St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1861-02-21

oi lhe southern states could regard
this as a real cause Of COMPLAINT
much less a cause for dissolution of
the Union.
g. 1t is demanded that the South
ought not to be required to submit to
the election of sectional candidate to
the Presidency.
But, on examination of the election
returns, it will be found that this de-
mand would render ineligible every
candidate for the Presidency at the re-
cent election. The Senator from Hi
nois, Mr. Douglas, is obnoxious to
the same objection he received mot
estimating the fusion vote) over one
million votes, of which less than one
hundred and seventy thousand were
pollcd in the entire South. And of the
three million three hundred thousand
votes polled in the North, (not estima-
ting tine fusion vote, Mr.. Brcckinridgc
received less that one hundred thou
sand !; and Mr. Bell but about thirty
thousand. The relative number of
votes cast for Mr. Lincoln South, when
compared with the aggregate vote
cast for either Mr.. Breckinridge or
Mr. Bell, is larger than the relative
number cast for either of the latter in
the free States, as compared with the
whole vote cast for Mr.. Lincoln And
this result was attained after full and
free discussion in the free States, by
the champions of all parties, while
Mr.. Lincoln's friends were denied, by
the violence of mobs, the right Of dis
cussion in majority of the slave
States, and declared their opinions at
great peril in others. Hence, if Mr..
Lincoln was sectional, all Of his oppo-
ncnts were as intensely sectional if
scctionalism disqualified him, they
were equally ineligible. If the Re
publican party was sectional, so was
the Douglas party, and the Bell party,
and the Brcckinridge party--thc lat
ter carrying their scctionalism to vio-
lcncC.
The marked distinction between Mr.,
Lincoln and his opponents, however,
is, he received very large plurality
Of the popular vote over each of them,
and large majority of the electoral
vote over all of them combined.
4. When pressed on these points,
Senators admit that it is not the cs-
cape of few miserable slaves through
the free States, nor the personal lib
crty bills, nor yet the election of Mr.
Lincoln by the people of the free
States to the Presidency, that .iustitics
the alarm manifested in the South :;
but that it is the public opinion behind
these acts, giving rise to them, which
iustilics alarm that it is the condi-
tion of society which tolcratcs the de-
nunciation of slavery, finally culmina-
ting in the election of candidate
known to be opposed to slavery, and
elected because he was known to be
thus hostile, which causes complaint,
and justilics opposition to his inauGn'
ration as the President of the whole
Republic. 1t is demanded that the
press, the pulpit, the legislator, and
the clector, in the free States, shall be
restrained from discussion which re-
suits in this dccp-scatcd opposition to
your institutions. And the Senator
from Illinois Mr. Douglas has pro-
posed a bill for a law, something like
the scdition laws Of the early time, to
declare freedom of speech and of the
press, III the free States, on this sub
icct, u grave crime, to be punished by
fine and Imprisonment in the jails and
pcnitcntiarics, bill which the Scna-
tor from Georgia Mr. Toombs dis
tiuctIy approved, a few days since, and
which | understand the Senator from
Virginia to approve to-day.
You demand that the people among
themselves shall no longer speak dis
paragingly of slavcry-shall cease to
intcrmcddlc, as you call it, with your
institutions, and thus to engcndcr op-
position to it. We must bride the
pulpit bride the press bride our
tongues around our own iircsidcs.
We must trample under foot the great
cardinal idea of the reformcrs, So per-
tincntly rc-statcd by Mr.. Jefferson,
that "there is no danger in error
where truth is left free to combat it,"
"Ths may be a good rule" you say,
I" i'll relation to everything under the
sun, sacred and profanc, that pertains
to time and eternity, except the pa
triarchal institution ) on every other
subject men may speak, write, and
publish what they choose" being res
ponSible therefor but here is an in-
stitution that is either too good or too
bad to be talked about-its merits
may not be discussed here is the
image set up in the plain, which all
men must fall down and worship, on
penalty of being cast into the fiery
furnace. You have deprived your
people in the slave States Of freedom
of speech and of the press on this
subject !; and you now demand that
the people of the free States shall
adopt your laws and usages, on pain
Of dissolution of the Union. The So
Der second thought Of your own pco-
pie, we may well hope, will persuade
them that this is no sufficient cause
IOI tiic vi ti4I NhiOH
5. The most grievous complaint is,
that this agitation causes the people
of the free States to hate slavery, and
by the necessary association OF cause
with effect, to hate Shareholders. We
are told that this must cease that
your honor will not permit you to live
in the same Union with such confed-
crates. The people of the free States
must change their speech, their modes
of thought, their mental perceptions,
until they shall be brought to love
that which seems to them hateful
that the elemental structure of THEN
minds must be SO wrought upon as to
change their perceptions OF the beau
tiful and agreeable. ltis well known,
to be sure, as we are told by the
learned, that the constant contempla-
ton of that which produces pleasure
bic emotions in the mind, will in time
become an object of tender regard, OF
of love and that which uniformly
produces unpleasant or painful emo