Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1860-09-01
A SIGNIFICANT AND IMPORTANT
CHANGE-AND THE REASONS
FOR TT.

A sJaNNfNF5GANT GaNNdGANTp ANR TfA ERS6TA IMR96TANT
FOR 1T.
The Iowa State Reporter, long the leading
Democratic organ in Iowa. has, as we have al
ready announced, come over to the support of
Lincoln and llamn. This is indicative of a
similar change, this fall, on the part of thou
sands in the Northwest who have hitherto been
counted as sure for the Democratic nominees.
The Rcporter justiies lis action in an able and
elaborate article, from which we take some ex-
tracts -
OUR POsIrIoN--To THE READERS OF TIE RE-
PORTER.
Pursuant to the announcement of last week.
to-day we haul down from our masthead, the
names of Douglas and Johnson. as candidates
for the Presidency and Vice Presidency of the
United States and substitute those of Lincoln
and Hamlin, the Republican candidates. In
making this change, and thus connecting this
paper with the great Republican party of the
Nation, it is due to our readers as well as Just
to ourselves, that we should state as conci>cly
as possible, the reasons which have induced US
to make this change, trusting that those reasons
will commend themselves to the minds and con
sciences of our friends and patrons.
After rccapitulating the political history OF
the party and the Union for the past four wears
and adverting to the pro-savcry doctrines, now
avowcd by the Douglas leaders, it says Il
These are not our principlcs-they do not
meet the approval of our con>ccuce~. With
men holding such doctrines, W c.u nave nc
political affinity. We do not bricye that the
fathers of the Republic when they denounced
"le>ory as moral and political evil. did not
| "fullv understnnu---iu ti, ia,is~~-- = " ~,
| Connor in the Lennon case--what they said
| We do not believe that the founders Of this
government, wLen they pledged their honor
| riskcd their fortunes. and mperilcd their lives
to attain liberty and independence for them
selves and their postcrity, did so only to obtair
the right and power to cnslave others. Nor dc
we believe that our fathers, when they declared
''rIIAT ALI. MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, ant
"endowcd By THEIR CREATOR with certain in
alienabe rights" among which are those o
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
meant to confine the declaration to the thel
subjects of Great Britain residing upon thi
continent, or to the purely Anglo Saxon race
Believing none of these things, but regarding
the fathers of the Republic as earnest and self
sacrificing patriots who sought to lay deep ant
strong the foundations of civil liberty, and cree
thereon republican government, where AL
MEN might enjoy political equality, unfettere'
hy the trammes of despotism of whatever ma
ture, or warmcst convictions rs patriots, AM
our sternest impulses Of duty as citizens impc
us to separate from those, who, if we may judg
fiom their conduct and declarations, hold N
doctrines in common with ourselves, and a
whose sentiments, thus publicly avowed, tn
moral sense of every patriot must revolt.
If anything else were wanting to convinc
the people that the doctrine of Popular Sovel
eighty, as embodied in the Cincinnati Platiorr
and expounded by Mr. Douglas is sham and
deluson we need but point to the conduct {
the present administration, elected upon thu
platform, sustained as it has been by majorit
of the democratic members of Congress. Ur
der this platform of Popular Sovereignty, twic
if not thrice, has the popular will of the peop
of Kansas upon the subject of slavery, bee
ignored and disregarded, and fraud and yiolent
resorted to, by officers of the national admin
traton to compel her to accept a constituto
[. sanctioning slavery. Under this platform 81
is now excluded from the Union, in violation
e e every principle of justice and right. Und
this platform, and within the past few month
l. laws of the territorial legislatures of both kal
: sas and Nebraska, have been vetoed by COVE
' nors appointed by the federal administrator
and yet they are continued in office, and I
democrat has been heard TO denounce their CO.
duct. Under this platform, on the 18th of Al
gust, 1857, James Buchanan, in reply to Pre-
Slliman and Others, announced that "slave
exists in Kansas under the constitution of Il
ULited States" And finally Mr. Douglas hir
:, y self, on the 10th of May, 1860, in reply TO \
y Davis of Mississippi, announced the final I
al suits attained under this platform, in the folio
ing language;
, at is part of the history of the country tn
IS under this doctrine of intervention, II
IL doctrine that you delight to call squatter sovt
y eighty, the people of New Mexico have intr
IL duced and protected slavery in the whole
' that Territory. Under this doctrine, they ha
We cnverted a tract of free territory into slave t,
ritory more than five times as large as the Stg
Of of New York. Under this doctrine, slave
- has been extended from the Rio Grande to I
Gulf of California, and from the line of I
Republic of Mexico not only up to SO deg.
q min, but up to SO deg, giving you degI
and half more slave territory than you eN
claimed"
If these statements be true ard it is not
us to question them upon this occasion, tn
Popular Sovereignty has proven quite as eff
tive in extending slavery over, and excludi
free labor from, our national Territories, as
more open and manly dogma of the Breck
,lf ridge party ever cam and is a snare and de
sion which ought no longer TO be permitted
le- mislead and wrong the people of the free lal
States.
- Unable to give the assent of our judgment
the doctrines enunciated by either wing Of
late democratic party. and unable to cooper
BILE in political action with men ayowing such SCI
ments, we have been driven to examine
platform of the Republican party, as adop
n at Chicago in May last. Its leading doctri
~ oo,,,,ond tho varnest approyal of our iu