The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1860-07-21

knew we'll that By no principle OF justice
could this long predominance be explained !;
but he forgot 70 confess tho secret agency
True ii is that, In the game Of Office and,
legislation, the slave States have always won.
They have played with loaded dice--loaded
with slavery. The trick of the automaton
chess player, for so long time an incom-
prehensble marvel, has been repeated with
similar success. Let the free States make
move on the board, and the slave States have
said check Let them strive for free
trade, and the cry has been "chesk." Let
them jump toward protection, and again it 10
I" check" Let them move toward internal
improvements, and the cry 10 still "oheck."
Whether forward or backward, to the right
or left, wherever they move, the free States
have been pursued by an inexorabe " check"
But the secret is now discovered. Amid the
well arranged machinery, which seemed to
give motion to the victorious chess player,
was concealed motive force which has not
beed estimated 1.-The slave power. 1t 10 the
slave power which has been the perpetual
victor, saying always check" to the free
States. And it 10 the slave power which, 40
cording to the boast OF the Senator, has gov
erned the country.
The actual number of shareholders was
for d long time unknown, and on this account
was naturally exaggerated. 1t was often
represented to be very great. On one oeca-
sion, distinguished representative from
Massachusetts,, whose name will be ever
cherished for bis devotion to human rights
Il mean the late Horace Mann-was rudely
interrupted on the Roor of Congress by q
member from Alabama, who ayerred that
the number of Shareholders was a. many "a
3,000, 900. At that time there was no official
document by which this axtravagance could
be corrected. But at last we have it. The
late census, taken in 1850, shows that the
whole number OF this peculiar olass--sm-
bracing men, women, and children, oil told,
who are so fortunate as to hold slaves--was
only SAT GOO; and of this number the large
part are small shareholders, leaving only
81 600 persons as the owners OF the great
mass of slaves and the substantial represen-
tatives of this class. And yet this small
ofigarchy, odious in origin, without any
foundation in that Justice which is the es.
sential basis Of every civilized association,
stuck together only by confederacy In all the
Eve headed wrong of slavery, and constitu.
ting in itself Magnum Latrocinium, has
by the confession OF one or its own leaders,
for sixty years governed the Republic. To
this end two things have conenrred. First,
its associated wealth, being the asserted
value of it's human flesh, constituting fla
gtious capital OF two thousand millions Of
dollars; and secondly, its peculiar represen-
tation in the House of Representatives,
where, under the three ffths rule OF the
Constitution, ninety members actually hold
their seats by virtue in part OF this aagitious
capital. Thus are the slave masters an enor-
NOUS corporation, or joint stock company,
by the side Of which the United States Bank
with its petty thirty millions OF capital, and
without any peculiar representation, 10
dwarfed into insigni6cance.
feel humbled when dwell on the ANA
zing disproportion OF Offices usurped by this
oligarchy. From the beginning, all the great
posts or the Rspublic--the Presidency, the
Vice Presidency, seats in the Cabinet, seats
in the Supreme Court-seem to have been
almost perpstually 10 their bands. At this
moment, the free States. with double the
population Of slave States, have only four
out of the nine Judges of the Supreme
Court and OF these fonr, il must be said
three are northern men with southern prin-
eiples and IN the humber places at the de-
partments, the same extraordinary dispro-
portion prevails. Out Of the whole number
there employed, All are from the free States,
but mostly with southern principles, and 800
from the slave States. These Instance are
typical. There is nothing in the National
Government which the oligarchy does not
appropriate. Down TO this moment, Ii has
held the keys OF every Office, from the Presi-
ident TO the. humbest postmaster, compelling
all to DO its bidding. II organizes Cabinets.
Ii organizes courts. II directs the army and
navy. IL manages every department Of pnb-
h,~ns l. Al
IL CONTROLS the Smithsonian Institute, found
cd by the generous charity Of foreigner,
to promote the interests of mankind. And
the national capital and in the remotest vii
| lagos Of the north.
| In maintaining Its power, the slave oligar-
chy has applied q test for oHcc very differ.
ent from that OF jefferson: i" Is he honest 7
IL he capablef IL be faithful to the Conssi
tuition ?" These things are ell forgotten no
10 the single question, which signalixes the
great change which has taken place, "Is he
faithful TO slavery ?" With arrogant ostra-
csm, il excludes from every national Office
all who cannot respond TO this test. Sc
complete and irrational has this tyranny be.
come, that at this moment while now speak
could Washington, or Jefferson, or Johr
Jay, once more descend from their spheres
above, TO minsis in our affairs, and bleas q,
| with their wisdom, not one OF them, viii
bis recorded, unrctracted opinions on sin.
very could receive nomination for the Pres
idency from either branch OF the dividef
Democracy, OF from that other politica
combination, known as the Union party; mol
stranger still, could either OF these saintet
patriots, whoee names alone open perpetu
al fountain Of gratitude in all your hearts
be confirmed by the Senate Of the United
States for any political function whatever
not even fer the local Office Of postmaster
What now say amid your natural astonish
ment, have often said before in addressing
the people, and have more than once ut
tered from my scat in the Senate, and nt
man there has made answer. for no man vh,