Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1860-10-19
Gi q bt re d ina.
A Voice From Kentucky.

l #.
On the eve Of the approaching Presiden-
tial election we deem it due to ourselves,
and to the cause with which we are identi-
fed, to state the leading motives which in
duce us to cast our votes for Lincoln and
Hamlin, the candidates Of the Republican
party; and on presenting an Electoral
Ticket for your suffrages, we also desire to
lay before you the grounds upon which we
solicit your cooperation. a.t a
In the name of Freedom, best secured
by its consistent exercise, and in the name
of Truth, best attained by untrammeled
investigation, we ask a dispassionate hear
ing. a ra p aar..r. avs.
The political field is now occupied by
four parties alike hostile to our organization
parties with whom we cannot affiliate,
because our political convictions are utter
ly opposed to their ayowed objects $3.50
Of We cannot affiliate with the Brecken-
ridge party, because it bcstowsits unqual-
flied appreciation upon the present Admin
istration. seeks to continue its abuses, and
regards. its success paramount to the pres
ervation of the Union itself. We condemn
this Administration for we hold that it
has used the treasures and energies Of the
country, not for the benefit of that country,
but for the promotion of its own partisan
interests-that it has introduced system
of official discipline dangerous to the libcr-
ties of the people, pernicious 20 the proper
performance of public duties, tending to
the destruction of that independence of in
dividual Judgment SO essential to the pres
ervation of our institutions-that, in time
of peace, it has plunged the nation into a
debt of near eighty millions, without show
ing therefor any other equivalent than an
army of contractors and hirelihgs ready to
do the bidding of a central power-that it
has attempted, in a wilfull disregard of
justice and the enlightened sentiment of
the age, to force Slavery upon an unwilling
people-that it has set up as standard
of national conduct, not the great princi-
pies on which our Government is founded,
but an unqualified subserviency to the ex-
treme pretenslons of mere class interest
that it has in its servility to this inter
est conni1 1el to interpolate partisan doc
trines into the Federal Constitution, doc
trines which. in the language of Henry
Clay, were $50 irreconcilable to his com
prehension, or to any reason which he pos
sessed, that he did not know how to meet
| them"
We cannot associate with the Douglas
party, because it inaugurated its career
with the breach of the Public Faith of a
great people by abrogating tie time-non-
ored Missouri Compromise, that peace
compact entered into by the master-minds
revered in our history. and acquieseed in
for a third of a century: because it seeks
to remove from the national control the
Territories belonging to the nation be-
cause it boasts of its Indifference as to
whether our broad domains are to be de-
voted to Freedom or to Slavery Its cham
pion at one time does "not care whether
Slavery is voted up or voted down." and
at another time rejoices over the fact that
through the operation ofhis principles Slave
ry has been extended from the Rio Grande
to the Gulf of California, over territory
five times as large as the State of New
York, and not only up to 36deg. 3Omin.
but up to 3Sdeg North latitude He at
one time exhorts the people to dutiful
obedience to the Dred Scott Decision, and
at another suggests mode of cunningly
evading the same. Unfriendly legislation
is proposed as an antidote to friendly de-
cision. We oppose this party because it
strives to settle great national question,
not by the enlighted judgment of the Ma
tional question, not by the trial of tie phys
ical strength of an accidental and trans ent
population; not by the civilized method of
peaceable legislation, but by barbarous
appeal to bloody struggles-hecause it
does not announce we'll defined principles
intended everywhere to be understood, but
hopes to succeed by arttul equivocations
intended everywhere to lnislead aa.~s
We cannot unite with the Bell party,
since it assumes to solve the pressing ques-
tions of the day by ignoring them. 1t pro-
fesses an amiable neutrality when an en-
ergetic opposition is called for-when sacred
eompacts are violently broken, and the
Constitution Of our country is boldly chang
ed by partisan constructions. And turn
ing from the vague generalities of its so
called platform to the record Of the public
career of its candidates, we ind them
holding views strictly antagonistic to each
other. Mr.. Bell Gin opposition to eur own
Henry Clay) voted for the abrogation of
the Mexican laws prohibiting Slavery, and
! advocates its extension. MIR. Everett de-
clares that such extension would be con-
demned before the civilized world, and
would present US selfconvicted Of the enor-
nous crime Of having voluntarily given the
greatest possible enlargement tie an evil. "
Mr.. Clay pronounced as absurd, but Mr..
Bell recognized that the right to hold slaves
in the Territories is guaranteed by the
Constitution, and Mr. Everett utterly re-
pudiates this doctrine. The polite silence
of its platform, and the contrariety of sem
timents disclosed by the record of its can
didates, make this party unworthy of our
support,
The Abolition party, with Gerrit Smith
as its candidate, proelaims the reasonable
design of subverting the Constitution and
substituting therefor its own extravagant
vagaries With this we can have no SYM
pathy whatever.
For these prominent reasons, and for
others lot less important, but not SO press
ing, we deem il our duty to oppose these
four parties, and will now pass to review
of the principles and tendencies OF the
Republican party. for whose success we SO