government is one of general or
discretionary powers; or as Mr. Hamilton expressed it, "that it belongs
to the discretion of the national Legislature to pronounce upon the
subjects which concern the general welfare."

The Democratic principle of limited and specific power in the Union, for
Federal purposes, and general sovereignty in the people of the States,
for all local and domestic purposes, has taken deep root in the minds of
the people, and has received their frequent endorsement.

The Democratic party have recognized this principle in their platforms,
and in the platform of 1852 at Baltimore, and in that of 1856 at
Cincinnati, and in that of 1860 at Charleston, they incorporated as one
of the main foundations of their political creed, the constitutional
doctrines of Jefferson and Madison as expressed in the Virginia and
Kentucky resolutions of 1797 and 1798 and Mr. Madison's report of
1799-1800, which are expressly opposed to the Hamilton theory of a
consolidation of the States into one sovereignty, "_the obvious tendency
and inevitable result of which would be_," as Mr. Madison says, "_to
transform the republican system of the United States into a monarchy_."

It is beyond doubt, this democratic doctrine of the sovereignty of the
people of the States which has, more than any other, given to the
Democratic party its strength with the people, and enabled the States
themselves to grow and prosper, while the nation, as the symbol of their
united sovereignty, has made the name of "The United States," known, and
honored, and feared in every land.

Accordingly, then, as theories or principles of national politics favor
or oppose the consolidation of power in the Federal government, upon
matters of domestic concern or internal policy, to the denial or
exclusion of the power of the people of the States or territories over
the same matters, so are those theories or principles, and the measures
based upon them, practically favorable or opposed to true democratic
principles of government.

Apply, then, this test to the Breckinridge and Lincoln doctrines, and we
need not be at a loss to determine to what class of political theories
they belong.

The Breckinridge and Lincoln platforms both rest upon the same idea,
viz: That there is a power in the Federal government or constitution,
derived from implication, not from express language, in reference to the
subject matter of domestic slavery, _above the power of the peopl