The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1860-10-17


FELLOW CIrIzENs-This is free country. ar
every man, however humble, can vote accordn
TO the dictates OF his own conscience certainly
Il the State OF New York You need not be tol
i that the Irish Union Wide Awakes, during III
, Republican torch light procession in this Cit,
n sept llth, were greeted with insult for DARN
q thus to vindicate their political preferences
Fnends, why it is that our becoming Repub
!. iicais SO excites your hostility? Let US reaso
together and We will convince you that were W
10 support stephen A. Douglas, We should ac
against our best interests, against the rights O
free laboring white men, as well as against tru,
Democracy. We have changed our name bu
hot our principles, and We feel confident, that i
you Correctly understood the principles of tn,
Democratic party as expounded by Douglas, ant
OF the Republican party as expounded by Abra
ham Lincoln, you would, with US, use ever,
honorable means TO secure the election of III,
latter. Believing this, We will give you some o.
the reasons which have led us 10 abandon th,
Democratic party. Three questions are TO be
decided by the American people on the 9th O,
November next, very different as to their impor.
tance to laboring men, yet neither of them Sc
Insignificant as not TO deserve fair and candid
consideration by every voter
lst. The financial management of the Ma.
ti0nal Government. Ii is true We live in land
happy beyond all others, and We do not suffer
greatly from taxation; yet almost every import.
ed article consumed by us (as tea 20 per cent,
coffee 20 per cent, sugar 80 per cent, &C. is
indirectly taxedto pay the present enormous ex.
penses of the Government and if we will con
slider the matter, We shall see that it is quite
material to every laboring man, whether the an
nual expenses of the General Government are
hity million or one hundred million dollars. for
III the end tine burthen must fall upon the peo-
pie. Now In perfect peace it costs the sham
Democracy one hundred million dollar wear to
rule u.s. SO that every voter is indirectly taxed
$50 year to support the present corrupt Ad.
mnistraton. There is a man out West who in
govern US far better for about half that sum. who
proposes to retrench, TO stop fraud and corrup.
ton, and to expel from court those who have
thus shamefully plundered the public treasury.
Therefore We shall vote for Abraham Lincoln.
2ndly. The rights OF citizens born in foreign
lands. Who was it gave the death blow to the
American Party, headed by Erastus Brooks, the
most int lerant bigot that lives to disgrace this
enlightened age and free country? 1t was VIII
liam II. Seward and the Republican Party.
While We were voting against them almost in
solid body, they were fighting disinterestedly for
our rights against the combined forces of the
proscriptive American Party and the sham De.
mOcracy, under the lead of James Buchanan.
Our votes defeated Fremont, but VIC will no
longer vote for an empty name against that party
which has proved its honesty by defending our
rights unfaltcrngly from the first moment Of its
existence. On the other hand, how has the De.
mocratic Party treated US who have been it's
main.stay for the last eight years? We will
here only mention the fact that we are effectu.
ally excluded from emigrating to fifteen States
of this Union, not by the proscriptive American
Party but the abombinable system of negro
Slavery, upheld and eulogized by the Demo.
cratic Party both North and South. That same
party is doing all in its power to exciude not
only us, but all white labOring freemen from
every foot of the public Territories; for the Dred
Scott Decision, which that party sustain SUI
preme and final, declares that the Constitution
carries negro slavery into every Territory of
the United States; and If it does, then white la.
bOrers are practically excluded, since free labor
cannot exist when it comes in comrnti,i"n with
unpaid slave labor. But more OF this matter III
another place. We have stood by the Demo-
cratic party in good report and in evil report,
and after all that when BrOoks's prescriptive
Americanism was breathing out its last foul
breath under the stern heel Of Seward Republic
canism, sham Democracy stepped in, took the
bleeding harlot by the hand, bound up her gap
ing wounds and bid the resurrected dame as.
sumo her former place among the political par
ties of the countsy. Ye traitors to true DelnOc.
racy, where now is all your boasted ennty to
bigotry, intolerance and dark.lanterism? Read
the speeches you have been dinning in our ears
for the last six years, and then fuse with resus.
citatcd corpse. but know surely, We political
gamblers, that you cannot sell US to be the
wants of Erastus Brooks Your conduct in this
matter shows conclusively that you care no more
for the rights of adopted citizens than for the
rights of the black bondmen Of the South, ex-
capt for our votes. You can sell the sooty Afri.
can, but you cannot sell white freemen,
I. Who know their rights, and knowing dare maintaia
them"
The Republican Party is the tried friend of
every labOrng man, no matter what tmay be his
religious creed, 10 matter in what land he may
chance to have been born, no matter in what
disastrous battle his rights may have been coyen
down, no matter from what unfortunate ancestry
he may be a descendant. Therefore we shall
vote for Abraham Lincoln.
3dly. There is one more question before the
American people of the greatest importance TO
every laboring man. Why is it that laboring
man gets better wages here than in the Old coun-
tries Of Europe? Because we have fertile land
to be had almost for nothing, which dgaias of
| the surplus o; labor; for il the capitalists cut
| down our wages we can refuse to work and turn
| farmers. No fact is better established than that
| free labor cannot compete with slave labor, that
one or the other must exclusively prevail
| What white man wishes to work side by side
with a negro slave, even if he could &c; a lair
compensation FOR his labor? But where rich
men can own their laborefs and get their work
done for nothing, viii they hire freemen and pay
them eight or ten sbilings per day? 1t was
never known since the world began. You have
all perhaps heard how the sham Democracy OF a
Southern city treated one Of our own country
men because be said, as every enlightened man
must say, that, at ,ooald be better for whae la.
boring men if there were no slares." They
stripped of the clothes Of an American citizen,
though an Ir;shman by birth, applied coat OF
tar ard feathers in their own barbarous style,
and sent him naked, from the borders Of the
State. For what was our countrymen thus treat.
ed more ANONYMOUSLY than a felon, with the
tacit appreciation OF the sham Democracy North
and the public approval of the same party South:
His only crime was uttering truth as immuta'
ble as the Golden Rule The Dred Scott decis-
ion says the Constitution carries slavery into all
the Territories of the United States. So Says
the sham Democracy, and Douglas himself says
"property in men must be protected in the Ter
ritories just like any other property. With
James Madison, We are unwilling to admit that
there can be property in man, and We do Lot
believe slavery has legal existence anywhere
except by local Law. So SAYS TIE Republican
Party, SO says Abraham Lincoln. Il the shan
Democracy prevail in this contest, they will en-
deavor to exclude Us from all the Territories a:
lxl- 4 tha~4