Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1860-11-23

institution" It would be proper to treat
such an unfair and inscriptions writer with |
silent contempt. His charge that the North |
has insultcd and assaulted the South Is un- |
founded in fact. 1t is an insult to the great |
majority of the people Of the North, and to
many in the slave States, who voted for
Lincoln. If silent, calm and dispassionate |
expression of sentimentby the people, through
the ballot box, can be an "insult and assault
upon those who think differently, then our
free institutions are farce. If minority
can, by threats of disunion and by reputation
of their obligations, coerce the majority into
then free suffrage is mockery,
and we are all slares. We are astcnished to
find men in our midst ready to excuse these
attempts at subverting the power and sullying
the sacrsdness Of the ballot-box. The true
Democratic doctrine is that the majority
should rule. The majority DO not propose, at
this time, to rob the minority of any of the
rights guaranteed 10 them by the Constitution.
The charge that they do is false. All the
buster at the South is made simply because
the majority have said that the slave trade
and the further extension Of slavery shall
be stopped. The charge that certain Northern
States have nulliied the Fugitive Slave Law
is only q pretext The States threatening
secession have no need ola Fugitive Slave Law.
Tho border States are the ones that should
complain and buster, if any, but they do not.
They are content to abide the result, knowing
that their rights will be guaranteed to them
by the incoming Administration.
So much for the general attitude of affairs.
Now to the question concerning the rise in
exchange. We are free to admit that the
depreciation of the stocks Of certain Southern
States, on which the Western Banks are
mostly based, has something to do with it.
But there is another cause. The Western
drafts against grain shipments are usually at
thirty to sixty days. New York Banks have
heretofore discounted them at per cent,
making them as available as sight drafts
Now, the Eastern bankers say the West is
able to take care of itself-ioes not need their
assistance and they have resolved to lend
their sid to the South, until the commercial
horizon there has once more cleared up. They
decline, at the same time, to discount our
grain drafts, unless at sight. This, of course,
produces scarcity Of exchange, which, how
ever, as Western drafts will be constantly
maturing, will be but temporary
But, tho question naturally arises, Is the
Republican party responsible for the depreci-
alton of Southern stocks? The N. Y. Herald
(good authority among Democrats) shows, in
its money article of recent date, that the
South is passing through revulsion similar
to that which the West suffered in 1857, and
that the election of Lincoln has had nothing
to do with it, except, perhaps, in bringing it
on sooner, by agitating the public mind. We
quote as follows:
''From Mobile the letters are generally more
cheerful, ard strong hopes are expressed that,
when the South has had time for reflection,
the disunion sentiment will prove less power
full. From all sides, however, the report is
that slaves and cotton lands are declining in
value. Southern men must not delude them
selves into the belief that this disturbance can
be got over in few days or weeks, or that
convention, or any number of conventions,
will calm the troubled waters. The source of
the trouble lies deeper than politicians imag-
to q head; but the elements of disturbance
- ELL IaEo
nominated, and they must work out their
appointed results, however the slavery and
anti-slavery parties settle their controversy.
Tie Southern States are going to have their
revulsioa, just as the Western States had
theirs in 1857. Cotton land and negroes have
been too high; there has been too much
trading on credit; too much buying Of land
and of negroes on credit; too much expansion
Of credit in every way at the South; and now
the bubble has been pricked, and the collapse
must come. 1t is fastened, and the distress
is aggravated, by the menaces of the polite
ians but the catastrophe must have occurred
sooner or later in any event, and all parties
who have dealings with the South should
prepare themselves accordingly. The North
and West must suffer in proportion to the
extent of their dealings with the South"
The crops at the South, as we all know,
have generally failed the past season. It's
people are in debt and have not the means to
pay. Is it any wonder that their stocks
should depreciatc, especially when the Ito
them) ruinous policy Of accession is threat
ened, in which they are encouraged and abetted
by few panic-makers at the North, who
would like to sec the country involved in
disturbance and disaster, for the sake o.
gratifying their political malice?
-->e~
Senator Douglas On Secession.
While Mr.. Douglas was in New Orleans,
number of leading gentlemen IL that city
addressed an invitation to him to give public
address on the ''present condition Of affairs in
the country" to which invitation he replied
in letter of some length, Which has been
published. He shows that the results of the
election. which he deeply "regrcts," were
obtained in constitutional manner; that
there is no law on the statute book of the
United States which the South complains Of;
and that only the withdrawal Of Southern
Senators and Representatives can render any