The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-08-01
VnO.nns ". BarfIeu,s Speech at the

We have but little time an sAill less incli
nation to make much notice Of The above gen
~tleuan's speech. a man that has eadea~ec
himself 70 the people and more particularly
the Democracy of Ashland county, as he ha
done, is a fit subject to throw the fre-brand O
disorganization into the Democratic ranks O
our county, a Fit subject to preach arg kline
of doctrine -te-the people of Ashland
But some of his positions were so strange, 81
anti-democratc, and in so direct contradiction
to his own expresseduopiniens, that-we fee
forced to note some of his political positions
both of the past and present. In 1847, Judge
4 BARLEY wrote a letter to Jacob Brinkerhoff
then a political friend of his, the main pur
Iport of which was, that every measure proposed
or sustained by the, South, was, nothing, from
beginning to end, but Southern artiice and
Southern treachefy.a In that letter he an
nounces himself. a supporter of the Wilmot
Proyiso, making use of the following language:
i discover that great efforts ale making in
Congress to place TWO or three millions ofdol-
lars in the, hands of the President, to use in
efscting a peace with Mexico. For. one, 1
say that under no circumstances whatever
HOdtQ L 1ICAQ TIE HIlh - 7 IL
southern territory is to be purchased aoa1,
noae is the time, andsthe only efFectual time, to
say SLAVERY or not sLdUery. 1 am aware that
some of our Democratic friends say that the
question of slavery ought, not to be drawn into
this matter / am sorry they are so blind or
needless of the evident.designs of southern
politicians. gzdz s z:stf ats
- 1t is time-high time, that northern and
western democrats should not be hoodwinked
by, southern politicians and southern articles,
and southern treachery. No man of common
Esagacity, whose senses are not %deiuded, can
have any doubt about the design and the sole
design of southern politicians. IF 1 were in
Congress, L would see the political elements
~crumble into dissolution, before I would be
overreached by southern treachery.
This was in 1847. The compromise meas
ures of 1850, of course, had not yet agitated
the public mind The Kansas-Nebraska Bill,
passed in the year 1854, and the provisions of
which were emphatically endorsed by the Gin
Fcinnati platform, upon which Mr.. Buchanan
was elected, had not yet caused its great de-
fender, Stephen A. Douglas, to be burnt in
efigy in almost every township in the North
ern States. Butt the year 1854, after the
passage of that bill, we hear from Judge Bart
ley again. He then made a speech, which
was considered so good an exposition of that
bill, that, by request of a large number of
Democrats, it was published in pamphlet form.
The following is an extract from that speech
which was considered at the time a correct ex-
PLANTATION of. its provisions. He lays this
down as his first and principal proposition. I
1. ThelegislatiUe control Of eUery people oyer
their o1cn Internal affairs and dom este institu-
mons, is an essential attribute of popular sove-
reignty, The relation of master and slave,
like all the other private or domestic relations,
is an institution Of local municipal law. The
regulations of the internal police, and of the
descent and distribution of property are no
more appropriately and exclusively the sub
jects of local municipal law, than the rights
and incidents arising out of the relations of
husband and wife, parent and child, guardian
and ward, and master and slave. The 1egisla-
tive or law making power, is the supreme pow
er of every State or people. In the United
States a limited Legislative authority is confer
red upon Congress; but it is expressly confined
to objects general and national in their char
acter; and all other legislative power is reserv-
ed to the people, to be exercised through their
State or Territorial Legislative bodies. This
high p~rerogative of sovereignty, therefore,
which enables every people to regulate their
own internal affairs and domestic institutions
for themselves, belongs to the people of each
State, and of each territory respectively. No
people stripped of this great birth right of free
men, can claim to be a free people. .
This inherent attribute of sovereignty was
solemnly declared by the fathers of our repub-
lie in the American Revolution; and one of
the enumerated wrongs in the declar- ton of
independence charged against the BritishG Gov
eminent, was "For suspending our oacn legis-
lntures, and declaring them selOes INFESTED loith
po,cer to ~6egtslate for us IN all cases aohdtso-
euer." In forming the national confederacy
the colonies in an especial manner, guarded
themselves against any interference with the
Legislative power of each over its own internal
affairs and domestic concerns. Virginia in
her instructions to her delegates in the Conti-
mental Congress, imposed the following condi-
ton In her assent to the declaration of inde-
pendence.
providing, that the power. of forming govern
ment for, and making the regu ations of the internal
concerns of the Colony, be left to the respective
Colonial legislatures" affs+ e
The instructions of Pennsylvania contained
also the following condition 81,
Preserving to the people of this Colony the sole
and exclusive right of regulating the internal gov
eminent and police Of the same"
Connecticut, New Hampshire and other
colonies made similar reservations OF authorl-
ty. Indeed, the whole history Of the origin. of
our national confederacy, and of the formation
! of the constitution of the United States, shows
a marked and jealous precaution on the part
of the colonies to guard themselves from any
interference with the legislative control of
each over its own internal affairs.
And this principle was fully carried out in
the formation of the government, leaving each
State in the exclusive control over its own To-
cal domestic institutions. And the doctrine
of non-intervention, is nothing more than the
application to the Territories of this funda-
mental principle, asserted by the thirteen colo
mics and established by the American %reyolu-
ton. Tits certainly as clearly applicable to
the people of the Territories of this republic,
as it was to the people of the colonies under
Great Britain. oFl-rc - .
In this, as will be seen, he lays down the