e Union alone. I cannot stop to read it,
but I will give it to the reporters. Judge Douglas said:
"Mr. President, you here find several distinct propositions
advanced boldly by the Washington Union editorially, and apparently
authoritatively, and every man who questions any of them is denounced as
an Abolitionist, a Free-soiler, a fanatic. The propositions are, first,
that the primary object of all government at its original institution is
the protection of persons and property; second, that the Constitution
of the United States declares that the citizens of each State shall be
entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several
States; and that, therefore, thirdly, all State laws, whether organic
or otherwise, which prohibit the citizens of one State from settling in
another with their slave property, and especially declaring it forfeited,
are direct violations of the original intention of the Government and
Constitution of the United States; and, fourth, that the emancipation of
the slaves of the Northern States was a gross outrage on the rights of
property, in as much as it was involuntarily done on the part of the
owner.
"Remember that this article was published in the Union on the 17th of
November, and on the 18th appeared the first article giving the adhesion
of the Union to the Lecompton Constitution. It was in these words:
"'KANSAS AND HER CONSTITUTION.--The vexed question is settled. The problem
is solved. The dead point of danger is passed. All serious trouble to
Kansas affairs is over and gone...."
"And a column, nearly, of the same sort. Then, when you come to look into
the Lecompton Constitution, you find the same doctrine incorporated in it
which was put forth editorially in the Union. What is it?
"'ARTICLE 7, Section i. The right of property is before and higher than
any constitutional sanction; and the right of the owner of a slave to such
slave and its increase is the same and as invariable as the right of the
owner of any property whatever.'
"Then in the schedule is a provision that the Constitution may be amended
after 1864 by a two-thirds vote.
"'But no alteration shall be made to affect the right of property in the
ownership of slaves.'
"It will be seen by these clauses in the Lecompton Constitution that they
are identical in spirit with this authoritative article in the Washington
Union of the day previous to its indorsement of this Constitution.
"When I saw
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