Resolved, That we invite the affiliation and years, of all not heretofore provided for, an incooperation of freemen of all parties, however dispensable requisite for citizenship hereafter, differing from us in other respects, in support and excluding all paupers, and persons conof the principles herein declared; and, believ-victed of crime, from landing upon our shores; ing that the spirit of our institutions, as well as but no interference with the vested rights of the Constitution of our country, guarantee foreigners. liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens, we oppose all legislation impairing their security.

12. the maintenance and enforcement of all laws constitutionally enacted until said laws 1. AN humble acknowledgment to the Su-void by competent judicial authority. shall be repealed, or shall be declared null and preme Being, for his protecting care vouchsafed to our fathers in their successful Revolutionary struggle, and hitherto manifested to us, their descendants, in the preservation of the liberties, the independence, and the union of

Convention, coming together in a spirit of concord, of devotion to the doctrines and faith of a free representative government, and appealing to their fellow-citizens for the rectitude of their intentions, renew and reassert before the American people, the declarations of principles avowed by them, when, on former occasions, in general Convention, they have presented their candidates for the popular suffrage.

1. That the Federal Government is one of limited power, derived solely from the Constitution, and the grants of power made therein ought to be strictly construed by all the departments and agents of the government, and that it is inexpedient and dangerous to exercise doubtful constitutional powers.

2. That the Constitution does not confer upon the General Government the power to commence and carry on a general system of internal improvements.

8. That the Constitution does not confer authority upon the Federal Government, directly or indirectly, to assume the debts of the several States, contracted for local and internal improvements, or other State purposes, nor would such assumption be just or expedient.

4. That justice and sound policy forbid the Federal Government to foster one branch of industry to the detriment of another, or to cherish the interests of one portion of our common country; that every citizen and every section of the country has a right to demand and insist upon an equality of rights and privileges, and a complete and ample protection of persons and property from domestic violence and foreign aggression.

5. That it is the duty of every branch of the Government to enforce and practise the most rigid economy in conducting our public affairs, and that no more revenue ought to be raised than is required to defray the necessary expenses of the government, and gradual but certain extinction of the public debt.

responsibilities amply sufficient to guard the public interests, to suspend the passage of a bill whose merits cannot secure the approval of two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, until the judgment of the people can be obtained thereon, and which has saved the American people from the corrupt and tyrannical dominion of the Bank of the United States, and from a corrupting system of general internal improvements.

10. That the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned in the Constitution, which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in the Democratic faith; and every attempt to abridge the privilege of becoming citizens and the owners of soil among us ought to be resisted with the same spirit which swept the alien and sedition laws from our statute books.

And whereas, Since the foregoing declara tion was uniformly adopted by our predecessors in National Conventions, an adverse political and religious test has been secretly organized by a party claiming to be exclusively Americans, and it is proper that the American Democracy should clearly define its relations thereto; and declare its determined opposition to all secret political societies, by whatever name they may be called.

Resolved, That the foundation of this Union of States having been laid in, and its prosperity, expansion, and preeminent example in free government, built upon entire freedom of matters of religious concernment, and no respect of persons in regard to rank, or place of birth, no party an justly be deemed national, constitutional, or in accordance with American principles, which bases its exclusive organization upon religious opinions and accidental birth-place. And hence a political crusade in the nineteenth century, and in the Uni 6. That the proceeds of the public lands ted States of America, against Catholics and ought to be sacredly applied to the national foreign-born is neither justified by the past hisobjects specified in the Constitution, and that tory or future prospects of the country, nor in we are opposed to any law for the distribution unison with the spirit of toleration, and en of such proceeds among the States, as alike in- lightened freedom which peculiarly distinexpedient in policy, and repugnant to the Con-guishes the American system of popular govstitution.

7. That Congress has no power to charter a National Bank; that we believe such an institution one of deadly hostility to the best interests of this country, dangerous to our republican institutions and the liberties of the people, and calculated to place the business of the country within the control of a concentrated money power and above the laws and will of the people; and the results of the Democratic legislation in this and and all other financial measures upon which issues have been made between the two political parties of the country, have demonstrated to candid and practical men of all parties their soundness, safety and utility in all business pursuits.

8. That the separation of the moneys of the Government from banking institutions is indispensable to the safety of the funds of the Government and the rights of the people.

