The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1860-03-31
Daniel 9. Dickinson ON Popular sover-
efVafy.

to defeat the nomination of Judge Doug
las At Charleston, have made the Hon.
DAxL 8. Dickinson, of n. Y, their pet can
didate against Douglas in the Northern
states. The President and his cabinet, of
course, stoutly deny (what is apparent to
every man of sense) that they are actual
ed IN their hostility to Judge Douglas by
motives purely of personal spite, but place
their opposition on the ground of his
"squatter sovereignty heresy,'' as they call
it. Now let us see where where Danl s.
Dickinson stands in reference to the same
"heresy." correspondent of the st.
Louis Republican has been looking up his
record, and finds the following:
In the Congressional Globe, page q, We
find on perusing the proceedings of the
Senate, l4th December, 1917. that Mr.
DICKINSON introduced the following resolu-
tons:
"Resoiced, That true policy requires the
government of tho United States to
strengthen its political relations upon this
continent, by the annexation of such con-
tiguous Territory as may conduce to that
end and can be justly obtained, and that
neither in such acquisition, nor in the ter
ritorial organization thereof, can any con-
ditions be constitutionally imposed, or in
inconsistent with the right of the people
thereof, to form free sovereign State,
with the powers and privaledges of the
original members of the Confederacy.
Resolred, That in organizing territorial
government for territory belonging to the
United States, the principles Of self-gov-
eminent, upon which our federative sys-
tenn rests, will be best promoted, the true
spirit and meaning OF the Constitution be
observed and the confederacy strength
ened by leaving all questions concerning
the domestic policy therein, to the LeSls-
latures chosen by the people thereof"
Discussing these resolutions, see Senate
Proceeding January II, lS4S, p. 49, Con-
gressional Globe, Mr.. Dickinson declares
that they don bring into the Senate the
" vexed question of slavery, but propose
to transfer it hence, and leave under the
all questions concerning the
erection or prohibition of this institution
in the Territories to the inhabitants
thereof
He argue. [See Ibid, p 1891: 1T must
be conceded by all that Congress has no
inherent power over this subject, and no
more right to legislate concerning it than
the British Parliament, unless such au-
thority is delegated by tho Constitution"
He then proceed. critically to examine
the question, decides it in the negative,
and explaines away the presidents of the
Missouri Compromise. DC, by the "acqui-
essence of the people
The terri. cries may ae1uiesce in such an
= interference by Congress, but this gives
to Congress no Constitutional right to en-
force its legislation upon the people Of the
territories against their will, and much less
does it prohibit the people of the state in
embryo from exercising their own inherent
right Of sovereignty in their domestic affairs
/ again italicize, because he thus ex-
plains The Republican theory teaches
that sovereignty resides with the people of
State and not with its political organiza-
ton, and the Declaration of Independence
recognizes the rights of the people to al
ter and abolish, or reconstruct their Gov
eminent. II sorereigtty reside, in the people
and not an the or9a.=atton, ii rests as ccH urd
the people q a territory an all that concern,
Their internal condition, as Nth the people Of az
organized state. And if it is the right Of
the people, by virtue of their innate SOY
erelgnty, to alter or establish and recon
struct their Government, it is the right o
the inhabitants Of territory. by virtue O
, the same Unborn attribute, in all that ap
pertains to their domestic concerns, te
| fashion one suited to their condition"
Contendins that the people Of a terrific
ry, even if they acquiesced in the form o!
government: proposed to them by the Fe
deral Government, could alter it, he con
tInues-
Although the Government Of terri
tory has not the same sovereign power as
the Government of q state. IN ats political re-
Lati0nS the people of territory have in all
that appertains to their internal condition
THE SAME SOVEREIGN RIGHTS AS THE PEOPLE OF
A STATE.
Dwelling upon these principles of self
government, he denounces the converse
principle which practically allows \.
Y, Massachusetts,, and other Atlantic
states, to give local laws to the people Of
Oregon, Minnesota and Nebraska. to whom
and TO whose interest, wishes and condi
ton, they are stangers; he quotes with
approval that the inhabitants of Oregon
three thousand miles distant, had success
fully established a provisional government
in which, of their own volition, eyprohib
| tied domestic slarery in tie territory.
He continues, See ibid, PIP. l59, 160,-
Il have already shown that the whole
! structure OF our system favors the idea o.
domestic government to the people Of the
territories. that it was right"
ANY system, which denies this, in the
DRY or practice, or which seeks to with
/ hold it from the primary settlements until
they shall become populous and mature
states, IS made in the same spirit of popu
| lar distrust by which the few have, from
| the earliest history of man, under the plea
OF necessity, been endeay0riHg to restrain
the many in the exercise of freedom. 1t
inculcates a system of slavery tenfold
more ahject than that it processes to dis
countenance"
Now in the face of such expressions
was there ever greater hypocrisy thar
that of the administration sending Greer
to Missouri, Gwin to California, &c, &c, t.
labor with the conventions of those state
to instruct for Dickinson and agains
Douglas, on the question of popular SOY
ereignty. The truth is, that not oul
Dickinson, but every prominent dcmocra
in the nation who has opened his head o
the subject, can be quoted as having ur
qualifiedly endorsed the Douglas doctrin
within the last ten years, and no one eve
raised a question as to its orthodoxy, III
til, for the basest of purposes, in the ia
of ds5., James Buchanan and his cabine
made the discovery, for the first time, tina
the doctrine was heretical
HOWELL Conn DEcIISEs-Howell Cobb
: of Ga, has written a letter in which b
says: