Minnesota to Frederick Douglass, April 5, 1855

For the Frederick Douglass' Paper.

RESOLUTIONS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF MINNESOTA.

SAINT PAUL, April 5, 1855.

FRIEND DOUGLASS:—Since writing to you last, much has transpired in this section of the great West. The railroad sharpers, with the aid of cash, have carried through their measure, by bringing up members, that, previous to their election, were pledged against the fraud[.] They passed their railroad bill over the Governer's veto. It is stated that fifteen or twenty thousand dolllars were expended this winter by the company's agents, in buying members' votes, furnishing liquor, and giving suppers. A more gigantic fraud never was perpetrated on the public. By the passage of this bill, two millions of dollars, north of Minnesota's lands, are transferred into the hands of these few Wall st. sharpers, without any recompense to the government.

We had a tremendous wind storm on the night of the 25th of March, doing much damage throughout the country, damaging the Suspension Bridge at the Falls of St. Anthony. I have been informed that it will cost the company at least ten thousand dollars to repair it.

Dear sir, I neglected to inform you of the contemplated Republican Convention, which met in St. Anthony on the morning of Thursday, the 29th, and continued their sittings until Saturday forenoon. There was quite a large number of persons attended the Convention. They were principally Whigs and Free Soilers, with a small sprinkling of Democrats. The revolutions adopted by the Convention, I give you below; but how they will take with the mass of Minnesota's politically bewildered sons, it is hard to conjecture; but, I think from appearances, that a majority will fill in with the new party, at least they will on the start. But splits and quarrels must ensue, as two-thirds of the voters of Minnesota are office-seekers. Many of them are broken-down politicians from other States.

MINNESOTA.

We, the citizens of Minnesota, assembled in Territorial Convention, believing the question of human freedom to be paramount to all other questions now agitating our country, and believing that in conseqence of the corruptions of the old political parties, there is a neccesity for a new party in politics in which the friends of publics virtue may give efficiency to their action, do hearby form our selves into a Territorial Republican Party, and declare the principles which have bro't us together, and for which we will contend until they shall be adopted as a controlling element in the administration of our National and Territorial Government.

1. Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States was designated by those who adopted it, to be a law of impartial liberty to the full extent of the powers granted to the Federal Government.

2. Resolved, That by the Constitution, Congress is made the special guardian of the liberties of the people inhabiting the District of Columbia and the Territories of the United States; and until it shall abolish slavery in the former, and prohibit it in the latter, it remains false to the solemn trust committed to its charge.

3. Resolved, That the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, is unconstitutional in its character, oppressive and unjust in its operation, and dangerous to the domestic tranquility; and it ought therefore to be repealed.

4. Resolved, That it is the right and duty of Congress, in all acts for the admission of new States into the Union, to prohibit forever the introduction of slavery therein.

5. Resolved, That in the ordinance of 1787, coeval with the Constitution, and freely acquiesced in both North and South for more than half a century, we have a practical assertion by the whole people, of the right and duty of Congress to exclude slavery from the Territories. We now reassert that right, and demand the discharge of that duty.

6. Resolved, That the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, by Congress and the present National Administration, has been accomplished in violation of the plighted faith of the South, for the sole purpose of extending slavery over the fertile grounds of the North-west, and strengthening the power of the slaveholders in our government; and those northern men who voted for that measure basely betrayed the rights of the people whom they were chosen to respect.

7. Resolved, That the inhabitants of this Territory without distinction, are at all times entitled to the protection of its laws, and that to deprive any one of his liberty without due process of law, embracing trial by jury under whatever disguises it may be attempted, is a manifest violation of right, and should therefore be made a penal offence.

8. Resolved, That it is an important part

of the duty of a government to "insure domestic tranquility, and promite the general welfare;" and that these objects are in no way to be effectually secured as by the enactment and enforcement of a Prohibitory [illegible] Law.

9. Resolved, That while we do not seek in a sectional spirit the supremacy of the North over the South, nor to interfere politically with constitutional legislation in the slaveholding States, we do seek, and will never cause to seek, the supremacy of freedom and free institutions over our wholw country; and especially to induce our National Government to proceed at ease to relieve itself of all responsibility for the existence of slavery wherever is [illegible] the constitutional power to legislate for its [illegible], and that we call upon all friends of human freedom, of temperance, [illegible], and progress in our Territory, to enter with us in laboring for the objects we are here met to protect.

10. Resolved, that we proose the following principles and measures among these which belong to the Republican Platform:

1. Election of all civil officers by the people, except where inconsistent with the interets of the public service.

2. The abolition of all needless offices, and no salaries for legislators or others except for normal service.

3. No more revenue than is required to pay the necessary expenses of the government and extinguish the public debt,

4. Free lands in limited quantuties to actual settlers.

5. River and Harbor improvements only where are amtters of national concern.

6. Cordial welcome to emigrants and exiles from the old world; but no welcome to banished paupers and criminals, nor to those who plot the overthrow of the Republic.

7. Reduction of land and ocean postage to the lowest possible point.

8. No imprionment or involuntary servitude except for crime.

9. No civil disabilities on account of color or religious opinions.

10. No legislation for the advantage of the few to the injury of the many.

11. No encroachments of the Federal Government upon the reserved rights of the States; and no disregard by the States of their constitutional obligation.

12. Additional guarantees for the purity of legislation.

13. In administering the government, man and morals first, the interest of property afterward.

11. Resolved, That we hail with pleasure the decision of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, in the case of the United States against Sherman M. Booth and John Rycraft, as the dawn of a brighter day in the history of jurisprudence, and commend it to all of the Courts of the Free States as a precedent which should forever stand as a true exposition of the Constitution of the United States, and as a firm basis upon which the principles of justice should forever rest.

12. Resolved, That the papers of the Territory friendly to our cause, be and are hereby requested to publish our platform.

13. Resolved, That a thorough and efficicient organization, in the several counties of this Territory, of the friends of freedom, temperance and progress, is the surest guaranty for the ultimate triumph of our principles.

14.Resolved, That grateful for the harmony which has prevailed in our deliberations, united in the leading objects we cause here to promote—recognizing the right of private judgment, and disposed to tolerate in our Republican party diversity of opinion on matters not involving our fundamental principles, with hearts warm with fraternal feeling, and an earnest, hopeful purpose to diffuse and carry out the principles ]here affirmed, and depending for our ultimate success on the righteousness of those principles, and our own diligence--we part in peace.