Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1857-10-17
GREAT MASS MEETING!
GOV. GRIM ES.
4 900 FREEEIE.N Nv COUNCIL
(BY DEMOCRATIC COUNTING

| (BY DENoCR,TIC ooUNTING.)
The greatest speech which we hare heard
during the campaign was delivered before
large concourse of people on Saturday nj ght,
by Gov. Grimes. We did not count the
people present, but taking the Enquirer's
| reckoning of the Democratic meeting the
other night as the basis of our calculation,
we are safe in saying that, il there were
| 1900 present then, there were at least 4 900
in attendance Saturday night. AS this esti
mate is based on the Enquirer's figures,
however, we Will not swear to the exact
number, as we are unwilling to venture our
word upon so slender foundation. We
can say, however, with positive certainty,
that The meeting was the largest that has
been held in Muscatine this fall. Another
feature in addition to numbers If which it
differed from the Democratic meeting, was
| the fixed attention given to the speaker.
Not an eye seented to wander from his conn
tcnance, scarcely syllable was uttered in
all that large assemblage, except when some
stirring sentence or patriotic sentiment
awoke the thunders Of applause from the
voices Of the people.
| The speech was powerful and masterly
effort. We cannot do it justice by giving
synopsis Of the argument, but we will allude
to one or two points on which the speaker
showed conelusively that the Democratic
leaders are secretly arrayed against the
wishes not only of the people Of Iowa, but
even of the mass of their own party, because
the leaders of that party elsewhere, and es-
pecially the rich and influential capitalists
engaged in cotton and sugar growing, are on
the opposite side. These Democratic can
ddates and leaders in Iowa dare not come
out boldly before the people in their plat
forms and their speeches on the Banking and
free-labor questions, because the lash of the
cotton and sugar planter is lifted over their
backs. and trey know that if they move one
step out Of the furrow in which TREY are
hoeing the cotton for their masters, tie lash
will quick as fash curl over their hides.
Mr.. Grimes showed that the Democratic
leaders We're responsible to the people for
! the present state of our currency. That
party eleven years ago sent body of men
to Iowa City to frame the fundamental law
for this State. In that constitution they in
serted clause peremptorily forbdding the
! y Il, H.. oe e ND
thus throwing wide the door to the refuse
and worthless paper of all other States and
Territories, and leaving the people at the
mercy of foreign corporations. To-day we
are reaping the bitter fruits Of such policy,
while Ohio, with its sound and restricted
system of banks, has to-day as soand cur
rency as in the most prosperous times. But
with all this terrible injury before them, not
q candidate, not q paper, not aeoTd .t their
platform, is pledged to give the people Of
| Iowa what they need and demand-a safe
and we'll guarded system Of banks. And we
point to the significant fact that the Engua-
rer has not to this late hour published a
single line in favor Of banks. Mr.. Patterson,
Mr. Ager and Mr. Hoch maintain the same
ominous silence, and Mr.. Samuels drily
says that he IS personally opposed to banks,
but that if the people obstinately demand
them, why, rather than make them angry, he
will barely give his consent. Now, what
does this mysterious silence of all the papers
and candidates, and this reluctant half de-
MED concession of Mr.. Samuels, signify?
Why, plainly, that the Democratic leaders
are as bitterly as ecer opposed to banks, but
are AFRAID to meet the people on that i sue.
In reading The opinion of the Supreme
Bench in the bred Scott case, Mr.. Grimes
showed with startling clearness the drift and
meaning of that decision The Supreme
Court decided that under the Constitution
cotton planter might hold his slave in any
Territory Of the United States. while it re-
mained q Territory: that is, the people of
Territory mist tolerate slavery in their midst
whether they uiI,ed 1t or no. In the same
decision Judge Daniels said that property in |
slaves was more 5acred, and held by higher |
guaranty under the Constitution than any
other species of property; that it was the
only property to which the high sanction of
the Constitution was extended, and there
fore, that if when Territory came to form
a Constitution, it forbade the existance of
slavery, that Constitution would be in con-
fict with the Constitution Of the United
States, and so fir ssuH and cold! 1t fol-
lows then, from the opinions of the Supreme
Judges, that no new State can prohibit sla-
very if it previously existed in the Terrific
rv, and since under the same decision, sla-
very does exist in every Territory Of the
United States, it follows that no Free State
can hereafter be formed out Of that Terrific
Nv, save where it is totally unsuited to slave
labor Such is the bearing of the Dred
Scott decision. Free labor to be degraded
by the presence of slave labor, wherever it
is for the interest of the rich cotton and |
sugar-panter to take his slaves. The lead
ers Of the Demo cratic party are in a dilem
ma. They hear the fierce mutterings Of the
people against the oppression and injustice
on the one hand, but on the other hand they
see the finger of the rich cotton-growers
across the Ohio menacing them with ex-