White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1860-08-09

to begin to excuse and cease to abuse the
Republicans, and made up my mind to
let him go in time. Now. as to entirely
changing my politics. / cannot say /
have done this but for the life of me /
can see nothing in the Republican party
that any honest Democrat can SERIOUSLY
oppose. It is true, were they such a psr.
y as Mr.. Douglas used to say they were,
| could see Objectionable features about
it; but then is it wise to believe every
thing Mr.. Douglas has said, when he tells
us he sometimes changes and when we
have near Us honest men known to be
honest for more than thirty years, who
deny all this and propose to tell us the
true state Of the case, and to give us the
true principles of that party! i Thick
not. s'r.- l|I
Besides this, when we have for years
been opposed, in politics, to a man who
has again and again seen his party de-
feated. and has himself sometimes failed,
and still seen that man true to his colors,
re-arming and rs-entering the field to try
to uphold and successfully plant his col
ors upon the side of victory, when sill
the time he knew he had but to change
once to win, and yet has never changed,
/ think l may say never faltered, how
are we to respect him? Such man
have known Mr. Lincoln for thirty years
to be. In boyhOod days we toiled to-
gether; many are the days we have lug
ged the heavy oar on the Ohio, the H.
inois and Mississippi rivers together !;
many are the long cold days we have
journeyed over the wild prsiries and
through the forest with gun and ak, and
though it is not pleasant to refer back to
it, we'll do l remember when we set ont
together in the cold winter to cut and
maui rails on the Sangamon river, in
Macon county, thirty years ago, to in
close his fathers little home, and from
day to day kept at work until the whole
was finished and the homestead fenced in;
we often snapped work in this way, and
yet during the many years we were con-
nected together as laborers, sometimes
flatboating, sometimes hogdriving, some
times ail.mauling. and too, when it was
nearly impossible to get books, he was
constant reader l was a listener he
settled all disputes of all the young men
in the neighborhood, and his decisions
were always abided by. / never knew q
man so honest under all circumstances.
for his whole life. Thus associated with
Mr.. Lincoln. learned to love him, and
when in 1858 he was candidate for the
first time within my reach. against my
feelings, and I may say against my con-
victions, my old party ties induced me
to vote for Mr.. Douglas; my Democrat
ic friends all declared Lincoln was an
Abolitionist I heard him make a speech
in Decatur JUST before the election, and !
could see nothing bad in it but 1 was
told by the party he was wrong could
not see how he could be, but they said
90, and was q Democrat and went it.
My wife used to say to me that some
day Abe would come out and be some
thing l thought so too, but could not
exactly see how a man in the lower walks
of life, a day laborer, and hopelessly
poor, would ever stand much chance to
get up very high in the world at last,
one day at home. we heard that the Re-
publican State Convention was to be
held at Decatur, and that they were 60
ing for Abe for President.
AS soon as found this out. went in
to town and told friend of Abe's that
as great and honest merit was at last to
be rewarded in the person Of my friend
Mr.. Lincoln, by the Republican party, l
thought of the hard and trying struggles
of his early days. and recollecting the
rails we had made together thirty years
ago, made up my mind to present some
of them TO that Convention as . testi-
monial of the beginning of one OF the
greatest living men Of the age, believing
they would speak more in his praise than
any orator, and honor true labor more
than the praise of men or the resolution"
of Conventions. On our way to get the
rails. I told this friend of old Abe that
If Abe should be nominated for Presi'
dent would vote for him |; every
body knows what he has been, and re-
ioice that I live TO give this testimony to
his goodness and honesty, and hope l
shall live to vote for him forPresidsnt OF
the United St1tes next November, Is
there anything wrong in this |! Who
ought to refuse to vote for as good and
as great man as he is I know that
in voting for him i vots with the RePu1
lican party, and will be considered as
adopting its principles; as now under.
stand them see no good reason why L
NAV not do so /; our own party Is diyi'
ded, and we have no Solomon to tell VINO
shall take the child. ,s hs.5 .isi-.
Slavery has divided the Democratic
party; nobody can blame Republicanism
| for tbs destruction that came upon as Of
Charleston Slavery has disunited us-
il hiss united the Republican party; u
there is any good about the question, they
/ have il all, aud we have the trouble. IL
1 understand Mr.. Douglas now, ne &C.
curies q position on the question just as
distasteful to the South as Mr.. Lincoln
does-with this clear difference: the
South seem to understand Mr.. Lincoln. Z
position better than his, and to respect Il
a good deal more, and 1 am convinced II
MI. Douglas does not reflect the Niger
be does the mulatto. and one brings JUS,
a much in Mobile as the other, ano
stands a. high in the market. - - -,
i Many Of nay Democratic neigabors VIII