Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1860-03-15

the direct exercise or the Executive power.
over idng her own will, held os Slave
Territory; and New Mexico has reIapsei
voluntarily into the practice Of Slavery,
from which she had redeemed herself while
she;yet remained a part Of the Mexican Re-
public. Meantime, the Democratic party,
advancing from the ground Of Popular Sow.
ereignity. as for as that ground is from the
Ordinance Of 1887, now stands on the posi-.
tion that both Territorial Governments and
Congress are incompetent to leeisla,e
against Slavery in the Territories. while
they sre not only competent, but are oblig-
ed, when It 10 necessary. to lesisla,e for It's
protection there.
In this new and extreme osition the
Democratic party now masks itself behind
the battery Of the Supreme Court, at If
were possibly true construction Of the
Constitution, that the power Of deciding
practically forever between Freedom and
Slaverg in a portion Of the continent far ex-
ceedisg oil that is yet organized. should be
renounced by Congress, which alone pos
sesses any legislative authority, and should
be assumed and exercised by Court which
can only take cognizance OF the great ques
ton collaterally, in a private action between
individuals, which action the Constitution
will not suffer the Court to entertlin. If 1t
involves twenty dollars OF money, without
the overruling Intervention of a jnry Of
twelve good and lawful men of the neigh
borhood where litigation arises. The inde-
pendent, ever.renewed, and overcoming
representative Parliament, Diet, Congress
Of Leg islature, il the one chef, paramount,
essential indispensable institution in Re.
public.
Even liberty, guaranteed by organic law,
yet if it be held BY other tenure than the
guardian care Of such representative po.
pnlar assembly. is but precariously maintain
ed, while Slavery. enforced by an irrespon-
sible jucicul tribunal, is the complctest
possible developmest of despotim
Mr. President, did ever the annals Of any
Government show a more rapid or more
complete departure from the wi,dom AMI vir-
tue of its foundersl Did ever the Govern
ment grea, empire founded on the rights of
human labor, slide away so fast ard so far,
and moor itself so tenacinusly on the b,sis
Of capital, and that capital invested in IT,
boring men? Did ever free. representa-
tive Legislature, invested with powers so
great, and with the guardianship Of rights
so important, of trusts so sacred, of inter-
ests so precious, and OF hopes at once So
noble and so comprehensive, surrender and
renounce them all so nnne cessariy, SO un.
wisely, so fata y and so ingloriousy! lfi'
be true, as every instinct of our nature, and
everylprecept of political experience teach
es US, that
I-iares- The land to Fastening ills prey
Where wealth sccumalates, and men decay
then where in Ireland, in Italy, in, Poland, OIL
in Hungary, has any ruler prepared for 4
generous and confding people disappoint
ments, d saster5 and caamnities uqual tt
those which the Government Of the Unite,
State holds now suspended over SO large Q
portion OF the continent of North America
Citizens of the United States, in the spir
OF this policy. sudver,ed the free Republi,
of Nicaragus. and opened it to Slavery ant
the African Slave trade, and held il in tina
condition waiting annexation to the Unite,
States, until its sovereignty was restored b,
combination of sister Republics expose,
to the same danger, and apprebensve O
similar subversion. Other citizens re-ope n
ed the foreign S!ave-trade in violation Q
our Ia ws and treaties; and after a supenso
Of that shameful traffic for fifty years, savag
! Africans have been once more landed o
our shores and distributed, unreclaimed an
with impuniiy. among our plantations.
For this policy, so far as the Governmen
has scantioned il, the Democratic Part
avows itse It responsible. Everywhere com
plant against it is denouced, and its oppo
nents prescribed. When Kansas wss writh
| ing under the wounds of incipient, servil
war, because of her resistance, the Demo
cratic Press deridngly said, Let her bleed
Official integrity has been cause for rebuk
and punishment, when it resisted frauds de
signed to promote the extension of Slavery
Throughout the whole Republic there
not known dissenter from that policy rt
naming in place il within reach of the Elk
ecutive arm. Nor over the face Of the who
world is there to be found a representativ
of our country who is not an apologist of tn
extension .. Slavery.
i II is in America that these things hav
happened In the nineteenth century, th
era of the worlds greatest PROCESS, an
while all nations but ourselves have bee
either ubridging or altogether suppressin
commerce in men; at the very momer
when the Russian seri is emancipated. an
the Georgian captive. the Nuban prisont
and the Abyssinian savage are lifted up
the freedom bV The successor Of Mohamme'
The world, preposses,ed in our behalf
our early devotion to the rights OF huma
nature, ps no nation ever before engage
it's respect and sympathies, asks, in wol
der and nmazement, what all this dethoral
. zalion means. II has an excuse better ths
the world can imagine--better than we al
generally consciou, of our selves-a Writ
ous excuse. We have loved not Freedo
: so much less, but the Union Of our COUNT
go much more We have been made 10 b.
! leivc, from time to time, that in a cris
:, both OF these precious institutions could n
, be saved together; and therefore we hav
! from time to time, surrendered safeguar
. or freedom IN propitate the LOYALTY of car