Pointe Coupee Democrat. [volume] (False River [i.e. New Roads], Parish of Pointe Coupee [La.]) 1858-1862, 1860-08-25
NO. 33.

Democracy were fatty to deny the power
of Congress to abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia, the Territories, the
forts and arsenals it would lose Penn
sylvania, and with Pennsylvania all
would be lost. was a delegate to the
Democratic Convention which assembled
in Baltimore in the year 1885, and was
placed on the committee to draw up an
address to the American people" All
that part of. it relating to the question
Of negro slavery was assigned to me.
| embodied in the address the principle
that no man could be Democrat, or
worthy of the name who was willing to
concede to Congress the right Of depriv-
ing a single STAKEHOLDER, whether in the
District or the Territories, of his negro
property, which, like property in lands,
can not be confscated by a majority at
the polls. The address contended that
the ballot box was an institution to pro-
tect, and not to destroy or confscate
property of any kind-that it was an in
stltution to preserve the equal rights Of
all American citizens, North and South,
and not to rob them Of their equality.
No one, then, contendcd that Terri
torial Legislature could confiscate negro
property or deprive the citizens of the
South of their equal right to Territorial
lands by making it frec-soil, as the Doug
las party now contends. But Wilmot
and others were for effecting the same
thing through the agency of the Federal
Government by what was called free
soilism. That ism was denounced by
the Address of the Convention to the
American people, as we'll as by the Bal
timore Convention, as ant-Democratic,
and its advocates expelled from the
party, although their name was legion.
There were not wanting then as now,
many good people who believed that the
South had better compromise and give
up the few negroes in the District and
the Territories, and to let Congress do
as it pleased with them, than to risk
their negro property in the States, by
contending for a few negroes in the Dis
trict and in the Territories. But when
the American people saw that the DEM
ocratic party was not following the
loaves and fishes, but following princi-
pie, and that there was nothing in the
political world sufficiently valuable to
induce it to deviate from the straight
line of right, duty, and honor, they
hocEed to its standard in such over
whelming numbers as to confer on it in
vincibility, and to crown it. with vic
tory.
Pennsylvania, then the battle ground,
when the battle was said to be hopeless
ly lost, rolled up majority at the polls
of thousands and tens Of thousands for
the Democratic ticket, as she will as
suredIy do next November The hard
common sense of her people opened their
eyes to the fact, that if they voted with
Massachusetts and Vermont to keep the
negro slaves out of the Territories by
free-soilism, that the next move of the
fanatics of Massachusetts and Vermont
would very likely be to pieti7e the Ter
ritories, by driving out the Pennsylva
mans with their distilleries, and to force
piety down their throats, the piety of a
majority of fanatics at the balIot-box.
Indeed, deputation all the way from
Old England, who took New England in
their route, waited upon General Jack
son, then President of the United States,
to solicit his influence in favor of sys.
tenn of legislation to pietiee or Christian
izc the American people The immortal
hero listened to them attentively, and
then withered them into Dothingness by
the reply that legislation made hypo-
critics, but never made Christians.
The moving spring ofall the schemes
of Legislation to keep negro slavery out
of the Territories, is the fanatical idea
of pietizing the people of those new
countries'by means Of legislation. Penn
sylvania, dull as she was supposed to
be, saw plainly that if the Democracy
yielded it's principles so far as to admit
any discrimination against the equal
rights of Shareholders in the Territories,
there would soon be legislative enact
ments against tobacco chewers, pipe and
cigar-smokers and lager beersdrinkers;
and to nip the evil in the bud, she voted
the Democratic ticket on the day Of the
election, as she WILL no doubt, do again.
As for Louisiana, she is sure to cast her
vote for Breckenridge and Lane, although
very respectable minority, wearing
white kid gloves and silk stockings, will
vote for Bell and Everett. AS to Doug
las and johnson, they will be no where
on the day of the election.