Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1856-10-02
A Letter from GOV REEDER, on the APP
preaching election of President, and the
Candidates

A Letter from GOV. REEDER, on the ap.
preaching election of President, and the
Candidates.
N. Y. Cry, Sept. Is, 1856.
GENTLEMEN:-The letter of your cor.
respondent H., and your editorial com
ments upon it of the 10th inst, seem in
common courtesy to demand reply
Your correspondent does not err in say.
ing that desire the success of the Re-
publican party and the election of their
candidate, and that | am ready to con.
tribute any honorable effort to bring il
about. This is not the result of any pre-.
ference as to men, but in spite oft. With
Col. Fremont / am unacquainted.
have never seen him, nor had any com.
munication with him, direct or indirect
verbal or written. On the other hand
my feelings of friendship and adlnira-
ton for Mr.. Buchanan, as man, are Of
no ordinary character, and are strength
ened by years Of friendly intimacy and
reciprocal acts of kindness, uninterrupt
ed to this time by a single misunder-
standing or unpleasant feeling; and ]
would at any time defend him promptly
and Indignantly against personal attacks
upon his reputation. believe him to be
a man of distinguished ability, of high
integrity and>valuable experience. He
is surrounded, too, in Pennsylvania by
many political friends, whom personally
| love and esteem, and to whom an
united by ties of long -cherished political
intimacy, and the loss of whose friend
ship should regard as great calamity
For more than quarter of century
have steadily labored with the Demo
cratic party, and never doubted that
should do so during my life. For years
/ have exerted myself to bring about Mr.
Buchanan's nomination. In AS and '5z
was one ofthose who carried for hin
the delegates of our district, and was
his jealous and ardent supporter. On
each occasion was inthe National Con
vention as one ofhis delegates.
These ties are exceedingly strong anG
hard to sever, especially of a conserva
tive cast, and slow to change old habits
of thought and action; and have resist
ed for months the convictions that were
urging me to my present declaration.
have diligently sought reasons and ar
gunents to save myself thepain of break
ing up old associations and alternating
myself from my old friends, but all il
vain. My love of country and hatred
of oppression would not allow my feel
ings and inclinations either to delude my
judgment or still my conscience, and
am compelled to forfeit my self-respect
by committing what | believe to be pal
pably wrong, or else enroll myself in OPP
positions to the Democratic party.
see no reasonable hope of justice and
sympathy for the people ofKansas in the
auccess of the Democracy. In its ranks
and with the power to control its action
sre found the Border Ruffians of Missouri
and their accomplices of the South, who
have trampled upon the Constitution
and all the essential principles of our
Government, robbed Kansas of its civil
liberty and right of suffrage, laid waste
its territory with fire and sword, and re-
pudiated even civilization itself
In its platform | find the enunciation
of principles which would put the rope
about the necks of men for exercising
the constitutional rights of petitioning
Congress for a state government, or a
redress of grievances far worse than those
which led to the war of the Revolution,
and a declaration stigmatizing as EARNED
resistance to law" the moderate and JUS
titiable self-defense of men shamefully
and UNANIMOUSLY oppressed by ruffian vio-
lence and outrage, beyond all human en-
durance.
find the whole party of the nation
assembled in National Convention, with
but one Individual dissent, expressing
its unqualified admiration" of an Ad-
ministration which has lent itself as the
tool and accomplice of all the wrongs
inflicted upon Kansas, andby its venality
and imbecility brought the country to an
intestine war.
| find all its Representatives in Con
gress, with three individual exceptions,
laboring in earnest zeal, by speech and
vote, to cover up the iniquities of this
Administration and the Border Ruffians
of Missouri, and to suppress fair in
vestigation of outrages which shock both
humanity and republicanism, and defy
the Constitution and the laws.
find these same representatives, af
ter the truth was elected in spite of their
efforts, stillrefusing torelieve the people
from a code of laws imposed upon them
by foreign army, and still refusing to
admit them into the Union, only for rea.
sons which, in the cases of nine existing
States, had been declared untenable and
of no account.
I find them disregarding free Con
stitution adopted ina legal, constitutional
and time sanctioned manner, land which
no man can doubt to have reflected the
will of the people, and supporting law
to produce a substitute, by which it is
easy to show would have been perpet-
uated in the State Government, the
usurpation which had by force already
seized upon the government of the Ter
ritory.