The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-05-05

from European ports, bringing nearly two thousand
passengers
Our dispatches from Charleston state that the
leaders of the Albany Regency delegation to the
Convention were still In that city, laying their
plans for.the Baltimore meeting.
The Great Political Observation-Disclosures
ties OF Leaders, Cliques and Conven-
lions.
The breaking up-of the democratic party at
Charleston leaves its old political leaders in
the same position as that occupied by the Know
Nothing politicians, and to which those of the
black republican, party arc tending-one of
great doubt and perplexity as to what platform
to present to the people.
new and q great issue has come up, for
which the politicians were not prepared, and
which has thrownsall of them into the greatest
confusion. A set' of fanatical propagandists,
Selling upon a. moral abstraction, have for
thirty years been clamoring for the abolition of
slavery in the Southern States, regardless of
the results that may flow therefrom. & From
time to time the Northern politicians of the old
wing and.democratic- schools have pandered to
this fanaticism tossserve their own selGsh pur-
poses, and thus.'enabled its sophistries and OK.
aggerations. obtain certain hold upon the
public mind. Stimulated by the apparent
success of the fanatics at the North, the South
ern politicians..have got up an equally extreme
pro-slavery fanaticism In the South, which they
have from time to. time played to suit their sell
fish designs. Both Of these extremes claim for
Congress the preposterous right Of legislsting
slavery into. or out of the common Territories
of the confederacy. As eet-of to their fol-
lies, third.claS.o of politicians have set up the
fallacy of squatter; sovereignty, assuming that,
as Congress has not the right to legislate for
the Territories, lthe Territorial Legislature,
which 10 al creature--of Congress, possesses the
right which its creator does not possess, and
consequently could not possibly confer upon It.
Under the cloud Of sophistry with which
these party fAllscies have been clothed, the ia
natical propsganaists have gone On involving
the shortsighted: politicians in their net, and
revealing more and more clearly their revolu-
tiouary and.destructive aims, until the common
sense Of the. Speople has been aroused by the
dapgersi towards which they are being led,
and q conservative reaction has begun In
the public mind, which is leaving all the
politicians. Ad.psrty leaders In perplexity and
at loggerheads.as to the best platform and the
most expedient'cry to present to the masses.
The people. already feel instinctively that the
claim O, an inherent power in Congress to le-
sislate for, the Territories Is the same claim
that was get up by the British Parliament a
huudredsyears ago, and against which our fore.
fathers rebelled In l776. All that the British
tories ever--claimed was the power that is now
claimed for. Congress by abolition and pro-
slavery fanatics alike, the rightful power Of
Parliament. to leeislate for the colonies a. inhe-
rent 70 the parent government" This theory
is cousin-geIman TO that Of the divine right Of
kings, and equally obnoxious 70 the Ameri-
can people. II Congress can, from inherent
power, do one thing II can do all things Hit
can abolish slavery in the Territories, it can
establish Territorial church there, q military
government and even monarchy. II was to
rssist this claim of inherent power in king or
Congress that the American principle was pro-
claimed, that political sovereignty is inherent
In the people, and that one people or political
community cannot rightfully possess the ssve-
reignty Of another.
Acting on this idea, carried 10 an impractical
BILE extreme, the squatter sovereignty doctors
present fallacy which the common sense Of
the people repels with an equally instructive
attraction to natural rights. II has been in
stilled into every American bosom, BY
precept aud by practice, over and over
again, that political sovereignty resides
in the people, and can exist In the State
only when the sovereign rights, powers and
attributes have beea delegated to the
State, under Q constitution devised, limited,
approved and adopted by the will Of the peo-
pie. Until this has been done the sovereignty
lies dormant and In allegiance, and the commu-
nifty IL but On inchosse State, In which the impe.
rious necessities Of society are satisfied with
municipal regulation for the common good
Every immigrant comes into the new commu-
nifty with the rights and obligations of the State
from which he came His citizenship be
brings with him; II be dies leaving property in
his former residence, that IL administered
under the laws Of the State; his power
withia his family flows from State le-
gislaton, and no, from Congress; his
wife does not 49,; bis son does not
inherit, and his domestic servant or slave is not
free, except a. the laws Of his State determine.
The State constitution, and that only, deter
mines the political status Of the male and female
members Of every family. The abolition or the
establishment Of slavery Il an exercise Of the
sovereign power, and this cannot be rish,fnlly
attempted before the State constitution IL form.
ed. If Il could be 30 evercised, q sovereign
power would reside Ia the Territory separate
ard apart from that delegated BY the people