The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-12-05
WHICH DO YOU PREFER
The South Or Wall Street.

1.-The innate tendency of POpuliSt
theories to breed dsloyalty is shown
by the remarks made by one M.
Wesenberg, of Duluth, at the meeting
at Cation College on Tuesday. After
making the usual charges of corrup-
| tion against everybody outside the
Populist party, he remarked that he
sometimes thought that he had made
mistake in opposing the Rebellion;
for Jefferson Davis, in his widest
dreams: could not have gotten the
country into worse condition than
the two old parties under the domina
tion or monopoly AS Mr.. Owen the
POpulist candidate for governor, fol-
lowing Gov. Altgeld, placed himself
upon the reasonable state rights
platform occupid by Jeff Dayis more
than thirty years ago. it is not strange
that one of his followers should be
found regretting that he did not cast
in his fortunes with the Southern re-
bells. This kind of stnff is nauseating
in this day and age"
Now. we feel very kindly towards
the young gentlemen who are doing
the editorial work on the Minneapolis
Tribune. They are bright, capable,
pleasant men; and they ought to know
better than write such stuff as that.
The type-setters must have been howl
ing for copy, and one of them scratched
that off on the jump.
Gov. Altgeld never placed himself
on the platform Of Jefferson Davis.
The platform Of Jefferson Davis was
that any state had the right to with
draw from the Union, by majority
vote of the people of the same. Gov.
Altgeld never proposed to take Illinois
out of the Union. Nothing of the kind
was ever dreamed of. He simply said
that the constitution Of the United
States should not be trampled under
foot by Grover Cleveland or any one
else. Is that treason? Is that seces-
sion? The constitution says that the
president shall not send troops into
any state unless, in case of insurrec-
tion, the Legislature of the state re-
quests him to d0sO. And If the Leg
islature is not insession, and cannot be
conrened, then thegDvernor of the state
may make such request. But observe,
he cannot do SO unless war or pesti-
lence or some other cause pierents the
Legislature from getting together. Now
Gov. Altgeld was fool enough to sug-
gest,-when federal army was sent
into Illinois, without the request of
the Legislature or the Governor or
any one else, representing the state,
that Cleveland had taken an oath to
support the constitution of the
United States, and that he had no
right to ride, roagh-shod, over it, to
please the railroa6 corporations or any
one else.
Why, l can remember how my ex-
cellent, Republican friend. Senator
Dean, of ST. Paul, almost had a can
niption fit, on the floor of the Senate
Chamber, two years ago, because | in
timated that all wisdom did not die
with the trainers of the federal consti-
tuition. He pronounced it kind of
high treason, to cast an aspersion up
on that divine and sacred instrument;
and gently suggested that l would be
the better of hanging by the neck for
the space of half hour or so. /
knew he didn't mean it, because he is
one Of the best and kindest-hearted
men in the world: refer to the in
cident now simply to show how differ
emily Republicans look at the same
thing. A mere reflection on the con-
stitution deserved, in the one case,
hanging; but in the other direct
violation of it's positive and unrepeal-
ed provisions, by an officer sworn to
maintain them intact, deserves the
highest praise: and to ask that the
constitution be obeyed and maintain
ed, as the fathers made it, puts one
in the same category with Jefferson
Davis, as secessioniSt and rebel
against the constitution and Union.
And yet there are thousand of good
Republicans who will swallow that
kind of nonsense, and smack thel
lips over it, and thank God that they
are permitted to enjoy it.
And as to the other point made by
the Tribune, I put it seriously to my
young friends, whether if they had tC
choose as abs olute masters the greedy
dishonest, SOrdid, scheming, knavish,
diabolical denizens of Wall street, OF
the great agricultural population of
the states south of Mason and Dixon S
line, they would not prefer the latter
If the South ruled us we could cx
claim with Byron:
'Tyrants-but our ma sters then
Are still at least our cOuntrymen."
But in the other case we would have
the vilest off-scourings of London
Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna an6
msterdam:-human wolves, crea
lures without country, homes, patriot
ism, honor or conscience. Mere vam
pires on legs, who suck the blood of ma
tions. Fellows who keep their trunks
ready packed, to fly the country a:
soon as their dannable arts have S,
ruined it as to make a longer sojourr
dangerous. What have these mon
sters in common with the grea
producing classes of free republic:
Not as much as Satan has to do will
the regions of eternal bliss.
We want no masters of any kind
but if we have to have them for Cod
sake give us human beings. with hu
} man hearts and passions and even hu