The Yazoo Democrat. [volume] (Yazoo City, Miss.) 1858-18??, 1858-09-11
THE ILLINOIS CANVASS.

and the final collision threatens to shake the
whole continent with its reverberations. We
do not know, while contemplating the strug'
gle from this distance, whether it is so or
not, but it does seem to Us that Senator
Douglas is subjecting himself to'a very dam~
aging though wholly unnecessary cross-fiIe,
and at the same time uncoveripg and fool
lshly exposing bis strongest position. The
campaign was opened by Nh lincoln, who
clearly and, we must admit, fairly defined
his position and the purposes of his party
He declared
l. That the present contradiction between
North and South must be hafmouized-t that
since the repeal of the geographical compro-
mise of $500 there could be no possible
settlement of the slavery question on terms
hitherto relied on--that slavery must be
universal, or it must he abolished and utter
Iy annihiIated in short, he laid down a
proposition which all sensible people must
admit, that negro subordination o. negro
equality must be, one or the other, npiver-
sally accepled by the nation.
2. Having laid down this truth, which it
| is in fact, however slow some Of our NORTH
ern friends may be 10 see il he wen on and
defined his own and bs pariy's position and
policy in dealing with it. He avowed his
hostility to negro subordlnaton-to the rule
Of twenty millions of white men over the
three lions Of negroes, and DECLARED a
J design to change the existing relations Of the
races aud force them TO a legal equality.
This was the end, the final object, the great
purpose of the Republican party, for slavery
or subordnation OF The negro element being
in its view national evil, that party assumed
the mission Of relieving the nation Of its
presence, and therefore asked the people to
place il in power in order to consummate
this great work.
In the third place, he laid down the pro-
gramme or policy for reaching the great OBJ
ject which his party had in view. He de-,
clared that the Constitution forbade any
direct interference with the States. but held
that Congress should exclude this so called
slavery from the federal territories, and thus,
by psnnlng up the negro population within
its present limits, slavery woull become un
profitable. and the States burthened with it
would abolish it; or in other words, that
society would become so demoraized by this
penniug up process that the existing rela-
lions Of the races would be changed, and
whites and negroes, as in Jamaica, Central
America, &c, forced to the same common
level.
These positions-these means and end OF
the Republican party-were boldly and, we
repeat, fairly avowed by Mr.. Lincoln, in his
opening speech at Springfield They admit
OF no dodging or subterfuge. They are plan,
straight forward and as unmisakable AS they
are insulting and infamous, as openly and
reckessy avowed as they ale atrocious and
dangerous, He asks the people of Illinois
to put his party into power aud enable it to
degrade the white millions to level with
negroes-to abolish the rule of the white
citizenship over the negro cement Of our
population-to demoraIize American society
and degrade it to the standard and character
OF Jamaica and Central America What
intamy What atrocity What implelv,
in fact, to thus seek to desecrate the eternal
laws of God aud force the subordinate negro
to level with the superior white man dr.
Lincoln will doubtless say that he does no
desire to see whites and negroes amalgamate
and equaze 10 social ife-perhaps will even
say that he does not desire to give the begro
the same political rights, but there is no ar
bitrary or imaginary ground of he kind for
him or his party to stand on The three
millions of subordinate negroes now occupy
a subordinate posi'ion-the twenty millions
of white citizens rule over them that rule
he thinks an evil and proposes to abolish it
not, as we have said, directly or by iuterier
ence with the States, bus indirectly, by pen
ming up this negro element, and thus forcing
a disruption of the existing relations and the
consequent equality of whites and blacks.
We have often made the declaration that
IT the objects of the anti-slavery party were
freely discussed aud truly understood by the
people of the North, that its leaders would
far more likely be lynched than sent to Con
gress but unfortunately their Democratic
"ppouents have no right to charge home on
them tue real infamy of their doctrines, be-
cause they themselves fail to occupy an
affirm tive position The mau or the press
thai decla rs slavery the natural relation OF
she races, and that social subordination ofI
the negro element IS right per Sc, iu SHIRT,
who declares the exlSing coudition--thel
supremacy Of the white man -eternally just
and true, may consistently deuounce all
those who seek to abolish this supremacy as
traitors to their race as we'll as TO their
country. This position Mr., Douglas took al
Springfield, aud boldly putting Lincoln on
the defensive, charged home on the anti,
slavery party al he hdeous ,mpieies and
lnoustrous vlIainies that are egtimately,l
indeed. necessarily, wrapped mp in the creed
Of that villanous party. Thus they went
before the people of Illinois, Lincoln advoca
ting negro equality and Douglas negro sub
ordlnaton--the former proposing to degrade
the whites to level with ne groes, and the
latter proposing to retain the negroes forever
ia their present position in short Lincoln
seeking revolution and an overthrow nf
our institutions, aud Douglas insisting on
The preservation of the existing condition
equality for white men aud snbordlua
ton for negroes all over everywhere and
forever.
Can any one, or could any one doubt the
l