The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-03-15
s.sou,hwara q The chesapeake, Your book viii ena

the subject of siavery Prom the mouth to the head
of the Chesapeake tsbuis OF the people will approve
1t In theory, and will hnd respectable minority
ready 70 adopt it in practice; minority which, for
weight and worth of character, preponderates against
the greater number who have not the courage to di-
vest their families of property which, However keeps
their conscences unquiet. Norhward Of the .Gfesa
peake, you may find here aud there M opponent to
your doctrine. as YOU may find here and there rob
Der or a murderer; but in no greater number"
''This (Nirginia) IS the next State to which may
turn our eyes for the interesting spectacle Of justice
in conflict with avarice aud oppreSsion--a conflict
where the sacred side Is gaining daily nyw recruit,
from the Influx into Office OF young men, grown am
growing up."
s'Be not, then. discouraged what you have written
will do great deal Of goods aud could You sti trou
Bile yourself about welfare is able tt
help the laboring Side" ..
You see. sir, mat whether we 30 for o,
against slavery anywhere, we must follow
southern guides. You may change YOU
pilots with tie winds or the currents; but
we, whose nativity, re koned under tn,
North Star, has rendered Us somewhat su
perStitaeas. must be excused for constanc.
in following the guidance of those who franz
ed the national slip and gave Us the char
for its noble voyage. ..-..
A profound respect and friendly regard
for the Vice President of the United State,
has, induced me to weigh carefully the test
mony he has given on the subject the hos
tility against the south imnutcd to the Re
publican party, As derived from the relations
of the representatives of the two parties a,
this capital. He says that he has seeh7hert
in the representatives of the lower southern
States IA most resolute and earnest spirit o.
resistance to the Republican, party; that he
perceives sensible loss of that spirit o
brotherhood and that feeling of loyalty, to
gether with that love for a common country
which are at Least the surest cement of the
Union; so that, in the present unhappy con.
dition of affairs, he is almost tempted to ex.
claim that we are dissolving week by week,
and month by month; that the threads are
gradually fretting themselves asunder; and
a stranger might suppose that the Execu.
tive of the United States, was the President
of the two hostile Republics. It is not 70,
me to raise Dubt upon the correctness Of
this dark picture, SO far as the southern
groups upon the canvas are concerned, but
mist be INDUCED in the opinion that I car
pronounce as accurately concerning thG
northern or Republican representatives here
as any one. know their public haunts and
their private ways. We are not a hostile
Republic, or representatives Of one We
confer together, but only as the organs Of
every party do, and must do in political
system which obliges us to act sometimes as
partisans, while it requires us always to be
patriots and statesmen. Differences Of opin
ion, even on the subject of slavery, with us
are political, not social or personal differences
There is not one disunionist or disloyaliSt
among US all. Weare altogether unconscious
of any process Of dissolution going on among
US or aroundlrs We have never bC EN- more
patient, never loved the representatives OF
other sections more than now. We bear the
same testimony for the people around us here
who, though in the very center where the
bolt Of disunion must fall first and be most
fearful in its effects, seemed never less dis
t,lrbed than now. We bear the same testi
aaony for all the districts and States we
represent. The people of the North are no.
enemies, but friends and brethren of tn,
South, faithful and true as in the DAYS whe,
death has dealt this arrows promscuously
among them on comlnon battle-lields o.
Freedom. ..
We will not suffer ourselves here to, dwell
on the evidences of a different temper in the
South; but we shall be content with express
ing our belief that hostility that is not de
signedly provoked and that cannot provoke
retaliation, is an anomaly that must be traced
to casual excitements, which cannot perpetu
ate alienation. .#
a canvass for Presidential election. in
some respects more important, perhaps, than
any since 1900; has recently begun. The
House of Representatives was to he organized
by a majority, while no party could cast
more than a plurality of votes. The gloom
of the late tragedy in Virginia rested on the
Capitol from the day when Congress assem-
bled. While the two great political parties
were peacefully, lawfully, and constitution
ally, though zealously, conducting the great
national issue between free labor and capital
labor for the Territories otis proper solution,
through the trials Of the ballot, operate di-
rectly or indirectly on the various depart.
ments of the Government, a bond of excep-
tional men, contemptuous equally of the
great question and of the parties to the con
troversy, and impatient of the constitutional
system which confines the citizens of every
State to political action by suffrage, in organ.
lied parties within their own borders, in
spired 10y an enthusiasm peculiar to them
selves, and exasperated by grievances am
wrongs that some of them had suffered 10y
inroads of armed propagandists of slavery il
Kansas, unlawful as their own retaliation was
attempted to s,bvert slavery in Virginia b,
conspiracy, ambush, invasion, and force.
The method we have adopted, of appealin!
to the reason and judgment the people, t.
be pronounced by suffrage, is the only on,
by which free government can be main ainet
anywhere, and the only one as yet devise
which is in harmony with the spirit Of tn