Year: 1860

dent ot Congress, or of the State legislatr r,, or of the territorial legislature-itis is yours, ana your constitution was made to protect your private property against the assaults ol legislative power. Cheers. We'll, now any set of principles which will de- PriVe you of your property is against the very essence of republican government, and to that extent makes you slave: for the man who has power over your property to cohliscate It, has power over your means of subsistence; and yet it is contended that al- though the constitution of the United States conferS no such power-although no State legislature has any such power, yet terri toral legislature, in the remote extremities oi the country. can confscate your property!

 A voice. "They cant do it; they an't going to do it''

 There IS but one mode, and ene alone, to abolish slavery in the territories. That mode IS pointed out in the Cincinnati plat form, which has been as much misrepresent- ed as anything have ever known. That platform declares that majority of the ac- tual residents in a territory, whenever their number IS sufficient to entite them to ad- mission as State, possess the power " to form constitution with or without domes- tlc slavery, to be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with other States" If there be squatter sovereignty Ill ths resolution, 1 have never been able to perceive 1t. If there be any reference in it to territorial legislature, it has entirely escaped my notice. It presents the clear DrIpplnIp hot f ha +b their constitution, they shall then decide whether they will have slavery or not And yet it has been stated over and over agaln that, Tn accepting the nomination under that platform, 1 indorsed the doc trlne of squatter sovereignty. I suppose you have all heard this repeated thousand times.

 A voice. " We all knew it was lie."

 Well, l am glad you did.

 How beautifully this plain principle of constitutional law corresponds with the best interests of the people! Under it, emi- grants from the north and the south, from the east and the west, proceed to the terri torres. They carry with them that proper ty which they suppose will best promote thelr material interests: they live together in peace and harmony. The question of slavery will become foregone conclusion before they have inhabitants enough to enter the Union as a State. There will then be no ' 'bleeding Kansas" in the ter ritorieS; they will all live together in peace and harmony, promoting the prosperity of the territory and their own prosperity, un- til the time shall arrive when it becomes necessary to frame constitution. Then the whole question will be decided to the general satisfaction. But, upon the oppo- site principle, what will you find in the territories? Why, there will be strife and contention all the time One territorial legislature may establish slavery and anoth- CT territorial legislature may abolish it, and so the struggle will be continued through out the territorial existence The people, instead of devoting their energies and in- dustry to promote their own prosperity, will be in state of constant strife and tur- moil just as we have witnessed in Kansas. Therefore, there is no possible principle that can be so injurious to the best interests of a territory as what has been called squat ter sovereignty.

 Now let me place the subject before you in another point of view. The people of the southern States can never abandon this great principle of State equality in the Un- ion without self-degradation. Never!" Never without an acknowledgement that l they are inferior in this respect to their sister States. Whilst it is vital to them to preserve their equality, the northern States surrender nothing by admitting this prin- ciple. In doing this they only yield obe- dience to the constitution of their country, as expounded by the supreme court of the United States. While for the north it is comparatively a mere abstraction with the south it is question of co-equal State soy- ereignty in the Union.

 If the decrees of the high tribunal estab- liShed by the constitution for the very pur- pose are to be set at naught and disregard ed, it will tend to render all property of every description insecure. What, then, have the north to do? Merely to say that, as good citizens, they will yield obedience to the decision of the supreme court, and admit the right of a southern man to take his property into the territories, and hold 1t there, ust as northern man may do; and 1t Is to me the most extraordinary thing in the world that this country should now be distracted and divided because certain persons at the north will not agree that their brethren at the south shall have the same rights in the territories which they enjoy. What would as Pennsylvanian say or do, supposing anybody was to con- tend that the legislature of any territory could outlaw iron and coal within the terri tory? Laughter and cheers. The prin- ciple is precisely the same. The supreme court of the United States have decided- what was known to us all to have been the existing state of faffairs for fifty years-that slaves are property. Admit that fact and you admit everything. Then that proper ty Tn the territories must be protected pre- cIsely Tn the same manner with any other property. If 1t be not so protected in the territories, the holders of 1t are degraded before the world

 We have been told that non-intervcntion on the part of Congress with slavery in the territories, is the true policy. Very we'll. l most cheerfully admit that Congress has no right to pass any law to establish, i'm pair, or abolish slavery in the territories- Let this principle of intervention be extended to the territorial legislature, and let it be declared that they in like manner have no power to establish, impair, or de- stroy slavery, and then the controversy is in effect ended. This is all that is requir- ed at present, and l verify believe all that will ever be required. Hands off by Con- gross and hands off by the territorial legis- lature. Loud applause. With the su- preme court of the United States, 1 hold that neither Congress nor the territorial legislature has any power to establish, i'm pair, or abolish slavery in the territories.- But if, in the face of this positive pro- hibition, the territorial legislature should exercise the power of intervening then this would be mere transfer of the Wilmot Troviso and the Buffalo platform from Con- gress, to be carried into execution in the territories, to the destruction of all proper ty in slaves. Renewed applause.

 An attempt of this kind, if made in Con- gress, would be resisted by able men on the floor of both houses. and probably defeated