Excerpt from Douglas Doctrine of Popular Sovereignty in the Territories: Its Counterpart
I do not deny, but am pleased to acknowledge, that the gentleman has evinced varied tact and wariness in his arrangement. He states the position of the Republican Party on the Constitutional power of Congress over the Territories, and of the right and duty of Congress, in the exercise of that power, to prohibit, among other things, slavery therein, in the language of their Convention; he places the doctrine of the National Democracy in the line of irreconcilable opposition thereto, but admits it would be uncandid to deny that there are radical differences of opinion in that party, respecting the powers and duties of Congress, and the rights and immunities of the people of the Territories under the Federal Constitution, (on the subject of Slavery.) He then divides the National Democracy into three segments, upon the proper construction of the constitutional provision touching the powers of Congress over Slavery in the Territories; and after ignoring the interpretation of two of them, he declares himself, as usual, in favor of the following, as the Constitutional doctrine:
First: Those who believe that the Constitution of the United States neither establishes nor prohibits Slavery in the States or Territories beyond the power of the people legally to control it, but "leaves the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States."
Having given his reasoning in antagonism to the interpretation that the Constitution establishes Slavery in the Territories, to be vindicated as some of the National Democracy contend, either by the Territorial Legislature, or, in lack thereof, by Congress, or by the Judiciary, by virtue of Constitutional authority, and independent of any Legislative action whatever, as by some leaders of the Democracy is proclaimed, Mr. Douglas settles down to an array of facts and reasoning in support of his construction of the Constitution. Such is the plan of the treatise; he states and opposes the the conventional views of the Republican party - he wipes away the ultra interpretation of those of the Democracy who maintain that the Constitution creates Slavery in the Territories, either by subordinate Legislation, or, propria vigore; and concludes that the people of a Territory, and no other authority, have, under the Constitution, the right to regulate the question. Such is the system of his address, plain enough when analysed and stripped of various excrescences that profusely surround it.
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