Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1857-02-24
From the N. Y. Tribune.
Emancipation in Missouri.

Ihe theory OF the rampant and reckless
stakeholder is that slavery must be perpet-
ual. In all the speeches from the South
ern side which we have read, in all the
policy from that side which we have con-
sidered, we do not remember that any ar
gument has been based upon anything but
the eternity of negro servitude. How this
was to be maintained, or upon what laws
of population it was to be founded, the
| philosophers and theorists in the slave
interest have not condescended to inform
4 us. But it is evident that SO soon as one
Slave State takes the initiative of emanci-
i pation, the edifce at the foundation of which
Mr.. calhoun so laboriously toiled, must
fall in fragments to the ground If eman-
cipation be demonstrated as practicable in
one State, it follows, with certain necessa-
ry allowances, that it is practicable in
another State. We therefore gladly re-
cord the fact, that in Missouri, common
wealth with an historic reputation in this
subject, "Platte County is not in the as
cendant, while different parties are con-
tending for the honor of leading in the
emancipation movement. When we re-
member that the attempts to extinguish all
freedom in Kansas have found their chief
impulse in Missouri, our readers will be
in position to estimate the value of the
facts which We record.
The declarations which we are about to
record were made upon the occasion of an
election of President and Director of the
Bank of Missouri by the Legislature. Mr..
Hughes was the Democratic Republican
candidate for President and Mr.. Charless
was supported by the Americans and Ben
ton Republicans. A good deal of discus
sion ensued in regard to the former man.
agement of the Bank, for political purposes,
with which we have, at this time nothing
to do. Mr.. Hughes was elected.
When the question of the election of a
Director came up, Mr.. Palm being can
didate, certain Mr.. Rains asked eff Mr..
Palm did not write letter to the N. Y.
Journal of Commerce, and if he did not
declare in that letter that he was in favor
of the emancipation of the negroes in the
State of Missouri? ?" To this Mr.. Zeigler
responded boldly: "He did so, and so have
many good anti-Benton men declared. l
conceive there is great deal of difference
between Emancipation and Free Soilism."
Mr.. Brown of St. Louis, (an opponent of
Mr.. Palm) said: 81 am Free Soiler and !
don't deny it. No word or vote of mine
shall ever inure to the benefit of such a
Pmonstrous doctrine as the extension of
Slavery over the patrimony of the free
white laborers of the country. | am for
the greatest good Of the greatest number,
and against the system which monopolizes
the free and fertile territory of our country
for few Shareholders, to the exclusion Of
thousands upon thousands of the sinewy
sons OF toll. The time will come, and
perhaps very soon, when the people will
rule for their own benefit, and not for that
Of class which, numerically speaking, is
insignificant. Il stand here in the midst of
the assembled Legislature of Missouri to
avow myself Free Soiler. Let those
who are scared at names shrink from the
position if they will. l shall take my
stand in favor Of the white man. Here in
Missouri shall support the rights, the
dignity and the welfare of the 100000
non-slaveholders in preference to uphold
ing and perpetuating the dominancy of
the $4,000 Shareholders who inhabit our
State" Mr.. Brown went on to say that
his sympathies were with the toiling mass
es, and not with the privileged few; that
while he was far from designing any vio-
lation of the rights of labor, he conceived
the labor of the white man to be as much
his property as the slave is the property of
his holder; that he earnestly looked for
ward TO the time when, by a wise aud sal
utary system of emancipation, Missouri
might rid herself Of the evils and incubus
of Slavery, and "open wide her rich har-
vest fields and unbosom her mineral wealth
to the active energy of her free white pop
ulation." Mr.. Clover of st. Louis, avowed
himself an Emaucipationist, and said che
should hail the election Of Mr.. Palm, and
it would be hailed by thousands through
out the State as the first auroral glimmer
of dawning day, when political party
having this great purpose for its end will
initiate policy which is necessary for the
development Of all the resources of this
mighty State, for securing its rightful po-
sition in tho Union, and for multiplying the
prosperity, worth and greatness of its peo-
pie"
The ST. Louis Democrat Of the 28th
ult., in noticing this debate, declares that
the question Of emancipation is now an
open one in Missouri--that the National
Democratic party have voted for an Eman-
cipationist, knowing him to be such, and
that the Benton Democrats and Americans
had, by their declarations, placed them
selves in similar category. 1t pronoun-
ces the question "the grandest ever pro-
pounded to the people," "lf," it adds,
cit were affirmed in a Constitutional Con-
vention, and thoroughly carried out with
out violation of vested rights, Missouri, in
few years subsequent to its consumma-
ton, would be the foremost State on the
American continent. Population would
flow in on all sides were the barrier of ne
gro Slavery once removed. and in place Of
, 3d. 900 slaves, we should have 100000
white men, which in addition to the popu.
lation we should have at that time, would
give us at once an aggregate of two mil
, lions"
| The Democrat goes into statistics tc
: .ov. lie scbanoa of annoncination nossible