The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1860-05-08


determine the course which the State would pursue
it would be my privilege TO counsel with them as to
what believed 10 be the proper COURSE andl said to
them, what say now, aud VIII always say IN such an
event, that my counsel would be to take independ
of the Union in preference to the loss Of con-
sttutional rights, and consequent degradation and
dishonor in it: That is my position and 1t il the
position which know the Democratic party OF the
State of Mississippi will maintain
And the gentleman Mr.. De JARNETTEl
who represents the Democracy of the Rich
mond district, said to us, in reference to WILL
LIAM II. SEWARD:
"You may elect him President Of the North, but
of the South never. Whatever the event may be-
Others may differ but Virginia, in view of her ancient
renown, in view of her iliusrious dead and in view
OF her sic senpsr tyrann., will resist his authority"
But it is useless to multiply quotations Of
this character. l shall give but one more,
and that is important mainly from the fact
that it comes to us from the State Of Texas, q
State which is hardly yot warm in the en-
braces Of its sisters; 4 State which talks val
iantly in one moment about arresting the
wheels of Government, and in the next mo-
msnt asks imploringly of that same Govern
ment for additional protection against the in-
cursions of its border Indians.
The extrac. derives additional significance
from the fact that it fell from the lips of a
candidate for Speaker, who received the votes
not only of southern but also of northern
Democrats. On the 9th of January last, the
member from Texas Mr.. HAMILTON said:
Whatever may be said by somc to maintain it at
all hazards, believe that dissolution of the Union
s this day upon The Union, sir, is being assolv
ed now. II may be in the power Of the conservative
elements of this House to arrest it, but that cannot
be done by the election of Black Republican Speak
stituency as any gentleman upon this floor people
who nre as devoted to the Union: people, sir, who
have, think, manifested that devotion by mucn
Nberality and unselishness, by yielding up what no
other State in this Union has yielded. separate and
independent nationality in order to participate in this
Consderacy which We all profess so much to love;
andyet that same State, that same people, are now
soemhly resolving that it is better that the wheels
otG1vernment should De arrested where they to-
dav. and no organization effected than that the
candidate of the Republican party shall be elected,
and placed in the Speakers chair"
We well recolect. Mr.. Chairman, that these
disunion sentiments were uttered here not
only unrebuked, but that they were welcomed
by the approving mods, the congratulations, the
applause Of Democrats, both on this floor and
in the crowded galleries. They have their
parallel in kindred sentiments which are
avowed outside Of this Hall by members of
the same organization. They boldly proclaim
that if the coming presidential election results
as the slave power desires, then the election is
binding upon them and upon US; but if other.
tear the Constitution into fragments.
There may be mon SO craven in spirit that
they will be deferred from voting their honest
convictions by threats, but they are not found
in the Republican ranks. The man who al.
lows a menace to control his suffrage is only
fit to be a slave. You have allies at the
North who have sacrificed much of conssten
cy, much of self respect, much of manhood, in
submitting to your dictation; and, perhaps,
these mutterings of disunion may compel
more concessions, more humiliation from them
but the Republican party, laughing to scorn
such menaces, and guided by tho old land
marks which the experience Of the past has
hsllowed, will travel in the old path llamined
az it is by conscience and by duty. 1t the
popular verdict is against them, they submit
cheerfully in the future as they have in the
past. 1t the popular verdict is against you,
they entertain no apprehensions but that you
will submit also.
l have but few moments left in which to
refer to the position which the Democracy oc
cupy in relation to the great interests of free
labor in this land. In tho contest between
capital and labor, this party espouses the cause
of capital. 1t no longer sympathizes with man,
white or black, who is struggling to recover
his rights or ameliorate his condition. If the
car of human progress is to move on, it must
move, not by the help Of this Democracy, bu,
in spite of it. When the toiling millions ask
for homesteads on our vast domain, they are
mot by the jeers and taunts of this misnamed
Democracy. and told that they constitute site
rery mud sils ofsoeiety and political govern.
nent," When the white laborer would carve
out his own fortune on the prairies of the
West, he is told, in the words of the Richmond
Examiner, that "the principle of slavery is in
itself right, and does not depend upon differ
ence of complexion" or, as a Democratic
Senator expresses it:
/" The poor ye always have with You; for tbs ma,
xho lres By daily labor and scarcely 6Us that and phc
has to put his labor ia the market and take the best he
get for it, in short you, hoe class manual iaborsi
and opsrares you call hea, arc essentially slarss
Mr.. Fitzhugh in his book entitled Failure
of Free Society, says:
sssdry." y "The slaves are governed
far better than the free laborers at the North gov
erncd. our nsg,oes only batter oS as to physical
comfort an free laborsrs, but their moral essdo is bs
tcr."-Pdgs-0s.
From the same book, on page 179, quote
the following:
4" Men are not born entitled to equal rights n
rould be far the uph say that born pih
saddles their backs aud ohrs booted and TO rd
taem; and the riding does them good"
Within the last few years the homestead
bill has received the sanction of tie House Of
Representatives on three separate occasions,
but it i, uniformly strapglcd in n Democratic
Sennte. And the Democratic party, viewing
that measure from it's stand point, and by the
light Of its modern doctrines and principles, is
consistent in. opposing it. The determination
of that measure involves the issue whether our
frontier Territories are to sink into commune
ties of despots and slaves, or rise into repub-
lies of freemen; whether our western territory
shall be dotted with slave huts, the abodes OF
degradation and misery, or whether the pio-
necr's pleasant dwelling, garnished by flower
and shrub, shall arise by the side of tho stream,
the home of contentment, refinement, and in-
dustry. This measure of "land for the laud
less, is an important element in the "irepres-
sible conflict" between opposing systems Of
lobor. onJ ,.b;Ist - ;s moot anl propoy tho,