The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-08-10
NEW SERIES-NO. 342.

franked through the mails to the people.
Ten thousand dollars worth of breadsnatched
from your unfortunate Office-holders-tO
many of whom submission or suffering for
themselves not only, but for a helpless
parent, wife, children, is the only alterna'
tive.
Not to speak of the ethics of the whole
transaction, the speech is logically a tangled
absurdity. Here stands the "rule or ruin"
chief of secession, prating of a united Democ-
racy. Of equality-and what equality has
be recognized but the equality of base
submission? Of equity-he, the nurse of
fraud on the ballot-box. Of union-the
tool of the disunionist.
But the essence of your false life and
cheating words is found in the next para
graph: "Every Democrat is at perfect lib
erty to vote as he thinks proper" Cheers
from the crowd of your poor Office holders,
who, of course, supposed you meant them
not dreaming that even you could have so
far forgotten yourself as to inform the SOW
ereign citizens that they were still at liberty
to "vote as they thought proper" Having
broken up the Convention, to prevent the
nomination of Douglas, and the adoption of
the Cincinnati Platform-you then from the
window of the White House take survey
of the Baltimore and Richmond candidates
and platforms, and cody tell the Democracy
that it is "immaterial which way they CO."
The sustaining pillar" the "two-thirds
rule, was,' you say, "broken to pieces at
Baltimore by the Convention which nomi,
mated Mr.. Douglas" No! it was endan-
gered by the unseemly dictation and treach-
erous combinations of the "old public func-
tionary" who obtained his position in that
Convention four years before by the loyal
magnanimity of that Mr.. Douglas. You
take care, however, to say nothing of the
part you played in that transaction. Gun
ming is the last faculty that leaves the dis
ordered mind. The minority that you mar.
shaled did not believe that they could defeat
the nomination of Mr.. Douglas by remain.
ing in the Convention, or they certainly
would have staid. 1t was we'll known to
the minority chefs that Mr.. Douglas would
have received the two.tbirds of the entire
Convention at Charleston, had there been no
secession. But the non-intervention party,
unwilling to take nomination except by a
two.thirds vote of all the states, adjourned
the Convention to Baltimore. Failing in
your plot to make nomination upon COM
pulsion at Charleston, you redoubled your
efforts at Baltimore to effect it, or destroy
the party. Your efforts may result in the
election of Lincoln but in any event, you
will receive the condemnation of the Demo-
cracy of the civilized world for all time.
Influenced by your leading idea of the SUBJ
serviency of the peoples Convention to Con-
gressiOnal and Executive dictation, you un-
Willingly state that if your plans had been
successful, no nomination could have been
possible against the will Of whom? The
people? Not at all-against the will of
Congress"
Did regretful silence and modest reserve
now Indicate in you some sense of the er-
rors of your al ministrative course-a feel>
ing for our past relations, and that consider
alton for old age, which is it's due, in limo.
cence and helplessness, would have claimed
thought from me- But your insane inter-
meddling and arrogant dictation, from the
position you occupy, with the patronage you
WELD, make it incumbent upon every pat
riot who knows you to expose your inirmi>
ties; that your deceptive words may have
no undue weight, falling from the lips of
the President of the United States Your
repeated declaration in London that you
were too old for the Presidency was but too
true. Had then known your real age, and
some points of character revealed by the
touchstone of power, I should have avoided
my share in the error of your elevation
Your present shattered condition OF mind
has, however. undoubtedly been precipitat-
ed by the accession of'a responsibility which
to your view, involved only the exercise of
wilful and domineering authority. Up
rightness of heart would have saved you
even amid the shadows of declining intel
lect; but your moral obliquity deprived you
OF every stay which the virtuous mind poss.
esses against mental weakness. In old age
the vices and idiosyncrasies of youth, it is
said often resume their sway, over long
years of interested repression. Your pro-
phetlc quotation against yourself, six years
ago, has been realized but too sadly for
your countrymen-would its ful6lment had
found you in the oblivion of Wheatland, in
stead of in the chair of Jefferson
@ In life's last stage, what prodigies arise
Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise;
Down Marlboro's cheeks the tears of dotage
flow,
And Swift expires, a driveler and show"
q