THE STAR OF THE NORTH.
H. W. Weaver, Preprieter.]
VOLUME 7.
THE STAR OF THE NORTH
IS PUBLISHED EVERT THURSDAY MORNINU BV
R. W. Wit AVER,
OFFICE—Dp stairs , in the new brick build
ing, on the south si-It vf Main Steerl,
third square btiow Market.
TERMS s—Two Dollars per annum, if
paid within six months from the time of sub
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■paid within the year. No subscription re
ceived for a less period than six months; no
discontinuance permitted until all arrearages
are paid, unless at the option of the editor.
ADVERTISEMENTS not exceeding one square
will be inserted three times for One Dollar
and twenty-five cents for each additional in
sertion. A liberal discount will be made to
those who advertise by the year.
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.
FtUoto Citizens of the Senate and of the House
of Representatives:
TREASURY.
The statements made, in my last annual
message, respecting the anticipated receipts
mud expenditures of the Treasury, have been
substantially verified.
It appears ftom the report of the Secretary
f the Treasury, that the receipts daring the
last fiscal year ending June 30, 1855, from
ll sources, were sixty-five million threo
thousand nine hundred and thirty dollars;
and that the public expenditures for the same
period, exclusive of payments on account of
the public debt, amounted to fifty-six million
three hundred and sixty-fire thousand three
hundred and ninety-lhref dollars. During
the same period, the payment made in re
demption of the public debt, including in
terest and premium, amounted to nine mil
lion eight hundred and forty-four thousand
five hundred and twenly-eichl dollars.
The balance in the Treasury at the begin
ning ot the present fiscal year, July 1, 1855,
■was eighteen million nine hundred and
tbirty-one thousand nine hundred and seven
ty-six dollars; the receipts for the first quar
ter, and the estimated receipts lot the remain
ing three quarters, amount, together, to
aixty-seven million nine hundred and eigh
teen thousand seven hundred end thirty-four
dollars; thus affording in all, as the Available
resources of the cunent fisral year, ttie sum
of eighty-six million eight hundred and
fifty-fix thousand seven hundred and ten
dollars.
If, to the actual expenditures of the fiiet
quarter of the current fiscal year, be added
the probable expenditures for the three re
maining quarters, ae estimated by the Sec
retary of the Treasury; the sum total will be
seventy-one million (wo hundred and twen
ty-six thousand eight hundred and forty-six
dollars, thereby leaving an estimated bal
ance in the treasury on July 1, 1856, of fif
teen million six hundred and twenty-three
thousand eight hundred and sixty-lbree dot- j
I are and forty-one cents.
In the above estimated expenditures of the
preseat fiscal year are tcluded three million I
dollars to meet the last instalment of the ten '
millions provided for in tbe late treaty with !
Mexico, and seven million seven hundred ,
end fifty thousand dollars appropriated on
account of the debt due to Texas, which
two sums make an aggregate amount ol ten
million seven hundred and fifty thousand ,
dollars, and reduce the expenditures, actual;
or estimated, for ordinary objects of the j
year, to the sum of sixty million four hundred ;
and seventy-six thousand dollars.
The amount of the public debt, at the !
commencement of the present fiscal year,
wee forty million five hundred and eighty
three thousand six hundred and thirty-one
dollars, and, deduction being made of subse
quent payments, the whole public debt of
the federal government remaining at this
time is leu than forty million dollars.
The remnant of certain other government
stocks, amounting to two hundred and forty
three thousand dollars, referred to in my last
message as outstanding, has since been paid.
I am folly persuaded that it would be dif
ficult to devise a system superior to that, by
which the fiscal business ol the government
is now conducted. Notwithstanding the great
number of pnblic agents of collection and
disbursement, it it believed that the checks
and guards provided, including the require
ment of monthly returns, render it scarcely
possible for any considerable fraud on the
part of thoae agents, or neglect involving
hazard of aerioos public loss,to escape detec
tion. 1 renew, however, the recommenda
tion, heretofore made by me, of the enact
ment of a law declaring it felony on the part
of pnblic officers to insert false entries in their
books of record or account, or to make false
returns, and also requiring them on the ter
mination of their service to deliver to their
successors all books, records, and other ob
jects of a pnblic nature in their custody.
