Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1859-01-29

give it, labor for his election with devotion
and industry which he has never yet mani
tested for any candidate except Henry Clay.
1t is very true that we do not on all public
questions agree with Gov. Sew,rd-as we do
not, very probably, with any other statesman.
We hold him too favorably inclined to what is
called the liberal school in public expenditure,
with which school we have chronic differ
ence. We do not desire a niggardly, parsi-
monious, penny-wise Government; but we do
want one which will expend at least one-third
of its annual income. for purposes of National
and enduring bene6cence-for works which
enure to the direct and palpable advantage of
the People rather than Of the Office holders and
tax-consumers. In our view, it is not enough
that statesman should advocate and vote for
such measures as the Pacific Railroad-we
would have him so vote on other questions that
there will be money in the Treasury to devote
to such objects, without prejudice to the pub
lie interests, and without mourning National
Debt. We hold that our Army ought to be
reduced to a skeleton, and our Navy to few
steamships and swift sailing vessels, nearly al
ways in commission; that three-fourths of our
present Army and Navy Officers ought to be
given years pay ahead, and sent about their
private business, while a battalion of Quakers
genuine disciples of George Fox and VIII
liam Penn-should be sent abroad as Embas-
sailors and into the wilderness as Indian
agents to keep the peace, and shield our wan
dering countrymen and borderers from wrong
and harm, being empowered to punish them
for doing wrong as well. With Government
fully imbued with the spirit of Peaceful Pro-
gress and National Growth through internal
development rather than superficial expan-
sion, we hold that Twenty Millions per annum
might be saved from our present aggregate
Military and Naval expenditure, and devoted
to building the Pacific Railroad, improving our
rivers and harbors, &C., &C., and that ten
years of this policy would raise our country to
a higher position among the nations than fifty
years of successful Fillibustering could do,
the entire continent and all the West Indies.
icy-a conception which impels us to oppose
every proposition to increase the Army or
Navy, to enlarge the pay of Congress or of any
class of Office holders, &C., &C., not merely as
wrong in itself but as tending to defect the
Federal Government further and further from
its true policy "a conception which, we infer
from his votes, is either not fully shared or not
consistently deferred by Gov. Seward Our
own view on this point has been always frank
ly set forth and upheld in these columns, and
would be though Gov. S. were this day our
chosen and nominated candidate for President.
We do not require of candidate whom we
support an entire conformity to our views and
while we are willing to support even slave
holder for next President provided he be I'M
equivocally right on the Main Question: be-
lever with Washington, Jefferson, and Clay,
that Slavery is not good to be difused and
perpetuated, but an evil to be borne, and re-
stricted, and ultimately eradicated-we are
not likely to oppose Gov. Seward because on
a single point he is not in advance of the great
majority of our statesmen.
Not on this point; but on what other
does he fall behind the foremost? Where is
the other possible candidate for President
whose public utterances are so replete with a
wise Humanity, generous Philanthropy,
Craftsmanship entitled to the proud designa-
ton of Christian? Who else among our en-
inent men has an ear so open and a heart so
responsive to the appeals of the despised, the
outcast, the downtrodden? Among all our
living statesmen, whose speeches and wri-
tings, taken as whole, will so largely reward
careful study by the great body of our youth
as his? Whose are so well calculated to
make the student not only wiser but nobler
and better? We have enjoyed pretty wide
acquaintance with eminent men, especially
those of our own country; and we are sure
if the world at this day contains six sincere
genuine Democrats-men willing and anxious
that all shall enjoy equal rights, opportunities
and immunities with themselves-On of these
is William H. Seward
And while we differ decidedly from Mrs..
on a single but important feature of our Ma
tional Policy, we do not know any one else
likely to be candidate for President with
whom we more fully agree. If the pending
question were one of rewarding with the Pres
idency the ablest and most deserving Repub-
lican, as so many persons unwisely assume it
to be, instead Of one of selecting that states
man most thoroughly imbued with the Repub
lcan idea who can be chosen in 1860 to that
exalted trust, we should probably deem Gov
Chase, next after Gov. Seward, fairly entitled
to that proud distinction. And Gov. Chase's
views with regard to Public Expenditure, as
we CLEAN them from his speeches and votes,
are more nearly in accord with ours than
those of Gov. Seward. But on subject even
graver and more vital than this-that of the
development and diversifcation of our Ma
tional Industry, as the natural and necessary
antidote to Human Slavery-we have no rea-
son to believe Gov. Chase's views so nearly
accordant with our convictions as are those of
Gov Seward We know many excellent and
determined Republicans who do not see as
we do, and as the Slavery Propaganda has
comprehended for the last quarter of CEN
fury, that the Protective Policy and their
schemes are in deadly antagonism-
Slavery will be undermined and overthrown
in this country, as it was in Europe, and must
L %bck =:
pening and perfection of National Industry
minus quantity not worth the cost of keeping
in condition for service-thus verifying John
Randolph's prediction of coming time in
which the masters would run away from the
slaves.
Were this country to produce its own met
ais. cloths and wares steadily for even quar-
ter of a century, there would be very few
slaves left in it at the close of that period
Slavery would thus pass away without con-
vulsion, without collision, without spoliation,
bv the simple process of making the land and
| the machinery essential to its cultivation,
worth more with Free Labor than the land,
| machinery and slaves together, could be with
intelligent, constrained labor. The silent op-
Grafton of the law here indicated has render
ed Slavery already manifest impertinance
and nuisance in Baltimore and st. Louis, as
| it soon must be in Louisville, Richmond, and
even New Orleans. 1t is the quiet, steady
growth of manufacturing or skilled industry
in Russia that is rendering serfdom palpable
anachronism and abomination there. The
truths barely glanced at are better understood
by Governor Seward, as we gather from his
speeches, than by almost any other OF our
prominent Republicans; and, as Pennsylva-
MA is clearly destined to be once more the
pivot of momentous Presidential struggle,
they are not unlikely to render him the most
available candidate for next President. But
we do not here assume to pry into the future.
| C Sufficient unto the davN are its cares and