Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/529



of the policy of the founders of the Republic, and violates the rights of the States. Being wholly extra-judicial, so far as it relates to the power of Congress and the States over slavery, it cannot bind the conscience, or command the obedience of any man.

“I trust that as the representatives of the freedom loving citizens of Iowa, you will explicitly declare that you will never consent that this State shall become an integral part of a great slave republic, by assenting to the abhorrent doctrines contained in the Dred Scott decision, let the consequences be what they may.

“We cannot be indifferent to the efforts of the people of Kansas to perpetuate freedom in that Territory. We ought not to be indifferent. No people are deserving of freedom who do not sympathize with those who are struggling to obtain it. The people of Kansas are the champions of popular sovereignty everywhere. They are bringing to the test the great principle enunciated by our Revolutionary fathers, that government derives its powers from the consent of the governed. The people of Iowa look with alarm upon the constant aggressions of the slavery propagandists, but I confess that I look with equal alarm upon the manifest tendency of our Government to consolidation. The doctrine inherited from our ancestors, that standing armies are dangerous to the liberties of the people, is repudiated by constant and strenuous efforts to increase the National army. Sinecure offices are created for the purpose of influencing public opinion. The army of office-holders scattered throughout the States, uttering the sentiments, disbursing the money and obeying the commands of the central authority, govern in a great degree the sentiment of the country. Thus the Federal Government, instead of being as it was designed to be, the mere creature and under the control of the States, is fast becoming their master.

“The centralizing influence of the Government—the immense increase of our National expenses—the history of the slavery propagandism in Kansas, and the complicity of the Federal Government therewith; the attempts to overthrow the clearest rights of self-government for the purpose of extending slavery; and the efforts to destroy the rights of the States by political decisions of the Supreme Court, should remind the freemen of Iowa that their great political rights are in danger.

“The liberties of the people can only be preserved by maintaining the integrity of the State Governments against the corrupting influences of the Federal patronage and power.”

Thus spoke the fearless and incorruptible statesman who never surrendered the freedom of speech and opinion to any living power.

The Seventh General Assembly sustained the position so firmly taken by the Governor, in choosing him for six