Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1860-09-14

A SIGNIFICANT AND IMPORTANT
CHANGE-AND THE REASONS
FOR IT

The Iowa state Reporter, long the leading
Democratic organ in Iowa, has, as we have
already announced, come over to the support
Of Lincoln and Hamlin. This is indicative
Of similar change, this fall, on the part Of
thousands in the Northwest who have hther-
to been counted as sure for the Democratic
nominees.
The Reporter justidos its action in an able
and elaborate article, from which we take
some extracts -
OUR ros1TIoN--To THE READERS OF THE
REPORTER.
Pursuant to the announcement Of last week.
to-day we haul down from our masthead,
the names of Douglas and Johnson, as candi-
dates for the Presidency and Vice Prcsiden-
cy Of the United States, and substitute those
Of Lincoln and Hamlin, the Republican can
didates. In making this change, and thus
connecting this paper with the great Repub-
lican party Of the Nation, it is due to our
readers, as well as just to ourselves, that we
should state as concisely as possible, the
reasons which have induced us to make this
change, trusting that those reasons will COM
mend themselves to the minds and conscionces
of our friends and patrons.
After recapitulating the political history
Of the party and the Union for the past four
/ years, and adverting to the pro-slayery doc
trnes, now avowed by the Douglas leaders,
| it says -
| These arc not our ciples-they do not
meet the approval of our consciences. With
men holding such doctrines, we can have no
| political affinity. We do not believe that
/ the fathers of the Republic, when they de-
nounccd slavery as moral and political evil,
did not "fully understand in the language
of Mr.. O'Connor in the Lennon case-what
! they said We do not believe that the foun-
ders Of this government when they pledged
| their honor, risked their fortunes. and impe-
riled their lives, to attain liberty and inde-
| pendence for themselves and their posterity,
/ did only to obtain the right and power to
enslave others. Nor do we believe that our
fathers, wht: they declared THAT ALL MEN
ARE CREATED EQUAL" and endowed BY
THEIR CREATOR with certain inalienable
rights, among which those of life, lib
erty and the pursuit of happiness, meant to
confne the declaration to the then subjects
of Great Britain residing upon this continent,
or to the purely Anglo-Saxon race. Beliey-
ing none of these things, but regarding the
fathers of the Republic as earnest and self
sacrificing patriots who sought to lay deep
and strong the foundations of civil liberty,
and erect thereon republican government,
where ALL MEN might enjoy political equali
ty, uniettered by the trammels of despotism
of whatever nature, our warmest convictions
as patriots and our sternest impulses of duty
as citizens, impel us to separate from those,
| who, if we may Judge from their conduct and
| declarations hold no doctrines in common
with ourselves, and at whose sentiments,
thus publicly avowed, the moral sense of
every patriot must revolt.
If anything else were wanting to convince
the people that the doctrine of Popular Sow
ereignty as embodied in the Cincinnati Plat
form and expounded by Mr.. Douglas is a
sham and delusion, we need but point to
the conduct OF the present administration,
elected upon that platform, sustained as it
has been by a majority of the democratic
members of Congress. Under this platform
of Popular Sovereignty, twice, If not thrice,
has the popular will of the people of Kansas
upon the subject of slavery, been ignored to
by officers of the national administration, to
compel her to accept constitution sanction
ing slavery. Under this platform she is now
excluded from the Union, in violation of
every principle of justice and right. Under
this platform, and within the past few
months, laws of the territorial legislatures
Of both Kansas and Nebraska, have been ve-
toed by governors appointed by the federal
administration, and yet they are continued in
office, and no democrat has been heard to de-
nounce their conduct. Under this platform,
/ on the 18th of August, 1857, james Bu-
chanan, in reply to Prof Silliman and others,
announced that "slavery exists in Kansas un-
der the constitution of the United States"
And finally Mr.. Douglas himself, on the 10th
of May, 1860, in reply to Mr.. Davis of Mis-
sissippi, announced the final results attained
under this platform in the following language
at is part of the history Of the country
that under this doctrine of non-intervention,
this doctrine that you delight to call squatter
sovereignty, the people of New Mexico have
introduced and protected slavery in the whole
of that Territory. Under this doctrine, they
have converted tract of free territory into
slave territory more than five times as large
as the State Of New York. Under this doc
trine, slavery has been extended from the
Rio Grande to the Gulf of California, and
from the line Of the Republic of Mexico, not
only up to SO deg. 80 min, but up to 3s deg,
giving you a degree and half more slave
territory than you ever claimed
II these statements be true, and it is not
for us to question them upon this occasion,
then Popular Sovereignty has proven quite
as effective in extending slavery over, and
excluding free labor from, our national Ter
I lltNllNHf ha thN 'ANiN 'lNh NAA hi"hA1 N'Hhe
Of the breckenridge party ever can, and is a
snare and delusion which ought no longer
to be permitted to mislead and wrong the
people Of the free labor States.
Unable to give the assent of our judgment
to the doctrines enunciated by either wing of
the late democratic party, and unable to CO.
operate in political action with men avowing
such sentiments, we have been driven TO ex-
anime the platform Of the Republican party.
as adopted at Chicago in May last. Its lead
ing doctrines command the warmest appro-
val Of our Judgment. To say that it is emil
nently national in its character, and when
carried into the affairs Of government will
promote the prosperity Of the whole people,
without working injury to any, is to affirm
what all thinking men believe. That its OBJ
ect is to promote the cause Of civil liberty,
and secure the political equality of all mon,
while at the same time II protects the just
rights Of the States, aud that it is sustained
by the teachings Of the fathers OF the Repub-
lie, and the policy of the government up to
the administration of Franklin Pierce, none
can deny Entertaining these views, we
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