Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1859-03-12
The Great Contest.

The friends of Republican Liberty should
never allow the essential principles of their
cause to be overlooked for an hour, whatcv-
er other public questions engage their atten-
ton. By these we stand and we cannot at
ford the slave power nor its allies the advan-
tage of their allegiance. Liberty or Slavery
that's the question. They are in action for
Slavery, deny it as they may. We are for
Liberty-the inalienable rights of man, and
government for their protection. We main
tain the principles of the Declaration Of indie
pendence,-they oppose them, and in league
with southern enemies, are laboring and 90
ting to blot them out forever from this gov
eminent
Any attempt to dilute our principles or
evade their full, robust application, would in
stantly make us the prey Of our enemies, as
we ought to be. Our country can only be
saved by the unAinching firmness of CRoN-
WILLS ''Roundheads," resting on the rock Of
immutable principle. Our cause is not
trick nor . strategy, and the less of artifice
employed in its behalf the better. The party
has great reason to beware of unsound men.
We have had some miserable experience of
this kind in Minnesota already, and no one
will desire its repetition. No man not thor
oughly anti-Slavery either represents our
cause or can be trusted to stand by it. The
man who does not respect the rights of erery
human being, will betray the rights OF any
class when under strong inducement He is
rotten at heart, and utterly unfit for the great
American Contest.
Our fathers in the first revolution were able
to. perceive principles back of facts and en-
brace them. To this we owe all the benefits |
of their success. They knew better than to
rest their cause on any one particular issue
and make that all. They resisted not the tea
tax alone, nor the stamp act, nor the quarter
ing of troops upon US, but any thing and ev-
cry thing infringing the God-given rights of
human nature. What would old honest JOHN |
ADAMS have said to the man who was ready |
to fight against the tea-tax, but willing to obey
British power in everything else? He would |
have recommended him awhile longer to his |
mothers care. So would WASHINGTON, in
stead of giving him commission; for in the |
ever changing issues of the conflict he might |
afterwards be found in the British lines. Who |
could tell? ....
So now. The man who is iercely hostile
to the sstension Of Slavery but cares nothing
for Slavery itss! nor its victims, is either dis
honest or too ignorant to be trusted. Why
oppose the extension of Slavery but for what |
Slavery is of ITSELF! Were it good or inno-
cent, nobody would resist the spread of it.
The conflict then falls back upon the true
character of Slavery-what it is--what it
does, and the question becomes-F5ri s-or
against it, Here the parties divide
No ground short Of this is strong enough to
sustain the protracted issue. No other. has
sufficient moral force. No other appeals
strongly enough to the human heart-its in
stinctive love of Liberty, and hatred of Op-
preston. Consistency $50 requires it, and
that is our moral caL;t4 If we oppose the
demands Of Slavery in one case and submit