Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1858-07-23
Messrs. y;s..sseyer and LefsinSwcl..

NIessrs. ya,,s,eyeraacdL efsinsWcl..
These gentlemen addressed the people of
Nuscatine last night. Quite respectable
audience listened to their remarks. Mr..
NANDEvER spoke first. As he exposed in a
most clear and forcibe manner the blunders
and crimes of the Democratic Administration,
against the rights of States, and against the
sovereignty of the people, it was plain
to see that his words were the sober, earnest
convictions of his mind, and went from the
heart to the heart. We have not space to
give Mr.. Wanderers remarks at length We
wish that we could. They could not fail to
carry conviction to every one, of the righteous
ness of his cause and the miserable sophistrics
and falsehoods of the Administration and its
party. He reviewed briefly the principles of
each party, and the issues now made up
between them. The fallacious claims of the
Democratic doctrine Of Popular Sovereignty
were plainly exposed They pretended to
secure to the people of the territories more
power than they had under the Missouri
Compromise, and endedwith giving them less.
Under the old policy, the people of the terri
tories had the undeniable right of deciding the
question of slavery, and all other questions,
for themselves, when they became States.
Under the new Douglas and Buchanan policy,
hey were stripped of all rights concerning it.
Slavery was pressed upon them against their
will by the constitution, and when that could
not by forced Interpretation be made to
compel them to allow slavery, INVASION rob-
berry and murder by armed banditti were
connivcd at and permitted, by the President
and his Governors, to the same end These
were the fruits of the Nebraska Bill and of
Popular Sovereignty as explained by Demo-
cratic policy.
As to the bred Scott decision, Mr.. V. said
that While he recognized the powers that be,
AMI respected the decisions of the courts of
law, as the law of the land so long as they
remained unreversed, and would yield them
his obedience; yet he had the right to form
and express his opinions of those decisions
and where they were unjust and unlawful, he
had the right to labor for their reversal. So
ne stood with regard to the bred Scott decision.
SO far as it respected questions before the
court, it was the law of the land, and was
entitled to his respect as such, but he had a
perfect right, and it was his duty, regarding,
az nc did, that decision as opposed to all law
and all true principles of the constitution, to
labor for its reversal in the proper way-not
ny revolution or by force, but by the voice of
the people expressed through the legislative
and judicial powers of the country, under the
control of new men, fresh from the ranks of
the people.
Mr.. '. alluded to the cry of "Negro Equal
ity' raised by the opposition, and answered it
completely, by briefly showing that the great
aim of the Republican party, the great question
which gave it birth, and caused the masses of
the people to leave the old parties and form
this young and progressive one, was that of
protecting the free white mechanic, farmer
and laborer from degraded companionship in
the field and the workshop with the negro to
protect the virgin prairies of all new territories
frem being blackened by swarning colonies of
negroes from the old hives of Virginia and
Carolina, to the exclusion of white men: to
preserve these rich fields and farms for actual
settlers who were not too proud to work with
their own hands, who We're poor, and who
needed houses, and not to squander them in
immense plantations, given up to the support
Of thousands OF Improbable negroes, to the
exclusion Of white men. Mr. v eloquently
alluded to the general policy of our Republican
fathers OF both North and South, towards the
impoverished and gallant settlers of the new
territories, in excluding by solemn enactment
forever from all the territory then belonging
7 70 the government involuntary seryitude. or
African slavery, in order that it might be left
wholly to these poor but brave men who had
10 tew their hard way with their own hands
1rd that they might not be degraded by having
- rich planters of the older States work their
RES BY their side; and he contrasted that
<Qa9 and democratic policy with the sell
stpcratic and narrow minded policy Of
last Administrations. which have
IN Al their might to drive out the
1rdy settlers who work with their
feqm tho territories, and throw
TO rich planters and slave
sWarms Of negroes. Negro
~ Amalsamation he thought.
6fIler side Mr.. Vandever's
1lne With irresistible force
SAfers. His antagonist.
manifest evasion
drought up by
iunSsen6 hv ~,