The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-08-02
For the Courier.
MIR. Buchanan Supporting the
Republican view of the Dec
laration of Independence.

ton of Independence, when they proclaimed
to the world that, "all men have certain natu-
raj and inalienable rights" they meant only,
"all white men''-men ofthe Caucasian race
The Republicans maintain that they
meant just what they SAID no less, no more.
As the Democracy of to day are strenuous
for strict construction of the Constitution,
there is no reason why the same rule should
not apply to the Declaration also.
Mr. Buchanan in his Veto message on the
Homestead bill, completely overturns the
doctrine, that men who are not white, "havc
no rights which white men are bound to re-
spect." In that message, he says: 'if this
bill becomes law, we may have numerous
actual settlers from China and other eastern
nations, enjoying its benefits" Judging
from the pictorial representations of the
Plaindealer, douglas we may infer that
the President is very poor authority just
now but so far as it does go, it settles the
question. The Chinese and the other east
ern nations, retired to, are no more "wllite
men" in the common, or in the proper &C.
ceptation of the words, than the Negro
The Chinese, and those Eastern nations
to which Mr.. Buchanan refers, are all either
Monaghan or Malays; apd many of them
nearly as black as the Negro. Like the Afr.
can too, they differ from our race in their
essential physiology, their physiognomy, and
in their anatomy-they all of them stand out
with lines of dcmarkation, distinctly and un-
mistakably drawn between them and us.
These facts being notorious to all who have
given their attention to the study of the vari-
Gus races ofmen, establish one of two things
either that the Republican construction of
the words ''all men, touching natural
rights is the true one, or Mr.. Buchanan in
his Message, has made grave error, by not
only recognizing their abstract natural rights,
as Republicans do, but their rights to citi-
zenship also. Query, does this clean
ing out his breast" suit his "all aohite men"
friends?
While noticing this document, it is worth
while to refer to some Of Mr.. Buchanan's rea-
sons by which he seeks to justify bis veto.
He informs US that "the bill will do great
injustice to the old soldiers who had received
land warrants for military services y and
that "under the apprehension that the bill
would become law, these warrants had
already sunk to 67 cents per acre )" and
just for effect upon the public mind, he tells
us that the unsatisfied land warrants extend
''back to the soldiers of 1912, and even to
the Revolution"
Now there is evidently good deal of gas
in this statement. The warrants given for
services in our recent wars, have stood in
the market for years at about eighty cents
per acre, or forty-five cents below par value.
They have been bought up by spectators,
and are now pretty much all in the hands
of that class of men. All men who speculate,
must make up their minds to abide the
chances which follow land spectators with
the rest. The Congress of the United States,
in adjusting the question of the deprecated
continental money, did not see fit to take the
interests of the money spectators under
their especial care, and their worthy example
might safely have been taken as guide in
this land warrant case.
As to the soldiers of the war of1S12, and
those of the Revolution holding warrants
in this year of our Lord, the thought is so
preposterous that it is a matter of wonder
Mr. Buchanan should have ventured the at
tempt on the credulity Of the American peo-
ple--to hold on for eighty years, to a land
warrant which bears no interest, would be
much like holding on to a promissory note
on demand for like term without interest
few soldiers of the Revolution, or of 1912,
are such raw fnanciers as that.
In this same message, the President in
forms US that the early settlers on our wild
lands are 'public benefactors," that they
construct roads, establish schools, and lay
the foundation of prosperous commonwealths,
and yet by a strange perversion of will, he
coolly vetoes bill which was intended i'm
mensely to increase the number of these
"public benefactors."
Among other reasons for this veto, he tells
us that ''if you give the new settlers their
land for a comparatively nominal price, upon
every principle ofequality and justice, you
will be obliged to refund out of the common
treasury, the difference which the old have
paId over the new settlers, for their. land"
This principle is kind of school boy affair
let us see how it works. Whenever Congress
passes any law raising the pay of any officers
or servants, civil, naval, or military, OF course
this principle of equality and justice, y
would require that the same increased pay
should extend back to at least all living per.
sons who have ever served in the same capac.
ity-and per contra If Congress should re,
duce the salaries, as in the printing, 40 pei
cent. then this principle of equality and
Justice" will require the disagreement o
) vast sums from the former printers whicl
sums would Just now be very useful, to b(
used as heretofore, for the purpose of electo
raj corruption. On whatever side we look a
this new application of"equity and justice,
it cxcites our special wonder, how a mar
generally supposed to be rational, should
, have inserted so supreme a folly in an oflicia
document of his own preparation.
The country understand the history OF the
Homestead bill. 1t has been known foI
, years, that the President was opposed 10 it
and the Democratic Senate in order to give