Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1863-05-01
what the south Wanted.

"They only asked that they should not be
disturbed in the enjoyment of their domestic
relations which the Constitution had provided
ample protection for; and that the agitation
of the slavery question might be forever re.
moved from before the people, thus destroy
ing the great source Of dissension between
the two sections of the country."-zhaye,
at Grandviesc.
Whereupon we offer the following:
In the summer of 1860 National Demo.
cratic Convention was held in Sodom, in the
State of South Carolina. Mr.. Thayer, at
tired in summer garments, went thither as a
duly appointed delegate. For President Of
the United States there were two prominent
candidates before that convention, viz S. A.
Douglas and j. G. Breckenridge. The former
was the northern Democratic representative
of the doctrine of popular sovereignty; the
latter represented the southern idea Of con-
gressional protection Of slavery. After much
stormy debate, the exhibition of sectional
animosity, the use Of hard words and an open
quarrel, the convention adjourned to meet at
Baltimore, having at Charleston arrived at no
definite results. .sUe.
At Baltimore the outside pressure for Doug
las preponderated. Douglas, standing upon
the doctrine that Congress should in no man.
ner interfere with the institution Of slavery in
the common territories, was nominated for
the Presidency. The South seeded and
nominated Breckenridge upon the opposite
idea The issue was joined, and at the ballot
box the mass of northern Democrats voted
for Mr.. Douglas-the South for Breckenridge
Mr.. Thayer, in convention, representing
the Democracy of this county, persistently
refused to concede to the South. Had the
northern Democracy but yielded to the wants
of the South in convention, we should to-day
have been living under Democratic Admin
istration, perhaps. There they required as.
surances that they should not be disturbed
in the enjoyment Of their domestic relations,
and that the agitation Of the slavery question
might be forever removed from before the
people," The northern Democrats refused
their requests. They then appealed to the
ballot-box, and the people, by an overwhelm'
ing majority, comprising the votes for Lin
coin and Douglas, refused their demands
They seeded from convention at the first re-
fusal; at the second they seeded from the
Union.
Shall the Republican party, composed Of
the anti-slavery element Of the country, yield
more to the slave oligarchy than was yielded
by the northern Democracy? Shall the Ad.
mini>tration party be censured for doing at
the ballot-box precisely what Douglas Demo
Gratis did Let it be distinctly remembered
that the Douglas Democracy of the North re-
fused to compromise with the South before it
had raised its bloody hands in rebellion
against the Government, when compromise
would have brought peace. Let it be also re-
membered that compromise was never refused
by the Republican party until war was inev-
table.
The Democracy of Muscatine county are
not the proper persons to charge upon their
political opponents refusal to yield to the
demands of the South. Let Mr.. Thayer, as
its representative, refresh his memory con-
corning the Charleston Convention.
Rebel Barbarities.