Year: 1860

consider
Your position upon this subject to take departure
if is, even you say departure if it is but the
ahrmance of old TRUTH We ask you to re-arm it in
more distinct and unequivoca language order to
sure the Southern people of safety the party and In the
Union, and thus save both from disruption.


pass With win not so strong expression


contempt-but conceive that cannot afford to notice
any of the specious defamation and partisan arguments
that have been made here to-day We with the Con-
stuton in hand and say you if have been wrong
let together and see if we cannot be set right if
we have been right let rendorse that right in palmer
and less equivoca language IAppause. And why If
had come here my countrymen, as a disunionist-lf
had come here as dsruptionist-if had come here
as factionist-I should to you with the Ala
bama platform in my hand and present for adoption
or rejection without the dotting of '' or the
ing Of But say to you frankly while the majority
platform is not all that Alabama wants. it is not all
that Alabama asks; that while it falls short indeed of what


believe the highest policy of statesman should be, to
arrest this great evil this cancer which not only eating
into body but into the body of the country at large
from desire to harmonize-rom desire to confer with
brothers-knOwng that you represent all the sections of
this vast and magnificent Republic, willing to
together upon such platform you may make which
shall afford to protection in the South and think you
afford to yield that to u.s. especially when it will bring
to the support of your platform unified South and there
fore it that intend to vote for the majority PLATFORM
which if not giving ALL yet provides for active appl
cation of the principles substantially involved in the Ala
bama resolutions We may therefore accept that platform
with honor, and continue deliberations with you.


Gentlemen have thus shown to you that there Is con-
yictiOn minds that not safe IN the UnOn I'M
OBTAIN ddlnstra-
on of this Government upon the plainly avowed cOnstt
tonal Congressional well Executive and Judicial
protection of rights You have objected that this
new feature in Democracy. But say you have taken
jurisdiction of this question in years past In 1o44
took Jurisdiction of the slavery question: to protect from
Abolition assaults In 1848 you again took jurisdiction of
the slavery question: though to limited extent In 1852
you did the same and in 1856 when the Territorial issues
forced upon the country by the FreesOers demanded
that the Democratic party should take step farther In
advance order to be up with the progress of the times
1Iadf tot thaoa
mer platforms another plank which it then deemed
would be sufficient to meet the issues then urged And
what that plank 1t that Congress should not
intervene to abolish or establish slavery In State Terri
tory What is the fair and just meaning of this PROPOSE


on Lawyers and statesmen who in the habit of con-
STRUNG laws and constitutions by the light of experience,
and the rules which the great usts all ages have laid
down for their construction know that order to decide
what law of doubtful import you must look at the
of its enactment you must look at the evils it was
designed to correct and the remedy 1T was designed TO
give


Now then by the light of these established rules of con-
tructon let us see what s the meaning of this branch of
the Cincinnati platform. s.


First What was the subjectmatter upon which it is
based 1t the right of the of slaves to emil
CRATE and settle and hold slaves in the Territories of the
United States


Second What was the cause of the passage that
lutien 1t that the South restless and dissatisfied
with the admission of California under squatter sovereignty
princpes dissatisfied with the law orbddng the internal
slave trade between citizens of slave States and the Dis
tct of Columbia and claimed perfect freedom to go with
slaves into any Territory of the United States and to hold
them there until forbid by constitution constitutonay
formed and the admission OF the State into the Union
The South claimed the of that platform for her
protection. 1t not urged by Northern men for
utterance of squattersoveregny views No such power
urged then by any body and the South alone had that
platform made and the OF it her need for pro-
lection, political question


Third What were the evils it was designed to correct
They the doctrines maintained by Mr. Seward and
the Black Republican party to w.t. that Congress had the
power to abolish slavery in the Territories, and that 1T
its duty to do The great principle at stake the great
practical evil apprehended not only the power by
whom this could be DONE but especially could
the South be excluded from territory held by the General
Government tust for the coequal States of the Union


To assure the South these points to aay her appre
tensions and solely account Of and at the instance of
Southern demand for Congressional interference for pur
poses of protection against the free soil aggression
these Cincinnati resolutions adopted. =


The preamble forth that these resolves made
with view of meeting the issue which sectional
party subsstDg exclusively slavery agitation, (Which
clearly the Freeso party and therefore it not


made to assert the dogmas OF wing OF the Democratic
party it here and to-day claimed to have been
made The first resolution expressly asserts that it
drawn for the purpose of repudang all sectional parties
and platforms (Which, undoubtedly the Black Re-
publican and Abolition partes concerning domestic slavery,


(which seek to embro the States and ncite to treason
and armed resistance to law the Territories and there
FORE included part of the Democracy which passed
and upheld the of Kansas and which was in power in
administering the law there both Federal and Territorial
These parties had repeatedly charged the Democracy with





ouy to prevent Congress from aboshing excluding but
also to establish slavery in Territory by law To meet
these views this first resolution declared that the true
the party nontererence by Congress with slavery
in State and Territory in the District of Columbia
Still more; this nonintererence principle to govern
Congress at particular periods ony-as ia proven by the
language of the second and third resolutions The second
resolution says that this the basis rightly applied to
the organization of Territories in 1854'that is, that
this the basis of principles which the party stood
in 1S54-and that the time its application and the mode
hy 10
zatiOn of Terrories-and, therefore, it is not rightly
applied" if applied rule of Congressional duty when


Territorial law violates the equal right of property of
Southern citizen Territory. This view is still further
enforced by the last of the series of resolutions That
recognises the right of the people of all the Territories
to exclude slavery to establish it when they lawfully
form constitution and therefore is the pledge of the De-
m0cracy that its view that is the only time when they
do This is the argument derived from the face of
the Cincinnati platform-and it is unanswerabe.


Mr.. YANCEY then presented some citations from re-
marks of Mr. Brown and Mr. Butler made in the United
States Senate to show that Mr. Douglass Interpretation
the act was not the universal under
standing of the Democrats in that body 1t only Che
sa when the South had obtained advantage in Kansas
and was about the question whether another slave
State could be admitted into the Union, that this
phase of squaterism appeared practical issue under
the more euphonous name of popular sovereignty Kansas
applied for admission under the LecOmpto constitution
recognising the institution of African slavery The people
who had elected the delegates to the Convention had
qured submission of such constitution might be franz
ed. But the Convention did submit to them the vexed
question of slavery, and THAI ratified by the people
This all done Gin their way, and in strict
cordance with the organic act Mr. Douglas then for the
first time, practical tangible FORM brought forward this
astonishing doctrine that the will of the State Convention
assembled by legal authority and by the viii of the people,
clothed for the first time with the right to do sovereign
the formation of the governmental institutions OF
State, submit the result of their labors to popular
at the hustings-the Convention in which alone lies
claim to the assumption of power to make the funda
mental law in system OF republican government
must yield its Judgment to the mere masses. The
argument that the inherent right of the people to all
the powers Of seEgovernment had been invaded dogmas
of the Declaration of Independence brought forward to
assert the most revolutionary and incendary doctrines
dogmas of the Revolution brought forward for the
port of principles destructive of all binding force and
rty Of organic law; and who not mob0cracy,
who not in fact democracy in form of government,
we who have representative government, where laws
and constitutions made by representative power ought
to guard well our safety lest the wisdom judgment and
experiences of the past be thrown down and ramped upon
in the wild passionate struggle of the masses for party