Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1860-09-05

right of self government over their domestic AFFAIRS
cannot see why the same right should not De guar
anteed to the people of territories since the rev.
olution (Applause.) Ihave never yet claimed tor
the people of the American territories, any other
right or higher right. than our fathers maintained
at the point of the bayonet for the colonies prior to
the revolution (Applause.) If an American cltl-
izen of North Carolina moving to territory OF the
United States is not entitled to many rights OF
self government there, as British subject before
the Revolution, let me ask what did you gain by
the sacrifices of that Revolution? Voices, good
and applause) Who are the people of the terrific
res that they are not capable of self government?
You do not doubt that you citizens OF North-Caro-
lima are entirely competent to make laws for your
own government. You do not doubt but what the
right of self government is an inherent right IN
North Carolina. If it be an inherent right in this
State let me ask You when you emigratc to Kansas
at what point of time do you forfeit that right =
Do you lose all the sense, all the intelligence all the
virtue you had upon the wayside, while emlgratinS
to a territory of the United States9 No man doubts
your capabty while you remain at home to decide
for yourselves what kind of laws you will have in
respect to negroes as well as to white men. Are
you any less capable after you have left your native
land and gone to a territory? Is there anything i'll
the character of the men who emigrate from their
native valleys to the plains and praires of the North
West that renders them less fit for self government
than those who remain where they were born?-
Those of US who in early life left the old States who
penetrated into the wilderness secured our own
homes, made our farms, erected school houses,
and churches made our own fences and split our
own rails, Qaughter,) think that We know what
kind of laws and institutions will suit interests
quite as well as you who never saw chat country.
Voices, fright" and applause.) We, have quite as
much interest in the laws under which we are to
live, as you have who never expect to go to that
country and Therefore have no concern about our
laws.
These are the opinions of Northwestern man,
man who has spent his whole life upon the frontier.
You cannot convince us that we are not as good as
our brothers who remain in the old States. know
there is something in the human mind that leads
every one to suppose that his birth place is the
verv center of civilization and that there is nothing
good beyond the range of his infant vision. When
| was child, thought that the mountains which
surrounded the valley in which was born were
the confines of civilization, my vision was limited
by them and fancied beyond their boundary there
was nothing but border rutfians and outside bar
barians. When. however, | crossed them, and got
into the next valley found there were just as good
people there as had left 5eh,nd me, and so with
the next, and every step took from the east to-
wards the setting sun, unoosened and shook off un-
Just prejudice. Ignorance has fixed around other
people preudiceS similar to those | then had We
in the Northwest have much more respect Tor you
than you have for us. We do not feel disposed to
deny you equal right to self-goverlment with US,
but you deny ours with you. We love you better
than you do u.s. We love this Union better than
you do, in consequence of the circumstances which
surround us. You 90 into one of our new settle
ments in Kansas Nebraska, Illinois, any of them,
and there you will find that North arolinian has
settled down by the side of a Connecticut farmer,
with a Trginian next to him, New Yorker,
South Caronan, and representatives from every
State around him, the whole Union being repre-
scented on prairie by the farmers who have settled
on it. In the course of time the young people of
this society begin to visit and in little while the
North Carolina boy Yankee girl he likes, and
his prejudices against her people begin to soften.
(Laughter) In a few years the Carolinlan and the
Connecticut people are united; the VirsinIan and
the Pennsylvania, the Yankee and the stakeholder
are united by ties of marriage and blood and friend
ship, and social intercourse; and when their chill
dren grow up, the child of the same parents has
grand father in North Carolina and another in Yer
mont and that child does not like to hear either Of
those States abused That child has a reverence
for the graves of his grandfather and grandmother
in the good Old North State and he has the same
reverence for the graves of his grandfather and
grandmother in the valleys of Vermont; and he
will consent that this Union shall be dissolved
SO that he will be compelled to obtain passport
and get it rised to enter foreign land to visit tie
graves of his ancestors.
You cannot sever this Union unless you cut the
heartstrings that bind father to son, daughter to
mother, and brother 20 sister in all our new States
and Territories. (Cheers.) Besides the ties of
blood and affection that bind to each of the States
we have commercial intercourse and pecunary in
terests that We not willing to surrender Do
you think that citizen of Illinois will ever consent
I,,tiav tI,o bo el;
corn down the Mississippi to supply the people be-
low? Never on earth
We shall say to the Custom House gatc-keepers
Of che Mississippi river that we furnish the.water
that makes that great river, and will follow it
throughout its whole course to the ocean, no matter
who or what may stand before US. (Cries of that's
good.") So with the EaSt-we are bound to the
people of the East by the same ties of blood and
kindred and you cannot sever this Union without
blasting every hope and prospect that Western
man has on this earth Then, having so deep a
stake in the Union, we are determined to maintain
it, and we know but one mode by which it can be
maintaned-that is to enforce rigidly and in good
faith every clause every line every syllable of the
Constitution our fathers made it and bequcathcd
it to us. (Cheers.) We do not stop to enquire
whether you in Raleigh, or the ab6litIonists up in
Maine, like every provision of that Constitution or
not. 1t is enough for me that our fathers made it.
Every man that holds Office under the government
is sworn to support it. Our children are brought
up and educated under it, and they are early i'm
pressed with the injunction that they shall at all
times yield ready obedience to it ain in favor
of executing, in good faith, every Clause and provs
ion of the Constitution, cloud cheers, and of pro-
tecting every right under it. Cheers, and then hang
ing every man who takes up arms against it. Con
tinued cheering) Yes, my friends would hang
every man higher than Haman who would attempt
to resist by force the execution of any provision of
the Constitution which our fathers made and be-
queathed to US. loud cheers and voices, "that is
Southern enough for us"-"Yes sir, that it is.')
A gentleman behind me says that that sentiment is
Southern enough for him and for you. l do not 60
for the Constitution because it is Southern or North
ern-not because it is Eastern or because it is West
ern, but | 90 for it because my allegiance 10 the
Constitution-my oath and my duty-my love for
my children and my hope Of salvation in the future,
makes it my sacred and bounden duty to vote for it
and maintain it loud cheers and hurrahs for
Douglas.) l claim no rights for my State that
will not concede to you and defend for you and the
L S