St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1862-01-16

sign paying in wood, please bring it along
as soon as possible? Some Of our wood
subscribers pay honorably, but some are
quite vemiss, and we shall be obliged to
give them ''the cold shoulder" if they do
not bring us something to warm it.
Ward Beecher on Emancipation.
There was a gentlemrn once named
SAUL who created sensation by getting
in amongst the prophets; but We doubt if
he looked more out Of place there than
Ward Beecner amongst pro-slavery hun
kers. In sermon he lately said:
"Of all the advice that has been given,
whilo it may seem to those who know not
the nature Of our institutions most ration
al, there is none that chimes more with
the Northern feeling than this-to make
a declaration of emancipation to settle this
difficulty and yet neither the popular I'M
pulse nor the foreign advice can be follow.
ed. We must conduct this aoar BY and
through oar institutions, or else we must
declare that our institutions have failed,
and that we have reverted to original prin-
ciples. There is only one or the other Of
these courses. The last We cannot and
shall not do. We are not going to say to
the world that republican institutions have
so signally failed that we must abandon
them, and recstablish other ones. No man
will say that. We who boast of our Con-
stitution must not violate it ourselves in
putting down those who violate it. We
must not by Congressional leg station de-
clare political ensanci patton. l wish we
could. l wish Adam had not sinned, and
his posterity had not been affected but
that does not help the matter. I wish our
fathers had stood out against what are call
ed the compromises Of the Constitution.
Better then than now. The serpent just
Matched is not half so much to be feared
as the serpent full grown. Our troubles
have increased with every generation. and
what is the use Of sighing over what We
can't help? Our fathers signed the bond
and We accepted it. Can zoe afford to
break 1t for the sake Of even so naagnif-
cent result as the emancipation cfthe
sluve? Shall we rend the crystal instru-
ment-the Joy ofthe world, ant our pride ?
1t is very easy to say, Now it is a state OF
var-let US declare emancipation The
tons. We are not ourselves in state OF
rebellion. We cannot expect by Destroy
ing the Constitution to put down the re-
bcllion. If any one ask ne whether u
law or constitution are superior to origi-
nal principles of morality and justice, l
say no but plighted faith is itself in ma
ture of a sacred moral principle. Our faith
is given, and must be kept! When we
cannot abide by our promise, then, in meth
DDS expressly provided, We must withdraw
the pledge aud the agreements Of the Con-
stitution, and stand apart as two separate
people"
Which is, being interpreted, Slavery is
rcpublicanism, or, as South Carolina poll
titions teach, the corner stone of republic
canism. Abolish slavery and you have
abandoned republican institutions. Our
constitution Is an Instrument COnLrlV-
ed expressly to ensure and secure the per-
petuation of slavery. Touch this you can
not, until: you walk oyer the ruins Of that.
If jeff: Davis wants anything more than
this he is hard to suit: Russia, a des-
potism may advance in the march Of CIV
ilization and convert millions Of slaves in
ty frcemen. England and constitutional
monarchy, may do likewise. French re-
publicans decreed freedom to all slaves who
should aid their arms, American repub-
licanism is the only system Of government
ever devised which has no principe of
progression in it-no hope for the down.
trodden and oppressed millions of the
Earth If other governments have done
wrong and discover that wrong they may
t'cease to do evil and learn to do WE'LL"
If they discover social or political evil in
their system which threatens the safety of
the body po!itio they may eradicate it root
aud branch, nay it would be their duty to
do SO, and still more their duty from the
fact that their fathers had perpetrated the !