Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-08-05
PLAIN TALK.
II Radical Newspaper Frees it's Mind
of Burden on the Statehood

| y Radical Newspaper Frees it's Mind
| OF Burden on the Statehood
| Subject.
Norfolk, (Dak.,) Spy: 1t now appears
| that few of those skim milk and two
thirds water delegates to the constitu.
tional convention who voted against
their convictions and against what an
honest conscience wonld dictate--i. e.
the submitting to a vote the repeal oil
the restraining clause---dld 80 through
the Establishments of q caucus manin,
uiated and worked up beforehand by
the Edgerton outfit. These creatures
deserve to be, ought to be and certainly
will be forever politically damned by
the liberty loving and loyal pc ole OF
south Dakota, whose aims and struggles
for Justice they have to all intents de-
feateG by their slaylsh adhersIon to the
mandates of Edgertonism. They do
not deserve the name of man. And now
that the Spy has warmed up to the sub
lect We may as well go on. We do not
expect to gain point for the cause we
have 2Svocated from the beginning, and
lost, but we have still left the blessed
right of speaking freely
our thoughts on the subject, and this
privilege We know cannot be defeated
through the false philosophy and caucus
ing OF Edgerton sore head conservatism
Now therefore, all you newspapers; ell
you politicians and schemers; all you
fellows and things who have been from
the first and the last, by every false ar
gument, by every wire working and un-
der handed plan, by every slur and
Inuendo you could invent and cast
secretly and openly at this lost cause OF
statehood, stand up! The Spy wants
to talk to you: VIII you not own that
the cause you defeated was just and
would have won that for which Dakota
has been struggling 80 valientlv for in
the years gone by? Do you not know
that that which you have defeated is
the principle that underlies the Ameri-
can freedom under which you live, and
that in 30 doing you have committed o
wrong that will return to plague you ID
time to come? Do you not know
that in the defeat of this cause the
obvious and admitted rights of over
one half a million free people have been
set aside and trampled down? And you
know ia the innermost depths of your
hearts that this cause which you have
defeated was right and would have
triumphed, to the sorrow OF an opposing
faction in our government, don't you ?
And finally, do not know that the liber-
ty loving mass of the people of south
Dakota have set the seal of their non-
dem damn nation on your acts and have
placed big black mark to your credit
in all yonr future dealings with their
welfare? Ii you do not know this, if you
do not realize these facts, your atten-
tion will surely be called to them at
some future time when there is an issue
at stake that will call for the stout
hearts and bravest acts of those same
old radicals whom you claim SO loud
ly you have defeated, mainly by your
houtlng methods and underhanded
means. Under your manipulation
Dakota's final struggle for statehood
has developed into stupendons farce.
1t has not, in one iot, injured those
radicals" whom you have defeated, but
it has made you, the prime movers in
bringing about the defeat of this cause,
the laughing stock and by-word of the
nation. Your actions at Sioux Falls and
elsewhere upon this matter, and their
outcome, have proven q stinging dis.
grace to Dakota for all time to come,
and have disgraced yourselves as well.