The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-11-04
To the People OF the state of Mime
sofa.

the country will be called upon to decide
the form of our domestic policy for years
to come. 1t is not too much to say that
the approaching election will be in the ma
ture of permanent settlement Of several
important and urgent questions, involving
the future peace and security of the coun-
try, and the very existence and unity of
the nation itself. These questions may be
put into the form of the following in
quiries:
. First Shall we have ABRAHAM LINCOLN
for President with system of loose con-
structions of the Constitution, and GEN.
tralized despotic government, or GEORGE
B. MCCLELLAN, with the Jeffersonian doc
trine of strict construction of the Con-
stitution, decentralization of power, and
jealous observance of the rights of the
States?
Second. Shall We have negro emancipa-
ton under the form of an unconstitutional
proclamation by the President, with all its
resultant evils of amalgamation and an ex-
tended suffrage, or shall We leave the 4ues-
ton of slavery where the Constitution left
1t, with the States themselves
Third Shall we have ABRAHAM LIN
COLI for President, with four more years Of
war, foreign recognition of Southern indie
pendence, and final disunion, or GEORGE B.
MCCLELLAN, with a constitutional policy,
peace and Union?
In regard to the first inquiry, it cannot
be denied that up to the date of Mr.. LIN
coins accession to power, the settled
policy of the country had been strongly in
favor of q strict construction of the Con-.
stitution, and against the creation of prece-
dents which were not clearly within the
terms and meaning of that instrument.
By aahering to this cardinal principle of
Republican faith, the Supreme Court of the
United States had rendered series OF de-
cisions, affording what was considered an
enduring bulwark against executive en-
croachments, and a sufficient protection of
the rights of the several States. Mr.. LIN
coins advent upon the Presidential stage
signalized departure from the settled and
traditional policy of the country, and de-
liberate invasion of State and constitu-
tional rights under: the plea Of military
necessity, entirely ignoring the fact that
the Constitution was made for war as we'll
as for peace, framed to meet all political
exigencies, and adapts itself to any civil
emergency that may arise in the life of a
nation. BY the inauguration OF new
policy, Mr.. LINCOLN has succeeded in estab-
fishing an entirely novel line of precedents,
all aiming at and leading to despotic
government, and affording basis upon
which our State and personal rights and
liberties are being overturned and sacri-
feed. If we would defeat the establish
ment of military despotism, we must
elect General MCCLELLAN, return to the
policy of strict construction CT the Con-
stitution, and thus secure our rights and
liberties.
In regard to the second inquiry, whether
We shall sustain Mr.. LINCOLN in his prose-
cution of the war for the purpose of abo-
lition, contiscation and subjugation, the
question simply resolves itself into one of
military necessity as opposed to constitu-
tional right Claiming, as We do, that the
Constitution is adapted to all exigencies,
of war as we'll as of peace, and that it
leaves the question OF slavery to be decid-
ed upon by the States themselves, we can
not, as true patriots, sustain MIR. LINCOLN
in his violation of constitutional rights.
Even if disposed so to do, we must re-
member that the abolition of slavery by
sudden process intlicts incalculable suffer-
ing and injury upon the negro, and leads
eventually to a deterioration of the white
population through the forms of amalga-
mation and miscegenation, and the extern
sion'o the right of suffrage to the entire
negro community. The principle of negro
equality involves the principle OF negro
suffrage, and The surrender of the purity
of the BAH /; box. By electing General
MCCLELLAN, and returning to the original
policy in behalf If which the war was
waged, we avoid all these troubles, estsb-
lish Union party at the South, and Sc
cure speedy peace through Southern d.
vision.
But the THRU inquiry leads us at once to
by far our greatest danger. The South