The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-12-27

are often distressed by want: that the free
labor of the North has more need of expan-
sion into the Southern States, from which
it is virtually excluded, than slavery had
into Texas in 1916; that free labor is essen~
tlal to free institutions; that thee institu-
tions are naturally better adapted and more
cOngenial to the AnglOsSaxon race than are
the despotic tendencies of slavary; and,
finally, that the dominant political principle
of this North American continent, so long
as the Caucasian race continues to flow in
upon US from Europe, must needs be that of
free institutions and free government. Any
distractions to the progress of that form of
government in the United States must
inevitably be attended with discord and
war.
Slavery, from the condition of univer.
sally recognized social and moral evil, has
become at length political institution, de,
manding political recognition. 1t demands
rights to the exclusion and humiliation of
those rights which are insured to US by the
Constltu ion and we must choose between
them, which we will have, for we cannot
have both. The Constitution was made for
freemen-not for slaves. Slavery, as a So
clal evil, might for time be tolerated and
endured but as a political institution it be,
comes imperious and exacting, controlling,
like dread necessity, all whom eircum-
stances have compelled to live under its
sway, hamperiDg their action and thus i'm.
perilling our national progress. AS po-
litical institution it could exist as co,or-
dinate part only of two forms of govern.
ment, viz, the despotic and the free and it
could exist under a free government only
| where public sentiment, in the most unre-
strlcted exercise Of a robust freedom, lead
ing to extravaganza and RIGHTEOUSNESS, had
swayed the thoughts and habits of a
people beyond the bounds ard limits of
| their own moderate constitutional provi-
siODs. 1t could exist under free govern
ment only where the people in period of
unreasOning extravaganza bad permitted
| popular clamor to overcome popular reason
and had attempted the impossibility of set
ting up, permanently, as a political institu.
| ton, social evil which is opposed TO mo-
raj law.
By reverting to the history of the past,
we find that one of the most destructive
wars on record, that of the French Revolu-
ton, was origina Led by the attempt to give
was not susceptible of political character.
The Church, By being endowed with politi~
cal power, with its converts, its schools, its
immense landed wealth, its associations, Sc
cret and open, became the ruling power of
the State, and thus occasioned a war Of
more strife and bl0odshed, probably, than
any other war which has desoiated the
earth.
Slavery is still less susceptible of political
| character than was the church. It is as fit
at this moment for the lumberBroom of the
past as was in 1893 the monastery, the
landed wealth. the exclusive privilege, ETC.,
OF the Catholic Church ia France. 1t be-
| hooyes us to consider, ms a self governing
people, bred and reared, and practiced in
the habits of self~government, whether we
cannot, whether we ought not, to revolu-
tionize slavery out of existence, without the
necessity of conflict of arms like that of
the French Revolution.
Indeed, We feel assured that the moment
slavery is abolished, from that moment our
| Southern brethren, every ten of whom have
probably seven relatives in the North,
would begin to emerge from hateful deli
rum. From that moment, relieved from
imaginary terrors, their days become hap.
Ply, and their nights peaceabe and free
from alarm the aggregate amount of labor
under the new stimulus of fair competition,
becomes greater day by day property rises
in value; invigorating influences succeed
to stagnation, degeneracy and decay and
union, harmony and peace, to which we have
so long been strangers, become restored
| and bind Us again in the bonds of friendship
and amity, as when we first began our MAJ
tional career, under our glorious govern
ment of 1889.
Why do the leaders of the rebellion seek
to change the form of our ancient Govern.
ment? Is it because the growth of the Al
rican element has come at length to render
a change necessary? Will you permit the
| free government under which you have thus
far lived, and which is so we'll suited for the
| development of true manhood, to be altered
to narrow and beittleing despotism, in
order to adapt it to the necessities of ignor-
ant slaves, aad the requirements OF their
proud and aristocratic owners Will the
laboriDg men of the South bend their necks
| to the same yoke that is suited to the slaves?
We think not. We may safely answer that
the time has not yet arrived when our
Southern brethren, for the mere sake of
keeping Africans in slavery, will abandon
their long cherished free institutions, and
enslave themselves.
1t is the conviction of my command, as
part of the national forces of the United
| States, that labor-manual labor-is inhe.
rently noble; that it cannot be systematic
cally degraded by any nation without ruin.
ing its peace, happiness and power that
free labor is the granite basis on which free
institutions must rest; that it is the right,
the capital, the inheritance, the hope of the
poor man everywhere; that it is especially
the right of five millions of our fellow.coun.
trymen in the slave states, as we'll as of the
four millions of Africans there, and all our
efforts, therefore, however small or great,
whether directed against the interference of
| governments from abroad, or against rebel
lious combinations at home, shall be for
free labor. Our motto and our standard
shall be, here and everywhere, and on all oc.
casions, FREE LABOR AND WoRK1Na.MEN's
| RIGHTS It is on this basis. and this basis