The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1860-07-04

Gen. VAN Antwerp Craw fishss.
Cen. Van Antwerp, we learn from bis lot
ter published In the Jowrnal, IL no longer
"down on Douglas" We knew that the
General could not hold out long, and there
fore il was that we made haste to get his case
in the paper before he ssbaoked down." The
General In constitusionally weak in the back
and shaky in the knees on some subjects,
and the people OF Iowa will remember that
this constitutional infrmity led to his final
abandonment OF Van Buren, after the people
had been indueed TO think that he was to
head the Free Soil electoral ticket in this
State.
But iet us DO justice to General Van Ant
werp by letting him state his own positions
"It is pretty we'll known, suppose, TO al
most everybody here, That | have for more
than year past been unfavorably inclined
towards the nomination OF Judge Douglas
az our candidate for the coming contest.
have thought that | foresaw very clearly,
from the outset of the present feud in the
Democratic party, the result that must inev-
itablv follows rupture ia it's ranks such al
has never before occurred since it's original
organization--if the nomination of Judge
Douglas was insisted upon, and effected.
"I has long been az clear to my mind "a
the noon DAY sun that the Democracy Of the
Southern states could not be brought to
support Judge Douglas in sufficient force to
secure his election BY the people; and why,
then, persist in the determination to nomi-
nate him, when there were other equally en-
inent men upon whom the party might prob
ably be united, with fair prospects OF sue.
cess?
aBesides, am no convert to the curing
merits of the now popular doctrine OF squat
ter sovereignty | was against it, and &c
declared myself more than ten years ago,
when the democracy OF this county, and OF q
/ large portion of tho State, held the same
opinion. have seen nothing since to induce
| me to change my mind upon that question.
| On the contrary, my convictions OF the fal-
| lacy Of the doctrine have been strengthened
| by time"
Now the natural and logical inference from
this, since he is opposed to Douglas and to
the only principle which distinguishes Doug
las from Breckenridge, wsuld seem to be
that he should 20 for Breckenridge or Lin.
coin. But you can't catch Van Antwerp on
natural or logical conclusions; he goes in fol
Douglas, and hyJaluttns over John brown
and Helper, the s'irrepressible conflict anc
acivlL WAR; in terms of terror mostt too scary
for one bearing the title OF General, and Of
such abject fear as would seem scarcely toll
cradle in a nervous old woman. Hear him
eff dislike "squatter Sovereignty" ant
regard it as q clap-trap, and pernlelou
| fallacy, which certainly do, abhor o thou
| sand times more the sIRREPREsslBLE CONFLICT
and sHIGHKR Law doctrines OF Mr. Lincoln
the Republican candidate for the Presidency
doctrines of recent origin, but boldly ans
uneouivooally avowed by him, and which
were but the prelude to the endorsement
of the infamous Helper book, and the still
i more infamous raid of John Brown and hi
murderous band at Harper's Ferry In Octo
Der last
Andn bis shaky terror, in view OF horror
which distract bis mind, the doughty Gener
oil closes in peculiar wall which seems lik
cross between one of the old prophets ant
the modern whangdoodle:
"Woe, woe unto the country! in my de.ib
crate judgment, should the maddened an,
reckless fanatieism OF the day attain its OBJ
iect by placing the Chief OF Black kepubl
canism at the helm of State"