Year: 1860

organ, must expect no favorltism at our
nandS. We are not neutral but independ-
ent. While the Breckinridgers had no press
we felt bound to give them fair hearing
To spice and give zest to the canvass, it
was essential to keep their spirits up. We
have contributed to that end in our humble
way. but Judge Smith having taken hold of
the Administration. bellows, we feel inclined
to let him do his own blowing while we
strike for ourselves.


Last week we attempted to show up the
Douglas doctrine. Our theme to- day is the
creed of the other twin. What is it, and
what are its tendencies? We shall not say
OF the Breckinridgers rs we said of Douglas
men that they have only the semblance of
an idea. They have ain idea and Jm one
True, Cuba is lugged in, and the Pacific
Railroad. But the former is as impractical
ble of realization, as the wish of miscr
for Il sheep-pasture on the moon, while the
latter is as strangely out of place in a
Southern Democratic Platform as a Puritan
preacher in an ArkanSaw dram shop. The
Breckinridgcrs may want Cuba, but they
don't want railroad, and have no business
with either. The real idea which is the
kernel of their whole creed, IS that slavery
is pretty fair institution and has a right
to so and ought to 60 wherever a nigger-
worshipper wants to take it. Buy Terri
tory and the free States pay two-thirds of
the price. But your Breckinridger insists
be, if alone, has the right to take his house
hold gods with him, and hold them, how
ever offensive they may be to nine-tehths
of his neighbors. He prates of Constitu-
tional rights, sneers at the hypercritical OIL
factories of his neighbors who do their
work and earn their own living, and insists
on the government protecting him in the
Territories against the people thereof
Admit the postulates he lays down and his
conclusions are legitimate. Unlike Doug
lasism, based on the same premises in effect.
there is no double entendre in Breckenridge
ism. There is little blinking the tendencies
Of the latter. There ia no laughing in the
sleeve with its advocates. They are fear
fully in earnest. The Supreme Court in
terprets the Constitution to recognize sla-
very as one of the institutions of the land
The Breckinridger plants himself upon that
Interpretation and demands that it be car
ried out in all its logical consequences
What are those consequences The fathers
of the republic regarded freedom as the rule
and slavery the exception. The Breckin-
ridger exactly rcverses it. The trainers of
the Constitution looked upon slavery as an
evil to be discouraged. The Breckinridger
regards it otherwise.


1t is not to be discouraged but encour-
aged. The so-called rights of the three
hundred thousand shareholders of the
Union are to be protected in opposition to
those of twenty million freemen. No mat
ter If slavery retards the sale of the public
lands, impoverishes the soil, and checks the
growth of a State-it must be sustained at
any expense. The powder magazine must
be allowed and protected in the midst of a
protesting people. The protest is met by
the assertion that all may be on an equality
If keep the explosive compound, you may
avail yourself of the Constitutional right to
keep it too. a danger can only be made
safe by making it universal.


Breckinridgism is in direct ,ntagonism
to the doctrines of the fathers of the Re-
public, and with the policy of the govern
ment down to n very recent period. The
Supreme Court reverses its own decision
A Taney is made superior to Jays Wash
ington or a Marshall. Modern statesmen
understand the Constitution and the de-
signs of its founders better than the found
erS themselves. The landmarks ofthe GOV
ernment are pulled up and thrown upon the
surging waves of popular prejudice The
ship of state is cut loose from its moorincs.
Our ancestors were fools, but their mental
qualities have not been transmitted to their
offspring.