The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-01-13
The Union - DO seL.es slide s,> Isather
than the Republican Party.

O-T .~-o --~>~ s>>~~SAS6 ssA0 pOopaCVA $780,
Northern States oontending for the mas
tery-the one, conservative, constitutional,
observant inclined to observe compacts
and to coneiliate and compromise upon
alljarring questions; the other, radical, In
novatory, visionary, denouncing the Con
stitution wherever its strict checks ana
balances stood in the way of their "re-
FORMS" Indifferent, meddling and agrees
s;ye, The first national, outcropping OF
the visionary and "reform" idea was in
1s2o-21. when it forgot the comfy, toll
erance and compromises upon which the
Union of the free and slave States was
based. and with an 81 am holier than
thou" Pharisaical selfrighteousness, as
serted its exclusive right to rule and domi-
nate in all the new Territories and States
and to black-ball and exclude all who
differed in opinion. 1t said to the new
State of Missouri, you shall not enter our
Union of free and slave States unless you
square your creed with ours and come in
free State. It was unable to carry this
point and the compromise idea triumphed
in the admission of Missouri under the
act of Congress called the Missouri Com
promise. ."'"'t-.
The radicals were defeated but not con-
auered. They kept up the contest under
the rallying cry of their party-which was
agitate! agitate!! agitate!!! Their
avowed policy was to ''educate gener-
ton to hate the South" With tract,
pamphlet, with press and pulpit, with Or
ators white, black, male and female, imbe-
Gle and talented, in season and out of
season, they piled their vocation denounc-
ing the Union Gas covenant with death
and league with hell" The Church
shook hands with the Devil, and while the
ministers of one preached the crusade
from the pulpit, the minions Of the other
burnt bibles and demanded "an anti
slavery God, and an anti.slavery bible"
In conventions of black spirits and white,
blue spirits and grey the in6del met the
christian-the long haired man met the
strong minded woman, the African met
the Caucassian-all agreeing to "educate
q generation to hate the South" and to
agtate! agitate!! agitate!!! until the
hair Drained theories should triumph in
that ''irrepressible conflict " which was to
eliminate In !" making all the States free -
and wrecking the Constitution and the
Upon. With the exception of LOCAL triumphs
here and there, which kept the Stewards,
Summers, Hales,, Giddings' and Chases' on
the surface, the radicals were insignificant
| in numbers and influence until 1854, when
the indiscreet and foolish policy Of re-
opening the Missouri Compromise ques-
ton came in as q God-send to revive their
waning fortunes, and the follies of the Bu-
chanan administration gave them new
capital for, agitation, and swelled their
numbers into formidable power; and by
the unwise and unfortunate divisions of
the Democracy in 1s60-against the votes
Of nearly 100000 feemen and by a
minority of I, 600. 900 votes, the radicalidea
finally triumphed, and with the blasphemy
Of An oath to support, obey and protect
that constitution which it had always de-
nounced as 50 league with hell" it was
seated in the chair which was occupied by
WAsHmaros, and like the wooden horse
in Troy, struggled into the very citidel Of
our liberties-to break up that "league
| with hell the constitution, and to dis
solve that covenant with death the
Union-by wiles and strategy consum-
nation which forty years of "direct as
sault had been unable to accomplish.
Gould this party have saved the Union
before the war commenced9 No fact of
history il more susceptible of proof than
that they could. The files of the Congress
sional Globe and the testimony of STEPHEN
A. DouslAs in his speeches of January Sd
and March 18th, 1851, prove that coapro-
mise would have saved the Union
| but it ,oould hare destroyed the Repub-
lican party. "Send none but stiff backed
men to the Peace Congress, /" wrote CHAM
p1zR to his friends-'.men opposed to COM
promise-and for Gods sake help Us to
SAGE the Republican party" Who eds
membered the republic then, as the Min
nesota Governor now charges on the Dem
ocracy9 Was it the Democracy who were
| willing to abide by the compromises of the
constitution and preoent the rebellion, or
the Republicans whose personalities was
to "save the Republican party, and OPP
pose all compromised" Could this party
| have saved the Union since the war begun
No fact of history is more susceptible Of