Summary

Proslavery advocates contended that they are being persecuted and want to be left alone, the Republican editors pointed out, but it is they, in fact, who were "guilty of imposing" slavery--a vile institution--"upon their neighbors." The expansion of slavery into the territories threatened the liberty that the country was built upon, they maintained, and those who advocate it were "acting in opposition to the plans of the founders of this great Republic." Slavery, they argued, has corrupted the South and the free North as well by taking "hold" upon "the minds of men."

EXCERPT:

"The South, the minority of the people, have been accustomed to rule the land--as they do their own plantations, most tyrannically."

"Knowing, as we do, the pernicious effects upon White men of the curse of slavery, why should we 'let them alone' who are striving to extend its black form over all our beautiful domain? Why should we remain quiet while the foes to freedom are binding the goddess of liberty hand and foot preparatory to declaring it a crime, punishable with death, for any to speak to write in favor Man's inherent right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness?"

Full-text web version of newspaper

"In the heat of the campaign of 1860 both Franklin Democrats and Republicans shifted their emphasis on slavery."