Derived as onr public revenue is, in chief
part, from duties on imports, its magnitude
affords gratifying evidence of the prosperity,
not only of onr commerce, but of the other
great interests upon whioh that depends.
The prinoiple that all moneys not required
for the current expenses of the government
should remain for active employment in the
hand* of the people, and the conspicuous fact
that the annual revenue from all sources ex
ceeds, by many millions of dollars,the amount
needed for a prudent and economical admin
istration of public affairs, canoot fail to sug
gest the propriety of an early revision and
reduction of the tariff of duties on imports.—
It la new so generally eonceded that the pur
pose of revenue alone oan justify the imposi
tion of duties on imports, that, in re-adjusting
the impost tables and schedules, which un
questionably require essential modifications,
a departure from the principles of the present
tariff is not anticipated.
BLOOMSBURG, COLUMBIA COUNTY, PA., THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1856.
POST OFFICE.
J It will be perceived by the report of the
| Postmaster General, that the gross expendi
j : JS of the department lor the last fiscal year
• - r u millions nine hundred and sixty-
I' asand three hundred and forty-two
jnd the gross receipts seven million
t hundred and forty-two thousand one
I bun :red and thirty-six dollars, making an ex
cess of expenditure over receipts of two mil
lion six hundred and twenly-six thousand
two hundred and six dollars; and that the
cost of mail transportation during that year
was six hundred and seventy-four thousand
nine hundred and fifty-two dollars greater
than the previous year. Much of the heavy
expenditures, to whiub the Treasury is thus
subjected, is to be ascribed to the large quan
tity of printed matter conveyed by tbe mails,
either franked, or liable to no postage by law,
or to very low retes of postage compared with
that ohatged on letters; and to the great cost
of mail service on railtoade and by ocean
steamers. The suggestions of the Postmaster
General on the subject deserve the consider
ation of Congresa.
INTERIOR.
The report of the Secretary of the Interior
will engage our attontion, as well for useful
suggestions it contains, as for the interest
and importance of tbe subjects to whicb they
refer.
The aggregate amount of public land sold
during the last fiscal year, located with mili
tary scrip or land warrants, taken up undet
grants for roads, and selected as swamp lands
by States, if twenty-four million five hund
red and filty-seven thousand four hundred
and nine acres; of which the portion sold
was fifteen million seven hundred and twen
ty-nine thousand five hundred and twenty
four acres, yielding in receipts the sum of
eleven million four hundred and eighty-five
thousand three hundred and eighty dollars.
In the same period of time, eight million
seven hundred and twenty-three thousand
eight hundred and fifty-four acres have been
surveyed ; but, in consideration of the quan
tity already subject to entry, no additional
tracts have been brought imo market.
The peculiar relation of tbe general gov
ernment to the District of Columbia renders
it proper to commend to your care not only
its material, but also its moral interests, in
cluding education, more especially in those
parts ot the district outside of the cities of
Washington and Georgetown.
The commissioners appointed to revise
and codify the laws of the District have made
tch progress in the performance of their
Ukk, as to insure its completion in the lime
prescribed by the act of Congress.
IfTurmaliou has recently been received,
that tte peace of the settlements in (he Ter
ritories of Oregon and Washington is distur
bed by hostilities on the part of the Indians,
with indications of extensive combinations of
*. hostile character among tho tribes in that
quarter, the more serious in their passible ef
fect by reason of the undetermined foreign
inierests existing in those Territories, to
which your attention has already been espe
oii !y invited. Efficient measures have been
t-r which, it is believed, will lestore qui
et, ? d ntford protection to our citizens.
In of Kansas, there havebeec
acts prejudicial to good order, but as yet none
have occurred under circumstances to justify
the interposition of the federal Executive.—
That couid only be in case of obstruction to
federal law, or of organized resistance to ter
ritorial law, assuming the character of insur
rection, which, if it should occur, it would be
my duty promptly to overcome and suppress.
I cherish the hope, however, that the occur
rence ol any such untoward event will be
prevented by the sound sense of tha people
of the Territory, who, by its organic law,
possessing the right to determine their own
domestic institutions, are entitled, while de
porting themselves peacefully, to the free ex.
ercise of that right, and must be protected
in the enjoyment of it, without interference
on the part of the citizens of any of the
States.
The southern boundary line of this Terri
tory has never been surveyed or established.
