The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-07-06

need not rest on our unsupported statement.
We are able to produce better witness, in
the person of Mr.. BECKER himself. In q
speech made by him before the Convention
on the day of his nomination, and in re.
spouse thereto, Mr.. BECKER said:
Mr.. President and Gentlemen of the Conven.
tion-I am here IN compliance with the invita-.
ton of your committee to respond to the nomi.
nation which you have to-day. made for the
monwealth. 49, It is not my purpose,
now that your labors as State Convention are
but Just commenced, to trespass upon your
time and patience by iterating and reiterating
the principles and doctrines which we as
party maiDtain-they are the Alpha and One
ga Of our institutions as people, and as laid
down in the platform you have adopted, they
meet my hearty concurrence.
We are opposed to a reopening of the Afri.
can slave trade, or to repeal of the laws which
declare the inhuman traffic to be piracy. We
are in favor of Homestead Bill, and l may
to the public lands. We are opposed to
Congressional Slave Code, or, indeed, any Con-
gressonal Code for the Territories, and main
tain the right of the people of the Territories
as well as the States to frame their institutions
in their own way. subject only to the Consttu.
ton of the United States.
This endorsement and Interpretation of
the platform of 1859, thus made by Mr..
BECKER to the Convention which placed
him in nomination, was printed in this
paper of the Goth August, from his own
manuscript F.; and may, therefore, be regarded
as the best possible evidence of what his
views were at the time be accepted the
leadership of the party in that campaign.
But this evidence was not needed. Through.
out the whole of that canvass, and over the
whole State, the burden of his speeches to
the people was in advocacy of the princi-
Piles Of Popular Sovereignty, and in compli.
ment to STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, their recog-
nized champion. And not only through
that canvass up to the close of the JAN
uary Convention, for the election of delegates
to Charleston, we venture to say that no
man ever heard GEORGE L. BECKER utter
sentiment antagonistic to the doctrines
which be had Heretofore sustained, or to
DOUGLAS as the Democratic nominee for
President.
With this record, thus frank, consistent,
and according with the universal sentiment
of the party; with defeat for the Governor.
ship to add to his Congressional mischance,
and waken anew and strengthen the sympa-
thies of the party on bis behalf; it is not at all
singular, that, when the January Convention
met, and Mr.. BECKER presented himself as
candidate for delegate to the National Con-
vention, he should have been chosen, as he
was chosen, by an almost unanimous vote.
1t is proper however, to state, that though
be was thus chosen with unanimity, suspi-
cions of his fidelity to DOUGLAS were enter
tanned in some quarters, and by few were
openly expressed. To remove the doubt
concerning him which these suspicious had
created, a meeting of the delegates then
present in St. Paul was called at the Fuller
House, on the evening before the Conven-
ton. At that meeting, and in the presence
of two thirds of the whole number of dele.
gates TO the Convention, Mr.. BECKER pro-
tested bis personal and political friendship
for STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, and bis attach
ment to the principles of Popular Sow
ereignty as interpreted by him in the Illinois
campaign and the United States Senate, and
as upheld by the Democracy of Minnesota.
He referred to the same record which we
have here brought forward appealed to bis
consistency and services during two cam.
paigns in vindication of his integrity and
pledged himself to the delegates before him
that he would stand firmly by DOUGLAS
and his principles, upon bis faith as Dem
ocrat, and bis honor as man. With this
pledge, thus given, all opposition to Mr..
BECKER as delegate ceased and the men,
bers of the Convention, as if to repair the
injustice which had been done him, by suspi.
cions thus apparently unfounded, retrieved
the presumptive wrong by making bis selec-
ton the first on the list of delegates to the
National Convention.
Thus far the career of GEORGE L. BEcKER
had been honorable and brilliant, even, to a
degree which might we'll satisfy the ambi-
ton or the vanity of any man. Young,
talented, loved by the people for the chival-
ric qualities with which their imaginations
had invested him, possessing their confidence
to degree beyond that accorded to any
other, he commenced the present year stand
ing at the head of the party of this State.
He might well say, under such circumstan-
ces, what he did, on returning thanks to the
Convention for his choice as delegate, that
few men were ever more honored, during
lifetime, than he had already been by the
Democracy of Minnesota" We wish the
aspiration with which be closed the speech
from which we have just quoted" that be
trusted the time would never come, when
any true Democrat would have reason to
regret the confidence placed in him we
wish that aspiration might have been
wrought out into acts which would have