The Richmond Palladium

To the Admirers of Douglas, his pet Scheme of Popular Sovereignty:-- We commend the following facts to the admirers of Douglas for their careful perusal. If they are pro-slavery in their views, we have nothing more to say, as they are certainly suited in the candidates of the Douglas Convention. But if they have in the simplicity of their hearts, and through their confidence in the twisting giant, been led to suppose that it was a measure calculated to secure the territories to the free white laborers of the country-then read what Douglas himself says his doctrine has done. See the record of Fitzpatrick, the nominee of the same Convention, for Vice President, (though he has since refused the nomination and fled the sinking ship.) Voting for Davis' Mississippi Slave Code Resolutions, in company with all but two of the Democratic votes in the Senate, and then judge whether "Popular Sovereignty," as upheld by the small giant, is a measure calculated to ensure the territories of our government, to the control, and for the benefit of the Laboring White Man, or not. DOUGLAS' SPEECH IN THE SENATE MAY 12, 1860. The Effect of Squatter Sovereignty. In Mr. Douglas' speech in the Senate, delivered May 12th, 1860, he gave a sketch of the workings of his pet measure in the following words: "Now what has been the result? My views were incorporated into the compromise measure of 1850, and his were rejected. Has the South been excluded from all the territory acquired from Mexico? What says the bill from the House of Representatives now on the table, repealing the slave code in New Mexico established by the people themselves? It is part of the history of the country, that under this doctrine of non-intervention, this doctrine that you delight to call squatter sovereignty, the people of New Mexico have introduced and protected slavery in the whole of that territory.- Under this doctrine they have converted a tract of Free Territory, more than five times the size the State of New York. Under this doctrine slavery has been extended from the Rio Grande to the Gulf of California, and from the line of the Republic of Mexico not only up to 36 30m., but up to 38, giving you a degree and a half more slave territory than you ever claimed. In 1848-49-50 you only asked to have the line of 36 and 30m: The Nashville Convention fixed that as its ultimatum. I offered it in the Senate in August, 1848, and it was adopted here, but rejected in the House of Representatives. You asked only up to 36 deg. 30m. and non intervention has given you slave territory up to 38 deg., a degree and a half more than you asked; and yet you say that this is a sacrifice of Southern rights. These are the faults of this principle which the Senator from Mississippi regards as hostile to the rights of the South. Where did you ever get any other faults that were more palatable to your taste or more refreshing to your strength? What other inch of free territory has been converted into slave territory on the American continent, since the Revolution, except in New Mexico and Arizona, under the principle of non-intervention affirmed at Charleston?" Thus by the Senator's own showing this scheme of Popular Sovereignty has accomplished more for the South in the way of converting free territory into slave territory than any other measure ever attempted since the foundation of the Government.-- It has, in short, as his own words show : 1. Introduced and protected slavery in the territory of New Mexico. 2. Converted a tract of country more than five times the size the State of New York, from free Territory into slave territory: 3. Extending slavery from the Rio Grande to the Gulf of California, and from the line of Mexico, not only up to 36 deg. 30 min., but 38 deg. north latitude, giving the south a degree and a half more territory than it has ever claimed: and 4. Given up to slavery for the first time since the American Revolution, territory that freedom once claimed and occupied. This, too, is the "Little Douglas" last claim, his patent claim and his freshest bid for the Presidency. Freemen of the West! How do you like the picture.