The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1857-05-30
ADDRESS
ADDRESS
VI INC AsePubl1can Central Committee
10 the Voters of Minncsnta

IN alew days, ION Monday, the first day
OF June next) you are to vote for members
OF the Convention which is to form a State
constitution for Minnesota, and which is to
take all other necessary preliminary stems
for our coming into the Union. The action
OF that Convention will stamp its character
upon our new State for years. Two great
parties struggle for lis control. Into whose
hands will you give it2
lhe great issue upon which they divide. is
that old question, as old as humanity itself
tne question OF the rights of man-of the
iaoorhS classes, as opposed to the aggres
siohs oi tne wealthy, the would-be privileged
classes. The Democratic Party, falsely So
caiied, by Its policy degrades labor and the
iaoorer, Tor the purpose of building IN a
wealthy privileged class who shall control
the whole country for their aggrandizement
The Republican Party plants itself unon tbe
immortal truths of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, ,that-"All men are created FREQ and
equal; that they are entitled to certain ina
henaoie rights, among which arc life. liberty.
anu the pursuit oil happiness" The Repub-
hcan party Is the party of Liberty.
These are not mere idle assertions. They
are truths which we shall Proceed to prove
by iacts. We ask not that the parties shall
be judged by their professions, but by their
acts. BY their fruits We hall know them"
At the adoption of the Constitution of the
United States, the system of Slavery existed
to greater or less extent in nearly all the
States, and in all it was deemed purely an
evil, an incubus upon their prosperity
living curse eating into the vitals of the COM
munlty. The South was then as ready to
d"rouncc it as the North, and the great
Southern Statesmen Of the day were more
unsparing in their invectiees against it than
any Republican speakers of the last presi-
dental campaign. Geo. Washington, Pat
rick Henry, fhos. Jefferson, james Madison,
and host of Southern Statesman who took
prominent part H. framing our Constitution.
denounced the system of Slavery in terms
by the size of which the defamation of even
Abolition orators seems tame. 1t cannot be
then, that the Constitution was meant to up
mold Slavery, and to extend it. Nor did it
abolish Slavery in the States where it exist
ed. What then was its purpose in regard
thereto? Simply this:
The States were then separate, distinct
sovereignties, united only by the common
bond of the terrible conflict they had passed
through together, and the dangers they saw
threatening all in the future. No State gave
up Its sovereignty, AS to its domeatic affairs
by the adoption of the Constitution and
formation of the Federal Government. They
only conceded to the General Government
certain specific powers in matters of general
concern. Slavery in the States was left for
the States themselves to take care Of. 1t
was not long before the more Northern
States r'd thelns Ives entirely Of it, by sta
tute, by constitutional provision, or by judi
"ial decisions. Some of the Southern States
seemed rapidly tending in the same directi' n,
and universal emancipation in all the States
Vas only prevented by the suddenly increa
sed profitableness of Slavery to the individ-
ual Shareholder. The invention of the cot
ton-gin gave at once an impetus to cotton
raising in the more Southern States, which
largely increased the demand for Slave labor;
the profit of working Slaves in the cotton
raising States, and raising Slaves in the more
Northern Slave States. Then the tide turned
Instead of emancipating their Slaves, the
South has since that period sought to in
crease their numbers, and to extend the area
occupied by the system.
While, however, the management Of slave
ry in the states was thus left entirely with
the states themselves, in the territories it
was far otherwise. The Constitution gave
Congress "pOwcr to make all needful rules
and regulations concerning the Territory
and other property of the United States."-
One Of the very first uses made of this pow
er by Congress was to re-afiirm the ordi-
nance of 1887, by which slavery and invoun-
tary servitude were forever excluded from
l,,;,
the only territory then owned by the United
States. This same power of excluding slave
ry from the territories has been exercised by
Congress repeatedly since, and Mr. Polk,
slaveholding Democratic President, signed in
lS4G the bill organizing the Territory of Or
egon, which contained a similar provision in
relation thereto. None but the most ultra
slave -propagandists doubted this power, un-
til the introduction of the Nebraska bill, by
Douglas, at the bchest of Atchison and his
border ruffian compeers.
This then is the position of the Rcpubll-
can party. While they consider slavery an
evil. and only an evil wherever it exists, they
believe that in the sever ! states it can only
be meddled with or controlled by those states
respectively. But they believe that under
the Constitution, Congress can exclude it
from territories belonging to the whole Uni
ted States, and that it is the duty of Con-
eress thus to exclude it. So thought the
Fathers of our country; So thought the Dem
ocrats of the Whole country, when DemOc-
racy was something more than name; so
think all freemen of the United States now,
who wish well to the institutions of our coun-
try. True Republicans, true Americons will
never consent that the fair territories belong
ing to the whole Union, shall be stained with
the foul blot of slavery.
We do not claim that all members of the
Dem' cratic party are in favor of slavery ex-
tension. We know there are hundreds and
thousands among them who would revolt at
the idea. and who know not what they do in
still aiding the slavery party. But we assert
that the party is under the management and
idance of pro-slavety men; that its meas
ures tend, and for some years have tended
directly to support and extend slavery and
strengthen the slave power.
BY their aid, the Infamous Kansas Nebras-
ka bill was passed, repeating the Missouri
Compromise; sacred compact between the
North and the South, of thrty-four years
standing, by which. in consideration Of the
admission Of Missouri as a slave state in
1920, the remainder of the Louisiana pur
chase, north of 36o 3O' had been forever
guaranteed to freedom. 1t was done for no
other object but to allow slavery to seize
upon Kansas for her foul purpose. The spe-
ciuus doctrine of souatter sovereignty, under
disguise of which it was done, already with
IN the short space Of three years, coolly pro-
nounced untenable by their own Court, and
it's Chief Justice, aud abandonded by the
party.
Un,,er a Democratic administration the
whole power of the national government has
been welded in Kansas, to Cypress and sub
due Free State men gong there, to assist
pro-slavery men t" obtain control there, and
thus to establish slavery in that ill-fated ter
ritory. As soon as Gov. Reeder gave any
indie .tions of fairness towards free state men
he was removed on trnmped up charge OF
land speculation, and the miserable, drunk
en- Shannon sent in his place, as tool for
the shareholders. When his habits rendered
him useless, Gov. Geary was seut, who was
presumed to be all that the South could
ask. Unfortunately for them, Gov. Geary
went there with honest intentions, really de
sirous cf restoring peace. He went there il
the belief that the outrages of the Borde
Ruffians had been exaggerated; that the Re
publieans, for political purposes, had caused
all the troubles that really existed in Kansas
and had grossly exaggerated them. Afte
living among them few months, and trying
i