Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1858-07-16

o Democfatlc principle to 'Iet we'll
enough alone," they knew that the
slaveholding States had a right to man
age their own internal affairs, without
interference from without. But, by
many resolutions Of the Democratic
State Conventions, they knew also that
it was principle of the Democratic
party to set their face against the fir
Tier e;rtension of Slavery, and in the.
Nebraska Bill they could see nothing.
but an attempt to. remove the last bar
rier against the spread of Slavery, by
giving to the first settlers Of terrific
ry the right to decide if the soil they
settled on should forever be free, o..
cursed forever with the curse Of Slavery.
The Nebraska Bill, as they understood
it, (Mr. Douglas will say, Of course,
that they had not read it, left the
most momentous question of the CEN
fury to the decision of a few trappers
and backwoodsmen, who happened to-
be first on the ground, the decision Of
whom must be binding for their child
rem, and the children of their children.
And all this was ~lothed with the magni.
ficent name Of popular Sovereignty"
Popular Sovereignty was understood
by the Germans in different way -
They had long regarded the splendid
territories beyond the Mississippi as
the domain Of free labor-as the free
Inheritance of their posterity. To fight
for what they always had considered as
dedicated to freedom with few Border
Ruffians from the south, did not appear
to them as fit illustration of popular
sovereignty. The German Of tho
Times says that the Germans are Just
the element to crush out slavery-to
show that free labor can be made more
profitable than unpaid labor, even in a
slave state he is proud that Texas and
Missouri will be free States through
German industry. Every German
agrees with him in this; but there are
not many Germans to be found, who
like the idea Of making slave States Of
our vast territories first, and then 90
there in order to crush out slavery
again, which, at the best, is very
slow process, in which nobody counts
the victims who die before half their
task is accomplished. No, the Ger
mans, cosmopolitans as they are, by far
prefer to preserve our territories free
from slavery at the start, so as to be
spared the ungrateful labor to snatch
them from the clutches of the salve-
holders by the sweat of their brow and +.
the toll and anxiety Of many years.
This is the origin of the opposition
Of the Germans to the Nebraska bill.
The Times correspondent may call it
a "pursuit Of Utopian vagaries and alb
stract impossibilities," to his hearts
content. If he really is a German he
should know that his countrymen re-
gard the stand they nave taken as emf
nently practical. They could not find
out that the niceties and constitutional
quibbling upon which Mr.. Douglas
always based the defence of his bill,
we're Of any value in comparison with
the great and eternal principle, that no
man has right to transplant slavery
upon soil where it does not now exist,
and they always believed that the coun-
try Of their choice was the home of the
free, and not of the slave.
+ The whole article Of the Times is
nothing but bid fer German votes.-
It comes with bad grace from paper
which, since the last city, election, new
er could throw dirt enough upon the
ssDutchmen,'' who are ''swilliDg lager
beer on the Sabbath" II the Times
only knew with what ridicule its taunts
as we'll as its batteries are received, it
would soon ''stop the business"
There is one point yet to which the
"German'' of the Times must have an
answer. He asserts that Douglas OPP
position to the Lecompton iniquity has
opened the eyes Of many Germans, and
that SIN 1860 the Democratic party
,UiW be bached by the overwhelmsng
ma ority Of The three hundred Mous-
and German voters in the North
,Uest." Highfalutin! No sir, the
Germans will do no such thing.
i While every German acknowledges
Mr.. Douglas pluck in. his opposition to
the Lecompton swindle, they do not
feel as if, from this single fact, they
should place him a; once among the
number Of Democratic saints, and fell
low his leadership. Over his head still
waves the Nebraska banner, and as
long as he will not confess that he has
erred, there can be no question Of ever
again voting for him. The Germans
have not forgotten how the exponent of
Popular Sovereignty declared in pub
lie speech, "hat he did not care
achether The people Of the Territories
voted Slavery up or doaOn." The
Germans have not forgotten yet how,
in his Springfield speech, Mr.. Douglas
endorsed the bred Scott decision to the
very letter, and they are still freedom
loving enough, to reject the abominable
doctrine advanced by Judge fancy, and
endorsed by Judge Douglas! The
Germans cannot but compare Mr..
Douglas with the apprentice to the sor-
cerer in Goethe's poem, who called the
spirits with his masters word, but for
got the others with which to dismiss
them. The broom of Popular Sover-
eighty on which Mr.. Douglas rides, has
been trans formed into the black horse
Of Slavery, the spirii,s Of the victims Of
the Kansas murders surround n ni;c but
if, in his uneasiness and despair, he
calls on the Germans to help him out Of
his position, he is mistaken. There is
but one way for him To save his mama