St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1860-03-15

hold your conventions, nominate your
candidates, address the people, submit
to them fully, earnestly, eloqucntly,
all your complaints and grievances Of
Northern disloyality, oppression, per-
fidy ; keep nothing back, speak just
as freely and as loudly there as you
do here you will have hospitablc
welcomes, and approaching audiences,
with ballot boxes open for all the
votes you can win. Are you less Sec
tional than this Extend to us the
same privilege, and | will engage
that you will very soon have in the
South as many Republicans as we
have Democrats in the North. There
is, however, better test of nationali-
ty than the accidental location of par
ties. Our policy of labor in the Ter
rtories was not sectional in the first
forty years of the Republic. Its ma
ture inheres. 1t will be national again,
during the third forty years, and forev-
er aftcrward 1t is not wise and ben
Efficient for us alone or injurious to
you alone. Its effects are equal, and
the same for us ALL
You accuse the Republican Party
Of Interior and secret designs. How
can party that counts it's votes in
this land OF free speech and free press
by the hundreds of thousands have
any secret designs Who is the con,
juror, and where are the hidden
springs by which he can control its
uncongregatcd and widely dispersed
masses and direct them to objects un-
seen and purposes unavowed? But
what are these hidden purposes You
name only one. That one is to intro
duce negro equality among you.
Suppose we had the power TO change
your social system, what warrant
have you for supposing that we should
carry negro equality among You
We know and We will show you, if
you will only give heed, that what our
system of labor works out, wherever
it works ont anything, is the equality
of white men. The laborer in the
Free States, no matter how humble
his occupation, is Il white man, and
he is politically the equal of his en-
ployer Eighteen of our thirty-thrce
States are Free-labor States. There
they are: Maine, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode ISL
and, Connecticut, New York, New Jer-
scy, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan,
Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minncso-
ia, Iowa, California and Oregon. | do
not array them in contrast with the
capital States. am no assailant of
States. All of the States are parcels
Of my own countryside best of them
not so wise and great as | am sure it
will hereafter be the State least de-
veloped and perfected among them all
is wiser and better than any foreign
State know. Is it then i'll any, and
in which, of the States have named
that negro equality olicnds the white
mans pride Throughout the wide
world, where is the State where class
and caste are so utterly cxtinguished
as they are in each and every one OF
them Let the European immigrant
who avoids the African as if his skin
: exhaled contagion, answer. You find
them always in the State where labor
is ever free. Did Washington, Jcffcr.
sob and Henry, when they implored
you to relinquish your system and &C
cept the one we have adopted, propose
to sink you down to the level of the
. African, or was it their desire to cxalt
all white men ITO a common political
elevation But we do not seek to
force, or even to intrudc our system
on you. We are excluded justly,
wisely and contentedly from all polit-
ical power and responsibility in your
capital States. You are sovcreigns
on the subject of slavery within your
own borders, as we are on the same
subject within our borders. 1t is well
and wisely so arranged. Use your
authority to maintain what system
you please. We are not distrustful
of the result. We have wisely, as we
think, exercised ours to protect and
perfect the manhood of the members
of the State. The whole sovereignty
upon domestic concerns within the
Union is divided between us by I'M
mistakable boundaries. You have
your fifteen distinct parts we eigh-
teen parts, equally distinct. Each
must be maintained in order that the
whole may be preserved. If ours
shall be assailed, within or without,
by any enemy, or for any cause, and
we shall have need, we shall expect
you to defend it. If yours shall be
so assailcd, in the emergency, no mat
| fnr hot l,n
who the foe, we shall defend your
sovereignty as the equivalent of our
own. We cannot, indeed, accept your
system of capital or its ethics. That
would be to surrender and subvcrt
our own, which we esteem to be bet
ter. Besides, if we could, what need
for any division into States at all :?
You are equally at liberty to reject
our system and its ethics, and to
maintain the superiority of your own
by all the forces of persuasion and ar
gument. We must, indeed, mutually
discuss both systems. Especially
must we discuss them since we have
to decide as nation which of the
two we ought to engraft on the new
and future States growing up in the
great public domain. Discussion,
then, being unavoidable, what could
be more wise than to conduct it with
mutual liberation and fratcrnal spir-
it. You complain that Republicans
+ discourse too boldly and directly,
when they express with confidence
their belief that the system of labor
will in the end, be universally accept
cd by the capital States, acting foi
themselves, and in conformity with
their own Constitutions, while they
sanction too unreservedly books de
signed to advocate emancipation. But
surely you can hardly expect the Fed
eral Government or the political par
ties of the nation to maintain q cen
sorship of the Press or of debate. The
theory of our system is, that error OF
opinion may in all cases safely be
tolerated where reason is left free to
combat. Will it be claimed that
more Of moderation and tenderness in
debate ara eybibitaH ,,n x-nnr e;Jo ,C