Year: 1860

eXpounded by the Supreme Court OF the
United States. While for the North it is
comparatively mere abstraction, with the
South it is a question of co-equal State soy
ereignty in the Union.


If the DEGREES of the high tribunal estab,
lished by the Constitution for the very pur
pose are to be set at naught and disregarded, |
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 Southern man to take his
property into the Territories, and bold it,
there, just as a Northern man may do; and
it is to me the most extraordinary thing in
the world that this country should now be
distracted and divided because certain per-
sons 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 Pennsylvania say or
do, supposing anybody was to contend that


the legislature of any Territory could out,


law iron and coal within the Territory


Laughter and cheers The principle is


precisely tie same. The Supreme Court Of


the United States have decided-what was


known to us all to have been the existing


state of affairs for fifty years-that slaves


are property. Admit that fact, and you


admit everything. Then that property


in the Territories must be protected pre-


cisely in the same manner with any other


propertv. If it be not so protected in The


Territories, the holders Of it are degraded


before the world.


We have been told that non.intervontion


on the part of Congress with slavery in the


Territories is the true policy. Very well.


most checrfully admit that Congress has


no right to pass any law to establish, impair


or abolish slavery in the Territories. Let


this principle of non intervention be extend


ed to the territorial legislatures, and let ii


be declared that they in like manner have


no power to establish, impair or destroy


slavery, aad then the controversy is in effect
ended. This is all that will ever be requir-


ed. Hands off by Congress and hands of


by the territorial legislature. Loud ap


plause.


With the Supreme Court Of the U. States
I hold that neither Congress nor the terrific
. rial legislature has any power to establish
impair or abolish slavery in the Territories
. But if in the face of this positive prohibi
} ton, the territorial legislature should exer
f else the power of intervening, then thi
would be mere transfer of the Wilmo
5 proviso and the Buffalo platform from Con
9 gress. to be carried into execution in til,


Territories to the destruction of all propogtl
in slaves. Renewed applause.


!! An attempt of this kind, if made in Con
: gress, would be resisted by able men on th


floor Of both houses, and probably defeated
o Not so in a remote Territory. To every nev
t Territory there will be a rush Of free soiler
= from the Northern States. They woult
f. elect the first territorial legislature befor
!. the people of the South could arrive wit
# their property, and this legislature woul
1 probably settle forever the question of slave
o ry according to their own will.


o And shall we for the sake Of squatte
C sovereignty, which, from its nature, can onl
n continue during the brief period of terrific
II rial existence, incur the risk of dividing th
n great democratic party of the country int
o two sectional parties, the one North and tn
it other South ? Shall this great party, whiC
y has governed the country in peace and wa
IT which has raised it from humble beginuin
N to be one Of the most prosperous and powe
lie full nations in the world shall this party
d broken up for such cause That is IL
n question. The numerous, powerful, piou
1t and respectable Methodist Church has bee
9r thus divided The division was a sever
d shock to the Union. A similar division


the great democratic party, should it col
J tinue, would rend asunder one of the mo


powerful links which bind the Union t.
Of gcther.


st entertain no such fearful apprehension
is The present issue is transtory, and wi
le speedily pass away. In the nature of thin!
J. it cannot continue. There is but one poss
ty Bile contingency which can endanger IL
ir Union; and against this all democrat
in whether squatter soyereigns or popular so
~ ereigns, will present united resstanc
re Should the time ever arrive when Northel
le ogitation and fanaticism shall proceed
10 far as to render the domestic 6resides of Il
~ South insecure, then and not till then W
Y, the Union bein danger A united Northe
ry democracy will present wall of fire again
ne such catastrophe!


to There are in our midst numerous perso
IS who predict the dissolution of the gre
C, democratic party, and others who conte
Ie, that it has already been dissolved. I
y, wish is the father to the thought 1t
be been heretofore in great peril but VIII
b. divided for the moment it has always clos
Ia. up its ranks and become more powerf
i'll even from defeat. 1t will never die whi
*, the Constitution and the Union surviv
ng It will live to protect and defend both.
cir has its roots in the very vitals of the Ct
mt stitution, and, like one of the ancient ced
'ed of Lebanon, it will flourish to afford shell
BILE and protection to that sacred instrume
est and to shield it against every storm OF
zen ton. Renewed applause.]


Now, friends and fellow.citizens, it
on probable that this is the last political spe
the that l shall ever make. A voice,
eat hope not ~ 1t is now nearly forty "
ion since FIRST came to Washington as a nj
ev- Der of Congress, and | wish to say this nj
Al L = l.~.a 49,.