The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-09-28

dent only to show how unscrupulous nv op-
ponents are. They have to resort to forgery
in order to maintain their charges against
me.
If the Missouri Compromise could have
been extended to the Pacific Ocean in lS48,
as | proposed, the slavery question would
have been settled for ever. 1t was not mv
fault that it was not sosettled. The Free Soil
ers and the Aboitionists combined to defeat
that settlement then, and the rejection of my
! proposition produced all the strife and tur-
MOL which only terminated in the Compro-
mise Measures of 1850.
THE REPUBLICANS AND sECEssIoNIsTs.
The Republicans of the North and the
Disunionists of the South say they are will.
ling to adopt this doctrine of popular SOW.
ereignty, SO far as it applies to the States,
but they cannot think of allowing it to ex-
ist in the Territories. If it is right to allow
the people to decide for themselves whether
they will have slavery OR not in the States,
why not allow the people of the Territories
to exercise the same privilege. They tell
us that the people of Territory are not
competent to decide this question because
they are not sovereign power. Who are
the people of the Territories They are
your brothers, your sons, your kindred,
your neighbors, who have left the old States
and gone out into the territories, where they
have planted their own homes in order to
better their condition. Were they not ca
pable of self government before they moved
away from New York I? If they were, are
they any less capable since they went out
to the territories ? Mr.. Seward is reported
as having said the other day in Michigan,
that the people ofa state now have all the
popular sovereignty that he desired, for
they not only had the right to govern them
selves at home, but the power through their
representatives in Congress to govern 9th
er people outside of their state. Laugh.
ter.) Now, this Is precisely what | object
to. Our fathers of the revolution declared
that it was violation of every principle of
right and of justice to allow one people to
make laws for the government of another
without their consent. What was the COM
plant that our revolutionary fathers made
against the British government They
complained that the people of England,
through their representatives in the British
Parliament, not only made laws for the
government of England, but also made laws
for the government of the American colo
nies without giving them representation in
Parliament. Before our ancestors would
submit to such tyranny as that, they de-
clared their independence and fought through
blood for a separation from the British
crown.
And now Mr.. Seward, the great apostle
OF modern Republicanism, tells you that he
is in favor of allowing the people of the diff
ferent States not only to govern themselves
at home, but through their representatives
in Congress, to make laws and establish in
stitution for the people of our territories
without their consent and without giving them
a representation in Congress. The position of
the modern Republicans, therefore is pres
cisely that occupied and maintained by the
Tories of the revolution. (Cheers.) The
one attempted, and the other is now at
tempting, to force laws and institutions on
an unwilling people.
The Northern Republicans
and Southern Secessionists are Mortified at
the idea of allowing, as they say, few
squatters on the public lands to decide all
their own institutions. l wish to remind
them that the people of the original terrific
ries are not squatters on public lands. They
60 there in pursuance Of law, build their
own houses, dig their own wells, plant their
own orchards, erect their own school houses,
make their own fences and split their own
rails. They are neither trespassers nor
squatters on the public domain they are
the owners of their own settlements; they
are the builders of their own homes, and if
there are any people on earth capable OF
selt-government they are the men who have
endured all the hardships ard trials of a
frontier life. You cannot make any of us
who move from New York in early youth,
and have spent a whole manhood on the
frontier, believe that we are any less capa-
bic or any less qualified for self-government
than our brothers that stayed at home. l
! do not ask you to agree with me, but we
are inclined to thus think that we, west
ern men, are little better capable
than you, even. For instance, one OF your
respectable farmers has two sons, the one a
Doiu, taiented, darlng, enterprlSing, and
reckless boy-the other kind, quiet amia
bic, good natured, clever fellow. Which
goes west? Which of them moves into the
territories and carries his rifles upon bis
shoulder, fights off the hostile Indians, makes
his own home, and lays the foundation ol
society and which one says at home and
lives on daddy and nanny because he is too
lazy to work. Mr.. Seward tells you that
those of yous sons who stay at home in
New York are not only capable of govern.
ing themselves here, but are wise enough to
send men to Congress to make laws to gov.
ern their sons who move into the territories
We think it is enough for you to make you1
own laws and let us alone. We recognize
| you as our equals, but not as our superiors
We are willing that you should make youl
own laws to suit yourselves, and we only
tE-+t' HtTu IL .B1f .N NiatiW 81 l8.s .fifR FT&1f