The Grand Haven news. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1858-18??, 1860-09-05
Douglas Among the People.
HIS speech at the Capital Of Ne'c
Hampshire.

political community to make their own
laws, TO establish their own institutions TO
suit themselves. / claim no peculiar cred
it for advocating these principles. That
principle of popular sovereignty is as old
as free government itself II is the prin-
ciple upon which every battle of the rev.
olution was fought. Remember, for one
moment, what was the cause that led to
the Revolutionary war? What was the
demand of our fathers, the denial of
which produced the war! 1t was not in
dependence. In the beginning Of that
war our fathers did not desire independ
ence. In every petition to the Grown, in
every address to the Parliament and peo-
pie of England, our fathers set up and
protested their devotion to the British
constitution and their loyalty to the Crown
of England. That's Gods truth. Of
course it's Gods truth, or | should not
have said it. Applause. Then what
were our fathers contending for, if it was
not independence? They were contend
ing for The right of self-government in
the colonies. They demanded the right
in their own Legislatures to pass all laws
which affected the local and domestic con-
Germs of their respective colonies. They
did not deny the right Of the British
Parliament to pass laws on all subjects
which were imperial and not colonial
They did not deny the right Of the Brit
ish government to do all acts and things
which affected the general welfare of the
empire without interfering with the local
and domestic concerns of the people of
the colonies. They demanded the right
of self-govenment in each colony in re-
spect to everything that was local and in
ternal, and not imperial. And our faith
ers put forth the Declaration Of Independ-
ence only when they found they could not
get local self-government without it.
They submitted to independence as a
necessity, in order to get local selfgov-
ernment. They established the indepen-
dence of these colonies only rs a means
of acquiring the rights of local selfgov-
ernment. Thus you find that the Revo-
lutionary war is justified only upon the
ground that the people of the colonies
had a right to govern themselves in their
local matters without the interference OF
the British Parliament. We are now
told by the republicans Of the North, and
by the disunionists Of the South, that the
principle of non-intervention and popular
sovereignty is very well in the States, but
is wrong in the Territories. Laughter
and cheers. They tell us that Terrific
ry is not sovereign, and therefore has no
right TO exercise sovereign power or es-
tablish its own institutions. Let me ask
them if the colonies were sovereign when
our fathers demanded the same right Of
self-government? Our fathers demanded
this privilege, not for sovereign States
but for dependent colonies, for provinces,
for Territories, while they were dependent
and remaining in colonial and Territori-
al condition. Cheers. Our fathers de-
manded this privilege under precisely the
same circumstances that we democrats
now claim it for the people of the Terri
tories. We democrats acknowledge the
right and duty of Congress TO pass al
laws which are Federal, and not local ol
Territorial, in their character. We don't
deny the right of Congress to regulate
commerce with foreign nations, to make
war, to collect revenue, TO perform those
general acts which arc Federal and not
local in their character. But we demand
that the people of Territory, the same
as those Of colony, shall be permitted
to make their own laws and establish thei
own institutions TO suit themselves
Applause.
The republicans of New Hampshire vii
tell you that the people have no right o
self government until they become State
Have no right? Why not? Because
they say, Congress has not given then
that right. 1 have yet to learn that al
American freeman, whether in State o
Territory, derives his rights from Con
gress. Cheers. | am aware that tn
tories of the Revolution took the groun'
that the people of these colonies had n
rights except those which the King @
England granted to them in their char
ters. And they said that, inasmuch a
the colonies obtained their rights from th
Crown, why, of course, the King coul
take them away whenever he though
proper. Laughter. What did Wash
ington, and Jefferson, and Hancock, an
!. Warren, and Molly Stark say to that doc
trine9 Laughter and cheers. The
told the King of England and the Britis
i, Parliament that they did not get thei
rights from the Crown, and hence tha
! the Crown could not take them away
They told the King of England that the
!, obtained their rights from God Almighty
d and that he alone could take them away
The doctrine of the Revolutionary wa
}. was, that the right of local governmer
was Inherent in the neonle. and that henC