Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-07-02

Mr.COX. Ihave let the gentleman speak
some time; buthe has not returned the cour-
tesy by answering my question. answer
ed his frankly. What | want to know is
whether or not he thinks slavery is already
dead. -. .r-
Mr.. SLOAN. No, sir; but 1 think it is
dying, and i think the loyal and patriotic
men of this country will trample its life out
in this civil war and rebellion.
Mr.. COX. The gentleman from Wiscon-
sin, of all others, is not the man to talk in
that way, for the reason that he was Oppos-
ed to the execution of this fugitive slave
law long before this rebellion broke out. l
understood the gentleman upon this floor
to confess that he once took the ground that
that law should not be executed, and he
proposed-to use the tenderest expression
something seditious, something rebellious
"a resistance to the Federal Government
wheni it undertook to carry out that law in
the State of Wisconsin. / ask the Clerk,
as part of the logic of the history of the
gentleman, to read what 1 send to him.
The Clerk read as follows:
Joint resolution relative to the decision Of the
United States Supreme Court regarding the Su-
preme Court Of Wisconsin.
"ResozUed That the Government framed by the
Constitution Of the United States was not made the
exclusive final judge of the extent Of the powers
delegated to ITSELF but that, in all other cases OF
compact among parties having no common judge
each party has equal right to Judge for itself as
well of infractions as Of the mode and measure Of
"Resolped That the principle and construction
contendod for by the party which now rules in the
councils of the nation, that the General Govern
ment is the exclusive judge of the extent OF the
powers delegated to it, stop nothing short Of despot-
Government, and not the Constitution, would be the
measure of their powers; that the several States
which formed that instrument, being sovereign and
tN,1a
of its infraction and hata p0Sit6e defiance those
sopeyeignsies of ait unauthorized acts done, or at
tempt to be done, under color of that instrument,
is the rIghtful remedy.
Approved March 10, 1859.
ALEXANDER w. RANDALL, Gore'nor."
Mr.. COX. These resolutions were not
the impulsive throbbings of popular meet
ing, sympathizing in hot blood with the
painting fugitive" but the cool action of q
deliberative assembly of legislative NAL
contents, determined TO provoke, defy, and
resist the Federal Government. The gen.
tleman defended that action. Where does
he belong? With what grace can he ap-
pear here to justify, as present necessity,
the repeal of that law which he dehed when
no necessity existed, except the necessity
for good faith in its execution? He is not
the man to make the question for its pres
ent repeal. He must justify his lorcible re-
sistance to the law anterior to this civil war.
He should be placed on the list of rebels,
and only one-tenth of his nature be allow
ed, on repentance, to express itself through
him!
wish to say further, just here, that these
resolutions are in part copied from the old
Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. but not
interpreted as we Democrats interpret them.
We interpret these resolutions to mean that
the mode and measures of redress which
any State might take for the remedy of
grievances should be in pursuance of the
Constitution by the amendments thereof.
This is Mr.. Madison's Interpretation of the
Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. But
the Legislature of Wisconsin and the gen.
tlemen in its defense, as well as the Repub-
licans in Ohio who proposed similar reso-
lutions in our State, when they soughtto ar
ray Ohio against the United States, gave to
them an Interpretation precisely similar to
that given by South Carolina and Alabama
when they passed their secession ordinan-
ces. Claiming the sovereign independence
of the State, and that the Federal Govern
ment by making itself the exclusive judge
of the powers delegated to it, and the un-
questionable right of the State to judge of
the infraction of the Constitution, these
Republican diSumiOniSts of March, 1852
hurled down the glove of ''positive def
ance," and prepared, as they did in Ohio,
'the rightful remedy" by forcible resist
ance. South Carolina bettered their exam
pie. With the same plentiful lack of pat
riotism and the same plentiful supply of
sedition, she and her sisters in rebellion
initiated this bad example.
Mr.. SLOAN. Will the gentleman allow
me word?
Mr.. COX. No, sir, not now. I want the
other resolution read.
Mr.. SLOAN. | appeal to the gentleman
in fairness to allow me word in reply.
Mr.. COX. | think / have done very
fairly by you.
Mi. SLOAN. think not.
Mr.. COX. Before the Clerk reads the
other resolution allow me to say that while
the revolutionary resolutions approved by
Governor Randall were pending in the
Wisconsin Legislature, Mr.. Horn offered
the following as a substitute, which was
rejected by ayes 36, noes 49-a strict party
vote; the Democratic voting aye, ana the
Republicans no.
The Clerk read as follows:
"Whereas it would lead to anarchy and a dissolu-
ton Of the Union if the Interpretation OF the Com
stitution should be usurped by the different State
United States, where it was placed by those who
mutually pledged to each other their lives, their
fortunes, and their sacred honor Therefore,
ReS0tDed, That we will abide by the decisions OF
the Supreme Court Of the United States, declared
by said court to be constitutional without regard to
our priv-te views and feelings"
. Mr.. cox. The gentleman defends this
action in voting down such resolutions. lie
thereby defended and helped along the
causes of ''dissolution." Is he not, there
fore, equally with the reyolutionists South
guilty of bringing these dire calamities up
on the land? Hai's
HERE JIM ASHLEY vENTURED IN AND GOT
NAULED. THAT PART OF Mr.. CoX's SPEECH
WE HAVE ALREADY PRINTED.-ED. STATES
MANI s.l s3 .r-Jen
cox TAKES RAKING FIRE ATsTHE GROUP!
assert that these gentlemen in their res
olutions and conduct proposed to array the
States in armed hostility against the Federal
Union. Oh yes! they talk now against
State rights, as if these rights were the
teteiTimd cduso bell. If State rights carried
into rebellion be the cause, how will these
gentlemen escape condemnation? Failing
to observe the limitations of the Constitu-
tion and the reservations therein to the
States, they do not want any State to have
its rights now, not now. Not SO in 1859. |
AT that time they were for giving the States
all sovereign rights, including notification
and resistance by force against the Federal |
authority. When the Democrats appealed
to the country for the right OF the Federal
Government to exercise the powers clearly |
delegated to it under the Constitu- |
tion with respect to fugitiyes from labor |
these devotees of the new gospel of black |
liberty cried out In chorus: mo, no! All |
these laws passed in pursuance of the Con- |
stitution come in collision with our pecu- |
liar notions of the higher law of our con- |
Al.