Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1856-12-20
St(iiulrl,les;o((ttaJ Gilnlss,
TUESDAY. DEC. Is, 1856.
The Last Document.

The Last Document.
The last grand effort of Franklin Pierce, no.
torious for his inconsistent and sectional.pro-
olivitiss, has been laid before our readers and
doubtless by this time some of them have suc'
ceeded in wading through this weak and wishy-
washy exposition of his views and justification OF
his position on the Slavery question. lie starts
out SO to scan with an impartial eye the interests
of the whols and every part of the United States,
and yet before he has forced himself through
two columns, he clearly shows what particular
interest he is advocating, and how much he
thinks of the whole and every part of the Uni
ted States" He takes evident pains to congrat-
ulate the world and the "rest Of mankind," on
the election Of Mr.. Buchanan, deeming his cleo
ton as q full endorsement of his (Pierce's} ca
reer by the people, but fails to tell his readers
that Mr.. Buchanan is a minority President-that
the vote of Fremont and Fillmore is the vote Of a
majority of the people, and that could the peo-
pie have voted direct for President, John C. Free
mont would have been their choice. His effort
to mislead the public mind on this point is in
keeping with his past acts, but there is too much
Intelligence among the masses to allow them
selves to be thus duped. Self-satis6ed. that this
part of his Message will meet with favor, he
struts about and firts his coat-Aaps as peacock
spreads his tail, conscious Of his own greatness,
and that Notwithstanding the abuse heaped upon
him, thinks " he's some pumpkins !" after all.
Well, let him enjoy his belief he has nothing
else to console him in his retirement, and Heav-
en- knows this is little enough.
The first point Mr.. Pierce makes in his discus
sion of the Slavery question is, that the republic
can party, "who pretending to seek only 10 pre-
vent the spread of the institution of slavery in
to the present or incohate States of the Union,
are really inaamsd with desire to change the
domestic institutions of existing States" and
then be proceeds in his own peculiar way to de-
nounce those who desire to check the extension
of the evil, as engaged in revolutionary move
ment, and seeking to destroy the Constitution of
the Country. He has nothing to say about
Southern fre-esters and Southern encroach-
ments! In his estimation the North has no
rights. The South cannot do any thing wrong
Republicans are the aggressors, and at their feet
lies all the blame! Most valiant President! As
a specimen of his TRADE, we copy =
They seek an object which they vel. know to
be a revolutionary one. They are perfectly aware
tina: the change in the relative condition of the
white and black races, in the slaveholding States
which they would promote, is beyond their law
full authority that to them it is a foreign OBJ
lect, that it cannot be effected by any peaceful
instrumentality of theirs, that to them and the
States of which they are citizens, tho only path
to its accomplishment is through burning cities
and ravaged fields, and slaughtered populations,
and all there is most terrible in foreign, compli-
Gated with civic and servile war, and that the
first step in the attempt is the forcible disruption
OF country embracing in its broad bosom a de-
gree of liberty, and an amount of individual and
public prosperity to which there is no. parallel
in history, and outstanding in its place, hostile
governments driven at once and inevitably into
mutual devastation and fratricidal carnage,
Transforming the now peaceful and felicituous
brotherhood into vast permanent camp of arm
ed men, like the rival monarchies Of Europe and
Asia. Well knowing that such, and such only,
are the means and the consequences Of their
plans and purposes, the United States for civil
war, by doing everything in their power to de-
prive the Constitution and the laws of moral
authority, and to undermine the fabric of the
Union by appeals to passions and sectio nal pre-
JUDGE, indoctrinating its people with reciprocal
hatred, they endeavor to prepare the people and
by educating tAem to stand face to face as enc
mics rather than shoulder to shoulder as friends.
With all due Difference to the President of the
United States, We are constrained to say, in JUS
tifcation of Truth, that the above is bald
headed lie, uttered knowingly as such, and with
the evident intention of eliminating very
large class of the American people! The Repub-
icans do not ask to abolish slavery in the States,
they do not seek to create civil war,-they do
not seek to "deprive the Constitution and laws of
moral authority" nor do they seek to cngender
hatred, nor with desire to array man against
his brother man, but they do seek by all lawful
means to prevent the further extension of
Slavery-to maintain the rights guaranteed to
them under the Constitution, and for this they
are denounced by the chief Magistrate of the
Union as " in doctrinating the people with rscip.
rocai hatred" and " marching to victory through
burning cities and ravaged fields and slaughtered
populasion!" Great and magnanimous Presi-
dent with what an impartial eye thou scannest
the whole and every part of the United States!
His Exssllency then proceeds to discuss at
length the Slavery question, always keeping an
eye to his own justification, and constantly
thrusting hre-brands at the North. In his view,
1T was the North that first commenced the agita-
ton OF the Slavery question,-it was the North
that first refused to grant to the South its rights,
1t was the North that FIRST began to ssact agrees
sively against the Constitutional rights Of nearly
one-half Of the thirty-one States Pin fact all
the odium rests with the North, while the poor,
innocent, docile South has suffered and forborne
The Missouri Compromise is alluded to as ex-
listing only for the time being and not intended as
q permanent Constitution" All other Compro-
misses involving the question under discussion, are
reviewed, until the final act in the dramatic
passage of the Nebraska bill-becomes the SUBJ
Ject Of bis pen. Justifying the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise on the ground that subse-
quent Compromises had annulled it, the President
proceeds to set forth the beauties of the epopuar
sovereignty doctrine" gliding his arguments with
bright rays of his own vanity, and arrogating to
himself the power to decide for the whole Amer
lean people. The main and great Compromise
1.-THE Missouri, in which the interests of the North
were involved) is treated as a cob-web, while
those other Compromises in which the South is
Is the gamer, are held binding and sacred
everything tends Southwark, - every effort
I" made to Justify the South, while no CD.
p0'tan'sY Is lost to condemn tho North, and
particularly that portion who maintain that
Slavery has no right to extend its whitening and
bony hngers! And all this comes from one who