Author: Job Roberts Tyson

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2018-01-20

Total Pages: 22

ISBN-13: 9780484755429

Excerpt from Speech of Hon. J. R. Tyson, of Pennsylvania, on the Fugitive Slave Laws and Compromise Measures of 1850: Delivered in the House of Representatives, February 28, 1857 These compromise measures of 1850 adopted, in brief, a few plain principles which were practically applied. They destroyed the traffic of buying and selling slaves in the District of Columbia. They provided for the reclamation of fugitives, and flortified the provision by all the guards which experience had taught and forecast suggested. They gave to Utah and New Mexico the right to make their own laws in their own ways, subject only to the approval of Congress; and declared that each Territory had the right to be admitted as a State, with or without slavery, according to the decision of the people of each respectively. The kansas-nebraska act of 1854 is' already passing away, and will soon be forgotten, or if recurred to, its enactments will be remembered only tonbe avoided in all future time. It is alleged to have been' necessary to carry out and harmonize the legislation of 1850. In order to ascertain how far this ascription' may be well or ill founded, it is necessary to keep in view the fundamental principles of both enactments. The legislation of 1850 invests New Mexico and Utah with the full and unrestricted right of local legislation, and, like every act from the year 1787, it requires that the territorial laws, when passed, shall be submitted to Congress for its approval or rejection. 'the kansas-nebrask'a act proclaims the doctrine of congressional non-intervention in territorial affairs and gives to the'two Territoriesit ordained all' the powers of States, while it provides for a Delegate in each, and permits them to retain the territorial privilege ofbeing maintained at the expense of the General Government. By means of such a new fangled and dangerous system of territorial ar rangement, any abuse might be committed under the name of law, and Congress could not interfere to check or redress the evil. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.