The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1861-02-06

in majority of the slave States, and de-
clared their opinions at great peril in others.
Hence, if Mr.. Lincoln was sectional, all his
opponents were as intensely sectional; if
sectionalism disqualified him, they were
equally ineligible. If the Republican party
was sectional, so was the Douglas party, and
the Bell party, and the Breckenridge party
the latter carrying their sectionalism to
violence.
The marked distinction between Mr.. Lin
coin and his opponents, however, is, he re-
ceived very large plurality Of the popular
vote over each of them, and large majority
Of the electoral vote over all of them COM
bined
! A. When pressed on these points, Sena-
tors admit that it is not the escape of few
miserable slaves through the free States nor
1 the personal liberty bills, nor yet the elec-
ton of Mr.. Lincoln by the free States to the
Presidency, that justifies the alarm manifes-
ted in the South; but that it is the pub
lie opinion behind these acts, giving rise to
them, which justifes alarm that it is that
condition Of society which tolerates the de-
nunciation of slavery, finally eliminating in
the election of candidate known to be op-
posed to slayer, and elected because he was
known to be thus hostile, which causes COM
plaint and justifes opposition to his inaugu-
ration as the President of the whole Repub-
lic 1t is demanded that the press, the pull
pit, the legislator, and the elector, in the free
States, shall be restrained from this discus
sion which results in this deep-seated oppo-
sition to your institutions. And the Sena-
tor from Illinois Mr.. Douglas, has proposed
bill for law, something like the sedition
laws of the early time, to declare freedom OF
speech, and Of the press, in the free States,
on this subject, grave crime, to be punish
ed by fine and Imprisonment in the jails and
penitentiaries, bill which the Senator from
Georgia [Mr. Toombs, distinctly approved,
a few days since, and which | understood
the Senator from Virginia to approve to-
asy
\ You demand that the people among them
selves shall no longer speak disparagingly of
slayery-shall cease to intermeddle, as you
call it, with your institutions, and thus to
engender opposition to it. We must bride
the pulpit; bride the press; bride our
tongues around our own fresides We
trample under foot the great cardinal idea of
the reformers, so pertinently restated by Mr..
jefferson, that ''there is no danger in error
where truth is left free to combat it." "This
may be good rule" you say, in relation to
everything under the sun, sacred and pro-
fame, that pertains to time and eternity, ex-
cept the 'patriarchal institution J on every
other subject men may speak, write, and
publish what they choose" being respons-
ibe therefor; but here is an institution 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 pen
atty 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 sober second thought of
your own people, we may well hope, will per-
suade them that this is not sufficient cause
| e, h. rf ~
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 slave
holders We are told that this must cease
that your honor will not permit You to live
in the same Union with such confederates
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 their
minds must be so wrought upon as to chang
their perceptions Of the beautiful and agree:
able 1t is well known, to be sure, as we
are told by the learned, that the constant
contemplation of that which produces pleas
urable emotions in the mind, will in time
become an object of tender regard, or oflove;
and that which uniformly produces unpleas-
ant or painful emotions, will become an OBJ
lject Of aversion; that this is a law of the
mind, fixed by the author Of on. nature
that this is no more true in the physical than
| in the moral world. Hence, we are told that
Homer's and Milton's poetry will be read
\ with rapture to the end of time the lesson
of the Savior and the example of his life will
| command the alteration of mankind as long
as the ages last. When the strong stoop to
lift up the oppressed, humanity applauds to
| the ends of the earth; and when the strong
oppress the weak, they are never loved. The
sight Of oppression never arouses pleasur-
able emotions-but ever painful; it is so
now, it ever has been so, and it ever will be
so to the end Of time, and probably in the
world of spirits, through eternity If there
is any place in Gods universe where this
law Of the mind does not exist, or where op-
preston can excite applause, it is not in the
free States; it is not in the slave States; ii
is not on earth it is not in Heaven. Men
with their feelings unperverted do not love
oppression; angels do not love oppression
the Almighty Maker Of all does not love op-
preston; in Gods great domain, who is il