Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1861-01-19
THE ANTI-sLAvERY BUGLE.

IN my power, | would not alter tho Constitution
in that respect. If misapprehension Of my posi-
ton needs so strong q remedy, l am willing to
vote for an amendment Of the Constitution, de-
claring that it shall not, by any future amend.
ments, be so altered as to confer on Congress a
power to abolish or interfere with slavery in any
State.
Thirdly. While l think that Congress has ex-
elusive and sovereign authority to legislate on all
subjects Whichever, in the com mon territories Of
the United States and while | certainly shall
never, directly or indirectly, give my vote to es-
tablish or sanction slavery in such Territories, or
anywhere else in the world, yet the question what
constitutional laws shall at anytime be passed in
regard to the Territories, is, like every other ques-
ton, to 10 determined on practical grounds. l
voted for enabling acts in the cases of Oregon,
Minnesota and Kansas, without being able to Sc
cure in them such provisions as | would hGvc pre-
ferred, and yet l voted wisely. S. now, l am well
satisfied that, under existing circumstances, o
happy and satisfactory solution OF the difficulties
in the remaining Territories would be obtained by
similar laws, providing for their organization, if
such organization were otherwise practicable.
If, therefore, Kansas we're admitted as q State,
under the Wyandotte constitution, as / think she
ought to be, and if the organic laws of all the 9TH
er Territories could be repealed, l could vote to
authorize the organization and admission of two
new States which should include them, reserving
the right to effect subdivisions of them whenever
necessary, into several convenient States but !
do not find that such reservations could be consti-
tutiOnally made. Without them, the Interior en-
barrassments which would result from the hastl
incorporation of States of such vast extent and
various inter ests and character, would outweigh
all the immediate advantages of such q measure.
But ii the measure were practicable, l should pre-
fer a different course, namely when the eccentric
movements of secession and disunion shall have
ended, in whatever form that end may come, and
the angry c%xcitements Of the hour shall have sub
sided, and calmnosS once more shall have resumed
its accustomed sway over the public mind, then,
and not until then-one, two or three years hence
j should cheerfully advise a convention of the
people, to be assembled in pursuance Of the Con-
stltution, to consider and decide whether any and
what amendments of the organic national law
be made. A Republican now-as | have hereto
fore been a member Of other parties existing in
= - 'piN hbb ObC . no 4 hdNO
always done, the principle that this Government
exists in its present form only by the consent of
the governed, and that it is as necessary as it is
wise, to vesort to the people for revisions of the
organic law when the troubles and dangers of the
State certainly transcend the powers delegated by
it to the pubic authorities. Nor ought the sug-
gestlon to excite surprise. Government in any
form is e machine; this is the most complex one
that the mind Of man ever invented, or the hand
OF man has ever framed. Perfect as it is, it ought
to be expected that it will, at least as often as once
in a century, require some modification to adapt it
to tue changes Of society and alterations of En-
pires.
Fourthly. l hold myself ready now, as always
heretofore. to vote for any properly guarded lave
which shall be deemed necessary to prevent mutu-
al invasions of States by citizens of other States,
and punish those who shall aid and abet them.