The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1860-09-25
Gov. Kirkwood to MIR. Byington.


lie Grand Byington
SIR-In your letter to me in the State
Press of the Goth August, you make a
speech and give me challenge Cour-
tesy requires | should reply to both.
OF the Wing party | have only this to
say, 1t Is not living organization. The
time has not come to write its history
nor is either of US lis proper historian
lis name and the names Of the statesmen
and soldiers it has given our country will
be cherished i'll our State, when youl
name and mine will be forgotten. The
Republican party is a living organization.
You either misunderstood or misrepre.
sent lis purposes and history. 1t is not
'lhoroughly abolition!zed" unless "abo-
lition" consists IN an earnest and deter
mined 6W peaceabie and constitutional OPP
position to tie ertenSton Of Stavery aRto
free territory. Its convention was ma
tional and not sectional one. True, all
the States were not represented In that
convention, not because any were exclu-
ded by the call, but because some did
States were represented by full del6ga-
tions than in either of the remnants of
the Conventions at Baltimore, that nom
mated Mr. Douglas or Mr.. Brechinridge
It's candidate, Mr.. Lincoln, is not nol
ever has been an abolilionist," unless
the term is to be understood AS above
stated nor did he exhibit - factous hos
tility in Congress" to the Mexican war.
may not properly understand what YOU
mean by the assertion that Mr.. Lincoln
/" acknow lodges his obligation" to the
-" higher law" but if You mean that il
he shall find himself commanded by the
law Of man 10 do or not TO do an act un-
der penalty, the doing or not doing OF
which is expressly prohibited TO or en-
joined upon him by The law of God, he
will. in such case, "obey God rather
than man. and suffer patiently what
penalty mans law may inflict, hope
you define his position truly,
You say in substance that you and |
acted together politically in 1913, as
members Of the then Democratic party ;
and that now, while you are still mem
ber of the same Democratic party, | am
a member of the Republican party. You
err somewhat in this. You are mem
Der Of but faction of the Democratic
party, and the members Of the other fac
ton of the same party, apply TO you and
your associates the term abolitioElst, "
as fippantly aud unctiously, and as just
ly, as you apply it to the Republicans.
You are Douglasite aud not Demo
crat.
Why | am not the one or the other
will state briefly. believe that the men
who made the constitution, and the men
who received it in their hands and put II
in motion, understood the meaning OF
that instrument better than Mr.. Pierce
and Mr.. Buchanan, than Mr.. Douglas and
Mr. Breckenridge. | know that those
men and the men who for many years
followed them in the control of our Ma
tional Government, believed and acted
upon the belief that Congress had the
power TO prohibit Slavery in the terrific
+ ries, and therefore | cannot accept the
teachings of the new men of the Demo
cratic party who deny 10 Congress that
power. The Breckinridge faction direct
ly iavors the introduction OF Slavery into
I'll the territories, while the best that
can be said for the Douglas faction as,
that il /" don't care" whether Slavery be
so introduced or not. In my Judgment
neither faction occupies the ground held
by the Democratic party IN l848, on
this question nor does either party occu'
py the right ground, and therefore | can
not act with either but | can and dc
sympathise and act with the Republican
party which, while earnestly deprecat
ing and opposing the extension OF Slav
cry into tree territory, seeks TO use NJ
means to that end, not sanctioned by tht
fathers of the Constitution and the Uni
on.
So much for your speech. now 70
your challenge. very much regre
that | cannot accept II. My entire um'
! for the next two weeks is already en-