Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1859-09-24

No. 1-- Letters of VIM. L. Banning to
Geo. L. Becker Oh State Policy.
Geo. L. Becker, Esq:
SRA friend has just handed me copy
of the Winona Democrat, containing one of
your public speeches, in which you denounce
me as repudiationist, &C., &c.
do not intend to quarrel with you, my
dear Sir, as to the propriety Of your thus
slandering private citizen. This is a matter
Of taste, and if it COMFORTS with your ideas Of
fair political warfare or personal honor, Or ii
you believe the exigencies of partisan con-
test demand that you should thus SANDER me
to gain political end, why be it so. 1t is a
matter entirely between you and your con-
science-not between you and me.
propose, however, now to deal with you
as the candidate for an important political Of
fice-one upon the proper exercise of which
greatly depends the welfare of our State.
am well aware, Sir, that you were most I'M
willing candidate for this ofice-that your
ambition pointed in another direction-to a
post of more profit and less responsibility
l am aware Of all this, and also that in your
reasonable demands upon your party, you
have been the second time betrayed, and
made the victim of the men who have ever
used you as the plant instrument to carry
out their plans and purposes.
do not intend, my dear Sir, that this Ian
guage should be considered harsh, nor will l
descend to do you in any sense injustice.
have known you long, and know you well /;
| would willingly be your friend-I will not
be your enemy.
You came to this State young man, with
good impulses, some education, and with hon.
est instincts-and had these qualities been
united with that moral independence and
that stern honesty that springs from and is
founded on true virtue, would have made you
a respectable and useful citizen. Your sim
pie misfortune has been to fall into the hands
of men who have moulded your uniformed
character to suit their purposes-and it is no
wonder that your true friends (and you have
many such) now blush at the sad uses to
which your false ones are putting you.
I, among others, subscribe most cheerfully
to your many good qualities, but in scanning
the character of a public man, candidate for
a high public station, must not forget that
such good qualities as you possess, unless
founded on moral independence and stern
integrity, sometimes survive for time, at
least, after the judgment has become warped
and the heart corrupted. But am not will
ing to believe that you have yet descended to
or belong to that class where the generous
promptings of natural honesty, and the i'm
pressions of a careful moral education, have
become fatally crushed and extinguished-
Sir, you will soon learn a sad lesson one
that will in the end, Ono matter how bitter
now) open to the full the eyes of your I'M
derstanding; and as you are yet young, you
will have such ample time for reflection and
repentance, as will, l doubt not, make you,
as you should be, a worthy and useful mem
Der of society.
You will, Sir, be defeated in October next
by large and indignant majority of your fell
low citizens-but from this ignominious de-
feat will come no balm of comfort Yet,
from this stern rebuke, you may, if you will
be wise, learn a useful lesson. Your defeat
will not be defeat of Democracy or the prin-
ciples of that party, as laid down by the men
who founded it; but defeat of the men in
whose hands you have placed your political
fortunes, and who in the end, if they should
continue to be successful, would sink to per.
dtion both you and your adopted State, il
thereby they can satisfy their greed for pub.
lie plumber.
You, Sir, are associated, most unfortunate
ly know, and most unwillngly hope, with
men who are known by the honest and think.
ing people of the State of all parties, as seek
ers after gain by bribing Legislators by de-
bauchlng public men, who laugh at public
and private honor; men who are depredators
upon State Treasures and public faith, and
who have disgraced our State and race by
acts of infamy which they have committed ir
our midst during the last two years, almost
without parallel in American history.
will most cheerfully acquit you of having
received any share of the ill-gotten plundel
that has been divided, in the shape of State
bonds that were voted to build our Railroads
Or with having any expectation from those
yet to be divided. What blame you for IS
that you will permit yourself to be used tc
help on the men who manage and control a
great scheme of public plumber to its fata
cOnsummation.
That you will thus permit the men who
stand behind the scenes and move the po!iti
cal puppets, of which you are one, to make
out of the people of this State-now almost
fatally crushed with debt and taxation-near-
ly two millions of dollars.
find, on perusal of your published speech
at Winona, that you endorse, to its fullest ex-
tent, the 18th resolution of the Democratic
Platform, and appeal to the people of the
State to come up and sustain the policy intli-
Gated and laid down in that resolution. Now.
Sir, l propose to give you and the people of
the State, to whom it may not already be
known, the secret history of that resolution,
and to appeal to you as a man of honor. as
one perchance having some lingering wish to
serve your fellow citizens, who in the past
have honored you with Office and with pat
ronage, not to lend for one NONE mt longer
your aid ami influence in carrying out its in
iquitous provisions.
now quote the 18th resolution of the De-
mocratic Platform, and which has up to this
time been advocated by you, but which l
hope you will never advocate again:
Thirteenth-1. That it is the duty of the people of
Minnesota to preserve nvioate the faith and credit
the State.
O. That the doctrine of reputation announced by the
Republican party is which is abhorrent to the De-
mocracy, and must receive the condemnation of the
honest masses
8. That pledge the Democratic patty that Mime
sofa shall honorably and promptly meet all obligations