Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1857-10-10
VOL. IX---NO. IT.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1851.
The Present Contest.

WIG VI tHe DlOSI reInafkitDle features Ol
the present political division of parties is
that, those sections and States of the Union
which formed the cold Guard" of the prim-
tive Democratic party, are now found in
! the hottest Of the fight against the Pierce,
| Douglass and Buchanan party. Iowa, Maine,
New Hampshire, New York, Connecticut,
Rhode Island, Ohio, and Michigan, are
| bright illustrations of this fact. These States
| were the strongholds Of Democracy in its
! purest and palmiest days, the days of Mad
ison, Mcnroe and jackson. They were Dem
ocratic in political afinities because their
people were democratic in feelings, in tastes,
J and in habits. They were the sworn enc
mics of everything unequat and aristocrat-
lc; of all invidious distinctions of rank and
class; OF privileged orders and combinations
| of men. They inveighed bitterly against all
monopolies and watched most jcalously the
movements Of all moneyed corporations -
1t is not strange that such men should watch
jealously the avarcious strides to wealth
and territory made by asmall but compact
class of capitalists who owned the land and
the money, and ruled the politics of one en-
tire section of the Union, and yet did not
comprise one fifteenth part Of its population.
These men filled all the State and Federal
Offices from that section o. the country
Indeed office in some parts was almost he
reditary. Family and fortune were consid-
cred grounds of claim For efiice. Hence
gradually this combination Of capitalists
come to direct the whole policy of that Sec
tion of the country. As they ordered, their
States voted, and as they always acted in
unison, when their interests were concerned,
it soon became Fixed matter that whatever
party wished to succeed i2 the nation must
gain the cooperation. OF the tton-growing
interests. And the party which bid tho
most, always gained them, and the party
which gained them; always gained the day.
and in this way both great political parties,
for the sake Of power became; the subserva-
lent instruments of this body Of capitalists
the cotton growers. And thus it was that
the cotton growers Away got whatever they
demanded from the Federal Government,
and with every concession became arrogant
and more selfish. I..t'...zi %Ii
Thus it was that to increase the value of
their property and put meuey in the pockets
of this small but powerful body of capital
lists, the cotton-gr overs were determined to
expose all the new territories Of the Union
~ the dangers Of q servile instruction, to
camp their enterprise and, to lessen the
value Of their lands, sli TO make themselves
rich. And thus it was that by repeated con-
cessions of the small farming end manufac-
turing sections of the country, and by re-
peated concessions Of wealth and power,
this body of influential aud wealthy cutton-.
growers began to imagine that they really
had a slight essence: of nobility in their
veins, and that they were born to rule tho
greasy mechanics and laborers" of the rest
of the Unon., u ow it is rot to be wondered
at that the people of these States whichswe
have mentioned should feel their democratic
instincts rebellins against the domination Of
| such an oppressive monopoly. And that
they shoNd boldly revolt and wheel tho
mass OF the Democratic party Of tEe:ooun-
try out OF line and form them On their. old
ground OF opposition to all privileged class.
ess and all moneyed rule. Audit 81 there
that the old Democracy of Iowa ssand to-
day in opposition to the Buchanan and
Pierce party, and fling out their banner as
Of old with the motto of "eGual rights and
privileges to all,'' written upon itt5'ready to
charge upon the enemies;of FREQ schools and
free soil on the second Tuesday Of October.