Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1858-10-23
The Republican Organization not Sec
tiOnal and must be Adhered to.

ttOnal and must be Adhered to.
The Washington National Era has long
article in reply to the Philadelphia North
american, which latter paper seemed to favor
an acquiescence in the encroachments of the
Slave Power in order to conciate certain
men.
The Era asks "What great revolution has
taken place, authorizing such change of pol
icy as is here recommended? Has the Slave
Power ceased to be, surrendered its ill-gotten
gains, laid aside its aggressive purposes? Is
the Supreme Court renovated? Is the bred
Scott decision so called, reversed? Have the
Slavery Propaganda abandoned their schemes
of conquest in Cuba, Central America, and
Mexico?
"Has the American party gained strength
at the South, or made new converts at the
North?
elias the anti-Slavery sentiment grown so
feeble, that you can venture to rifle with it?
Did you carry California by "fusion"- did
we lose Maine and Vermont by adherence to
our Principles and Organization?"
What hope can the Opposition have of a
victory over the Administration by democrat
izing the only organization that meets it on
live issues? These are questions which de-
serve candid consideration. No feeble Opposi-
ton, which comedies the ground in controversy,
can hope to triumph. The Era closes its ar
ticle in these words:
The views of the North American can never
change the nature of the Republican organi-
cation, but they may and will, if embraced
and urged by influential men tend to divide
its counsels, impair its strength, and thus per-
petuate the Administration we all seek to
overthrow What possible benefit could such
men as John Bell and John j. Crittenden de-
rive from this? In their own States, they
have little political Strength. No transforma-
ton the Republican party could undergo would
ever secure it the support of a single South
ern State, while it would ALLEVIATE from it many
Northern States. Are the liberal men of the
South to be aided in this way? What good
will it do them to break the back of the
North? The Slave Power and Slave DcmOc-
racy are one. No American, no Old Whig
no mOngrel Peoples Party can overthrow
them, for the plain reason that no such Party
can unite the free States, or divide the slave
States To meet the Slave Democracy, which,
holding the South in bonds, yields the whole
power of the Federal Government, you must
have party that can unite the free States,
and the only party that has the slightest pros
pect of being able to do this, is the Republ-
can. If liberal Southern men seek redcmp-
ton from the misrulc of the Slave Democracy,
| their true policy is to discountenance all
movements calculated to weaken its only eff
Gent adversary. They ought to know that,
could it be guilty of the fragrant inconsistency
of surrendering all that it has cOntended for,
and of adopting the principles of the party in
power, it could command no votes-and they
| ought to know, too, that its only hope of sue
cess is in adherence to its settled principles
| and its organization. If they think the rule
of such party more to be dreaded than the
misrule of the Slave Democracy, let them join
the latter; if not, let them advise their free
| State friends to abstain from cOunsels whose
only effect must be to weaken the Republican
organization, and strengthen an oppressive
| Administration.
We have no sympathy with sectional feel
ings. We are as deeply imbued with the
spirit of " Nationality" as those who are for
ever declaiming about it. One of the worst
features of the Slave Democracy is its intense
sectOnalsm one of the highest attributes of
the Republican party is its devotion to the in
terests of the whole country. 1t seeks to de-
| grade no class, no section. 1t would establish
no rule unequal or invidious in it's operation.
Regarding Liberty as the great interest OF the
whole Union, it would maintain Liberty and
the Union, one and inseparablc, now and for
ever. Its entire aim is directed, not to the
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of Section, but to the estab-
lishment of Principle; and it solemnly be-
lieves that this Principle will contribute as
much to the power and well-being of the South
as to those of the North When has it ever
manifested an ungenerous spirit to Southern
men, or been backward to acknowledge indi-
cations on their part of liberal spirit? Cor
dial praise has it bestowed on Stanton and
Walker, on Bell and Crittenden, on Henry
W. Davis and Gilmer, and, when it shall nave
obtained the control of the Federal ooVc,,i-
ment, it will look to the men OF inc cou,l''
whom those represent, for support ou' III uic
| controversy which, it now wages WIN the Save
| Democracy If cannot accept them as leaders,
or substitute their principles for their own,
.,,;tho,,t Losing its ascendency in the Free
StatoS While t would gain nothing in the slave
StotoS for the position of those gentlemen is
o,'aont;onal and has Invested them ofpolitical
strength. that can be restored only by the
overthrow of the Slave Democracy, which the
Republican party alone can confront with any
hope of success.
On the mere expediency, then, to say moth
ing of higher considerations, the Republicans
are bound to adhere to their own organization
and forego none Of its essential principles.