very evident that the people of the South would demand new
guarantees for the protection of slavery against the dogma of popular
sovereignty. The platform of the Cincinnati convention, upon which
Buchanan had been elected, must be recast. The platform had declared
that immigrants to any part of the public domain were to settle the
question of slavery for themselves. The new plank, which President
Buchanan framed, was that the government of a Territory was provisional
and temporary, and during its existence, all citizens of the United
States had an equal right to settle with their property in the
Territory, without their rights, either of person or property, being
destroyed or impaired by Congressional or Territorial legislation. The
two last words contained the gist of the resolution, which was aimed at
Senator Douglas. However right as an abstract principle, Mr. Stephens
declared that this was a departure from the doctrine of
non-intervention.

It was at this time that Senator Toombs made one of the most important
speeches of his life. This was delivered in Augusta, Ga., September 8,
1859, during an exciting campaign. Governor Brown was a candidate for
reelection, and a strong opposition party had developed in Georgia,
representing the extreme Southern sentiment.

Senator Toombs said that the opposition to the Kansas bill had continued
because it was said to recognize the right of the people of a Territory,
through the Territorial legislature, to establish or prohibit slavery.
"When we condemned and abrogated Congressional intervention against us,"
said he, "that was a great point gained. Congress had actually excluded
us from the Territories for thirty years. The people of a Territory had
in no instance attempted such an iniquity. I considered it wise,
prudent, and politic to settle the question against our common enemy,
Congress, even if I left it unsettled as to our known friends, the
people of the Territories. We could not settle the question of the power
of the people over slavery while in a territorial condition, because
Democrats differed on that point. We, therefore, declared in the Kansas
bill that we left the people of the Territories perfectly free to form
and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only
to the Constitution of the United States. We decided to refer the
question to the Supreme Court. It has gone there and been decided in our
favor. The Southern friends of the measure r