Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1856-09-23
!. question for White Men to nsider

day nlgAt, 10Th inst, before an audience
o. 5000 men. We give an extract from
it below Oh subject OF great Importance,
which we hope will receive a careful Pc
rusal. Says the governor:
Let any man in the audience take the
map OF his country, and he will perceive
that the territory of Kansas is only two
hundred miles wide, north and south, and
extending nearly nine hundred miles to
the summi1 of the Rocky Mountains; but
beyond that 10 the shore of the Pacific
Ocean he will find that there is territory
enough to make six States as large as
Pennsylvania. With majority OF free
men upon the plains of Kansas, and it a
slave State, | will thank any man to tell
me how ne IS going to save tie second,
the third, or fourth, each one further and
further our Of your reach-each one with
one more slave state intervening. Is the
thing possible! Is it not obviously palpa-
Die that if we lose the State of Kansas,
we lose that entire body OF States al the
Pacific ocean, and when We have LOST them
and have thus isolated the territory OF
New VI ,xico which lies below, aud left it
10 be carried BY the slave states on the
north-will any rejecting man tell M
how much of the territory Of Now II x
leo we will gct2 VIII be tell me how this
is 10 be had! Will he tell me that suffi-
cient numbers can be got through the
slave states to prevail against the violence
and the force of the slave States that Will
be brought TO subdue it. No. they will all
be lost, and this entire territory will be
handed over TO slavery. Hear hear! |
This half of a continent is all lost 10 the
north and TO freedom. This is momen-
tous question IN many respects. Let me
dIrec, your attention TO a few of them
These northern states may be likened TO
a tub under fountain, all the time boil
ing over with a surplus population, and
streaming over the vast west aud hunting
homes In the far territoTy-a co.IStanl
stream of surplus population running west
ward like vast river, which, were it con-
centrated, would build up new State ev-
cry five or SIX years. VIII any man de-
ny that slave labor and free waite labor
cannot exist togethers I. is proposition
admitted by everybody, that wlere one Is
the other cannot be. Well then, suppose
YOU dedicate one half OF this continent t.
negro and to slave labor, you shut off this
vi non tilll8 tdtiOLl-
You shut the gates of the whole vast west,
Kansas, Dcseret, and New Mexico 10 the
north, and turn back this human ide 10
throw itself upon the north and northwest.
II you deny this territory to the free Ia
boring man, you see that to him the gates
shall be closed forever, and all of ii dcd-
lcated to the negro aDd not TO the white
man. Have the laborilg men Of the
north considered the Importance of this
qu sion to them-the drayman, the hoI-
man, the mechanic, the day laborer2 Ev-
cry man who earns his bread BY the sweat
of his brow, or who by the change OF for
tune may be compelled TO ID so-every
man who expects to leave a posterity to
find homes 10 this country, has deep In
terest in It. Let US Illustrate this By the
north west territory. Suppose these things
had occurred twenty years ago instead OF
now. Suppose the gates of tt.at territory
had been shut against free white emigra-
ton, and all that great territory had been
dedicated to the negro; suppose the white
laborers had been shut away, and the mill
IONS of people who now swarm over the
west were all turned back upon these.
what would be the fate of the lahorers?-
THIS IS not a matter 10 dispute about; 1t
has been demonstrated in Ireland and IN
China and the result will b. the same here
and everywhere.
When You refuse to let the free white
laborers go west, to make themselves
home, and lay the foundation of homes
for their children, you refuse to let him
better his own condition or the condition
~ tbn-n hA ino,-n- ii
go west, and thus the walks of labor at
home are prevented from the surplus that
reduces to starvation. But suppose you
throw back this vas, tide of emigration
and refuse to let the free laborers occupy
this soil, what then can they hopes All
the walks of labor at home are filled and
filled again, until they are choked up
the wages of the labor decrease In pro-
portion, until al last the immense amount
of honest labor becomes enc vast body of
degradation, poverty and crime. Tna,'s
true Tais Is not predetermined. Il has
been clearly demonstrated in the history
OF the world again and again. Lool, at
ireland where few ears ago the walks
OF labor were choked up, and the supply
was greater than the demand, till an able
bodied, intelligent man could hardly earn
enough 10 keep body and soul together,
and five or six pounds was the price of a
years labor. What was the caus.s just
precisely what it would be in the cas- |
lave supposed The supply chol<ed the
q demand I'LL the pyice Of labor was re-
duced almost to nothing. voice-Ten
cent Jimmy-laughter.l / did not hear
the remark of my friend. Ten cents a
day Renewed laughter and applause. I
Five or SIX pounds for the labor Of an In
telligent, able-bodied man for a YEAR
and you see the cause in the system of
Ireland. You have rIso seen lis remedy,
and that is precisely the remedy | would
apply here-emigration Ireland became
Hooded with surplus of laborers. La
Dor became subselvient to capital, and the
laborer almost the slave, and the capital
lSt almost his master, ireland poured out
her exodus Of laborers, and now behold
The In h0rlnp e no L