unconstitutional to pass this great measure,
and, therefore, the Democratic party repealed
it, and Douglas helped them to do it.
Well, what did the Northern men dog What
did the Republican party do? Why, they said,
gentlemen it is lamentable thing that the de-
claration of the Constitution itself, gives the
power expressly to Congress to regulate the
Territories-that is the word, ''to regulate" the
notwithstanding no limitation, but giving
absolute power, and yet you deny the consti
tutionality of action under it. As said before,
the very first action under the Constitution in
1889, was an exercise of that power to Snake
all needful rules and regulations respecting the
territory" and following down as long as the
Presidents that we're alive at the signing of the
Constitution lived, and coming to our own
times as late as when Oregon was formed into
Territory, to few days ago, this action has
been deemed constitutional, when all at once
these measures were found out to be based
upona fallaey, and it was discovered that we
had no power to carry them out. What did
we do? Because we loved the Union; because
we, North and South, had fought the common
battles Of the country, and joined in the love of
q common liberty, standing shoulder to shoul-
der, we win try the thing once more; We believe
free labor is competent to sustain ITSELF we
will go into the Territory, apply the test, and
sec whether or not it shall be Free or Slave.
DEMOCRACY AS IT WAS.
Gentlemen, let me read few Democratic
platforms to show how this thing went along.
will read you the Democratic platform of 1852.
two years before the passage Of the Kansas
Nebraska bill, so far as it touches upon the sub
ject Of Slavery.
''That Congress has no power under the Con-
stitution, to interfere with or control the do
mestic institutions of the several States, and
that such States are the sole and proper
judges Of every thing appertaining to their own
affairs, not prohibited by the Constitution; that
.,rA a., A 1.,1.e l..
to induce Congress to interfere with questions
of Slavery or to take incipient steps in relation
thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarm
and dangerous conseqneneesn
What say you to that, Democrats? Although
you declared in black and white that it was
dangerous to interfere with the subject of
slavery, what have you donel Did you not
say it was dangerous to interfere? Answer me
that, and let me go onl You are silent. You
are condemned out Of your own mouths.
proceed:
"And that all such efforts have an inevitable
tendency to diminish the happiness Of the peo-
pie and endanger the stability and pemanency
Of the Union"
You condemn yourselves again.
"And ought not to be countenanced by any
fiend of our political institutions"
Resolved, That the foregoing proposition
covers and was intended to embrace THE WHOLE
SUBJECT of slavery agitation in Congress"
Mark that the words "the whole subject are
in small caps in their reported resolutions.
"Ald therefore the Democratic party of the
Union, standing upon their national platform,
will abide by and adhere TO Q faithful execution
of the acts known as the compromise measures
settled by the last COngress-the act for re-
claiming of fugitives from service or labor IN
oluded, which act being designed to carry out
the express provision Of the Constitution can
not be repealed or so changed as to destroy or
impair its efficiency"
"Resolved, That the Democratic party will
resist all attempts at renewing in Congress or
out of it, the agitation Of the slavery question
under whatever shape or color the attempt may
be maden
These were the declarations and avoWals Of
the Democratic party in 1852. Now, what do
they do in 1854! Why, they 60 under the
leadership of Stephen A. Douglas when he had
made a report saying that law Of 1920 was
sacredly conceived in the Compromise 3f
1850, and repeal the Missouri Compromise
Nov, believe, they stand condemned by their
own language and by their own acts, and l
have here accomplished what proposed to
do.
THE DEMocRBCY sELT-cONDENNEB.
What 7as the result of all thisl The result
was that in obedience to the declaration that
the people were to be fairly left to choose for
themselves between liberty and slavery, they
adopted another platform. Let me come to
that. will tell you what they did in 1856, in
that wear the Cincinnati platform was adopted
In consanuenee of the repeal of the Missouri