Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-06-23

1h CIV ueA hhFe VIC berV6u 60 long unQet
masters that We are beginning to lik,
it? Are We SO soon yielding to the ten
depcy to accommodate ourselves to ou
enyiornmentsP
tell you, my friends, we do not ye
ieel SO along the line of the Central rail
way. We desire seH-government. w,
desire to enjoy the privileges guaran
teed to us by the law of the land, anc
on the faith of which we left our homes
III the states and forsook everything tc
make new homes whore we shall live and
die and be buried, and our children
shall water our graves with their tears
We are Dakota men and We demand the
rights OF mon.
Some of our learned mon tell US that
congress- can forever control us. Do
they mean that congress has the physi-
cal power or do the mean it has the legal
right to forever control us? Whichever
1t be and however able the argument
with which they may favor us, upon the
law OF the case, let me tell them that
when they have lived as near the real
people OF Dakota whose farm houses
dot our prairies ss have. they will find
that the men of Dakota will not per-
petually live IN their present condition
OF vsssalage. The hour of their moving
has not come, but it is coming. The
overstrained bow breaks at last.
When senators lately in rebellion
against the United States and who now
hate the loyal north as bitterly az they
ever did, say IN the senate that perhaps
that body will conclude it does not want
any more members and admission may
be indefinitely postponed; and when MIR.
Springer. of Illinois, in that report to
the house declares that we have not
l,40O,00O people-the average number
IN each state-we have no right which
congress ia bound to respect. When the
spirit OF ussrpation and oppression is
thus manifested, is it a time for Dakota
men to lie down in passive obedience
and say nothing?
2 What can We dor We can move
forward toward the frontier of ourpoliti-
cal rights. We can keep the breath of
life in our now half strangled Dakota
constitution by repeating section thirty
two. We can thus undo that part of our
past work and have what the territorial
legislature contemplated when it COM
manded the people of south Dakota to
frame constitution and gave us $4,000
with which to do it.
We can then halt and we shall halt
and see what the next congress will do.
Are we afraid to trust the people? the
patient, long suffering, conservative peo-
OF south Dakota?
10 stand idly by while events sweep
past as is to invite disaster. The longer
we quietly bear indignity the longer,
shall we suffer indIgnity. The mon who
hold us down can be reached only by an
appeal to their fears. 1t is childish to
employ further argum ant with congress.
Conflict is the condition of change. Con-
gress wishes to hold us as territory for
the double purpose OF keeping the re-
publican party down and to have O
dumping ground for supernumerary
office seekers. Congress will struggle and
Will hold us as long as it can. It will
Keep its grip on us until there ia a
change of parties or till it is afraid to
hold us under longer. It does not fear
any thing we can do except the outcry
we can make and thus secure the atten-
tlon OF the people OF the doubtful states.
II is the time now for Us to struggle.
The submission of the repeal of section.
thlrty-two will make the fur fly. The
fur ought to fly. The repeal will proba-
bly, be submitted, and then it will be
shame If the people WELD their chains
anew by refusing to repeal it. That
section is an unprecedented provision, as
| understand it. To retain it is to invite
the disregard OF it in the future, for
some day the people will start the Da-
kota state government, congress or no
congress. No matter what we think
about the law, the fact is whether We
regret 1t or like it. the state govern
ment OF Dakota will be put in operation
We are in the union or out of
the union.
stream whose current never ceases
to flow can not be damned up forever
In time there Will be break. You and
may cry over it, but there will be q
break some time. The spirit Of 177e is
not dead in America or in Dakota.
The military books say that an army
which is always on the defensive is sure
eventually to be whipped. The radicals
win. If you have political
ambition you will do well not to keep
too far behind or be too cold IN your
work for admission. The people have
long memories, and. whatever their
views now upon policy, they will finally
support those who with single mind
fight their battles.
In these days of intellectual activity
some men can patiently reason them.
selves into slavery. They say the war
settled everything in favor of the
United States government. When
uncle Sam mods the people must bow
down. 1t was also settl I'd at Appo.
mattox.
If the war was fought only to knock
off tho fetters from four millions of
black men to put them on fifty millions
of white men, We might better reopen
the issues and fight our own battles over
again. Ii this is to be government of
force and not of law it is time the Ameri-
can people understood 1t. Nothing will
prevent it becoming government of
force but the vigilance of the people.
Eternal vigllanse is the price of lib
erty." Have not we heard those words
before? Does their deep meaning
begin to dawn upon us?
These words which quote from an
other seem to have meaning for us.
"Civil history shows how liberty is se-
cured only by constant resistance to in
sidious interference with original
rights" Again "the everlasting trnth
In government that power once usnrpei
is never surrendered but TO fear was to
have new Illustration" Dakota is
new illustration.
Daniel Webster said: SHOULD leave
no other inheritance to my children, by
the blessing Of God will leave them
the Inheritance of free principles and
the example of manly and independ-
ent defense of thsm!n
Wendell Phillips said: ".Never look
for an age when the people can be quiet