St. Paul weekly Minnesotian. (St. Paul) 1860-1861, 1860-11-09

OH IeIs-- III sS Is ASIIA w STS.
TERMS, TWO DOLLARS a YEAR.

IN the sadness of his heart, God ofgooC
ness, what is man that he has so much
inconsistency in bis conduct In forum
our confederation we had probably tC
| good an opinion of human nature. A pul
democracy had almost driven him to th
verge of absolution. aa
The people, rising to the necessity of th
occasion, as the American people hav
ever done, came together and establishe
l our present government, q pure republi,
/ They placed Ia the hands of Congress tn
exclusive control of all those question
which nnder the old confederacy had give
rise to turbulence and discomfort, the RICH
to levy taxes, to borrow money, to regu
late commerce, to declare war, etc. Prom
| inent among these questions. and the mos
prolific Of all in turmoil and popular anger
was the question OF the territories.
Said Alexander Hamilton:
Territorial disputes have at all time
been found one of the most fruitful cause.
OF hostility among nations. Perhaps tn,
grea test proportion Of the wars that have
desolated the earth have sprung from thi,
origin. e = AZ !.
at has been the prudent policy Of Congress
continues Mr.. Hamilton, "to appease thi:
controversy by prevailing upon the States
to make cessions to the United States, fol
the benefit Of the whole. This is so fal
accomplished as to affo d, under the con-
tinuation of the Union, decided Or ospect
of an amicable termination of the dis
pute." ..
One, then, my friends, of the distracting
questions which compelled the foundation
of this Government, was that of terrific.
rial rights, then question of States, now
question Of sections. And to meet and
settle that question the Congress was con-
stituted. To it was given the power, in
language broad enough, it was supposed,
to meet all contingencies, to pass all needful
rules and regulations for the government
of Territories. 1t accepted the trust in a
long and unbroken chain of Legislative acts,
reaching from the re.affirmance of the
Ordinance of 1887, almost to the present
time, declared its right to speak as to the
question of Slavery in the Territories.
In our own day and generation, my
friends, the solution of the Slavery cues
ton was to be reached. That solution was
speedily drawing on. True, a great power
dies hard. But the agitations of popular
assemblies are usually more terrible in their
sound than fatal in their effect. A few
years more, and the creeping food of pub
lie sentiment would have mounted over
everything, and few spits of agitated
foam alone have marked where the great
fabric of Wrong Law buried
AT this moment, when the weak backs
became weakest. and the cowardly were
seeking, in every direction, some outlet of
escape; when frightened wrong brawled
loudest, and even impetuous virtue hesita-
ted at her own advance, Mr.. Douglas sprung
upon the nation an unheard of doctrine,
as plausible as it was novel, and which
came like salvation 20 the weak, and like
a respite to the desperate.
1t was in effect, this to decide by
Democratic tribunal that which he feared,
Or was unable to decide by Republican
one. This Government had been built up
to great apex with an especial view to
this question. Mr.. Douglas proposed to
Hing it down at the feet, and amid the pas
sions of the multitude; to reverse the course
Of development; to acknowledge the ipahil,.
ty of the selected representatives, with
wisdom, learning, and all the restraints Of
aw around them to do that, which, not all
heir constituents, but remote portion of
hem are called upon to do without wis
dom, restraint or law.
1t was therefore substitution of De-
nocracy for a republic substitution of
The first rude fabric of barbarism for the
carefully adjusted elimination of civiliza-
ion.
1t has No authority, for it is without au-
,hority. 1t has no antiquity, for it is with
'ut history. 1t springs from, it lives in, it
'epresents Douglas. 1t is a home made
Tod, the work of his own hands. The
'anegyrics he has heaped upon it issue
rom its parent womb,
Egyptian gardeners thus are said to,
Have sown the leeks they after prayed to-"
And to what, my friends, does this
question, so surprisingly hurled down from
he arena of republican debate to the
tormy field of popular strife refer9 Is it
weak, a temporary, or an unimportant
ssue? Does it touch subjects little calcu.
ated to arouse the multitude? Does it lie |
ar away from the human hearth H.. |
No! For thirty years it has in one form |
n another agitated the nation. 1t was
asst out by Mr.. Douglas because Of the |
cry shocks it had inflicted on the body |
'olitic. 1t was flung forth as a fearful,
tyrranous evil with which |
lie believed Congress incapable Of coping. |
t was driven into the territories as the |
Ievil was driven into the hogs,-it had |
orn, distracted, maddened its former pos
essor.
Pity it is, my friends, that barbarian |
wrong needs rough treatment. Pity it is |
hat through years, if W. would leave the |
world better than we found it, we must |
tand up and strike blow on blow ON the |
lard front of error. 1t would be smooth !
Ealing if we but acquiesced IN the career
f evil. We must often attain happy |
'eace at the expense of an unhappy strug-
lie. This government was made for Lib. |
rty, and Liberty was there, wrestling for |
ears, for life in that Congress; wrestling
or life against foe as potent and as dan |
,erous as any she encountered on Ameri-
an soil. Can it be complained of If her |
talwart figure rose up uncalled in her own
Iouse? The illimitabls principle which |
xceeds all law, and lies at the base of all !
lature, was there, claiming her own.
She had ta'en the giant world by the throat,
md thrown him, and made him swear to |
maintain 49, rs# g.. p. |
Ter name and fame at peril of his life!"
To what did the question so to be re-
moved refer? To the Territories those |
critic futures those States yet to be !
hose seats of population, Of power, Of |
wealth hereafter. In that way lay aggran-
Iisement and dominion. No party could |
Iope for permanence against the hostility |
# those rising generations of states.
Says Alexander Hamilton, arguing the |
necessity for national Congress, and the |
earful alternative without one: In the
vide field of our Western Territory, We
perceive an ample theatre for hostile pre- |
ensions WITHOUT ANY UMPIRE OR COMMON |
uDGE, (if there be no Congress- TO INTER
'osE BETWEEN THE coNTENDING PARTIES. |
10 reason from the past to the future We
ave good reason to apprehend that the
soord mould sometimes be appealed to as |
he arbiter Of their differences"
And yet, my friends, the whole sum |
otal and result of this doctrine of Mr.. |
Douglas, is to remove that UMPIRE" that
common judge" who can alone enforce
,eace, and leave the " contending parties"
N the breast of nature, in the great will
lerness, with no law but the law of the
strongest, no God but him who fights with |
he heaviest artillery; while the federal
government, which the wise and good
erected to appease sectional strife and ter.
ninete armed territorial conflicts, waits
With folded hands at Washington to receive