The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1861-03-16

All the efforts during she late session OF
Congress to restore peace to the country |
bv compromise and mutual concession,
were invariably met and defeated by the
republican leaders, on the ground that
thew could make no concession-that they
would not yield hair of the Chicago
platform to save dozen of Unions. II
there was any one thing clearly embraced
in that platform surely it is this, that Con
cress had the right, and ought to exercise
it, to prohibit slavery in the territories
Yet the last Congress, with its large, work
ing republican majority, passed three ter
ritoral bills, in not one Of 'chich is tie Suaect
! of s'ase,.y mentioned Instead ofprohibition,
/ to which the republican party stood So
lemnly pledged, they have, on the contra
~, engrafted in those bills, purely and
simply, the loudly derided doctrine Of
POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY! Read the follow
ing article from the Chicago Post
POPULAR sTY"-Perhaps the
majority of our readers may have read or
heard OF the words at the head of this pa
ragraph before. We have a strong recol-
lection of having written them quite fire.
ouently during q number Of years, and we
think we have heard them used very often
on the stump. Lately, that is since No
venber last, there has been little or no
thing SAID about popular sovereignty. Its
/ friends stopped praising!t, and its enemies
ceased denouncing it, and as is very Otter
the case, when both parties dropped the
. quarrel the subject took care of itself. AT
the recent session of Congress, acts were
passed establishing three new Territoria
0 yernments-Coiorado, Nevada andvDa
9 cotah. Strange as it may seem these three
acts passed Congress with little or no op
, position. They were voted for by tn
t friends of Lincoln, Douglas and Brecken
j ridge They were supported and votes
: for by the friends Of mo more slave terri
tory" and free territories by the friend
> of slave code and congressional "prc
n lection to slavery and by the most uitr
> advocates of popular sovereignty" Now
p if politicians Of all parties could agree upo
territorial acts, after the election Why coul
Il they not have done 80 before? In SCI
? tember last the Breckenridge men wer
n unyielding in their demands for
:. slave code; while the Republicans, repuci
:: at;ng alike both "squat;er sovereignty
II and - slave code would listen to noihin
~ less than an absolute prohibition O. sIaf
Sc ~ in all territory now free"
N The three acts just passed by Congres
DO not contain any prohibition Of SLAYER
l" in either of the territories. Neither {
al they provide protection to slavery" br
to horrible TO relate, they are acts frame
re upon the purest principles Of popular 5
L. vsreisnty' Those poor discomfitted ar
sadly beaten fellows, who made ihemselv
Ju h0arse durinr the last carDDaier shOutiJ
Ia for popular sovereignty, may possic
fud some comfort in the fact, that thou.
their candidates were defeated. all partit
80 for the sake of peace, harmony and JUST
be to the territories, made popular soyereig
ty' the principle Of the new territori
acts.
- This fact is another evidence OF The II,
-. liabilities ofpol.tics. The sacerd ordinap
- Of s. is forgotten, aad all parties, AFT
Is election, IA. bGc.l upon poor, derided, a
st much abused popular sovereignty.