The rapidly extending settlamentajn that re
gion, and the fact that the main ronte be
tween Independence in the Stale of Missou
ri, and new Mexico, is contiguous to this
line, suggest the probability that embarrass
| ing questions of jurisdiction may consequent
ly arise. For these and other considerations,
I commend the subject to your early atten
tion.
coaenTunoMAL THEORY or THE GOVERNMENT.
I have thns passed in review the general
state of the Union, including each partlculat
concerns of the federal government, whether
of domestio or foreign relation, as it appear
ed to me desirable and useful to bring to the
special notice of Congress. Unlike the great
stales of Europe and Asia, and many of
those of America, these U°iicd 'States are
wasting tbeir strength neither in foreigu war
nor domestic strife. Whatever of discontent
or public dissatisfaction exists, is attributable
to the imperfections of human nature, or is
incident to all governments, however per
fect, which human wisdom can devise. Suoh
snbjects of political agitation, as occupy the
publio mind, consist, to a great extent, of
exaggerxlion of inevitable evils, or over zeal
in social improvement, or mere imagination
of grievance, having bat remote connexion
with any of the constitutional functions or
.duties of the federal government. To what
ever extent these questions exhibit* ten
dency menacing to the stability of the con
stitution, or the integrity of tbe Union, and
no farther, tbey demand (he consideration oi
the Executive, and require to be presented
by him to Congress.
Before the thirteen Colonies became a
confederation of independent States, they
were associated only by community of traos-
Aiiantic origin, by geographical position,
and by the mutual tie of common depen
dence on Great Britain. When that tie was
sundered, they severally assumed the powers
and rights of self-government. The munici
pal arid social institutions of each, its laws
of property and of personal relation, even its
political organization, were such only as each
one chose to establish, wholly without inter
ference from any other. In the language of
(he Declaration of Independence, each State
bad "full power to levy war, conclude peace,
contract alliances, establish commerce, and
to do all other acts and things which inde
pendent States may of right do." The sev
eral colonies differed in climate, in soil, in
natural productions, in religion, in systems
of education, in legislation, and in the forms
of political administration ; and they contin
ued to differ in these respects when they
voluntarily allied themselves as States to
carry on the war of the revolution.
The object of that war was to disenthral
the United Colonies from foreign rule, which
had proved to be oppressive, and to sepa
rate them permanently from the mother coun
try: the political result was the foundation
of a federal republic of the free while men
ot the colonies, constituted as they were, in
distinct, and reciprocally independent, Slate
governments. Aa forthe subjectraces,wheth
er Indian or African, the wise and brave
statesmen of that day, being engaged in no
extravagant scheme of social change, left
them as they were, and thus preserved them
selves and their posterity from tbe anarchy,
and the ever-recurring civil wars, whioh
have prevailed in other revoluli onized Euro
pean colonies of America.
When the confederate States found it con
venient to modify the conditions of their gp
sociation, by giving to the general govern
ment direct access, in some respects, to the
people of the Stales, instead of confining it
to action on the States as such, they pioceed
ed to frame the existing constitution, adher
ing steadily to one guiding thought, which
was, to delegate only such power as was
necessary and proper to the execution of
Bpecifio purposes, or, in other words, to re
tain as much as consistently with
those purposes, of the independent powers
of the individual States. For objects of com -
mon defence and security, they inttusted to
the general government certain carefully-de
fined functions, leaving all others as the un
delegated rights of tbe separate independent
sovereignties.
Such is the constitutional theory of our
government, the practical observance of
which has carried us, and us alone, among
modern republics, through nearly three gen
erations of time without the cost of one
drop of blood shed in civil war. With free
dom and concert of action, it has enabled us
to contend successfully on the batUe-fiield
against foreign foes, has elevated the feeble
colonies into powerful Slates, and has raised
our industrial productions, and our commerce
which transports them, to the level of the
richest and the greatest nations of Europe.
And the admirable adaptation of our politi
cal institutions to their objects, combining
local self-government with aggregate strength
has established the practicability of a gov
ernment like ours to cover a continent with
confederate Stales.
