The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1856-03-26
An Address the People OF Iowa.

IL gave us pressure ~ ao til't, sunni ""9
ago.
An Address TOT People OF Iowa.
BIZ the Republican State Contention, held
IN Iopd City, FEB. 22d, 1856.
fCoNCLUDEp.
I Having only glanced at the above enact
ment and its practical operations, the cir
cumstances Of its passage, with the argu-
ments therefor, demand n few words
|. The rupture of the Missouri Compro-
mise was uncalled for by the people, its re-
| peal never having been agitated, SO far as is
] known, in any considerable political gather
/ ing. or the principle Incorporated into any
state or national creed.
.. 1t was hasty legislation dem
ocratic, because it is known to be opposed
/ to the wishes Of "A ma jority of the Ameri-
can people, whose emphatic condemnation
caused the projectors to be inpatient Of dis
cussion, ending it with indecent haste.
g. Southern legislators at the introduce
ton Of this bill asked, wall you have US re-
fuse the prefer Of the North few hon
orable slave owners answered, YES, yes, Ben
edict Arnold was from the North, fact that
did not save the traitor from dishonor, nor
sanctify his treason. The last legislature of
the State of Illinois rebuked the recreant
Douglass, and proclaimed to the country that
her name Yves dlshonored, and her principles
betrayed.
4. The unconstitutionality of the Nilsson
ri Compromise was on argument for the act
we deprecate. 1t is not so proven by o de-
cision Of the Supreme Court, nor by the pub
lie opinion Of those in power, who for q
third of a century upheld this provision for
Freedom, and il was for the embodiment OF
this principle in the well known Wilmot pro-
viso, that every northern State save one, IN
G structed its representation in Congress TO
: vote.
5. 1t was asserted that the restrictive line
was odous and unjust TO the South. The
answer is, Slavery is a local and peculiar in
stitution, in the language of the great Mans
{ field, $50 odious that nothing can be suffered
. 20 support it but positive law" and Kansas
had not, nor could it have without injustice
( to white laborers, thousands Of whom are
i annually By the associations and degra da-
;. tons incident to the chattelship of man,
i driven from the homes Of their brothers, to
find for their children, though in more rig
Is orous climate, the morals and enterprise Of
ID Freedom.
n Slavery already appropriates more than
a one-half of our national domain. on which
are found less than one-h half of our free
= population, and Is the every wish of q small
minority. little more than one in hundred,
in comparison with our whole population, to
/. be needed, to the political, social and moral
. detriment of poor non-slayeholding white
II men
# This is the question Of our day, are you
for the enslavers of men, on whose side
] there is power, for the landless poor p
Will you by your ballot bless or blight Kan
{ sas? Which shall be national, Freedom or
r. Slavery
=, 6. The more speeious plea was made
;. that the Territory should frame its own in
stitutions without restriction. The answer
y is, Congress has ever been deemed the guar
- dian Of the new communities not having at
h tanned TO the position which entities them 70
a State Sovereignty, it being conceded by the
Constitution that Congress may for them,
&c make all needful rules and regulations
e and the early Democratic policy was that of
d political care, positive Intervention TO inter
- diet human serS itude.
Have the Territories deemed this oppres-
. sive, or asked for the removal Of any re-
e strictlon TO slavery legal sanction in them
Never. Every bias in favor Of Freedom has
rather been regarded as wise and patriotic
D. the State being left TO choose its own domes-
B tic institutions after having attained the
position Of sovereign in the Federal fam
e ily.
re From these considerations, it is perfectly
" apparent that the violation of Il compromise
!. in the removal Of long regarded sautary
:, provision, was not TO give new territories
= rights withheld, and something better than
ID Freedom. No, in the language of thousands
= still acting with the party in power, sits in
Ia ceptlon conld only have been IN the mind Of
=, demagogue," and recent events prove that
without executive utilization with the desper
ef alton of despotism, the bill could not have
on passed, and that even now, with neutra
a. executive, the Territory of Kansas would be-
r.. restored to peace and freedom, and here VIZ
find occasion to promulgate our purposes anc
OF principles which are
The ouerfhrom Of the administration OF
Franklin Pierce; the protection of the cit
x liens Of Kansas from border inuosion
r. no more Siace territory; and no more Siay.
ce States from free territory.
re- Incidental questions, and previous part,
predictions for the time, we forget, to cir
II cumyent and overthrow By the methods pro
'a- vidcd in the Constitution. the foes Of on,
ret country ..and the rights Of man Past divis
III IONS among ourselves on minor questions
i have given the .ascendcncv 10 the oligarchy
sustained BY an immense governmental pat
sin ronage, ever discerning danger to the peculia
Of institution "from far,'' and d unit IN tn
day OF aggression and action.
The political campaign of the state and ma
"a, ton has been arranged by a conspiracy agains
our riohta and tho presnn+ voo, i.