The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1854-04-26
From the Washington Union.
LETTER OF SENATOR DODGE OF
IOWA

| LIZ En- Or - ENA lOh DOOGE Of
IOWA
The letter Of Senator Dodge, Of Iowa. 10 the
Nebraska meeting held at Tammany all in New
| York. on the 10th ult will tc read with pride
| and qualification by all whose impulses are mr.
tonal and patriotic. He speaks his sentiments
bobby, directly, and eloquently, and they are
| sentiments that breathe the spirit of as ardent
and enthusiastic lover Of liberty as ever lived.
They emanate from The heart, and they will
| hnd ready response from every friend of the
Union. The Vaccinations of fanaticism and
faction will never succeed in breaking the ties
| which bind together our glorious confederacy so
long as the great principle Of popular sovereign
| ty has such advocates as Senator Dodge. His
| letter is as follows
SENATE CHAMBER. Friday, March 10, 1854.
GENTLEMEN: thank you most sincerely for
your invitation of the 9TH inst, to attend and
address the meeting of American citizens which
you propose to hold in Old Tammany Hail on
the 10th instant, to respond to the great demo-
cratic truths Of the rights and duty Of the peo-
pie Of State or Territory to frame their own
| form Of government and control their own do.
| meaic affairs, as contained in the bill now be-
fore Congress for the organization Of Nebraska
| and Kansas.
| l am devout believer in the pure democra.
tic principles which il is the object of your
| meeting to sustain and defend. BY actions,
| which speak louder and truer than words,
! have shown that ! am with you in principle
| as should like TO be in person-upon the in.
| terestlng occasion to which ysA5 invite me,
were it possible. fear, howevex that shall
| be denied that pleasure, owing TO an unusual
pressure Of public duties.
God speed and nerve you for the conflict,
say! You are battling for principle which
| ought to be dear to every American heart
Practically, the question is one of little impor-
| tnnce, as no man except hignted and incendiary
aboli,ionist suPposes II either of the con,em.
slave State. Ifthe pnists were sincere,
they would favor the o. its present shape,
because its effect will belead to the ultimate
| freedom Of perhaps several hundred family
| servants who woi1d be taken from Missouri and
Arkansas to the Territories in question These
servants will otherwise remain slaves for their
entire lives But the principle involved in the
| bill-the right Of Aerican citizens to ELECT
for themselves whether they will or will not
have slavery or any other domestic institution
| which to them may seem conducive 10 their
happiness and welfare-is one worthy TO be
struggled for by the descendants Of our revolu-
tonary sires. They fought and bled for seven
| long years, from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, for
| little else than the sacred principles which the
| tell spirit Ct abolitionism and free-soilism is
seeking to disregard and trample under foot.
/ IOIH Tic SHOW CdppeU MOUNTAINS OF the NOTtn
| to the savannas Of the South, the blood which
flowed from the veins of our revolutionary
flthers, and was left by their bare and scared
| feet on the hills and valleys OF the then lhir-
teen colonies, was all offered Us a voluntary
| sacrifice on the altar Of non ntervention--the
| Parliment OF Great Britain then occupying
towards them tn. precise attitude which the
Congress Of the United States now does towards
The cltizens who may lnhabIt the territory ofour
republic. That war commenced about lwo-
p my tax upon tea-the odious principle being
tina, the Parliament had the right to .'legislate
for the colonies in all cases whatsoever"
1t may not be inappropriate for me here 10
mention an incident which have very FREE
quently heard from highly intelligent and well
read Georgians 1t is this: That anterior to the
revolution Of 1776 there had probably never
| been box Of tea imported into the colony of
Georgia-,hat colony which, in support of the
| principles for which you ere contending, con-
| trlbuted more taxes and human life than would
| have been her proportion if the revolution had
| not been achieved, and the British tax had been
! continued down to the present day upon the
beverage then 80 little in use among our ances-
tors
| Look to, and reflect my countrymen Of the
| North, at the spectacle presented in the Senate
but brief time since. II was when war with
the most powerful nation on the globe was like
~ 10 VISIT, Will uTe anu SWOTus uUtHtCAlS VI
| American fishermen in the extreme northeas-
tern portion of our extended country. Then,
| and at that time, M. Sumner, of Massacbu-
setts, was vehemently urging upon the Senate
the expediency of repeating the law-one OF
the compromise measures OF lS50-providing,
in strict pursuance of the letter and spirit of
the constitution, for the return to the States
whence they might have escaped of persons
from whom service and labor were lawfully
hr
Georgia's senators, (he patriotic but now de-
parted Charlton,) who appealed TO his Sumner's)
native sense of justice and nagnanimity &. de-
sst from those acts of aggression and wrong
/ upon the people of the South, assuring him
and all the men OF the North, in the language
Of true American. that il the war with which
our nation was menaced should come, Geor-
gia-the Empire State of the South-woud be
with Us, as she had been with our fathers, unto
death. Vain imploration! Like every other
appeal made to the proscriptive and bigoted
aboltionists, it passed unteeded, awakening no
sympathetic response.
But what else could be expected from those
who struck Daniel Webster tor seeking to save
the Union-:vho denied him the felon's privi-
i lege Of pleading guilty" or "not guilty, in
Faneuil Hall, BY closing its doors IN his face;
or by those who, guided by the spirit and geni.
US Of abolitionism, refused the rites Of burial
| " 0uUIHcT VI "dSSiCuusctJS ulSllA- 1'SHS0
sons, (Capt. Lincoln,) who I2st~fHs life in .
foreign laad while doing ~L~rtle in war de.
clared by Congress-~-nd under the stars and
stripes OF his e~Hntry!
Frou-~e1r course. both in peace and in war,
LIE never doubted that the abotionists and
their allies, the free -soilers had any other than
| the one settled purpose, which is, overthrow Of
| our constitution and form Of government and
absolute equality between the white and black
| races who now inhabit the different States of
this Union
Very respectfully and truly, your friend in
the bonds Of democracy
A. G. DODGE.
Messrs. ELIJAH F, PURDY, JAMES X. STEERS,
THOMAS MUSRoE, AMBROSE l.. PINNEY, and
ROBERT DonEEL, Democratic Republican
General Committee Room. New York.
OFFICIAL. a
APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT,
By and ,cith the ad1ies and cosennt Of the
Senate.