The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1861-01-16

Hovidiug for the admission of four addition.
al slave States from Texas, consecrated
that portion added from the New Mexican
conquest east OF the Rio Grande and north
of the Missouri Compromise line to freedom
-slthough claimed BY Texss-snd left all
the rest OF the territory acquired to the con-
struction Of the Mexican law which had
abolished slavery at one time existing there
This was the second hard won pacifcation
BY which Mr.. Clay hoped to lay forever the
spectre OF disunion. founding 1t on the prin-
ciple of the Ordinance OF 1887, which had
resigned to slavery all the territory which
properly sppertAined 10 the domain OF the
slave States, reserVing that belonging to
the United States for settlement by free
men exclusively, The leading parties in
their presidential platform, ia which they
submitted their claims for the sanction OF
the popular vote of the Immediately ensuing
election, ratified this settlement OF 1850,
adding new sanction to the Missouri Com.
promise. But both these Compacts between
the States for the settlement OF the grest
sectional issues were nulli6sd by the Kan
sas Nebraska bill. This brought on the civ
il war in Kansas, waged to defeat the right
Of the people to exclude slavery from the
! sanction OF their constitution, and this fail
ing, the State itself has been excluded from
admission Into the Union, in violation oft
uniform practice of the Government from
its establishment. The repeal Of the Mis-
souri, Compromise did not satisfy the slave
propegandists. 1t did not remove the ban
against slavery in the territory acquired from
Mexico, and which might attach to other
territories thereafter acquired. To secure
the right OF taking and holding their slaves
in the territories, and to forti'y it against
Congressional interference, the supreme
Court was invoked to establish as part of
the Constitution, that the local, domestic,
State Institution of slavery was a property
which man could carry with him and hold
us property, wherever he could go himself,
and therefore it would be a violation Of the
constitution to exclude the Institution from
any territory OF the United States. As the
Constitution Of Che United States is equally
supreme in the maistenace of rights placed
under its protection whether they are con-
| travened BY the constitutions and laws of
States or Territories, the Drsd Scott decs.
ion, as interpreted by the South, opens the
whole country to the expansion of slavery.
1t is not the election OF President under
the requirments of the Constitution which
has given rise to the movement in the South.
1t is not his opinion about the extension OF
slavery, tor that is the same that was held
by the trainers of the Constitution. Nor ia
it about the Fugitive Slave Law, the judicial
decision in the Dred Scott, or other political
Issues. Nor is it personal repugnances.-
All parties agree that he is honest, capable
end faithIul; and so clear is hiS reputation
that the virnleace Of party spirit, exerted in
a struggle for the highest place, and the
greatest patronage, could not be tempted t.
assail it. The outbreak which has followed
is not the effect of an election on disap-
pointed parties. The result was anticipated
BY oil, and the occasion is only seized UpoI
as signal for the explosion of plot, lons
maturing in secret counsels, TO accomplish
Mr.. C4houn's new scheme Of govarnmen
for tho slave States,-th establishment of
Southern Conederacy. which, in the Ian.
sua ge recently pronounced by distinguished
southern Statesman, "Will expand as ou
growth and civilization shall demand; owe
NJ xco, over the isles Of the SEQ, over th
far off southern tropics, until we shall es
tablish great confederation of republic
the greatest, ireest and most useful the worl
has seen"
On the occasion OF my Inauguration, fel
it to be nv du'y to warn my countrymen o
those hostile designs against the federal Tn
ion. But they were in speculation only
Now they are in act. Shall they be con
au,nmated! Shall the national goveramen
be degraded into mere league between h
dependent States, existing only by their suf
ierance, subordinate to them and subject t
be destroyed at the pleasure of any State ir
the confederacy! Or shall it continue to b.
maintained, as it has always been maintain
| ed as government proper sovereign with
il its prescribed sphere as the States are
sovreign within their prescribed spheres
f,undad on the adoption OF the people as
we're the States, and creating direct reIotons
between itself and the individual citizen
which no State authority has power to itn-
pair or disturb; and which nothing can dis
solve but revolution.
Nenrly twenty eight years ago, the people
of Ohio, apeskjng through the Genera
Assembly, declared what ia their judgemen,
are the constitutional relations between the
Federal and State governments. | quote
but one of series OF resolves Of the Gene.
raj A AssembIy on his subject.
"That the Federal UDion exists in a sol.
emn compact entered into by the voluntary
consent of the people of the United States
and of euch and every State, and that there.
fore, no State can claim the right to secsde
from, or violate that compact, and however
greyous may be the supposed o. real bur-
thsns Of the State, the only legitimate RENE.
dy is in the wise and faith ul exercise o: the
elective franchise and solemn responsible.
ity of the public agents."
This is the judgment Of Ohio to-day.
There never was o people so thoroughly
bound together as nation as the people OF
the United States. The founders of the
government took possession OF the country
under the authority of the parent State,
acknowledging its sovereignty as binding oil
the colonies together as portion OF the same
realm. When tn y resolved upon separa.
ton, against the consent OF the supreme
power, they entered upon war to establish
republican government, embracing the
contederated colonies, to take "their places
among the nations OF the earth"Sas one and
an independent people, constituting another
nation, Of which the Articles Of Confsdera.
ton, establishing it on the basis OF "perpet.
ual union" was the evidence to tho world,
and ths covenant among themselves. The
Constitution of the United States was the
repetition of this grand national act, and,
being more emphatically the act Of the whole
people, they declared in the preamble. "We,
the people, ordain," &c, (giving the scope
of the nations funclions,) procIaiming one
of the main objects to be to make "more
perfect" the union already established as