The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1863-11-12

bringing in Slave State for every Free State
that entered the Union. 1t was also design
by the South to employ the influence Of
Government to form Slave State policy
under Government. They meant to fill
all the offices at home and abroad with men
loyal 70 slavery Z. Theys.:mesnt.to shut up
the road they did it effectually-to
political prefernent against men who desir
ed to use 1t for freedom. They meant to
corrupt the young and ambitious by pledg-
ing them to swear fealty to Slavery. am
speaking what know. have seen the
progressive corruption Of men, naturally
educated in the doctrines OF liberty, but
bribed by political corruption until they
went also through the fire tc Moloch. This
corruption Of men TO the Northern con.
science was applied to the whole political
system. A far more dangerous part Of the
Southern policy was a change Of the Con-
stitution, not overtly-not by any external
aggression. The courts were filled with
Southern Judges, until first by laws of Con-
gress passed through Southern influence,
and next by the interpretations and adjudi-
cations put lgpon them by servile judges,
the laws and Constitution of the country
were little by little turned to accomplish
the objects ef Slavery. Mr.. Beecher he. e
read longi extract from an old speech of
Mr.. Stephens. the Vice. President of the
Southern Confederacy, cxpostuating with
some impatient Georgians,.. ..iwho wished..to
dissolve the Union, and pointing out to them
how the South had filled all the offices Of
the. State aud the courts of Justice with its
own partisans, and how much more advan-
tageous was such policy than the policy
Of disunion. & Was:there ever, Mr. Beecher
continued, such an indictment drawn up
against anysspeople 'fas this, which Mr..
Stephens has unconsciously supplied, in q
speech which he little thought at the time
would be reported, brought North, and be
read by me to an English audience. Here
he has laid our country on the dissectng
block, cut bare. to the heart, showed US the
blood and the nerves, opened the brain, and
showed us what has been the Southern poll
icy for the last fifty years. The policy
of the South, steadily pursued, has been,
then, so to control the Territories, and so to
control the Government, as to establish
slave influence throughout North America.
The North hates slavery, and having rid
itself Of it at its own cost, had meyer been
able, until this war, to touch Slavery direct
ly. They could only sgct against slave
policy. Why? Because slavery was a
creature, not Of national Will and therefore
subject to the nation. but of State laws. and
subject only to State jurisdiction. A di-
rect assault on the part of the North against
slavery would have been revolution, it
would have been violation of the funda-
mental princ, ,,le Of state independenc, This
peculiar structure of our Government is not
so nninteligible to Englishmcu as you may
think. 1t is only taking an English idea
on a larger scale which we have borrowed
from, You. I am not very well posted in
your affairs, but the 6hamberlain will cor
rect me if am yrnng when ] say that I
believe that in the city of London there
are certain private rights that Parliament
cannot medde with, while there are, of
ntla in, d.
is Just as supreme over the city of London,
as over any city or town in the kingdom.
That is just the principle Of the American
Constitution. by which certain local matters
belong to the local jurisdiction, 'and certain
general matters to the National Government.
will give you another illustra.ion which
viii bringit more home to your heads and
bosoms. There is not a street in London
where, once shut in his house, householder
may not say. "My house is my CASTLE"
There Is no law in the realm which shall
decide of how many members his family
shall consist, how he shall dress his children,
when they shall get up and when they shall
go to bed, how many meals they shall have.
There is no law to regulate the interior
econ omy of household, and yet there are
many respects in which every household er
is bound by the common out-in-the- street
law. Our States are households free to reg
ulate their private interior economy, yet
subject to the General Government in mat
ters which are national and governmental
1t may be very wrong to give child opium,
but not doctor in London could 60 in to a
man who chose to drug his cEild and say,
"You shall not do it," 1t is his business,
and you can't interfere. Again, will give
you another illustration. Five men form
partnership Of business. That partnership
relates only to certain commercial interests.
In his private sphere man may bea drunk
ard, gambler, lecherous, or indecent, but
his partners cannot 4edaie with his family
matters they can toi,ch nothing but bust.
ness interests. Our States came together
with this doctrine, that each State. in res
pect to the interests and institutions local
and peculiar to it, it was to have undivided
sovereignty, but that all other questions
such as taxes, wars, treaties of peace, which
belong to all-went into the General Gov
ernment The General Government had
no more power than was delegated to it.,
and the power TO meddle with the interior
and domestic economy of State was never
given to it. You will ask how we are do
ing it now! will tell you in due time