9. That we are decidedly opposed to taking from the President the qualified Veto power, by which he is enabled, under restrictions and

ernment.

Resolved, That we reiterate with renewed energy of purpose the well considered declarations of former conventions upon the sectional issue of domestic slavery, and concerning the reserved rights of the States

1. That Congress has no power under the Constitution to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several States, and that all such States are the sole and proper judges of everything appertaining to their own affairs not prohibited by the Constitution; that all efforts of the Abolitionists or others made to induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient stepa in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences, and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people and endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of our political institutions.

2. That the foregoing proposition covers and

actual residents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a Constitution, with or without domestic slavery, and be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with the other States.

was intended to embrace the whole subject of slavery agitation in Congress, and therefore the Democratic party of the Union, standing on this national platform, will abide by and adhere to a faithful execution of the acts known as the Compromise measures, settled by Resolved, finally, That in view of the condithe Congress of 1850: "the act for reclaiming tion of the popular institutions in the Old World fugitives from service or labor" included; (and the dangerous tendencies of sectional agiwhich act being designed to carry out an ex-tation, combined with the attempt to enforce press provision of the Constitution, cannot, civil and religious disabilities against the rights with fidelity thereto, be repealed, or so changed of acquiring and enjoying citizenship in our as to destroy or impair its efficiency. own land), a high and sacred duty is involved with increased responsibility upon the Democratic party of this country, as the party of the Union, to uphold and maintain the rights of every State and thereby the union of the States -and to sustain and advance among us constitutional liberty, by continuing to resist all monopolies and exclusive legislation for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many, and by a vigilant and constant adherence to those principles and compromises of the Constitution-which are broad enough and strong enough to embrace and uphold the Union as it was, the Union as it and the Union as it shall be-in the full expression of the energies and capacity of this great and progressive people.

8. That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renewing in Congress, or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made.

4. That the Democratic party will faithfully abide by and uphold the principles laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1792 and 1798, and in the report of Mr. MADISON to the Virginia Legislature in 1799-that it adopts these principles as constituting one of the main foundations of its political creed, and is resolved to carry them out in their obvious meaning and import.

And that we may more distinctly meet the issue on which a sectional party, subsisting exclusively on slavery agitation, now relies to test the fidelity of the people North and South, to the Constitution and the Union

1. Resolved, That there are questions connected with the foreign policy of this country which are inferior to no domestic question whatever. The time has come for the people of the United States to declare themselves in favor of free seas, and progressive free trade throughout the world, and, by solemn manifestations to place their moral influence at the side of their successful example.

2. Resolved, That our geographical and political position with reference to the other States of this continent, no less than the inter

1. Resolved, That claiming fellowship with and desiring the coöperation of all who regard the preservation of the Union under the Constitution as the paramount issue, and repudiating all sectional parties and platforms concerning domestic slavery, which seek to embroil the States and incite to treason and armed resistance to law in the territories, and whose avowed purpose, if consummated, must end in Icivil war and disunion, the American Democra-est of our commerce and the development of cy recognize and adopt the principles contained in the organic laws establishing the territories of Nebraska and Kansas, as embodying the only sound and safe solution of the slavery question, upon which the great national idea of the people of this whole country can repose in its determined conservation of the Union, and non-interference of Congress with slavery in the territories or in the District of Columbia.

2. That this was the basis of the compromises of 1850, confirmed by both the Democratic and Whig parties in National Conventions, ratified by the people in the election of 1852, and rightly applied to the organization of the territories in 1854.

8. That by the uniform application of the Democratic principle to the organization of territories, and the admission of new States with or without domestic slavery, as they may elect, the equal rights of all the States will be preserved intact, the original compacts of the Constitution maintained inviolate, and the perpetuity and expansion of the Union insured to its utmost capacity of embracing, in peace and harmony, every future American State that may be constituted or annexed with a republican form of government.

Resolved, That we recognize the right of the people of all the territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the legally and fairly expressed will of the majority of the

our growing power, requires that we should hold sacred the principles involved in the MONROE doctrine. Their bearing and import admit of no misconstruction, and should be applied with unbending rigidity.

