Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1854-08-01
SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1854.
FEW WORDS WITH THE PEOPLE.

personal newspaper discussion is greatly to
be deprecated, but discussion wherein the rights
of the people are at stake, should always be en-
couraged, for g the agitation of thought is but
the beginning of wisdom" There are times,
however, when a contemporary, after being driven
to the WALL resorts to personalities to shield him.
self from the odium which necessarily follows his
course, and then is it, that his antagonist is per-
fcctly justifable in resorting to like measures to
Exhibit the rottenness Of the Foundation on which
his assailant stands.
1t is we'll known to most of our readers, that
when the bill for the grant of land for railroad
purposes in Minnesota passed the House OF Repre-
sentatives, we announced our appreciation OF the
act. and took occasion to remark that nOV the
matter would come before our Legislature and
| charter be passed which would he liberal in its
provisions and secure the interests of our Terri
tory. We had been informed previously by gen.
t,emen who knew the object and intent Of the BILL
that the said bill contemplated the future action
| of the Legislature-that the word future was in
the bill when it left the hands of the person who
drew it up-that the general understanding OF
Members of Congress, was, when they voted for
the bill, that the whole matter should come before
the next session Of Legislature for the action
of the members. Viewing the matter in this light,
we saw nothing to oppose in the bill, but with
others reoiced its passage through the House,
and calculated upon the rapid advancement and
completion of the road. Such position
up to the time of the passage of the Bill through
the Senate, which position had never been found
fault with by the Minnesotian, who appeared to
take a deep interest in the success Of the enter
prize.
| Now comes the news that the Bill has passed
| the Senate, which information was hailed with
pleasure by US, and in recording it we again re-
iterated the remark, that previous to any company
taking possession of the lands donated by Con-
eress to cur Territory, it was necessary that the
Legislature should take some action thereon
This was the general and almost universal under
standing of our people, of those persons who in
tcresed themselves in the passage of the Bill and
of all others except those who were accessories
to a fraud which had been cunnnsy committed
by wicked, wilful, unprinc.pled men. Soon after
| the appearance of our article, the Minnesotian,
| (Which for reasons best known to itself had kept
perfectly quiet up to this time) now cautiously
| puts its arms around the Times, and like a sick
lover, gently informs it that it labors under mis-
take that the grant of land belongs to the
company organized one day after the passage OF
! the Bill, and with only notice Of tCenty.tOur
hours when by law it should have been twenty
daas that not only the lands inure to this COM
panv but the charter passed at the last session Of
the Legislature also belonged to said company
that the charter had passed out of the power Of
the Legislature, and that no future Legislative
action could have any effect upon the company, Or
their operations.
AT this stage of the proceedings the cloven
foot of the beast began to show itself, and for
the purpose Of bringing him out to full view, we
combatted the position of our amiable cotempo-
rary stating that if his assertions truea ''stu
pendous wrony' had been committed on this
| communicable it was not the intention of Con-
gres5 to give the charter to the company-that the
os .ensible object of the bill for the new grant of
land was to IM all prorious action of the Legisa-
turc, and that the company had no right or title
to the lanls-that the word s:future'' was surrep-
| titiously expungcd from the original bill-that
| thu word g Orb was dealt with in the same way,
AMI we concluded by asking the Minnesotian by
what authority these things were done? What
was the answer? Why simply that the amiahle
| Mnnesotian should not be drawn into contro
versy on this subiect--that if there were any
''legal questions,' it should leave them to be
settled by the Courts, and not by newspaper edi-
tors-and that it hoped that there would be g no
occasion for any further Interference on the part
of the press or the Courts !"
! Here was direct evasion of an issue which
| ought to have been met-an evasion, the object
of which was self-evidcnt to every thinking, rea-
sonable man. If fraud had not been commit
| ted, why did not the Mnnesotan say so? If the
Wall street Railroad Company, at the head and
front Of which was Robert Schuyler, had acted in
good faith, why did not the organ of Robert
Schuyler and his associates in this city, say so :?
Why did he drop the subject and Cry out-''hush!'
:hush?" Because he knew that the people of
this territory had been imposed upon--hc knew
that the success Of the fraud depended upon
mysifying and quilting the inhabitants of Min
nesota into the belief that everything was right
when everything was urong---hc knew that the
sentiment of this community would not bear him
out in his ''skullducgery," and therefore we find
him whipping around the bush, skulking behind
every tree, and devisng all sorts of measures to
relieve himself from the contempt which will
ever after follow him. For time being this
amiable edtor--this pink of perfection-th
would-be organ Of the Wing party-this hired
servant of the Wall street Railroad Company
kept perfectly mum, until a pop-gun shot from
Red Wing announced his advent once more into
the arena as the champion of the confederates of
Robert Schuyler; and here he tells us what an
awful thing it is to oppose ''capiiaP'-how ridic-
uous we appear exercising our own right of judg-
ment, and that because men whom he met in his
travels said the road ought to be built, therefore
the people of Minnesota should not throw an OBJ
stacle in the way Of the magnificent scheme Of
soulless monopoly. Here, too, he speaks about
the ''shirtless," dirty personal allusion which,
although doubtless it did no. apply to us, yet was
sufficiently broad for to take up, and reply to.
Such remark with very i'll grace from
man whose early history is so generally known in
this AMI other communities.
But there is feature sprung upon the peo-
pie. The unsophisticated are aroused from their
sleep by the cry 'the sales Of the public lands
postponed!'' The rumor is borne on the wings of
the winds and echoed throughout the Territory,
and while honest men regretting this act of the
President the Mnnesotian chuckles over it in this
wise-