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

of her own people, and you in favor
of free trade. Pennsylvania seems
to have apprchcnded your policy, from
the largcncss of the majority which
she cast against your candidate, it
being a plurality of ninety thousand
over any one else, and of sixty thou
sand over all others combined.
Can you expect utilization with the
people of the Northwest to flow from
such stroke of policy as this? Would
it advance their policy of securing
homcsteads to actual settlers? by
solid vote from your side of the Cham.
Der, you have defeated this policy for
the last ten years. Then, the people
of the Northwest desire q connection
with the ocean. They desire access
to the Pacific as well as to the Attain
tic and your votes have become a
more insurmountablc barrier than the
intervening mountains. Who can ex-
Dcct that the Northwest would will
lingly dissolve its connection with
New England AS offensive as her
people may be to you, they arc not so
to us. They have already, by their
capital and their science, overcome
the only barriers between us and the
great Atlantic. We arc now within
three days journey of Boston, and OF
the Atlantic at any point and we be-
licvc that, in pursuance of this same
policy, her capital, which we have
not, will enable us to connect our
selves with the Pacific States. Her
great fleets of merchant ships, start
ing at the western terminus of our
Pacific railroad, can connect us with
that human hive that swarms on the
other side of the Pccific, and thus re-
verse the worlds travel, and send it,
with large proportion of the worlds
trade, by our doors, as it careers on
ward to the Atlantic cities and to the
Old World. You may fancy that you
can sit cnthroncd at the mouth of the
Mississippi river and cocrcc conied-
Grafton with the Northwest, regard
less of her great interests. Well, sir,
there arc in the Northwest, on the up
per waters of the Mississippi, about
nine million frccmcn. ltrequircs but
little physical force to give us access
to the Gulf; and | doubt not that our
people will readily find the means to
secure that exit ; and might predict
that if you had seeded, it probably
would not be many years until the
increase Of our population and the
multiplication Of our resources, which
have been unparalleled in the worlds
history, would enable us to command
the terms which shall again place the
mouth of the Mississippi under the
: same jurisdiction which you now pro-
pose to leave.
But again, sir, who arc the people
of the Northwest ? Chiefly the child
rem of New England and the great
Middle States. Look over your cen
sus reports of each decade, and You
will find they form very powerful
part of our population. If anybody
had any doubt on this subject, | would
ask them to look around me here
Where are the native States Of these
Senators on my right and left ? Near
" all of them were born in New Eng
land or New York and that is but
an index Of the character of the popu-
lation of the States of the Northwest.
Why, sir, you have but two Senators
on this floor who were born there. DO
you suppose that you would be able,
by a stroke of diplomacy, to sever the
ties Of connection between the father
and the son, between the old home
stead in New England and New York
t New Jersey and Pennsylvania, anc
the new possessions in the States il
the great Northwest. If any man cal
culatcs on this, he rcckons without his
host.
This reminds me, however, OF anoth.
err view Of your objection to the poll
cy of the Republican party that it
would not allow your citizens to mi
crate to the Territories with their ne
grocs. Why, sir, is it possible that a
statesman will stand here, in the Sen
ate of the United States, in the mid
die Of the nineteenth century, and
urge it, as a good to be desired, that
the Federal Government shall adopt a
policy that will cnticc away their cltl-
zcns Docs the welfare Of the slave
States require the repatriation Of their
people? | remember the first winter
| had q scat on this floor, a Senator
from Pennsylvania Mr.. Broadhcad
announced that he opposed the home
stead bill, and introduced the counter
proposition of the land-warrant sys-
tenn, because the homestead bill would
tend to draw off the industrious poo
pie from Pennsylvania to the new
States. That idea has occasionally
been mentioned since. 1t would not
be the true policy of New England,
perhaps, if she were to take mar
row and selfish view of the subject, to
support the measures which we de-
sire but her affection ovcrcomcs her
interest. She has perceived, too, l
doubt not, that what she loses from
the strength and power of her States,
she gains in the augmented power Of
the nation, of which she is a part ;
that what passes from one hand she
can readily gain with the other. We
have not met that spirit from the 9th
or side of the Chamber. The improve
mcnt of our rivers and our harbors,
that would give access to the Gulf,
you of the South oppose. The con
struction of the national railways, that
would give us access to the ocean,
you oppose. The passage of a home
stead bill, which would enable the
poor men who migrate to our States,
by honest industry to procure for
themselves homes, you oppose. BY
an intimation of a purpose to cxer-
else a controlling influence over the
mouth of the Mississippi river, do you
suppose you will be able to arrest us
in the pursuit of our true interest =?
But the Senator from Virginia pro-
pounded one significant inquiry, which
l beg leave to allude to here.
lie asks: what do you want with
| the forts at Charleston What do we