Marshall County Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1855-1859, 1856-06-12
From the State Sentinel
THREE SLANDEROUS FALSEHOODS

lst That the Democratic party is pro
slavery party, and in favor of its exten
sion.
Cd. That the Democratic party is in IA
vor Of free whiskey, unrestricted by lega
regulations, and the advocates and uppor
ters of intemperance.
Sd. That the Democratic party is in IA
vor of the propagation of popery and are
supporters of the Catholic religion.
These charges arc both the public and
the private themes of those who oppose
and write and speak in opposition to Dem
ocracy. No matter how plainly and en-
phatically they are denied by the acts and
protestations of the Democratic party, they
are again and again repeated by men who
endeavor to mislead and fraudulently i'm
pose upon the people. The proceedings OF
our Democratic Convention, our resClu-
tons and our declaration of principles con
stantly contradict the truth of these gratu-
itous and slanderous assertions
There is scarcely one, if any, advocate
of slavery or of its extension in the Dem
ocratic party of Indiana There is nc
Democrat in the State that would desire to
see slavery, as an abstract principle. exist
for an hour ora day in the country, if there
was a safe, practicable, honorable and le-
gal method of extirpating this great nation
al evil. The Democracy are always true
to the Constitution and to the honor of the
nation. They fully recognize the rights of
the slave holding States, and seek not to
disturb the solemn political compacts
which bind all the States Of the confcdera
cy in one great bond of union They are
aware that the Southern States would new
er have entered into confederacy with
the on-slaveholding States, had the Nor
thern States refused to guarantee to them,
b. the provisions of our national Consti
tuition; their rights of slave property
This great compact was made between the
States at a time when a general unity was
necessary TO the protection and security of
our national existence. Previous to the a
doption of our present Constitution, all of
the original thirteen States, were slave
holding States, with the single exception
of Rhode Island. Such us have found the
institution impolitic and Improbable, have
voluntarily abolished slavery, and they
should be content to let other States act up
on that same voluntary principle, when
they think it their interest and their
duty to do So. Itcertainly needs no argu-
ment, at this day, to prove that the States
in which slavery exists. alone, have the
right and the power to control it; nor to
demonstrate that Congress has no such
power. The fathers of the republic new
er imagined that the States which formed
the confedelacy and which were all slave
holding States, meant by their compacts of
union, to deprive themselves of the rights
which they then held in their most valua-
Bile property; and the Constitution now
bears witness, that when it was adopted, at
ii later period, they took peculiar care to
provide for the reclamation of their slaves
when they might escape from them into
the free States. No attempts were ever
made, by Congress, to legislate upon the
subject OF slavery, as connected with its
admission into any of the States or Terri
tories, until the passage of the Missouri
Compromise in 1890, which conclusivelv
shows that the veteran sages who planned
our excellent structure of government.
the Inhabitants of such States
and Territories the only proper power to
decide as to the federation or exclusion of
slavery within them.