Plymouth advertiser. [volume] (Plymouth, Ohio) 1853-1988, 1855-10-06

ned TO the slave states, and those states compelled
TO hold in the federal government an Influence
only equal to their representation. This will be
the case when il is no longer necessary for q
man in the free states, in order to obtain the ap
pontment of deputy postmaster, to proclaim hi,
allegiance 10 the shareholders policy. This is
the point-How shall the free states regain their
equality, and hold their just influence 10 the gen.
eral government? Not certainly by any proceed.
ing to interfere with the constitutional rights oi
the slave states. We do not object To the appoint.
ment of slaveholding postmasters in the slave
states, and we have a right to ask that all local
officers and agents of the general government in
in the free states shall have the right of holding
the sentiments of freemen. Ii we cannot do this
We have no claim to the title.
1t obvious that the shareholders are now the ba-
sis of arstocracy already bold and exactng, that
must, if not checked, subvcrt the long cherished
principles of individual freedom in this country.
Can they be checked? A question of deep i'm
portance. They will gather additional forces by
time more auxiliaries will be found. and to defer
the struggle will increase its intensity.
In regard to the means of the free states to make
successful resistance to the slave party, it is well
to consider the difficulties for it has been well
said, Freedom is the price of perpetual vigilance.
1t struggles have always been attended with dis
cordant views among its friends In its ranks
are found the ultra men, ardent and uncomproni-
sing, unwilling to do little good, and usually
wasting their strength in an impractible reaching
after objects that fail to secure the cooperation
of the prudent friends Of the cause.
Men who have long acted and been identified
with the democratic party, considering democra-
cy as expressing the very element of freedom, and
necessarily hostile to every form of aristocracy,
are slow to believe that any party acting under
the name, can be used to subvert the fundamen-
tai principles which the term implies and doubt.
less, large numbers of them will feel so much re-
pugnance to acting with any other organization,
that they will linger, even against their own con-
victions, and though decided friends of freedom,
will be slow to see that name they hold in ven-
Grafton is perverted to destroy the very object its
name imports.
Other political parties will have more or less
the tenacity of attachment to their own organiza-
ton and peculiar issues and be slow to see the
propriety of uniting with others in order more
effectuay to resist great evil, which concerns,
in an eminent degree, the interest of the masses
in all political parties in the free states. For if
the current of freedom cannot flow securely in the
little avail
There are numerous friends of freedom who do
not see its danger in degree sufficient to lay
aside for the time other issues that are compare
itively of little Importance and these will be
adroitly urged, and cause more or less division on
the great question of political freedom 1t is clear
much embarrassment must be felt in forming
such an organization as will secure power to check
IfnH Of tha
is, however, believed these embarrassments will
be overcome, and that there is sufficient appreci
alton Of the principles of freedom, by the mass of
men in the free states, to surmount all imped
lments, and successfully resist the encroachments
Of the shareholders party.
1t cannot be that we have been so mistaken in
the intelligence of the free states, as to Justify
the belief that they will submit to the violent and
judicial encroachments of the shareholders party
on their rights. and thus receive the chains that
are already to clasp their liberties. We may prop
perly svmpathse with the enslaved African; but
we are now to much concerned to secure and
maintain our own freedom If we fail, as peo-
pie, to through the misty sophistry that selfish
politicians and others interested in cooperation
with the shareholders party are now throwing
around this subject, we shall prove that We arc
unworthy or the boon, ana American freedom
must take its place among other great failures of
the over-promising efforts that have for time,
encouraged the hopes and raised high the expec-
tation of progress in the great field of human
rights.
Names are dangerous things, when they are
used to belle their sign;fcation and destroy the
principles of their true definition. Let us not be
deceived, but bear in mind that the great thing
the mass of our people desire, is the maintenance
of civil and political freedom; and let no other
issue interfere with the security of this great OBJ
jcct. The pace.men will stand aside when the
people assert their rights and show that they are
not to be deluded by the name democracy sound
ed by the lips of false men, who use the term as
an instrument to prostrate its principles.
HAMPDEN