The Congress of the United States is, in
effect, that congress of sovereignties, which
good men in the Old World have sought for,
but could never attain, and which imparts to
America an exemption from the mutable
leagues for common action, from the wars,
tha mutual invasions, and vague aspirations
after tti&balance of power, which convulse
from limo to time the governments of Eu
rope. Our co-operative action rests in the
conditions of permanent confederation pre
scribed by the constitution. Our balance of
power is in the separate reserved rights of
the States, and their equal representation in
the Senate. That independent sovereignty
•a every one of the Statee, with iie reserved
rights of local self-government assured to
each by tbeir co-equal power in tha Senate,
was the fundamental condition of the con
stitution. Without it the Union would never
have existed. However desirous the larger
Slates might be to re-organize the govern
ment so as to give to their population its
proportionate weight in the common conc
eals, they knew it was impossible, onless
they oonceded to the smaller ones authority
to exercise at least a negative influenoe on
all the measures of the government, whether
legislative or executive, through their equal
representation in the Senate. Indeed, the
larger Stales themselves oould not have fail
ed to perceive, that the same power was
equally necessary to thent, f or the security
of their own domestio interests against the
aggregate force of the geaeral government.
In a word, the original States wem into this
permanent league on the agreed premises,
of exerting tbeir common strength for the
defence of tha whole, and of at) ~, parts;
but of utterly excluding all capability Q f re l
ciprocal aggression. Each solemnly bound
itself to all (be others, neither to undertake
nor permit, any encroachment upon, ot j n .
termeddling with, another's reserved rtghii.
Where it was deemed expedient, panten
lar rights of the Slates were exprossly guar,
antiedby Ike constitution; but, in all things
beside, these Ihinge were guarded by the
limitation of the powers granted,.and by ex
presa reservation of all powers not granted,
in tho compact of naioo. Thns, the great
power e! taxation was limited to purposes
of common defence and general welfare,
excluding ebjeoia appertaining to the ioeal
Truth and Eight God and onr Cohntry*
legislation of the several Slates ; nd those
purposes of general welfare end common
defence were afterwards defined ty specific
•numeration, as being matters on* of core
lation between the States themeepes, or be
tweon them and foreign governments, which,
because of their common and general na
ture, could not be left to the separate control
of each State.
Of the circumstances of local condition,
interest, and rights, in which a portion of
tbe Slates, constituting one great section of
tbe Union differed from the rapt, and from
another section, the moat important was the
peculiarity of a larger relative colored popu
lation in the southern than iq the northern
States.
A population of this class- held in subjec
tion, existed in nearly all the Slates, but was
more numerous and of rr.ore serious concern
ment in the South than in the North, on ac
count of natural differences of climate and
production; and it was forsaen that, for the
same reasons, while this population would
diminish, and, sooner or later, cease to exist,
in some Stales, it might increase in others.
Tbe peculiar character and magnitude of this
question of local rights, not in materialrela.
lions only, bnt still more in social ones, caus
ed it to enter into the special stipulations of
the constitntion.
Hence, while the general government, as
well by the enumerated powers granted to
it, aa by those not enumerated, and therefore
refused to it, was forbidden to touch this
matter in the sense of attack o: offence, it
was placed under the general safeguard of
the Union, in the sense of defence against
either invasion or domestic violence, like all
other lacal interests of the several States.—
Each State expressly stipulated, as well for it
self, and for each and all of its citizen!, and
every citizen of each State became solemnly
bouud by his allegiance to the constitution,
that any person, held to service or labor in
one State, escaping into another; should not,
in consequence of any law or segulation
therof, be discharged from such service or
labor, but should be delivered up on claim
of tne parly to whom such service or labor
might be due by the laws of bis State.
Thus, and thus only, by the reciprocal
guaranty of all the rights of every State
against interference on the part of another,
was the present form oi government estab
lished by our fathers and transmitted to us;
and by no other means is it possible for it to
exist. If one State ceases to respect the
rights of another, and obtrusively inter
meddles with its local interests,—if a por
tion of the States assume to impose their in
stitutions on the otners, or refuse to fulfil
their obligations to them,—we are no longer
united friendly States, but distracted, hostile
ones, with little capaoity left of common ad
vantage, but abundant means of reciprocal
injury and mischief.
Practically, it is immaterial whether ag
gressive interference between the States, or
deliberate refusal on the part of any one of
them to comply with constitutional obliga
tions, arise from erroneous conviction or
blind prejudice: whether it be perpetrated
by direction or indirection. In either case,
it is full of threat and of danger to the dura
bility of the Union.
CONSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS WITH SLAVERV.
Placed in the office of Chief Magistrate as
the executive agent of the whole country,
bound to take care that the laws be faithfully
executed, and specially enjoined by (he con
stitution to give information to Congress on
the stale of the Union, it would be palpable
neglect of duty on my part to pass over a
subject like this, which, beyond all things at
the present time, vitally concerns individ
ual and public secutity.
It has been matter of painful regret to see
Slates, conspicuous for their services in foun
ding this Republic, and equally sharing its
advantages, disregard their constitutional
obligations to it. Although *OOBOIOOB of their
inability to heal admitted and palpable social J
evils of their own, and which are completely
within their jurisdiction, they engage in (he 1
offensive and hopeless undertaking of re
forming the domestic institutions of other
States wholly beyond their control and au
thority. In the vain pursuit of ends, by them
entirely unattainable and which they may
00l legally attempt to compass, tbey peril the
existence of the constitution, and all the
countless benefits which it lias oonferred.—
While the people of the southern States con
fine their attention to their own affairs, not
presuming officiously to intermeddle with
the social institutions of lha northern States,
(00 many of tbe inhabitants of the latter are
permanently organised in associations to in
fliot injury on lha former, by wrongful acts,
which would be oause of war between
foreign powers, and only fail to be such in
our system; because perpetrated under cover
ol the Union.
It is impossible te present this subject as
truth and the occasion require, without noti
cing the reiterated, but groundless allegation,
that the South has persistently asserted claims
and obtained advantages in the practical ad
ministration of the general government, to
the prejudice of the North, and in which the
latter has acquiesced. That ia, the States,
which either promote or tolerate attacks on
the rights of persons and of property in oth
er States, to disguise their own injustice, pre
tend or imagine, and constantly aver, that
they, wboae constitutional rights are thus sys
tematically assailed, are themselves the ag
gie ss or s. At the present time, this imputed
aggression, resting as it does, only in the
rsgae, declamatory ehargea of political agi
tators, resolves itielf into misapprehension,
misinterpretation, of the principles and
faeta of tbe political organization of the new
Territories of tfck United State*.
is the tioice oT history ? When the
ordinance, which provided for the govern
ment of tbe territory northwest of the river
Ohio, and for its eventual subdivisiona into
new States, was adopted in the Congress of
the confederation, it is not to be supposed that
the question of future relative powef, as be
tween the Stetes which retained, and thoe
which did not retain, a numerous colored
population, escaped notice, or failed to be
considered. And ye! the Concession of that
vast territory to the inlei-ests and opinions of
the northern States, a territory r.ow the seal
of five among the largest members of the
Union, was, in great measure, the act of the
Slate of Virginia and of the South.
When Lonisiana was acquired by the Uni
ted Slatee, it was an acquisition not less to the
North than to the Sonth; for while it was im
portant to the country at the mouth of the
river Mississippi to become the emporium of
the country above it # ao also it was even
more important te the new province, by rea
aon of ita imperfect aeulemem, was mainly
regarded as on tbe Gulf of Mexico, yet, iu
fact, it extended to the opposite boundaries
of the United Steles, with far greater breadth
above than below, and was in territory, as in
everything else, eqnaily at last an accession
to the northern States. It is mere delusion
and prejudice, therefore, to speak of Louis
iana as an acqoisitior. in the special interest
of the South.
The patriotic and just men, who participa
ted in the act, were influenced by motives
far above all sectional jealousies. It was in
truth the great event, which, by completing
for us the possession of the Valley of the
Mississippi, in exchange for large territory,
which the United States transferred to Spain
on the west Bide of that river, as the entire
diplomatio history of the transaction serves
to demonstrate. Moreover, it was an acqui
sition demanded by the commercial interests
and the seenrily of the whole Union.
In the meantime, the people of the United
States had grown up to a proper conscious
ness of their strength, and in a brief contest
with France, and in a second serious war
with Great Britain, they had shaken off all
which remained of undue reverence lor Eu
rope, and emerged from the atmosphere of
those transatlantic influences which surroun
ded the infant Republio, and bad begun to
turn their attention to the foil and systematic
developement ol the internal resources of the
Union.
