St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1860-08-30
St. Charles City, Iowa, Aug. 80, 1860.
The Douglas Platform.
FLOYD, Aug. 18th, 1860.

Editor Mteliigeaocr-
DEAR SIR: Sincerely believing you
Honor to be an honest man, and will
ling at all times to trust to truth 70
its own vindication, | would simpl,
suggest whether you are not mistaken
in regard to the platform of the Dong
las Democracy You have arrange,
side by side the platforms of -four par
ties in your paper of this week, all
correct, believe, except the Douglas
platform. That platform, as pub,
lished 10y yon, pas reported by mi
nority of the committee on platform
at Charleston, and was substituted fol
that Of the majority of the same com
mittce by u direct vote Of the full Con
vcntion. After having been thus sub,
stitutcd, vote was called for on the
adoption of its several parts, separate
ly whcrcupon the preamble, com
mencing with Inasmuch as differ.
enccs of opinion" &c, and the rcsolu,
ton Immediately following it, were
voted down almost unanimously. Thus
the platform of the Douglas Democrat
cy stands without any allusion TO the
Supreme Court or its decisions. ]
hope, Sir, as q matter of courtesy, if
more, you will give this an
insertion in your paper.
| would like to make other suggcs-
tons, such as these Why did not the
Republicans in their platform, at Chi
cago, state their views in regard to
the Fugitive Slave law, and the ad-
mission of any more Slave States ?
Perhaps there would have been as
much of a division on those subjects
as there was at Charleston in regard
to the Slavery plank. But forbear,
knowing that such suggestions are
quite disagrecablc to Republicans.
| am, Sir, yours respectfully,
ii. WILBUR.
We chcerfully give place to the
above communication from Mr.. Will
bur, and while VIC arc pleased to be
corrected by him in any error which
we may have inadvertently fallen into,
we must be permitted to correct him
also. Critics should themselves be
correct. 1t was in that very spirit of
truth and fairness, for which Mr.. vii.
bur gives us credit, that We were in
duced to publish the several platforms
of the various political parties. We
gave these platforms as we found
them in other papers, not doubling
their correctness nor do we now ad-
NIT that we have done the Douglas
party injustice and misrcprcsented
their principles.
We find, on an examination of the
question, that the resolutions which
we have given, as the Douglas plat
form, are the resolutions of Ben NJ.
Samucls, Of Iowa, which he offered at
Charleston as substitute for the ma
jority report Of the committee on plat
form. We also find, as Mr.. Wilbur
says, that these resolutions were sub.
slitated for the majority report, by a
majority of 81 in the Convention.
a vote was taken on
each resolution separately, and all
were adopted save the one in relation
to abiding by the decision of the SUI
prcme Court.
Mr.. Wilbur says Thus the plat
form of the Douglas Democracy stands
without any allusion to the Supreme
Court or its decisions"
Let us see if it does. We quote
from the record
Gov. Wickliffe, of Louisiana, Of
fered the following resolution as an
addition to the platform adopted at
Charleston :
" Resoiced, That it is in accordance
with the Cincinnati Platform, that
during the existence of Territorial
Governments the measure Of the res.
friction, whatever it may be, imposed
by the Federal Constitution on the
Territorial Legislature over the sub
icct of the Domestic relations, as the
same has been or shall hereafter be
decided by the Supreme Court of the
United States, should be respected by
all good citizens, and enforced with
promptness aud fidelity by every