The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1858-10-07
ADDRESS
TO THE DEMOCRACY OF MONROE.
BY AN OLD LINE DEMOCRAT.

ballot box, from which decision there will
be no appeal. A more serious and i'm
portant duty has never devolved on the
Democracy Of this District. The pledge
bresking Democracy, with Dimmick, as
its champion, have made the issue, and
they must abide by its legitimate conse-
quences. We repeatedly requested that
VIM. II. Dimmick should be left at home,
because he had proved himself entirely
unworthy the trust We reposed in him
but our request has been disregarded, and
we are now called upon, by the pledge
breaking Democracy, to vote for their
champion of broken pledges and inconsis.
teacy, and thereby render ourselves par
ties to the crime of treachery after the
fact Shall we do it, or shall We remain
true to our pledges and principles-true
to our manhood and Justice true to the
Cincinnati platform, which lead US on to
victory in 1856
1t is well known to every intelligent
Democrat, that VIM. II. Dimmick wa.
elected in 1856 to Congress. and that he
was pledged more than fifty times during
that canvass, to the principle of Popular
Sovereignty. The Republicans repeatedly
accused US of being in favor of Slavery,
and that we were in favor of extending it
over the Territories that are free. We
replied, that We were not at all in favor
of the extension of Slavery; but that we
we're in favor of letting the people of
each Territory decide for themselves,
whether they would havo slavery or not.
If they desired it. we held that they had
perfect right to have it. But if they
did not want it, they had the right and
the power to say so, and as they said, so
it should be. We said the people of the
territories had the right to regulate their
institutions in their own way. Such is
popular Sovereignty, to which we were
and are still pledged, and those who dis
regard this doctrine are not Democrats.
Wm. Fl. Dimmick was pledged with all
the solemnity possible, to faithfully sup.
port that doctrine. But a short time e.
lapsed after he took his seat in Congress
before the Lecompton Constitution came
to that body for their consideration
That Constitution totally repudiated pop
ular Sovereignty, or the right of the peo-
pie of the territories to make their own
laws. Yet, pledged to popular Sover-
eighty as Dimmick was, be voted, never
theless, for the Lecompton Constitution.
This Lecompton Constitution is a despot-
10 measure. 1t deprived the people of the
Territories of the right to say what kind
of institutions they would have, and CON-
pelled them to have slavery. This you
discover was bold and high handed at
temp to pervert the great principle Of
Democratic government. Notwithstand-
ing Buchanan, supported by such lDiser-
able dough-faces as Dimmick, made ev-
cry effort to pass the despotic Lecompton
Constitution, it did not receive maiori-
ty vote in the Lower House, and therefore
failed to become law.
The Lccompton Constitution was work
ed over again and clause inserted, which
provided that the Constitution should be
submitted to the people for their ratifca-
ton, with the promise, that if the people
would vote for the Constitution, which
was slavery Constitution, they should
have FIVE millions of acres of public land,
and certain percentage of the money
realized by the United States from the
sale of public lands in that Territory, and
should also come into the Union i'm medi.
ately Slave State, with only 35 600 in.
babitants. But if they should SO much
desire freedom, as to disregard this heavy
bid for them to make Kansas a slave
State, and vote against it, because they
preferred freedom to slavery, then they
should not be permitted to come into the
Union a free State, until they had enough
inhabitants to entitle them to representa-
tive in Congress, which is now upward of
$4,000, and will be, after 1860, about
10000. The Constitution further proyi.
ded that it should not be altered till dfter
1864. This was SO arranged in order
that slavery might become firmly seated
in that territory. Such were the proyi
sions of the bribe and threat bill. Which
Wm. II. Dimmick supported in Congress
and still supports, as all know who heard
him speak in the Court House, during
Court week. All will at once see that
Lecompton the second, was meaner and