The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1858-01-21

But the question recurs, how can this Injunction OF
the Constitution be carried out the highest capa-
bilites in the economy Of field labor and general
bandry be attained by anything which the State it.
sovereign capacity can do?
1t is believed that the first step in this direction af
ter afording due encouragement county and State
agricultural societies. to establish an agricultural
bureau as distinct department OF State similar In it's
functions and appointments to the one proposed and
enacted by branch Of your body three years ago.
but lost In the other.
1t should hold the same relation to the people of
this State that similar department In the Patent Of
flee ut Washington City does to tire whole country.
Putting itself in connection with that Office and all
the agricultural societies in the land Its great office
would be to introduce and valuable Seeds both Of
the cereals and vegetables direct their culture gath
er up agricultural statistics and information from the
best farmers everywhere, and disseminate the same
largely among the Of free laborers who
/ or may hereafter occupy our plains. aaE
But, secondly, agriculture, In her higher aims and
purposes, is science, and demands the application Of
scientific knowledge the labors Of the field This
wolves the necessity, at proper time Of establishing
agricultural Schools in connection with experiment.
al farms, where the natural sciences bearing upon
her domain, may be taught and applied such as
4 geology-organc chemistry = botany--physiology
zoology-atmospheric properties and influences, &c.
To elaborate the connection between these sciences
and the objects of agriculture which has out gongs
/ in the infinite, is neither expected nor demanded In
this communication. Hf
only speak of one other method Of maintaining an
elevated system Of agriculture, and that to keep all
her manipulaions and processes under the dominion
of.f'ee labor.
To work Is a privilege as well as one Of the con-
/ sofl Iahn initial
masses is the of untold blessings, affecting no
the moral destiny of the race than the physical
Improvement Of the State 1t is strange in this age of
the world, and In land OF constitutional liberty, we
are compelled to insist upon the freedom ofabor yet
the necessity Of doing Is less strange than pain
full.
This birthrght Of the American citizen has been Sc
riousy menaced, by growing sentiment in favor Of
slave labor in one section Of the Union The two can
not exist upon the soil The OF the
one is the disparagement of the other They are nat
ural and irreconcibable foes.
Free labor is difusve in its benefits equalizes the
condition Of meustrengthens the moral principle of
country-is progressive in its movements, awaiting
itself OF the aids of science in its departments
industry while slave labor dispenses its benefac-
ons to the fewpresses hardly against the interest Of
the many-brings premature decrepitude upon the
country by its wasteful and exhaustng tiage and
tire only enlarge but often change the field OF
its operations. This naturally induces spirit for ter
ritorial order perpetuae slavery
and to extend the political of section ofthe
Union in derogaton of the rights of the other and has
brought on contest between freedom and slavery
that has absorbed all the other political questions Of
| the day
The meeting these two systems Of labor face face
In Kansas, has impaired little interest this
fiict. Passing by, however, the monstrous frauds,
usurpations violence and utter disregard OF the dem
ocratc principle Of allowing the people choose their
own rulers and make their own laws which thus far
have marked the progress of this in that Terri
tory, beg leave to back Of all these and an
assumption of power, constitutional right, which
has justly alarmed and excited the Jealousy Of the
North and 1t is apprehended will give long continu.
ance and bitterness to this unfortunate contest al
Jude to the recent Interpretation Of the Constitution
the United States which natonalizes slavery, and
door for its universally in all the Territories
of the government. This extraordinary construction
of the charter Of liberties, first enuncated by
the southern section of the Supreme Court In the bred
Scott case, afterwards adopted by of the political
parties OF this country, and followed up distinct
recognition the part Of the present Chief Magistrate
of the Union.
This distinguished functionary has been pleased to
inform the people Of this country that slavery under
the Constitution now erponnde6, may not only be
extended beyond the bounds where it is but that
already exists practically theoretically in all the
national domain.
fthis be the nvestitme Of this privilege in $780,
600 slaveowners is virtual abnegation Of the rights
of rs 900 of shareholders in the occupancy of
all these lands For I. will be confessed that free and
voluntary labor win not unite with Involuntary and
compulsory labor In recaiming all these territories
and transforming them into the culture the and
the adornments Of civilization.
But, 1t said from high authority, palliative for
the exercise OF this right under the Constitution to
take and hold slaves upon the free territories OF this
country, that "chen the residents ofsuch Territories
proceed 10 form State Consultation then 1t is their
right TO decide the ,ortat question 6rthenseces
soheter they sciH continue modify or abolish sIar-
erD"
But, how right recognized and guaranteed by the
Constitution Of the United States be thus
lily disposed Of is not readily perceived 1t be
founded upsn the idea either that the Constitution is
not the law Of the land that 1t contains
admiration upon this right 1t is believed that neither
Of these postulatcs be maintained; and II follows
that II this right exists at all it s absolute continu-
ing right the other franchises Of that venerable in
strumen are, which State power divest either
after has been exercised as in Kansas in antici
patton OF Its exercise, as Iowa has attempted to do in
prohibiting 1t In her Constitution Ifthis construction
be the true one, then logical consequence and as
has already been claimed In quarters slavery
lets theoretically In all the free States this Union and
the right need only be asserted to make II so practi
cally.
By thus Interpreting the Constitution Of the United
States to make II sanction the legal right to own
and hold slaves wherever the flag Of the Union goes,
the people of the free North made involuntary
party to all the evils, political and moral which attach
themselves TO this institution, and share with the
South whatever responsibility there may be
with it subsistng national establishment. They
protest against being implicated in great wrong.
To their moral sense, slavery odoas and forbiddng
They had been accustomed to view It as State irsti-
tution which neither they nor the General Gov
eminent had any control
But fthis new political faith subject so exciting
Is now to obtain, must be regarded the foresha
owing Of evil days to the commonwealth. Under 1t the
enfranchsement offree labor is everywhere in peril
Iowa, the offspring of those liberal sentiments that
prevailed in the better days of the Republic when 1t
was deemed infringement either on the Constitu-
tion the rights OF the South to consecrate her soil
to freedom has been no idle spectator OF these aggres
sive movements against the rights OF the North In
the late election, she recorded her protest against
that perversion Of the Constitution which breaking
down Of the fortresses ofiberty In this country
She has been taught to believe thar that sacred insr