Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1860-11-02

. jesui.ical piece of squivocation and double
dealing, unable to stand before the criticism
Of logical mind, because it is o mixture of
glazing contradictions; unable to stop the
War Of principles and interests, because it 10
at scar 'oith itse!f: Applause.] 1t is time
its principle champion worked hard to cover
with bullying boisterousness the moral cow
ardice from which it sprang ; but in vain
He mistakes the motive power which shapes
the actions of free nations. Having no moral
convictions of bis own to stand upon, he
could never address himself to the moral
sense of tho people. [Sensation] Having
no moral convictions of his own! This is q
grave charge, but know what say. Ire
spect true convictions wherever find them.
Among the ire-eaters of the South, there are
men who speak of the moral basis Of slavery,
and believe in it; who speak of the blessings
of servitude, and believe in it; who assert
that slavery is right, and believe in it. Afro
eious as their errors may be, and deeply as
l deplore them, yet respect their convictions
as soon as find them out. But look into
the record of the champion of popular SOW
ereignty;' scan it from syllable to syllable
and then tell me, you Douglasites Of the
South, do you find one word there indicating
moral conviction that slavery is right p
And you Douglasites of the North, who are
in the habit of telling US that you are the
true anti-slavery men, and that popular SOW
ereignty will surely work the overthrow of
slavery, did your master ever utter similar
sentiment? Do you find in his record one
word Of sympathy with the down. rodden
and degraded? One spark Of the humane
philosophy Of our age? One syllable in
vindieation of the outraged dignity ofhuman
nature? One word which might indicate a
moral conviction that slavery is sorong?-
Not one!
But one thing he does tell you: II do not
care whether slavery is voted up or DOWN.
There is then o human heart that does not
care Sir, look over this broad land, where
the struggle has ragged for years and years
and across the two oceans, around the globe,
to the point where the great West meets the
far East; over the teeming prairies where
the cradle of mankind stood; and over the
workshops of civilization in Europe, and
over those mysterious regions, under the
tropical sun, which have not emerged yet
from the night of barbarism to the daylight
Of civilized life-and then tell me- how many
hearts do you find that do not tremble with
moral anguish or exultant joy as the scales
of human freedom or human bondage 90 up
or DOWN. Look over the history Of the
world, from the time when infant mankind
felt in its heart the first throbbings of aspir-
ed dignity, down to our days, when the
rights of man have at least found bold and
powerful champion in great and mighty
Republic, where is the page that is not
spotted with blood and tears, shed in that all
absorbing struggle; where chapter which
does not tell the tale of jubilant triumph or
breaking distress, as the scales of freedom or
slavery went up or DOWN. Loud applause ]
But to-day, in the midst Of the nineteenth
} century, in Republic whose programme
was laid down in the Declaration Of Inde-
pendence, there GENES man to you, and
tells you with cynical coolness that he does
! not care! And because he does not care, he
claims the confidence of his countrymen and
the highest honors of the..Republic! Be-
cause he does not care, he pretends to be the
representative statesman of this age!
Sir, l always thought that he can be no
true statesman whose ideas and conceptions
! are not founded upon profound moral con-
yictions of right and wrong: [Applause. J.
What, then, shall we say of him who boast
ingly parades his indifference as virtue p
|
craftsmanship, and ask, what is he worth as
a man? Repeated cheers Yes; he mis-
: takes the motive power which shapes the
, events of history. 1 find that in tho life of
, free nations, mere legal disquisition never
, turned the tide of events, and mere consti-
: tutienal constructions never determined the
tendency of the age.
There is the slavery question not mere
hot fwo 80
| country divided by geographical line; not
a mere contest between two economical inter.
) ests for the preponderence; not mere wran-
7 gle between two political parties for power
and spoils; but the great struggle between
, the human conscience and burning wrong,
, between advancing civilization and retreat
ing barbarism, between two antagonistic
! systems of social organization. [Cheers In
, vain will our impotent mock giants endeavor
to make the test question of our age turn on
a ridiculous logical bubble, or a paltry legal
technically, Applause; j in vain they will
invent small lodges, and call them great
principles; in vain will they attempt to
drag down the all.absorbing contest to the
level of a mere pot-house quarrel between
two candidates for a Presidential nomination.
Applause. The wheel Of progressive
events will crush them to atoms, as it has
crushed so many abnormities, [cheers, and
q future generation will perhaps read on Mr..
Douglas tombstone the inscripti IN "Here
lies the queer sort ofastatesman, who, when
the battle of slavery was fought, pretended
to say that he did not care whether slavery
was voted up or down."
But as long as the moral vitality of this
nation is not entirely exhausted, Mr. Doug-
las, and men like him, will in vain endeavor
to reduce the people to that disgusting state
of moral Indifference which he himself is
not ashamed to boast OF. solemnly pro-
test that the American people are not to be
measured by Mr., Douglas low moral stand
ard. However degraded some of our poll
tic;ans may be, the. progress ofthe struggle will
show that the popular conscience is still
alive, and that the people DO CARE [Long
continued applause.
| Electoral Votes of the States.
As matter of convenient reference, we
publish below a statement of the electoral
vote of each State in 1860, together with