The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-10-27


Missouri code-how Democratic presses
and Democratic politicians everywhere
throughout the North villified and sneer-
ed at them, at the same time apologizing
for the outrages Of the Border Ruffians,
are facts of history which are unquestion.
able, and can no more be kept from his
tory's impartial page than the sunlight
from the earth. And this was the man.
ner, fellow citizens, 10 which the Demo
cratic party carried out tho doctrine o.
popular sovereignty. EftEiI
UP to the date of the Lecompton Con
stitution no leading Democrat raised his
voice in the Councils of the nation, in ia.
vor of the fair exercise Of this principle
by the people of Kansas. And this alone
is proof enough that the motives of the
party, under Southern control. were, not
to leave the people free to regulate their
domestic institutions for themselves, bat
to gain an advantage for slavery, and
push it into the territories by force and
fraud. But the game had been played
too far for the interest of Northern politi-
clans, and so in the Congress of 1857 and
SO Douglas rose in, his seat, and to the
horror Of the South, declared he would
90 no further. He had denounced the
people of Kansas, and been their most
bitter enemy throughout the hardest of
their lattle; Kansas could not be made
a Slave State, the overwhelming Fremont
vote in the North, had shown him the
handwriting on the wall; he would no
longer lend his hand to force down the
throats of the people of Kansas, the bitter
potion his own hands had prepared, and
which he had labored for years to make
them swallow. He cared not now whe-
tier slavery was voted up or voted down,
but the time had come when popular
sovereignty could no longer be denied a
free and heroic people, and they must
now be allowed to vote upon their funda-
mental law.
Far be it from us, fellow citizens, to
seek to deprive the Democrats of the
North Of any due credit on account of
their late profession of good will to the
people Of Kansas but Senator DOUGLAS
shriekcd for freedom when it was to late
inspire confidence in his sincerity and like
PATRICK HENRY's meat man, cried "Beef!
Beefw in the victorious camp, when his
own allies were fairly beaten and flying
over the border! We will give the ma
jority of the followers of Douglas in the
North, the credit of heartily wishing now
that the poo lie of Kansas shall have fair
play in the formation of their government.
But, fellow citizens, how stands the ques-
ton now, aud what is the course for all
t, pursue who would do justice to Kansas |!
She has driven the enemy from her soil,
but the slave power lies entrenched in the
administration of President BUCHANAN,
and will not admit her into the Union.
Has Kansas no rights which the. citi-
zens of all the States are bound to pro-
tcct? SHE has spurned the Lecompton
bride, and heroically bid defence to the
threats of the Save Power, and shall she
be coapeled to remain out of The Union,
baff1ed and bullied by the enforced au-
thority of an unfriendly administration,
while she is ready to govern herself as a
sovereign State? And what have hon
est Democrats now to hope from popular
sovereignty as expounded by the Supreme
Court? That tribunal decides in the
DRIED ScoTT case that the people OF n
Territory cannot exclude Slavery by pos
tive law, for it exists therein under the
Constitution of the United States. Pres
dence BUCHANAN makes the same decla,
alton, and DOUGLAS endorses that decis-
ion unqualifedly. Senator DOUGLAS
does however claim that the people can
keep Slavery out by refusing to pass
necessary laws for its protection in the
Territories: but how much Territorial
sovereignty is there left in his creed when
he acknowledges that they cannot exclude
it by positive legislation. Territorial
sovereignty isthus already exploded by
the DoUGlAs wing of the Democratic
party itself; and who ever questioned the
right of State to the exercise of soyei-
eighty? DOUGLAS invented Territorial
not State sovereignty and whether he be-
came sick of it and helped invent the
DRIED ScoTT decision to destroy that Ter
ritorial sovereignty, no man supports
that decision more fully than be, and no
DOUGLAS Democrat but follows him head
lone into the same fatal contradiction.
Thus it will be seen that whenever The
Democratic party embraces a principle
that can be made to favor the free labor
interest of the country, it refuses to allow
it fair application, and puts it out OF the
way as soon as possible; and it is one OF
the wonders of the times that there should
be a man in these free Northern States
who believes in fairness and honesty in
Governmental affairs, and in the adyan-
taees of free institutions in the Terrific
ries instead of Slavery, and whose patri-
otism rises above the spoils of office,
should be found to act with the Demo
cratic party. The Republican party has
no plank in its platform upon which any
such citizen need fear to stand. 1t pro-
scribes nothing but Slavery propagandism
and corruption in the Government, and
invites the cooperation of all men to put
these great National. evils down, and In
aucurate in their place a Government
based upon the principles of WAsHIsGroN
A POOR Irishman was about to sell his