St. Paul weekly Minnesotian. (St. Paul) 1860-1861, 1860-11-09
SPEECH
hon. E6NATIUS DONNELLY, LII.
GOV. OF MINNESOTA.

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GOV. OFF MINNESOTA.
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DELIVERED AT TIRE RAIL spLITTERs' WIG
! WAN, ST. CLOUD, ON MONDAY, OCT, 2srH
1860.
THE PRACTICAL RESULT OF sQuATTER SOW
, EREIGNTY AS APPLIED TO THE QUESTION
OF SLAVERY.
FELLOW CITIZENS Permit me to thanh
you for the opportunity afforded me tc
address you. 1t is, indeed. privilege &c
once more meet you after the lapse of more
than year. In that Interval, events have
not been wanting, either in our own State
or IN the nation at large, to corroborate
much that was said to you by Republican
speakers in the last years canvass.
Politics are principles. Over the lesser
details--the etfervescences-the excrescen-
ces of the surface--men differ. The great
undercurrents of humanity and God head,
are as far beyond the reach of contentious
as the centrifugal and seasripe,al princi-
pies of nature, and upon them rest all pol
tics.
Truth is not violence. 1t does not take
its votary by the throat. 1t never got into
any man that way. 1t is figure, stand
ing upon the pedestal of the world--a lesser
| God-the shadow of the one certain God.
Men walk past and look up it. To one, it
seems cold and iiieless, and shrouded in
leaden mists. To another, it stands with
the glory of the world upon its brow, the
gentleness of heaven in its eyes, it's hand
l op;nt;r,. h., Il
Truth will live, though we all die Gal
! lileo muttered, as he signed his recantation
of his doctrine of the earth's motion, but
it does move" Pen and ink, prisons and
chains, bread and water could not stop il:
the monks had no lever could pry il from
its orbit: it kept on moving until all
Chrlstendom was ready to cry aloud the
mutterod words Of Gallileo, "But it does
move"
'The minds of men," said Washing
ton, ''are as various as their faces, and one
can no more blame them for their ideas
than their features"
You come to one man, now days,
and he says, "Pshaw! what do care
about it? The niger is only fit to be a
slave. I'd like to own few myself"
And then he laughs uproariously. 10 an
Other you come and the thought of slavery
presents itself to his mind as one broad,
pressing, unmittgated iniquity his nature
revolts at it; his very gorge rises at it.
lie sees the quondam father, the polluted
mother, the dishonored chld-bodies with
out liberty, minds without light, souls
without God! And so men array them
col 30. l.
ferencos, they build up parties. And why
should you and quarrel over it? Neither
you nor did it,
Then let US approach the political ques-
tons of the day in a calm, impartial spirit.
None OF us came into the world stamped
Democrat or Republican" None of
us were accompanied by an after birth of
pamphlets and speeches. Our great UNI
pire was born with us--our Judgment
and it should be our proudest boast to
submit to 1T unhesitatingly all the ques-
tons of our lives.
have said to you that in the interval of
the last year events have not been wanting |
to corroborate our principles. The greatest !
of these is dismemberment of the Demo |
cratic party. When we last met, the cause |
of Freedom and Humanity had but one !
advocate in this nation-the Republican |
party. To-day we are assisted by the |
great body of the Northern Democracy
who in their very refusal to acquesce in |
the demands of slavery, unwittingly recog,
nize the power and justice Of the principles
we maintain.
But, my friends, this accession to our
ranks Is hesitating, doubling, unwilling and
full OF half way measures and compromises. |
1t denies the existence of the tide upon
which it is carried forward, and would
shift the landmarks along the shore to hide
its own advance.
Springing from this state of things-for
platforms are but revelations of the condi-
ton of the public mind and hearts, the
doctrine of which Mr.. Douglas is the great
founder and exponent--the doctrine of
squatter sovereignty.
This doctrine has been for some wears
exposed to the scrutiny Of the most ntell-
gent people in the world, and has been fair.
ly riddled and perforated with criticism and
ridicule. Its inception, its startling novel
r "Got when the soul didmuddled notions try,
And born shapeless mass, like anarchy"
is incongruities, its deceits, its impossible.
tiles, with ;tself,its shutting ard fraudulent
history have all been time again laid before
you, by your public speakers, in your
newspapers, in your private conversations,
until it has become
"a thrice told tale,
Told in the dull ear of drowsy man."
I should weary your patience did attempt
to go over the well worn path.
There is, however, one aspect of this
singular and novel doctrine which has
been but little touched upon, but which,
nevertheless, appears to me Of the first
| refer to the practical acork-
ings Of the doctrine of Sguatter Sovereignty
as applied to the 7erritories. 1t is my po-
sition here tonight that the results of
Squatter Sovereignty are anarchy, war,
bloodshed in the Territory, and eventually
civil war in the nation at large. To that
branch Of the subject shall devote my re-
marks this evening.
My friends, this government of ours
takes its permanence and perpetuity from
a distinction which may at first sight ap-
pear narrow one, the distinction between
the two words Democracy" and "Repub-
lic." In common parlance, we speak Of
the two as synonymous Mr. Madison, in
the Fsderalist, advocating the adoption of
our present Constitution, very clearly ex-
pressed the distinction which exists be-
tween them. He says at may be
concluded that pure democracy, by which
| mean a society consisting of small
number of citizens who assemble and ad-
minister the government IN person, can
admit of no cure for the mschiefs of faction.
A common passion or interest will in al
most every case be felt by majority of the
whole, a communication and concert result
from the form of the government itself, and
there is nothing to check the inducenent
to sacrifice the weaker party. Hence it is
that such democracies have been spectacles
of turbulence and contention; have ever
been found incompatible with personal Sc
curity, and have in general been as short
i'll their lives as they have been violent
in their deaths. a republic, by which
mean government in which the scheme of
Representation takes place, opens different
prospect. The extent of the difference is
to refine and enlarge the public views By
posing them through tie medium of a
chosen body Of citizens, plsose acisdom mag
best discern tie true interests Of their coun--
try, and chose patriotism witt be least Ike.
ty to sacrifice 1t to temporary or partial
considerations"
This distinction thus clearly laid down
by Mr.. Madison, was supposed by the /