The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-12-28
correspondence Relative to Calling &
Democratic State Convention to De-
termine the Course OF the Demo.
cracy of Minnesota i'm the Impend.
ing Crisis of the Affairs of our
Union.


ing Crisis of the Affairs Of our
Union.
ST.. PETER, Dec. IA, 1850.
DEAR SIR Ought not the Democracy
of this State to hold Convention to lay
down platform of principles by which we
should be governed in the approaching and
now impending crisis in the affairs of our
Union; to put forth to the country that we
of the Northwest are for the Union and the
Constitution that we demand, before we
will con sent to coerciue, measures to compel
our brethren of the South to remain in the
Union, the unconditional repeal by every
Northern States, of those acts multiplying
the Constitution that many of them have
passed that we will not stand by a Sec
tional fragment of the Union, that has al
ready openly, and under sanction of law,
violated the compromises of the federal
compact, in defiance of the rights of the
people of the South.
say then, sir, let us have a Convention,
and at least let US show that there is still
sentiment of attachment existing in this,
the youngest of the sisterhood of States,
for our Union--a united Union--for the
Union right, for the Union wrong; and
that for its maintenance and its preserva-
ton, we are determined to struggle now
and for all time.
Yours Respectfully,
E. ST. JULIEN cox.
Hon. D. A. ROBERTSON, St. Paul, Min.
ST. PAUL, Dec. 20, 1860.
E. ST. JULIEN Cox, Esq, st. Peter, Minnesota.
DEAR SIR:-I have read with great sat.
isfaction, your letter of the 18th inst, and
agree with you that it would be we'll for the
Democracy of Minnesota to hold a State
Convention at some early day, to determine
what course shall be pursued by the party,
in the present emergency of our national
affairs. l have consulted with the mem
bers of the State Executive Committee,
resident in this city--whose province it is
to call State Conventions am enabled
to inform you that the Committee will call
the proposed Convention, upon receiving
a reasonable assurance that such action will
be approved by the Democracy of the state.
We have indeed fallen apon troublous
times. The charmed circle of the Union is
already broken. South Carolina has for
mally withdrawn, and unless some basis of
settlement between the North and the South
be agreed to, or reasonably assured before,
the fourth of March next, there is immi>
nent danger that by that time, all the re-
naming slave holding states may be forced,
by uncomfortable events to take measures
to follow the example of South Carolina.
The fatal consequence to the interests and
we'll being of the American people which
would certainly flow from only temporary
dissolution of the United States of America
are so far beyond the reach of human COM
prehension, that eVOn the vague contempa-
ton of such dangers, should raise every
calm and enlightened mind to the full stature
of the most exalted patriotism.
The states of the northwest can never
consent to such a separation, peaceable or
violent, between the North and the South,
without whose happy Union, formed and
celebrated by the sages and patriots of the
Revolution, these free commonwealth
would never have been created. Nor will
the northwest unite in war or coercion with
one against the other, but will exert all
its kind offices and great energies to re.
store peace and good will between them.
This accomplished, the reconciled parents
and happy offspring may live together in
affection and prosperity for long ages to
come.
The states of the northwest are the ap-
pointed pledges of an enduring Union be-
tween the North and the South.
The great and good men who consecrated
the Union of the old thirteen states greatly
feared division on geographical line,
separating the North from the South. "The
reat danger to our general government
said Mr.. Madison, in the Convention which
framed the Constitution of the United
States-"is the great southern and northern
interests of the continent being opposed to
each other" Upon this, John Taylor of
Caroline, in the year 1923, remarked: eff
northern, southern and western interests are
not opposed to each other in Congress by
investing it with superior power over
state rights, they cannot endaDger the Un.
ion, but if either can acquire local advant-
age from national supremacy, it will ag-
gravate the geographical danger apprebend-
ed by Mr.. Madison; a perpetual war of
intrigues will ensue, and a dissolution of the
Union will result"
1t is by this Geographical conflict so
much feared by the fathers Of the republic,
that our Union is now so aiarmingly inn
perilled. "There exists" remarks the pro-
found statesman last quoted, &" no remedy
against an evil so certain, but to divest
majority of Congress of power to exercise
local partialities. The force of this argu.
ment depends upon the fact whether the
name, Congress, can wiring out of human
nature its acknowledged qualities. But is
not human nuture liable to geographical
mensuration If it receives impressions
from locality, its geography may be almost
as distinctly ascertained as that of the earth.
The geography of human nature sticks to