A mong the evanescent con Iroversies of that
period, the most conspicuous was the ques
tion of regulation by Congress (if the social
oo>ditin of the future Statue to bo founded
in the territory of Louisiana.
The ordinance for the government of the
territory northwest of the river Ohio had con
tained a provision, which prohibited the use
of servile labor therein, subject to the condi
tion of the extradition of fugitives from ser
vice due in any other part of the United
Slates. Subsequently to the adoption of the
constitution, this provision ceased to remain
as a law; for its operation as such was abso
lutely superseded by the consolation. But
the recollection of the fact excited the zealot
social propagandism in some sections of the
confederation; and, when a second State,
that of Missouri, came to be formed in the
territory of Louisiana, proposition was made
to extend to the latter territory the restriction
originally applied to the country situated be
tween the rivers Ohio and Mississippi.
Most questionable as was thrs proposition
in all iiseonstitatlonal relations, nevertheless
it reoeived the sanction of Congress, with
some slight modification ot line, to save (he
existing right of the intended new Slate. It
was reluctantly acquiesced by the southern
States as a sacrifice as to the cause of peace
and of the Union, not only of the rights stip
ulated by (be treaty of Louisiana, but of the
principle of equality among the States guar
antied by the '.constitution. It was received
by the northern Slates with angry and resent
ful condemnation and complaint, because it
did not concede all which they had exacling
-Ily demanded. Having passed throngh the
forms of legislation it look its place In the
statute book, standing open to repeal, like
any other act of doubtful constitutionality,
subject to be pronounoed null and void by
the courts of law, and possessing no possible
efficacy to control the rights of the Slates,
whioh might thereafter be organized out
of any part of (he original territory of Louis-
I tana.
In all thia, if any aggression there were,
any innovation upon pre-existing rights, to
which portion of the Union are they jnstly
chargeable ?
The controversy passed away with the oc
casion , nothing snrviving h save the dor
mant letter of the statute.
But, long afterwards, when by the propo->
sed accession of the Republio of Texas, the
United States were to take their next step in
territorial greatness, a similar contingency
occurred, and became the ocoasion for sys
tantalized attempts to intervene in the do
mestic affairs ol one section of the Union, in
defianoe of their rights as States, and of the
stipulations ol the constitution. These at
tempts assumed a practical direction, rn the
shape of preserving endeavors, by some of
the representatives, m both houses of Con
gress, to deprive the southern States of the
supposed benefit of the previsions of the set
authorizing the organization of the State of
Missouri.
Bet, the good sense of the people, and the
vital foroe of the constitution, triumphed over
sectional prejudice, and Ihe political error* of
tbe day, and the State of Tezas returned to
the Union as the was, with social institutions
, which bar people had ohoien for themaelvw
and with the express sgreement, by the re
aunexing act, Iba't she should ba susceptible
of BQbdi*isioD into a plurality of Slates.
I Whatever advantage the interests of the 1
j Southern States, as such, gained by this, were
fur inferior in results, as they utifolded in the
progress of time, to those which sprang from
previous concessions madia by the South.
To every thoughtful friend of the Union,—
to the true lovers of their country,—to all who
longed and labored for the full success of
this great experiment of republican institu
tions, —it WSB Cause of grataiaiion that such
an opportunity had occurred to illustrate our
advancing power on this contlhem, and to
furnish to the world additional assurance of
the strength and stability of the constitution.
Who would wish to see Florida still a Euro
pean colony f Who would rejoice to hail
Texas as a lone star, instead of one in the
galaxy of States? Who does not appreciate
the incalculable benefits of the acquisiiion ol
Louisiana? And yet narrow views and sec
tional purposes would inevitably have exclu
ded them all from the Uuion.
But another struggle on the same point en
sued, when our victorious armies returned
from Mexico, and it devolved on Congress to
provide for the territories acquired by the
treaty of Gaudalope Hidalgo. The great re
lations of the subject had now become dis
tinct and clear to the perception of the pub
lic mind, which appreciated the evils of sec
tional controversy upon the question of the
admission of new States. In that crisis in
tense solicitude pervaded the nation. But
the patriotic impulses of the popular heart,
guided by the admonitory advice of the Fa
ther of his Country, rose superior to all the
difficulties of the incorparation of a new em
pire ioto the Union. In the counsels of Con
gress there was manifested extreme antago
nism of opinion and action between some
representatives, who sought by the abusive
and unconstitutional employmeut of the leg
islative powers ot the government to interfere
in the condition of the inchoate States, and to
impose their own social theories upon the
latter; and other representatives, who repel
led the interposition of the general govern
ment in this respect, and maintained the
self-constituting rights of the States.
