Glasgow weekly times. (Glasgow, Mo.) 1848-1861, 1860-03-22
REPUBLICAN, STATE CONVENTION

by B. Gratz Brown, Esq, Chairman of the
Republican State Central Committee, a
State Convention Of the Republicans Of
Missouri was held on Saturday, March II,
in the Mercantile Library Hall, St. Louis,
the purpose being to select delegates 10 the
National Republican Convention called at
Chicago. TO nominate candidates for Presi-
dent and Vice President Of the United
States.
At II o'clock N. the hour for convening,
the hall was filled. every Congressional
District being represented by its respec-
tive delegates. The Convention was called
to order by the Hon. B. Gratz Brown,
Chairman of the State Republican Com
miltee, who addressed The Convention as
follows:
GENTLEMEN: II devolves upon me 10 call
to order this morning, the first Republican
Convention assembled in any Slave State.
In doing so permit Inc 10 say that party
which has inscribed upon its banner Free
dom-Divins Freedom-thus taking TO it.
sell organization, is vindlcated in advance;
for wide must be the departure from the
accredited mission .! our Federal Govern
ment, and great the peril 10 those liberties
which illuminate citizenship, when millions
Of men all over the land deem it necessary
TO make the reaSserlion OF that freedom,
the initial point of combination and the en-
crossing theme Of thought. Let us then in
all honor, and with pure patriotism ap-
proach the work that is set before us.
You, who come together from remote
sections of this commonwealth, have at
least one attribute that must make no,icea-
bic your action here, which is, that you
dwell in ;he very presence of the ills you
depreca,e, and have it at heart 10 work out
a practical, not merel y theoretical, re-
form. Limitations upon settlement, migra.
tion, labor, that assume national importance
when affecting only remote territories with
you, cripple the industries that constitute
support. Quesiions-pestilent questions,
that have been vainly banished from the
halls Of Congress, nestle at your firesides.
In education, in social life, in religious wor-
ship, in the toll of thesfield and the shop,
you have experience of that discrimination
against the yeomun, and in favor of the
serf, which it is now widely endeavored 10
establish as the dominating policy in these
United States. You know that the conflict
between free labor and slave labor is an sir
repressible conflict" that no citizen who
has 10 compete with the "chauel" at the
plow, the loom, or the anvil, but feels lis
truth, and that they only deny 1t and gloss
the lie who are OF, or belong TO the slave
system. | have faith, therefore, that when
you come TO deliberate upon matters of ma
tional concsrnment, and 10 take your place
as an integral portion of tha, great party
which has assumed the task Of withdraw ing
the general government from its cnmmittals,
and active agency in behalf Of the spread
and,perpetuation of slavery,.you will be an
mated by a sympathy wide as the common
country, and yet controlled by forbear-
ance due to the rightful separation Of State
and Federal Sovreignties.
In these times, which have perplexed
good men with so many threats leveIled at
The Union OF the States, it will be well, fur.
thermore, 10 reflect that il is the same sin
lister and unnatural policy in behalf OF our
geographical Limitation of free mrn, and an
indefinite expansion Of slave soil, which
breeds the spirit of revolt. And yet it is
one interest only, and that an aggressive in
terest that Disuniou finds favor. II is with
one party only, and that the party in pow
er, that such ideas have been encouraged
for party purposes. Predicated upon de-
votion TO the slave system, both for States
and Territories, such policy as secession
attaches to itself chiefly those who are in
that great interest OF persuasion, and while
the large body of the people of the United
States are hostile TO all such projects, yet
it will devolvs more Immediately upon the
free labOring men Of the slave States to en-
counter the hsresy at home, to strip it by
opposition Of the importance that would at
tach to it as an unchallenged State indorse-
ment, and to unmask in every township q
treason that owes its federation TO cunning
duplicily as to its own ends, combined with
exaggerated falsehoods as TO the purposes
of others. Primarily, therefore, it is the