The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-12-01


THURSDAY EVENING, Nor. 18th 1858.
GENTLEnEs Il did not come here fer
the purpose Of receiving your applause
for what little may have contributed TO
thesrcsult of the late election. 1t IS no
affected modesty ON my part when | say
there are many men here, who, in qul-
ct way have done, and affected much
more than myself, and, although thank
my friends for the good opinion they en-
terrain of my services, yet | do not thank
them for the distinction they make and
for the exclusive praises they bestow upon
me, while others have SO richly deserved
them. simply DO freemans duty, ane
SO do You, everyone in his way. Let no
unjust determinations be made, which
might wound the feelings Of deserving
men while they cannot fail to embarrass
those for whose qualification they are IN
tended. Equal honor to every brave
man who stood to his gun in the battle (!
TCheers. Honor to the members of the
American Press, who have faithfully
worked for the good cause, day after day.
Horror to tie members of the German
Republican Press, who fighting in the
minority, have for years and years sacri-
feed the comforts of life, and struggled
with difficulties unknown to most OF you,
until, at LIST, they found a reward Tor
their labofs in the victories of our cause.
Applause
When YOU look over the history Of that
party which for a long series of years has
shaped the destinies Of the Union, you
will discover that its organization is OF
hierarchal and despotic character, and
that its policy does not spring from the
heart of the people. You must discover,
that its frequent changes of principles,
and platforms did not arise from sponta-
neous and corresponding changes in pub
lie opinion, but they were imposed upon
the masses of the party by a foreign will,
| and that the masses were but obeying the
arbitrary dictation of a few superiors.
Thus you see the Democratic party OF tho
North, slide with the greatest facility
within few years from extreme to ex-
IRENE, from the Wilmot Proviso to the
most atrocious doctrines of the bred Scott
decision. How was this affected and what
was the CONSEQUENCE? The means WAS
the fiercest party despotism, and the con
sequence was the deepest generalization
Of the popular conscience. People were
taught that they had to sacrifice their
principles to the party, and with their
principles Trey sacrificed their moral indie
pendence and their moral worth.
Indeed, what man has the right to call
himself regular Democrat now-a-days.-
LAS he, who once with the leaders OF
the party, held tke Missouri compromise
as sacred and inyiolable as the Constitu-
ton itself? Has he, who once with Gen.
Cass, deplored that he had no opportunity
to record his vote for the Wilmot Proylso
Has he who once stood upon the Wiscon-
sin Platform of lS49, or who shortly after
SUBSIDIZED to Gen. Cass' Nicholson letter
or he who in 1864, cheered for Douglas
new doctrine, that the Missouri restriction
was unconstitutional, but that the people
of territory should have tho power to adj
NIT or exclude slavery in a territorial con-
dition? Or he who shortly afterwards
limited this tight to exclude slavery to
the time when the people Of a territory
formed State Constitutions Or he who
now subscribes to the doctrine Of the bred
Scott decision, that the right of property
in q slave is originally and expressly at
firmed by the Federal Constitution, and
that slavery has an unlimited sway over
all the property ofthe United States? Il
he Democrat who to-day, condemns
the re-opening of the slave trade as al
outrageous wrong, or will he be G Dem
ocrat that will assert tomorrow that 9
slave being an ordinary article of mer-
chandize, we have no right to limit the
freedom of trade in that article? No, he
is no Democrat who has stod faithful and
true to any one of these principles, how
ever loadly he may have protested them
But he is regular Democrat who has sac-
cessiveIy endorsed every one of Them
who has jumped from one platform OF
another without scruple or hesitation, anc
who were always ready to swear that the
leaders of the Party were always righ
whatever they might command, and thai
the whole world besides was wrong. Ht
is regular Democrat who was readiestir
Welding the most slavish obedience te
superior dictation. The true party tes
of Democracy is neither the Nebraska bill
nor the bred Scott Decision; it is uncon
ditional submission, and ever ready obedi
ence. How is this. Is it probable that :
man should have been truly and deeply
convinced of the truth of any one of these
principles, if he was always ready to aban
don ii for another Is It possible tbs
those who changed leading doctrines al
easily as they changed their clothes
should have cared for principle at all
Gould it be true conviction that ruled
theat? And fit was not conviction thai
ruled them what concern could their con
sciences have in their politics.
Oh! what a! sight. is this! am a sor
of nation, whose soaring spiriI was sub
dued by the bayonets of hireling armies
I've seen thousands aud thousands shout
der their mlskets and march against the
defenders Of their own rights and then
own liberty; but it was not their own
choice to do so; for terror oyerawed then
hearts, and brutal force directed then
steps. And | have seen other thousands
and thousands sacrifice all they had, and
fight and suffer, and die, in order to be-
queath to the people the right to express
their true convictions and their free will
at the ballot box, and for no other cause