Iu truth, the thing attempted was, inform
alone, action of the general government,
while in reality it was the endeavor, by
abuse of legislative power, to force the ideas
of internal policy, entertained in particular
States, upon allied independent States. Once
more the constitution and the Uuion triumph
ed signally. The new Territories were or
ganized without restrictions on the disputed
point, and were itiua left tu judge in that par
ticular for themselves; and the sense of con
stitutional faith proved vigorous enough in
Congress not only to accomplish this primary
object, bnt also the incidental aud hardly
less important one, of so amer-ding the pro
visions of the statute for the extradition of
fugitives from service, as to place that pub
lic duty under the safe-gnard of the general
government, and thus relieve tt from ob
stacles raised UD by the legislation of some
of the States.
Vain declamation regarding the provisions
of law for the extradition of fugitives from
service, with occasional episodes of franlio
effort to obetruot their execntion by riot and
murder, continued, for a brief time, to agi
tate certain localities. But the true princi
ple, of leaving each Slate and Territory to
regulate its own laws of labor according to
its own sense of right and expediency, bad
acquired fast hold of the public judgment,
to such a degree, that, by common consent,
it was observed in the organization of the
Territory of Washington.
When, more recently, it became requisite
fo organize the Territories of Nebraska and
Kansas, it was the natnrai and legitimate, if
not the inevitable, consequence of previous
events and legislation, that the same great
and sound priuciple, which bid already been
applied to Utah and New Mexico, should be
applied to them; —that they should stand ex
empt from the restrictions proposed in the
act relative to the Stale of Missouri.
These restrictions were, in the estimation
of many thoughtful men, null from the be
ginning, unauthorized by the constitution,
contrary to the treaty stipulations for the
cession of Louisiana, and inconsistent with
the equality of tbe Stales.
They had been stripped of all moral au-
thority, by persistent efforts to procure their
indirect repeal through contradictory enact
ments. They had been practically abroga
ted by the legislation attending the organiza
tion of Utah, Naw Mexico, and Washing
ton. If any vitality remained in tbem, it
would have been taken away, in effect, by
the new territorial acts, in the form originally
proposed to the Senate at the first session of
the last Congress. It was manly and ingenu
ous, at well as patriotic and just; to do this
directly and plainly, and thns relieve ike
statute-book of an act; which might be of
possible future injury, bnt of no possible fu
ture benefit) aud the measure of its repeal
was the final consummation and complete
Noognition of tha principle, that no portion
of the United States shall undertake, through
assumption of the powers of (be general
government, to dictate the social institutions
of any other portion.
The scope and effect of the language of
repeal were not left in doubt. It waa de
clared, in terra*, to be "the true intent and
meaning of ibis act not to legislate slavery
into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it
therefrom, but to leave the people thereof
perfectly free to form aed regulate their do
mestic institution* in their own way, subject
only to tha etfntiitotion of the United States.*'
The measure could not be withstood upon
its merit* alone. It was attacked with vio-
[Two Dollars per Inn. 1
NUMBER 51-
lence,on the false or delusive pretext, that
it constituted a breach of faith. Never was
objection more utterly destitdle of substantial V
j justification. Whert, beiore, was it itnagin- ■
ed by sensible men, that a regulative or dec- ™
i larative statute, whether enacted ten dr forty
| years ago, is irrepealable,—than an act of
j Congress is above the constitution f If, in
i deed, there were in the facte eny cause to
i impute bad faith, it would attach to those
: only, who have never ceased, from the time
< of the enactment of the restrictive provision
, to the present day, to denounce and to eon- ]
demn it; who have constantly refused' to <
complete it by needful supplementary legia- I
lation ; who have spared no exertion to' dts- I
prive it of moral force; who have ttiemselvee I
again and again attempted ita repeat by the I
enactment ot incompatible provisions; and I
who, by the inevitable reactionary effect of 1
their own violence on the' subject, awaken— I
ed the country to perception of the true con
stitutional principle, of leaving the matter _
involved to the discretion of the'people of
the respective oxistlng or incipient Slates.
