The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1857-04-02
REPUBLICAN TICKET.
THE ELECTION.


-.. THE ELECTION. #raa
Republicans, one word if yon please. Haze
YOU an adequate sense of the importance of
the duties which will dsvoIve upon you, on
Monday next. and are yos prepared to perform
those duties? II is to be hoped that you are,
though we fear there may be some among you
who have grown careless and negligent. IL
there are any such among our readers, il there
are any who have abated one toto of their
former interest in the cause Of Republicanism,
to those we desire TO say that their services in
that cause are just as urgently required in the
approaching election, as they were last Mo-
vember or at any previous election. The prin-
eiplss Of our party are just as important now
~ they were then, the cause in which we are
enlisted is just a. dear as it ever was, and sue
cess is Just as much to be desired now as
ever. ...-..4. .s4s zas#a
We trust that every Republican is in earnest,
and can give reason for the faith which is in
him. We trust there is no one to be found il
the ranks of the party who did not join it be-
cause he believes in the great principles which
II embodies. 1t is no mere child's play. 1t
was not gotten up for temporary amusement,
or to give vent to a temporary excitement.
Its principles are founded in eternal Justice.
They are as broad as the Constitution, and CO..
ordinate with it. They are the principles of
freedom, and there Is no true Republican, who
is not Republican from principle, or who is
not firmly convinced of the entire justice and
truth Of the cause he has espoused..
And recent events have but served to strength.
en- our cause and render it still more than ever
important that every Republican should be one
in earnest. IL there was ever any excuse for
lukewarmness there Is none now. There is
no middle ground on which it rs possible for
any one to gain a footing. II there was ever
reason to doubt that the principles OF our OPP
ponsnts are slavery extension principles, that
reason no longer exists. Any man of ordina-
ry sagaeity can see the position occupied by
the party in power, and any one who does see
it and understand it, cannot help seeing and
acknowledging that they are pro slavery and
grossly so. The new President declares in his
Inaugural Address that the construction which
he believes Is to be put upon the Kansas Me-
braska Bill, is, that slavery cannot be prohib-
tied in any Territory until the people OF such
Territory form State Constitution, and apply
Tor admission into the Union. When it was
charged upon the sham Democracy during the
Presidential canvass that this was their doc
trine: they denied 1t. But they can now no
longer do 90, for their chosen President, the
organ Of their Party, avows it to be his doc
trine. And is not such a doctrine pro-slavery?
Look at il for moment. The doors to all the
Territories of the United States are thrown
wide open to slavery, it is allowed t, come in
without hindrance and restriction, and when
there, it 10 allowed to strike its roots deep into
the soil, and to fix itself permanently as an ssin-
stitution OF the land" And are you, freemen
Of Wapello county, willing to see al the fair
and beautiful and rich Territories of the Coun-
trygiven up to such an institution. an institu-
ton which not only enslaves your fellow men,
but d-grades labor, builds up an aristocracy,
and retards the growth and development Of
the Nation? You do not wish it, you would
much rather it were possessed by other people,
that 1t belonged 10 some Nation under whose
laws, Freedom and not Slavery is the general
rule, and Slavery not Freedom is the excep-
ton. And II you do not wish to see such a
doctrine Is this become the custom and the
Law Of the Land, 90 to the ballot box and say
90.
The cause Of freedom has never been in so
great jeopardy As now. The ancient common
rights and Constitutional privileges, which
were long ago established in the Mother Coun-
try, and which have been always asserted and
never denied in our own, have been attacked
and 90 IA a. the dicta Of Court create the
Law, they hare been subverted. The Supreme
Court Of the United States has decided that
our revered Constitution. the charter Of our
rights, the document under which We profess
to be free, establishes slavery and maintains
il against any and all prohibition, except those
put upon it BY the fundamental Law Of
Sovereign State. And not only so, but they
say that there can be slavery even upon soil
madefree by the Constitution Of the Sovereign
States, for they have overturned that ancient
doctrine that the moment slave touches free
soil, he becomes freeman.
Such are the doctrines of modern Democra-
cy. Let the free people Of our free country
answer them at the ballot boa, let that sover-
eign will which is greater than Courts and
Presidents, be now exercised in the protection
OF the dearest privileges ever possessed by any
nation on Earth.
PEACE.
When the Kansas Ne braska Bill was passed
1t was proclaimed BY the repealers Of the Ms.
souri, Compromise, that the agitation of the
slavery question was thereby ended; that the
subject would be forever taken out of Con-
gress. Well, nearly three years have passed,
Asarsn hsck -. IL