The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-08-26

Letter from Hon. Amos Kendall,

SIR: You close your letter accepting the
nomination as a candidate for the Vice
Presidency by the Baltimore Convention
with an appeal to your g. old friends of the
Democratic party proper" and as life
long member of that party ! am tempted
to respond to that appeal.
You and do not disagree in relation to
the long standing of the Southern conspir-
acy which eliminated in the existing re-
belion. We do not disagree as to the duty
of the Government to suppress it-"peace-
ably if they can, forcibly if they must"
But l DO not subscribe, without essential
qualification, TO your assertions that sla-
very was the cause of the rebellion, or that
experience has demonstrated its incOm-
patibllity with free and republican govern
ments.
Was the Shay's rebellion in Massachu-
sets or the Whisky rebellion in Pennsyl-
vania caused by slavery? What if the
Union had been broken up on the Tariff
question Gen. Jackson, in the passage
which you quote from one of his letters,
truly and prophetically said, "the Tariff
was only pretexr, and disunion and
Southern Confederacy the cal object. The
next pretext will be the negro Or slavery
question" A project is not cause.-the
cause lies back Of the pretext. tits some
thing which, # avowed, might defeat the
object: and it is, therefore, covered up IN
der pretext. Calhoun would have Sc
cured little support to his anti-taritf theo-
ries if he had announced that the cause of
the movement was his own and his friends
pride and ana6ition, and his object South
ern Confederacy, in the government of
which those passions might be gratitied
Hence, the tariff was thrust forward as the
pretext or ostensible cause. Not succeed
ing under that pretext, General Jackson
foresaw that the conspirators would resort
to another, the cause and the object being
still the same Notification and secession
! were the ontbreakings of the same Con-
spiracy, under different pretexts, having
the same cause-pride nnd ombition-and
aiming at the same end-the establishment
Of an independent Southern Confederacy.
And do you really think that slavery is
incompatible with free and republican
government? Was there no republican
government in Athens, Sparta or Rome
Has Massachusetts or Tennessee never had
"free and republican governmental In
my humble conception, experience -
our own experience-has proved exactly
the reverse Of your conclusions The
United States and each of the thirty-four
States have enjoyed all the blessings of
" free and republican government and
may enjoy them again if they will, slavery
Or no slavery. If slavery was the cause
Of the rebellion against the Union, why
did it not prevent the formation of the
Union? Why, with this fatal disease at
the heart, has it lived over three score
years and ten, and not only lived, but
grown and prospered without precedent
IN the history Of nations? Will you ask
me why it is, if slavery was not the cause
of the rebellion, that it was originated and
is led by shareholders? l answer, they
became it's authors and leaders, not because
they were shareholders, but because they
enjoyed monopoly Of the cotton culture
IN the United States, which brought untold
wealth into their Golfers, producing its
natural effect upon the human heart. The
effect of great wealth is the same every
where, no matter how acquired. Its
pOssessers lily brook the idea of equality
with the toiling millions, either in social
life or IN government The spirit which
it generates is always hostile to Demo-
cratic Republican government. 1t is so
now in the North as well as the South,
and will continue to be 30, whether
slavery be abolished or not.
But you may say it is slavery which has
secured this inordinate wealth to the mas
tiers. Not 30 much slavery as the cotton
gin. Not so much slavery as the improved
manufacturing machinery of Lowell, Man
chester and the like. 1t is they, and not
slavery, which have so cheapened cotton
fabrics for the uses of man as measurably
to drive all others of similar character,
such as woolens and linens, out of compe-
tition, and install cotton as "King." It is
they, which, in their effects, had SO bloat-
ed the pride of Cotton Lords as to make
it easy for them, in their own estimation,
not only to break up the Union, but to
control the Governments of England and
France. Now, you would think it very RI
diculous if one should seriously maintain
that the cotton gin or the manufacturing
machinery was the cause Of the Rebellion.
Yet, it is they, and not the labor of the
slave, which have given cotton its pre-
eminence in the marts of commerce, and
showered riches upon the Southern plant
ers. And will not the effect be precisely
the same if cotton should be hereafter
raised by free labor? Indeed, if the cher
ished theory be true, that free labor is
cheaper than slave labor, the abolition of
slavery would increase the profits Of the
cotton culture, and enhance the income of
the planters, generating with more Wig
orous growth those passions which have
now deluged the country in blood.
The causes of the Rebellion lie beyond
the reach of legislation, and have their
sources in the laws of nature and the de-
pravity Of the human heart. Destroy
slavery and you still have done but little
to remove them. If you could diffuse the
cotton culture over the whole Union, and
equalize the profits of labor North and
South, you would strike at the sources of
that lnordinate wealth in which rebellion
is generated, and thus far diminish its
causes. But to reach its real source. vou
must purify The human heart bv the Dre-
cepts of the Neao Testament. By them
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