Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1858-01-28
The Last Weeks Debate in fine
LegiSlatuIe.

AC6 ASAGINAANOs
During the past week, our Legislature
was the scene of discussions which took
a sufficiently wide range to evolve the
characteristic differences of sentiment
and principle Distinguishing the two par,
ties in that body. The measures upon
whose merits this great expenditure Of
words was made, are in themselves Of
comparatively little Importance. In the
Senate, Mr.. Langdon has brought i'll
bill to repeal the law of last winter, tc
repeal the law of last winter, to prevent
slaveholdingi in Ohio, a very superfuous
specimen of abolitionism.
In the House, the debate arose upor
Mr.. Brooke's bill to repeal an act dicta.
ted by a similar fanatical spirit to tina
proposed to be wiped out by Senator
Langdon,-an act to prevent the use o.
our jails for fugitives from labor, helc
under federal process. On the Demo
cratic side, speeches have been made by
Senator'S Langdon and Kincaid, confined
closely to the legitimate question in de
bate, and fully representing the senti
ments actuating the people in electing
majority of Democrats to the Legislature
In the House, Messers. Collins, Finne
frock and Brooke spoke in favor of The
bill introduced by the latter gentleman
On the Republican side, l~ong-windeC
aud violent doclamntions have heen reac
or recited by Senators Blake, Winans
Caldwell, Green and auckland, ant
by Representatives West, Worthington
Monroe, Parsons, Harrison, Briggs, ant
perhaps others. a
A1pnock on- cnnnoh &c onu nnf
Republican, who has mingled in this dis
c~ussion, would answer for all they have
said. About the same line of remark
~pervades the whole collected mass. Ir
revalent appeals to sympathy for slaves
have stood for argument, IN behalf O
the Republican policy of obstructing thu
execution of the federal laws, and virtu'
ally for multiplying one of the conspicu.
Gus provisions ofthe federal constitution
Hate toward the South is their staple
reason for adhering to their fanatica'
enactments of last winter against the fu,
gitive slave law.
All this fallacy, all this false sympa:
thy-sympathy which did not induce oul
fathers to refrain from forming the Union
but which would now, if unhindered,
break it up--all was successfully met
and exposed by Collins, Langdon, Fin
nefrock and Brooke, on the Democratic
side, who pointed out the untenable and
u~nfriendly relations into which Ohio
has been brought toward her sister States
and the federal government, by the en-
Filtered sectional action of the last legis-
lature.
1t was this false and hostile position
in which our State has been misplaced
by the Black Republican law makers, in
great part, which led to the present re-
versal of parties in that body by the
people last year. If all the sentiments
and principles uttered by the Republi-
can members in this discussion were en-
acted into law, Ohio would be virtually
out of the Union in three months. In,
decd, such was the position assigned tc
her by an American a~nti-slavery writer
in the July number of the Westminster
Review, who approved the legislation
which logically e dhim to the conclusion,
The Democrats should, without unrea-
sonable delay, repeal every act from
which the enemies of the Union draw so
much comfort. That is one part OF
their duties, imposed by their constitu-
ents, and they will perform them-and
so, '.lct the heather rage."-Ohio States