8. Resolved, That the great highway, which nature as well as the assent of States most immediately interested in its maintenance has marked out for free communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, constitutes one of the most important achievements realized by the spirit of modern times, in the unconquerable energy of our people; and that result would be secured by a timely and efficient exertion of the control which we have the right to claim over it, and no power on earth should be suffered to impede or clog its progress by any interference with relations that it may suit our policy to establish between our government and the governments of the States within whose dominions it lies; we can under no circumstances surrender our preponderance in the adjustment of all questions arising out of it.

4. Resolved, That in view of so commanding an interest, the people of the United States cannot but sympathize with the efforts which are being made by the people of Central America to regenerate that portion of the continent which covers the passage across the inter-oceanic isthmus.

THE CASE OF DRED SCOTT.

THE opinions of the judges, if not the river, in the Territory known as Upper decision of the court, in the case of DRED Louisiana, acquired by the United States SCOTT agt. JOHN F. A. SANDFORD, touch upon questions of such great importance, and have been made the basis of such startling political dogmas, as warrant us in devoting considerable space to their elucidation.

"Before the commencement of this suit, Dr. Emerson sold and conveyed the plaintiff, Harriet, Eliza, and Lizzie, as slaves to the defendant, who has ever since I claimed to hold them as slaves.

"At the times mentioned in the plaintiff's declaration, the defendant, claiming to be owner as aforesaid, laid his hands upon the plaintiff, Harriet, Eliza, and Lizzie, and imprisoned them, doing, in this respect, however, no more than what he might lawfully do if they were of right his slaves at such times.

give an outline of the views of those judges who went into the discussion. negative side of this question with great Judges Taney and Daniel present the fullness. The former, after premising that the case of the Indian race is not in point, been treated and naturalized as foreigninasmuch as its members have alwa s ers, proceeds to take a curious distin ction, in support of which no facts or authorities are adduced, and which is not again adverted to in the course of the argument, between citizens of a State, whose rights are "restricted to the State which gave them," but who may be created by such State, even in despite of the confessedly exclusive pow r "Dred Scott brought suit for his free- of Congress to establish a uniform rule dom in the Circuit Court of St. Louis naturalization, and citizens of a State in county; there was a verdict and judg-titled to sue in the federal courts, and to the sense of the Federal Constitution, enment in his favor; on a writ of error to the "privileges and immunities of citizens the Supreme Court, the judgment below in the several States "--which are, in so was reversed, and the same remanded to many words, secured in the Constitution to "the citizens of each State." the Circuit Court, where it was continued to await the decision of this case."

Under the instructions of the court that the law upon these facts was with the defendant, the jury found for him upon the ground that the plaintiff, his wife and daughters were negro slaves, as alleged.

By writ of error the case was brought up to the United States Supreme Court, where, after two arguments, judgment was pronounced upon the sixth of March, 1857, reversing the judgment of the Circuit Court, and directing the dismissal of the suit for want of jurisdiction.

Judge Taney next addresses himself to the inquiry whether free negroes whose ancestors were slaves were citizens of the several States when the Constitution was adopted, since

tion of persons, who were at the time of the "Every person and every class and descripadoption of the Constitution recognized as citizens in the several States, became also citizens of this new political body; but none other; it was formed by them, and for them and their posterity, but for no one else."

The position assumed on this point by the Chief Justice, cannot be better stated than in his own words:

"In the opinion of the court, the legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show, that neither the class of persons who had been whether they had become free or not, were imported as slaves, nor their descendants, then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument. They had for more than a century been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit."

Upon the threshold of the case arose the purely technical inquiry, whether the plea to the jurisdiction was legally before the court. Four judges (Taney, Wayne, Daniel and Curtis) maintained the affirmative; two judges (Catron and McLean, in whose conclusion Judge Grier would seem to have concurred), held the opposite opinion. Judges Nelson and Campbell expressly waive the inquiry, as irrelevant and unnecessary to the decision of the cause. As out of nine judges, only four passed upon the sufficiency of the plea to the jurisdiction, and as one of those four (Curtis) radically differed in opinion from the others, the point involved cannot have been decided by the court. Since, however, the question of the citizenship of Taking up the matter chronologically, free negroes, whose ancestors were slaves, the Chief-Justice cites, as samples of colois one of no little interest and importance, nial legislation, a law of Maryland passed and has been answered by the State De-in 1717, and one of Massachusetts in 1705, partment in one way and by a number of both prohibiting, under penalties, the the States in another, it is worth while to marriage of negroes or mulattoes with