h is ncrr pretended that this principle, ot
any other, precludes the possibility of evile
in practice, disturbed at political action' it
liable to be by human passions. No form of
government is exempt from inconvenience*;
but in this ease they are the resnh of the
abuse, and not of the legitimate exercise, ot
the powers reserved or conferred in the or
ganisation of a Territory. They are not to
by charged to the great prinoipie of popular
sovereignty: on the contrary, they disappear
beforj the intelligence and patriotism of the
people, exerting through tl)g ballot-box thehr
peaceful and silent but irresistible power. - -~-
If the friends of tba constitution are to
have another struggle, H* enemies cotrld not
present a more acceptable issue, than thai eff
a Slate, whose constitution clearly embraoea
''a republican form of government," being
excluded from the Union because it* domes- ,
tic institutions may not in all respects com
port with the ideas of what in wise and ex
pedient entertained in some other State.
Fresh from groundless imputations ot breach
of laith against others, men will commence
the agitation of this new question with in
dubitable violation of an express compact
between the independent sovereign power*
of the United States and of the republic Of
Texas, as well as of the older and equally
solemn compaota, which assnre the equality
of all (he States.
But, deplorable as would be aticb d viola
tion of compact in itself, and in all its direct
consequences, that is the vefy least of the
evils involved. When sectional RgiUtd*W /
shall have succeeded in forcing or. tnn utvkfT '
can their pretensions fail to be met by -j
ter pretensions ? Will not different States be
oompelled respectively to meet extremes
with extremes? And, if either extreme car
ry its point, what is that so far forth bat dis
solution of the Uniou? If a new Slate,
formed from the territory of the United
Stales, be absolutely excluded from admis
sion therein, that fact of itself constitutos the
disruption of union between it end other
States. But the process of dissolution couhl
not stop there. Would hot a sectional de
cision, producing such results by a majority
of votes, either northern or soutbsrc, of nee
essity drive out the oppressed and aggrieved ) y
minority, and place in presence of each otw. .
er two irreconcileably hostile confederations?
It is necessary to speak thus plainly of
projects, the offspring of that sectional agi
tation now prevailing in some of the Stated,
which are as impracticable as tbey are un
constitutional, and which, if persevered hi,
must and will end calamitously, ft is either
disunion and civil war, or it is mere angry,
idle, aimless disturbance of public peace
and tranquility. Disunion for what t If the
passionate rage of fanaticism and partisan
spirit did not lorce the fact npon our atten
tion, it would be difficult to believe, that any _
considerable portion of the people of
enlightened conntfy could have so
ed themselves to a fanatical devotion
supposed interests of the relatively
ricans in the United States, as totally
bsndon and disregard the interests of the
tweciy-flve millions of Americans, —to tram
ple under foot the injunctions of moral and •
constitutional obligation -sand to engage in
plans of vindictive hostility againsKdhU*
who are associated with them in the ehjoy- -
ment of the common heritage of onr nanion- _
al institutions.
Nor is it bostifity against their fallow-citi
zens of one section Of the Union alone. The
interests, the honor, the doty, ths peace, and
the prosperity of the people ol alt section*
. are equally Involved and imperilled in this
question. And are patriotic men in any part
of the Union prepared, on stfcb en issue,
thus madly to invite ell the conseqneneee
of the forfeiture of their constitutional en
gagements 1 It is impossible. The storm of
phrensy and faction must inevitably dash it
self in vein against the unshstsn rook of the
constitution < I shall never doubt h.
that the Union is stronger a thousand times
than all the wild and chimerical aoheraesoff \
social change, which are generated, one af
ter another, ia the unstable minds of vision' \
try sophists end interested agitators. 1 rely 5 , t
confidently on the patriotism of the |
on the dignity and self-respeot of ibe State*,
on the wiedom of Congress, and above ail,
on the continued gracious favor of Almighty
God, to m aintain, against all enemies, wheth
er at home or abroad, the sanotfty of thq f
constitution and tha integrity of the Union, . .
FRANKLIN TIERCE. 14
WmtmoTow, Dec, aI, 186*.
V TTie Springfield (III.) Journal sayg
Ant contracts for new con have been mad*
in that vioinity at 32 cants in tke ear. * ,