The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1860-03-12

ktTcy tn0fS ~ you GO mere. lou NAYS
hospitable welcomes and approaching audiences,
with ballot boxes open for al the votes you can
win. Are you less sectional than thisY Extend
to us the same privileges, and I will engage that
you will very soon have in the South Is many Re
publicans as we have Democrats in the North
There Ia, however. better test Of nationality than
the accidental location Of parties. Our policy of
labor in thu Terri tories was not sectional in the
first forty years Of the Republic. Its nature in
heres. 1t will be national again, during the third
and for IN alone injurious you alone.
Its effects are equal, and the same for US all.
You accuse the Republican party Of ulterior and
secret designs. How can party that counts its
votes in this land Of free speech and free press by
The hundreds Of thousands have any secret desgnsf
" no ~ the conjarer, and where are the hidden
springs by which he control its congrsgated and
widely dispersed masses and direct them to objects
unsecn and purposes unavowed? But what are
these hidden pnypoeesg You name only one. That
one is to introduce negro equality among YOU
Suppose We had the power toschange your social
system, what warrant have you for surprising that
We should carry negro equality among your We
know, and We win show you, If you will only give
heed, that what our system of labor works out,
wherever 1t works out any thing IL the equality of
white men. The laborcr In the tree States, mat
ter how humble his occupation, Is = white man,
and he is politically the equal Of his employee
Eighteen Of our thirty-three States ffee-lAbor
States. There theytre: Maine, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecti-
cut, Now York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
iewa, California and Oregon. / do not array them
in contrast with the capital States. i am no as-
saiant of States. All Of the States are parcels Of
my own country-the best Of them not so wise and
great rs am sure 1t will hereafter be the State
least developed and perfect among them All il wiser
and better than any foreign State i know. Is it
then in any, and In which, of the States have
named that negro equality offends the white mans
prideg Throughout the wide world, where II the
State where class and caste are SO utterly extin-
guished as they are in each and every Of them
Let the European imm grant, who avoids the Afri-
can as ii his skin exhaled contagion, answer. You
find him always in the State where Labor il ever
free. Did Washington, Jefferson and Henry, when
they impiored you to reiinauish y3us -s-slem and
accept the one We have adopted, propose to sink
you down to the level Of the African or was 1t their
desire to exalt all white TO common 20 litical
elevation?
But we do not seek to force, or even to intrude
our system on you. We are excluded justly, wisely
and contentedly from all political power and re-
sponsibiiity in your capital States. You are SOW
ereigns on the subj ect Of slavery within your own
borders, as we are on the same subject within our
borders. II il we'll and wisely arranged. Use your
authority to maintain what system you please. We
are not dstrustful Of the result. We have wisely,
as we think exercised ours to protect and perfect
the manhood of the members Of the State. The
whole sovereignty upon domestic concerns within
the Union Is divided between us by unmistaka able
boundaries. You have your fifteen distinct parts;
We eighteen parts equally distinct. Each must be
maintained In order that the whole may be pre-
served Ii ours shall be assaulted, within or with
out, by any enemy, or for any cause, and We shall
have need, we shall expect you to defend 1t. If
yours shall be 80 assailed, in the emergency, no
matter what the cause or the pretext, or who the
foe, we shall defend your sovereignty as the EQUIV
aienf OF our own. We cannot, indeed, accept your
system of capital or its ethics That would be to
surrender and subvert our own, which We esteem to
be better. Besides, If we could what need for any
division into States Mt ALI You are equally Ut
liberty to reject our system and Its ethics, and to
maintain the superiority Of your by all the for
oes OF pers uasion and argument. We must, indeed,
mutually discuss both systams. All the world dis
cusses all systems. Especially must we discuss
them since We have to decide as a nation which Of
the two we ought 10 engraft on the new and future
States growing up in the great public domain. Dis
cussion, then, being unavoidable, what could be
more wise than to conduct Id vi tn mutual liberation
and in fraternal spiritg
You complain that Republicans discourse too
boldly and directly, when they express with conf
dence their belief that the system Of labor will in
the end, be universally accepted bp the capital
States, acting for themselves, and In conformity
with their own Constitutions, while they sanction
too unreservedly books designed to advocate emsn-
cpation. But surely You can hardly expect the
Federal Government or the political parties Of the
nation TO maintain censorship Of the Press or of
debate The theory Of system is, that error of
opinion may in all cases safely be tolerated where
reason is left free to combat it, Will ID be claimed
that more moderation and tenderness In debate are
exhibited on your side of the great argument than
our owng We all learned our polemics rs we'll NJ
our principles, from common master. We are
sure that we do not, on side exceed his Lessons
and example. Thomas Jefferson addressed Dr.
Price, IN EDglishman, concerning his treatise on
emancipation in America, in this fashion:
"Southwsrd of the Chesapeake, your book will
md but few readers concurring with IL in sentiment
on the subject Of slavery. From the mouth TO the
head OF the Chesapeake, the bulkof the people will
approve it in theory, and it will find respectable
minority ready to adopt it in practice minority
which, for weight and worth of character responder
ates against the greater number who have not the
courage to divest their fami lies Of property which,
however, keeps their consciences unquet. North
ward Of the Chesapeake, you may find here a.
there nopponent to your doc rins, rs you may fnd
here and there robber or murderer; but In no
great number" .This lvir-
ginial ID the next State to which we may turn our
eyes for the interesting spectacle Of justice in con
dict with avsrice and OPPRESSION conflict where
the sacred side is gaining daily new recruits from
inc innux into ofhce OF young men, grown and grow
ing up" BE not, then, discour-
aged. What you have written win do Q great deal
OF good and could you still trouble yourself about
our welfare, no man IL more able to help the labor
Ing side
You see, Sir, that whether we 10 for or against
slavery anyw here, We must follow Southern guides
You may change ysur pilots with the winds or the
currentsi but we, whose nativity, rsckoned under
the North Star, has rendered Us somewhat super
stitous, must be excused for in following
the gudiense of those who framed the national shp
and gave Ms the chart for its noble voysgs.
:, profound respect and friendly regard for the
Vice President OF the United States has induced me
70 weigh carefully the testimony he given on the
subject OF the hostility against the N0hth Imputed
TO the Republican party, as derived from the rela
tons OF the representatives Of the two parties 1T
this capital. He says that he has seen here in the
representatives OF the lower Southern States most
resouts and earnest spirit Of resistance TO the Re
publican party that he perreives sensible loss Of
that spirit OF brotherhood and that feeling Of 10y
Atty, together with that love for . common couns
try. which are 1t last the surest cement Of the
Union so that in the present unhappy condition Of
Affairs he is almost tempted to exclaim that W are
alssolsing week by week, and month by month !;
That the threads are gradually fretting themselves
asunder; and stranger might suppose that the
executive OF the United Ststes was the President
OF two hostile Republics II is not for me 10 raise