Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1855-12-01
If(inlltsota Tin>es,
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 20, 1866.
CHOATE ON FUSION.

lOil tnat Il man is Iloue Tic ieSS iOoi HcCcSSd.
rily, for being Governor of State. Of Gree
ley's many pungent hits, none is fuller of una
dorned, pertinent, hard sense than this, and we
fear that general review of the acts of public
functionaries would exhibit its truth in much
wider than Gubernatorial application. We
are aware that it is not fattering to the pride
of popular sovereignty, but i. were well to add
init the truth, nevertheless, and endeavor to
profit by it.
The prestige Of great name, it would seem,
renders a man no less liable to besetting error
and bawbIing sophistry. The Hon. Rufus
Choate has served the old Bay State much and
well, enjoys much legal repute and is withal
an effective orator of the ford gesticulatory
style, but We apprehend that his icrvid rhetoric,
his involved utterances, and his pathetic lamen-
tations over the defunct carcass Of Whiggery,
in his late Boston speech, will serve, ultimately,
little purpose in binding the popular concep-
ton of great truths or diverting the lovers of
genuine liberty from the urgent duties which
the crisis demands of them.
Mr. Choate objects to the Republican party,
because it is party of one idea-because it
proposes no measures aside from Slavery. His
new-found friends, the sham democrats, with
amorous chances and becks of encouragement,
stand ready to head them from the other horn
of the dilemma with the charge that the new
party is party Of isms-a party Of too many
ileas-a party composed Of disjonted materials,
attempting universal panacea for political
ailments; and so between them they propose
to bring the enemy to bay and have comfort
able time generally. But we admit the charge
OF one-ideaisln, and assert, unhesitatingly that
it constitutes our strongest claim to popular con-
fdence and support.
The progress Of the race towards represen-
tatvc liberty is marked with eras in which the
subordination of other subjects become neces-
sary to the maintenance Of the great funda-
mental principles underlying all true progress.
The founders Of our Republic proposed no
specialites Of Legislation until the right to gov
crn themselves at all was first maintained
&c. when the q 'estion of self-government re-
ours again in new form, we may rightfully
postpone minor subjects till the right of freemen
to settle our Territories be first indicated
1t is this unity of purpose that has given the
Slave-Power such fearful supremacy in our
Government. On the subject of Slavery, it is
well-known, the South is unit; and Slavery
is the only subject they seriously consider. A
traitor to their interests is secuted from society
and made to wear a brand of infamy from
which he never RECEIVERS; while we, of the
North, with shame be it confessed are &C.
cupicd in vlifying and betraying our standard
bearers and clothing base apostates with the
highest honors. The South well know this,
and feel secure of their objects as long as they
can divide the ranks of freemen and count
upon the efforts of such elegant, time-serving
tOadies as Choate, Everett, Hunt, &c., to TO-
ment our pride of nationality and hull us into
false security.
MIR. ChOate affects to deprecate the exten.
sion of Slavery and claims that the Wings
have always resisted such extension. Here
he gets his old Wing hulk between political
Scylla and Charybdis and is sorely puzzled to
DIV Ou WIeCk vi OIlc vi tilc OtIcI. llc OppO-
SEES the extension of Slavery and laments the
defeat of the Wings for the lost opportunities
of doing good. Yet he blames the Republic
cans for attempting what he confesses the
Wings would have done if they had had the
power. He claims credit for the Wings on the
very grounds on which he now blames the Re-
publicans. He would be glad to make clean
breast Of it bu: can't do it without endorsing
the Fusionists and he has hard road to travel
in consequence.
The fact is, it was the feeble, vacillating
policy Of the Wings and of the whole North,
with reference to the demands of the Slave
propaganda, tina. has melted Southern insolencc
and aggression, and rendered the Republican
movement necessary. If the North had shown
proper stamina and allowed the South to pro-
coed with her threats Of disunion, We would
have seen them return, as crouching suppliants,
to their senses long ago.
We are heartily disguised with this cry of
scctionalism. We beg to know what can be
more national, unless our professions be sheer
mockery, than the encouragement of free COM
munties and the preservation of our fertile
Territories from the foul contagion of Human
Slaverys
1t is incredible that sagacious men cannot
see where the charge of sectionalism right(ully
rests. Ever since the reelection of jefferson
to the Presidency, the South have made "the
propagation, preservation and perpetuation of
Slavery, the vital and animating spirit of the
general government" They have demanded
Of Presidential aspirants, as the sole condition
of their support, unlimited concessions to Slave
interests, until such is the debauchery Of polit-
cal sentiment that candidates hasten to purge
themselves of sentiments of liberty and look
with complacency upon the growth Of an insti-
tuition which makes single orner of fire hu-
man ehatteis, equal, in political po,cer, to four
free men!
The pages of history may be searched in
vain for an example Of absolute power and
consummate art equal to that by which three
hundred thousand shareholders rule the dest-
MES of twenty-five millions of people. With
the wealth, intelligence, art, enterprise and
literature OF the country all in the free States,
backed by the sympathies and progress of the