| Show title the speech of senator Ilion douglas glas aard the hie doctrine of Pop popular aillar sovereignty in the territories orites we present this week the speech of senator douglas delivered at cincinnati on the ath of september on the much vexed question of popular sovereignty in the be territories or the right of the people in the territories I 1 ri to decide for themselves the nature of the institutions by which they will be governed and under which they must live the question is by no means mean 8 a new one yet we offer no apology for presenting senator Douglas 9 speech upon it the character of or the speaker as one of the foremost statesmen of our country and as the renowned champion and consistent advocate of the doctrine embodied in his speech bis prominence before the country at present as the probable candidate of his party in in the next presidential race and above all the liberal ampa impartial artial and conservative conser vatne doctrines hebold he holds sand and maintains with such force of argument these with other considerations of a like nature entitle the views aws of jud judge e danglas to attentive inquiry and consideration from all who would become accurately familiar with A ith the question which promises to form the leadin leading issue in the next presidential contest the speech which illich we publish may be regarded as a recapitulation or summary of the elaborate article on the same subject from the pen of 0 senator douglas which recently appeared in in harpers magazine the views contained in in the published article are here i presented in smaller compass and in a more I 1 I 1 popular form though of necessity with wa less systematic arrangement and lesa less precision of argument judge douglas has the merit and misfortune en enjoyed j oyed by all men e entertain ing liberal and conservative views who rise to the rank of leaders in in the midst of extreme and contending party factions the liberality of his views makes him an object of attack and hatred to both extremes which he be opposes and the violence of the hatred be town is is exactly proportioned to the evenness w nith ith which he ha steers clear of oe the ultra doctrines arid and opinions opinion advocated by the opposing factions thus for maintaining doctrines like those advocated in the present Is speech he has been held up in b oth both sections of the union as a demagogue and traitor who sought by cunning and deceit to gain 0 office mee and poi power er for the mere purpose of betraying each section and faction into the hands of their enemies of the opposite extreme at the south he be has been stigmatized as worse than an abolitionist at the north as more dangerous and inimical to freedom as is is understood by the ultra parties of the north than the most violent of 0 southern f fire ire barters in both sections his bis opinions have been distorted destor ted and misrepresented his motives blackened and his principles violently assailed for sustaining the kan sao nebraska bill he was refused the privilege of 0 addressing the people in the city in which ile he dwells and for honestly endeavor ing to carry out the principles of that bill an imbecile and corrupt administration which came into power on oil its merits have done all in in their power to break him hie down in the state which he be so nobly represents daniel webster experienced the same treatment from the people of boston for his hia national and patriotic course in in sustaining the compromise measures of 1850 that judge douglas received from the inhabitants of chicago for sustaining principles exactly identical in in 1834 yet daniel webster lived to speak in Fan nuell hall and to see the principles of 0 the compromise measures of 1850 sustained by the general voice of the nation and judge douglas has lived to speak in chicago and we believe will live to see the principles of 0 popular sovereignty in the territories triumph throughout the land but we did not publish this speech or core com ance these remarks for the purpose of engaging on either side in the discussion of the question whether the people ot of the territories should have the right of prohibiting or establishing slavery the ques question tiou of slavery is an abstract one as far as aa utah is concerned it is true that the institution is sanctioned and practiced here by law but laws do not always have the force of creating what they approve and the inevitable law of climate soil and production is more powerful here than the force of statutes u in regard to slavery there la is another question however in utah which is involved in this question of popular sovereignty which appears to be entirely overlooked or ignored in the discussion of 0 this principle and that question is Po lyga my have the people of a territory the right under the constitution ind and lan lavis a of the country to establish an institution and custom which is at variance with the enlightened sense of almost the entire body of the nation which bich as they believe Is ia subversive of good morals and individual rights at home and at the same time degrading both at home and d abroad these ari are not idle idla or speculative inquiries but however much they may be evaded and passed over at present presen tt the time is is certainly approaching w ben they mill nill require a practical solution in in respect to tile the ea establishment and actual existence of polygamy y in utah it certainly t ain ly would have been w wiser iser as well as more politic ill in our govern nenito nen tto have met this question long iong since w ahei hen it ws was in its incipiency and at the thresh hold of its introduction anti and not to have waiter waitea till it acquired its present firm h hold 0 id and incorporation into the customs of the people in any part of our country but as successive administrations have either defered or dodged the issue anthis question the institution has grown and flourished here hereU DUl until it has attained a magnitude that will not much longer admit of neglect or postponement either in the government or people of the united states unless they would have it thoroughly en grafted upon the soil and customs of the country the leaders of the Mormon Mor mons sp and those among the body of the sects who are capable of thought on the rely upon the doctrine of popular for immunity and safety lit in the practice lion aaion of this disgusting and degrading vice vc entrenched behind this thia popular docar doctrine i ne they hey hope to resist alike the power of the federal government to suppress the peculiar institution ot of utah and the general sense of the nation which would at once banish it with all who villo practice it from the land it becomes