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

courage to dlNcSt their tiNiIlcN Ol u property
which however, keeps their ConSCicnCcs Uu-
Quiet. Northward Of the Chesapeake You may
find here and there an opponent to your doc
trne as you may find here and there II rob
Der or a murderer but in no great number -
q This tVirginia) is the next
State to which we may turn our eyes for the
interesting spectacle of justice in conflict with
avarce and oppreSsion--a conflict where the
sacred side is gaining daily new recruits from
| the influx into Office of young men, grown and
growing up o o BE not, then.
discouraged. What you have written will do
great deal of good; and could you still
| trouble yourself about our welfare, no man is
more able to help the laboring side.
You see, Sir, that whether we go
for or against Slavery anywhere, we
must follow Southern guides. You
may change your pilots with the winds
or currents but we, whose nativity,
rcckoncd under the North Star, has
rendered us somewhat superstitious,
must be excused for constancy in fol-
lowing the guidance of those who
framed the national ship and gave us
the chart for its noble voyage.
A profound respect and friendly re-
gard for the Vicc-Prcsident of the
United States has induced me to weigh
carefully the testimony he has given
on the subject of the hostility against
the South imputed to the Republican
party, as derived from the relations ol
the representative of the two parties
at this capital. He says that he has
seen here in the representatives Of the
lower Southern States Il most rcSuIutC
and earnest spirit of resistance to the
Republican party that he pcrccivcs
a scpsiblc loss of that spirit of brother
hood and that feeling of loyalty, to-
gcther with that love for a common
country, which are at last the surcst
cement of the Union; so that, in the
present unhappy condition Of affairs,
he is almost tempted to eXclaim, that
we arc dissolving week by week, and
month by month that the threads are
gradually frctting themselves asnn-
der ; and stranger might suppose
that the Executive of the United
States was the President of two hos
tile Republics. 1t is not for me to
raise doubt upon the correctness of
this dark picture, so far as the South
ern groups upon the canvas are CON
cerned, but must be INDUCED in the
opinion that | can pronounce as ac
curatcly concerning the Northern or
Republican representatives here as
any one.
know their public haunts and
their private ways. We are not Il
hostile Republic or representatives of
one. We confer together but only
as the organs of every party do, and
must do in a political system which
obligcs us to act sometimes as parti-
sans while it requires us always 10 be
patriots and statesmen. Differences
of opinion, even on the subject Of
Slavery, with us are POLITICAL not So
cial or personal differences. There is
not one Disunionist or disloyalist
among us all We are altogether un-
conscious Of any process of dissolu-
ton going on among or around us.
We have never been more patient,
and never loved the representative of
other sections more than now We
bear the same testimony for the pco-
pic around us here, who, though III
the very centre where the bolt of dis
union must fall first, and be most fear.
full in its effects, seem never less dis
turbcd than now. We bear the samc
testimony for all the Districts ant
States we represent. The people o
the North arc not enemies but friend.
and brethren of the South, faithful anc
true as in the days when death has
dealt his arrows prOmiscnouslv among
them on common battlc-fcldS Of free.
dom.
We will not suffer ourselves here to
dwell on any evidences Of Il different
temper in the south but we shall be
content with expressing our belief
that hostility that is not dcsigncdly
provoked, and that cannot provoke re,
taliation, is an anomaly that must be
traced to casual cXcitcmcnts, which
cannot pcrpctuatc alienation.
\ canvass for Presidential cleo
ton, in some respects more important,
perhaps, than any since 1900, has re-
Gently begun The House of Repre-
scntativcs was to be organized by a
majority, while no party could cast
more than plurality of votes. The
gloom of the late tragedy in Virginia
rested on the Capitol from the day
when Congress assembled. While
the two great political parties were
peacefully, lawfully, and constitutions
ally, though zealously, conducting the
great national issue between free la
Dor and capital labor for the Terrific
ries to its proper solution, through
the trials of the ballot, operating di-
rcctly or indirectly on the various de-
partments of the Government, Il band
of exceptional men, contcmptuous
equally Of that great question and Of
the parties to the controversy, and inn
patient of the constitutional system
which confines the citizens Of every
state to political action by suffrage in
organized parties within their own
borders, inspired by an enthusiasm
peculiar to themselves, and eXaspcra-
ted by grievances and wrongs that
some of them had suffered by inroads
of armed propagandists of Slavery in
Kansas, unlawful as their own rctalia-
ton was, attempted to subvert slave
ry in Virginia by conspiracy, ambush,
invasion and force The method we
have adopted, of appealing to the rca.
son and Judgment of the people, to be
pronounced by suffrage, is the only
one by which free government can be
maintained anywhere, and the only
one as yet devised which is in har-
mony with the spirit of the Christian
religion.
While generous and charitable ma
lures will probably concede that John
Brown and his associates acted on
earnest though fatally erroneous con.
victions, yet all good citizens will
nevertheless agree that this attemp,
to execute an unlawful purpose in Vir
ginia by invasion, involving scrvilC
war, was an act of sediton and trea
son, and criminal to just the extent
that it affected the public peace, and
was destructive to human happiness
| and hnmau life II il n pai,TuI .u,,