The Kansas herald of freedom. [volume] (Wakarusa, Kan. Territory) 1854-1860, 1858-01-02
SANDING Fiml


/ Its represented by some of our friends
THAT the northern Democratic press is
backing down from their position in sus-
tanning Gov. WALKER, and in their hos
tility to the Lecompton Constitution
Such is not the case. There were few
papers that seemed to vacillate when they
learned of the Presidents position, but
they seemed to gather strength again when
they saw that Walker stood firm, and
that Douglas did not vary particle from
his first position. The Washington Union
attempted to brand every paper which
took issue with the Lecompton Swindle as
Abolition, but FoRNzY, of the Philsdel-
rhia press. brought up the editor as fol-
lows, which we confess does not look
much like backing down."
WASHINGTON UNIoN.-We can scarce
~ account for the folly and arrogance of
the Union in provoking a contest with the
Press on this topic, only to expose its own
ignorance and to publish its own shame.
After column of calumny upon us for
demanding that the will of the majority
in Kansas shall prevail, we turn back a
few weeks over its own pages, and find
that it went as far as the Press in the
same direction before the last fraud in Kan
sas had happened! a
1t is an extremely fortunate thing that
Mr. Buchanan has not recognized the
Washington Union for his organ. A
journal capable of such an act of telo de Sc
as this would drag down any man who
allows it to speak for him, deeper than
plummet ever sounded"
The course of the Washington Union
for some weeks past has been commented
upon by other Democratic papers with
signal severity. Those fearless and influ-
entail journals, the Detroit Free Press and
the Chicago Times, have literally flayed
it alive-the one holding it up to the
laughter of the country for its ridiculous
attempt to dragon the Democrats into
the support of the Calhoun Constitution
denounced in advance by the Union, and
the other for its mad folly in rating all
who will not do this the allies of "free-
soilism." The paragraph subjoined will
show how the Union stands with the De-
mocracy of the great Northwest:
But our able contemporaries should not
stop here. They have not forgotten that
after Governor Walker exposed the GRIM
inal frauds of Oxford and MCGEE; when
the fire-eaters and extremists were hunt
ing him down like felon; when all hon.
est men were applauding him for his
courage and his integrity; the Washing
ton Union had not word to say in his
support 1t was as silent as death, and
dared not so much as raise whisper for
the gallant statesman, absent from his
family and his friends, fighting against as
graceless a set of tricksters as ever lived.
The Union waited, like cautious politi-
clan, till the hour came aohen it could take
vengeance on those Dho stood by Coz. Walker
in that crisis. And we, thank God we
were among the first to do so, and so re-
ceived the first stab!
But more than this. While Governor
Walker was still absent, and nothing was
yet known of his action on the Calhoun
continuance, the Union in an editorial
ecstacy that would not have been an in
appropriate picture of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence, eulogised
the minority convention at Lecompton,
applauded their doings as wise and saga
cious and statesmanlike, and then pro-
ceeded to present the Calhoun Constitu-
ton to the Democracy of the free States
to swallow, failing in which they were to
be turned over to the Abolitionists. A
| few days after this most delectabie piece
of editorial agility, Gov. Walker made
his appearance, and took exactly opposite
grounds to the Cnioa-the ground, in
deed, occupied by the entire body of the
Democracy of the North. Indignant at
this most pitiable dilemma, and desperate
at the scornful independence of those
Democrats who will not be dragooned by
any man into submission to confessed
wrong, much less by so awkward drill
sergeant as the Union, it has lost its pa
thence, and attempts to intimidate with an
iufantile yigor truly dismal to behold.
We have only to say, finally, to the
Washington Union that we dispise and
reject its censorship. When it speaks of
abolition sympathies, it should look close
" to its own household. We defend a
great principle. We oppose no slave State
fairly made. We oppose fraud and wrong
whether for or against the South. We
stand by the author of the Nebraska bill.
Is he an abolitionist? We stand bv the
Governor of Kansas. Is he disorgan-
izer? We follow the public opinion that
elected James Buchanan. It was not
false in 1856-and it is not false now
Supported by such authorities we can
afford to look with iDeffable contempt up
on newspaper which, like Tom Thumb
before an audience of full grown men,
imagines itself king, when it is only the
puppet of a set OF grasping spectators.