therefore a matter of first magnitude anti ana consequence to a is bertam ertain whether the doctrine of popular or local loca I 1 confers upon a people of a territory the tight right thus thug to set at defiance the enlightened and general sense of the great body of the people in all sections of the country upon a question I 1 which w hi ic h must not only reflect disgrace and dishonor upon the entire nation abroad but which in its consequences must form the fertile source of trouble and discord at home it livery evident that the introduction and establishment of polygamy in the be sustained 0 o defended ded on tle the same ground that the introduction and establishment of slavery asp is admitting even for for the sake of argument that slavery is is an evil for slavery existed in every state in in the union but ori oneat the time of the formation and adoption of the constitution it I 1 was at the time an existing and very nearly universal institution throughout the country the constitution was framed recognizing its existence and protecting the rights which grew up under it if a was a mutual and general wrong which the states forming the union agreed to license 1 and uphold in in each atheras other as long as each separate state entering into the federal government saw fit to continue corti nue it not so with polygamy it did not then exist in in any part of our country and the framberg of the constitution probably as little thought that it aou would I 1 d ever become a custom of the country as they did that cannibalism would they consequently made no provision for what did not exist and what they could riot not anticipate would ever exist in in the country slavery is is perpetuated and extended by virtue of 0 the original contract entered into between the states composing the union poli gamy exists without authority and is practiced practised in in violation of the moral sentiments of the entire nation with the exception of a few thousand people in an this valley institutions so v widely idely different in their origin and in the sanctions by which bich they are upheld and sustained ta cannot be defended or reason reasoned ea upon from the same or even ev en from premises analogous to each cacti other hence the logic of the republicans republica lie in in comb combining ning these different ins institutions and abd terming them the twin relics of barbarism vv which aich should be prohibited by by law in in the terri demones te mones orles as it is 19 based upon I 1 premises false and dissimilar so thee the conclusion 0 n c islon ision u arrived dt at is deceptive and erron erroneous e 0 us but we offer to our readers an apology for combining together even for the sake of argument these widely different institutions the authority on which they rest cannot be I 1 1 more wide apart than the results which they produce the highest moral and el is compatible with the existence of slavery it would be very easy to prove I 1 that polygamy by subverting erting the individual nd vidual rights of one portion of the community to the passions and will of the other is necessarily destructive of morals and of every even thing like social elevation and refinement in many an y community or state tolerating or ngit it polygamy Poy gamy cannot then rest upon the be same sam a foundations with slavery in in either the he states elates or territories terr tones tories of the country one being an existing and recognized at the time the be constitution was established the other is is an anomaly and an excrescence that tha t has sprung up since and exists only in a single locality nor can ibbe it be said that the people of this or any other territory in the country acquire the right of establishing a custom like this by simply immigrating to a territory it is a right that exists nowhere in in the country polygamy is prohibit edby the laws of every state in the union in in all 11 it is is punished as a crime yow how the settler or immigrant to a territory can take with him no greater liberty or rights than he enjoyed in in the state from which he came it if iti deac quires in in any way greater rights it must be by virtue of some authority foreign to himself and above his bis own appetites and passions alons the citizens of no state in in this cn go into another state and practice poly polygamy gamy without being punished for it then by b what right can he enter a territory is the public domain damain and property of all these states and there practice viha i prohibited in in each one of them it if he can then can murder and every crime in in the calendar become legalized and fastened upon the institutions of the country bythe by the mere settlement and occupation of any remote portion of the public domain dom ai n by a body of persons destitute of moral principle and seeking the license of unbridled liberty the of the arab the of the hindmo as well as the lust of the turk ca can ill all be forced upon us and all done as imy arny has baa been in in stahl utah under the pretence predence pre tence of r e legious liberty and the rights of con clence in n that case the institutions of our country will present the motley appearance of the the s spirits in ked ty oy the witches in in macbeth there will be rea bed spirits and white blue spirits and grey all the reasoning by which the establishment jentof of polygamy here is is attempted to be maintained on the principle of local or territorial sovereignty is false the people of a territory we believe have the same ight r abt of defining and deciding what local regula tiwa they will live under that the states have provided they adopt such as as simulate to those of all other parts of the nation but they have not the right of legalizing customs which the e entire I 1 t ir a nation condemns as immoral immor alj and criminal inal and which is punished by this and every civilized nation on earth with penal enactment menag we understand by popular awer kov eighty ei nty something different from unbridled alc license ellse and if we are in error we tor for one advocate no r such uch dogma and we hope the exponents of the creed will at an early period in ile he lay down d ov it its ita metes and bounds if it has any so that the nation at large may not be deceived as to its true signification sig I 1 and import particularly as it relates to existing institutions in f this territory it etisa is a subject about which h some mystification has been used beret heretofore 0 bore rore it has been a goodseal good deal overlaid slid and sm smothered other edwith with words let it now be accurately defined the people e here as well as the nation at large hav have e a right to know its limits what it secures and what it does not |
