Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-03-22
THE SIMPLE LIFE OF A COMMONER
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Beginning with the campaign OF
| 184S, in which General Zachariah
Taylor and General Lewis Cass were
s. ed against each other for the
pa 'ency, there was never a time
tilf y. teen years later when the
great q alems involved were per-
manenh. e. tiled by the Civil War,
that the Y Anency of partisanship
was alloweo moderate. In 1S4S
General Taylo. the Wings. He
was the logical h ace of the Mexi-
can War party, ahd he had for his
motto, General Taylor never sur
renders" which l think, in view OF
his war record was very appro-
pirate. His opponent, General
Lewis Cass, represented the Demo-
cratic or Loco Foco party as it was
called. 1t was in that campaign
that the Barn Burners seceeded
from the Democratic party on the
issue of extending the slave terri
tory in the United States by the
annexation of Texas, thus forming
the Free Soil party, of which Mar
tin Van Buren was the candidate
in 1S4S, and which was destined
later on, with the accession of the
Wings to become the Republican
party The term Barn Burners was
derisiyely applied to them because
of the circulation of story of a
farmer who, it was said, burned his
barn to drive out the rats who were
eating his corn.
In the newspapers of the day
there was wood cut of monkey
utilizing the paw Of large but
recalcitrant pussy cat to pull out
some chestnuts from blazing
hearthstone fire which served as an
| illustration for the following dog
gereli,
1--WE Southerners want Northern
man,
Or slavery will expire;
To plant it now where breathes the
free,
And pull us out the fire.
This Northern doughface is the man,
And when we touch the wire;
He is the very one to pull
nh
Then there was cartoon repre-
senting slave driver with long
whip driving chained gang OF
slaves from slave territory into
free territory, across the Democratic
platform, which served as a gang
plank and was supposed to repre-
sent General Cass' opinion of the
practical effects of the Wilmot Pro-
viso, which was an amendment off
cred by David Wilmot, representa-
tive from Pennsylvania in 1916, to
bill before the House of Repre-
sentatives, calling for an appropria-
tion of $2,000,0O0 for the purchase
of Mexican territory. This amend
ment provided that, Neither slav-
cry nor involuntary servitude shall
exist in any part of the said terri,
tory" 1t was adopted by the House
but rejected by the Senate, from
which 1t will be seen that the slav-
cry question was prominently in the
minds of the people. 1t steadily
grew in Importance until it became
the all-absorbing question for the
statesmen of the day. Through the
presidency of Millard Fillmore
Franklin Pierce and James Buchan.
an, it ceased not to occupy al
hearts, until finally it eliminated in
the election of Abraham Lincoln and
/ the War of the Rebellion.
Among the most prominent of the
conspicuous actors of the times, on
either side of the great struggle
were, w. III. Seward of New York
the recognized leader OF the Repub
lican party; Charles Sumner Of
Mass, the most able, active ant
pronounced abolitionist at Washing
ton; Brooks of South Carolina, who
with budgeon dastardly assaulted
Sumner on the floor of the Senate
leaving the mark. of the beast OIL
his person; Joshua r. Giddings
Ben Wade and Thomas Corwin O
Ohio, Horace Greeley and Henry
Ward Beecher, Owen Lovejoy O.
Illinois, whose brother Elijah,
Presbyterian preacher was murder
ed by a mob at Alton, Illinois, be
cause he incautiously expressed
opinions adverse to slavery; Jane!
w. Grimes Of Iowa, James Buchan
an, who defeated the Pathfinder 70
the presidency in 1856; John f
Potter of Wisconsin, who mad,
Roger A. Pryor of Virginia apollo
i gize for words spoken in congress