encouragement to an honest man to become dishonest; neither does it afford any facilities for a debtor to obtain some credit and then refuse to pay because it is made applicable only to debts "contracted after the adoption of this constitution."

It has been said, "Every knave in every state in the Union or in any other country will bring his ill-gotten wealth into this state [since he] will be sure to be protected in withholding [it] from his creditors." These are indeed strong deductions; but are warranted by the article certainly not. In the first place, if any man has obtained goods on credit fraudulently, the constitution does not protect his forty acres of land from execution: and, in the next, the whole sum to which the protection extends in any case does not exceed one thousand dollars. Not an amount sufficiently large to destroy or corrupt the integrity of a man otherwise upright and honest.

The truth is, at least to my mind, the whole of this noise and opposition so much trumpeted about the country arises wholly, or mostly, at least, from a class of citizens vitally interested in forcing the collection of small debts from the poor and unfortunate. It is not intended by this remark to include all persons who practice a high and honorable profession, who are an honor to the country, and in its general character and reputation-while it is not designed to screen those who make it a business to stir up strife, and to aid in stripping the poor and unfortunate of the last cent in the world, in order to satisfy a rapacious and merciless creditor.

The common people of the country, as far as my observation extends, are much pleased with this article and do not see any danger in it. On the contrary they will support it with great unanimity; and you may rely upon it, this very clause in the constitution will secure many friends for it.

Yours, etc., etc.,

A MEETING OF THE OPPONENTS

[March 20, 1847]

AGRICOLA

Knowing the desperate shifts that the anticonstitutionalists are driven to in their opposition to the constitution and their great desire to manufacture public opinion upon this subject, as indicative of the sentiment of Dane County, we purpose showing the means that were used to bring the mongrel collection together, and some of the doings of their convention on Saturday last.

What with the curiosity of our people to hear addresses from gentlemen who have been heretofore prominent members of the Democratic party, and to learn their reasons and motives for this desertion of principle-what with the great efforts to beat up recruits in pseudo Democrats and from the ranks of the ultra Whigs. who now disown the principles that they avowed before the election of delegates by sending handbills and runners through the countyand what with the fact of the influence of the territorial administration being directly brought to bear to encourage the disaffected-and what with the fact that the minority opponents of any proposed measure are always more attentive to public calls and more zealous in their work than the friends of the same usually are who rely confidently upon their majority-and what with the fact of the good sleighing, and the meeting being called on Saturday, our usual market day—yet the whole gathering, rank and file, speakers and drummers, not including the friends of the constitution, numbered about one hundred souls, or one-twelfth of the legal voters of the county.

In the absence of the expected orators, the amalgamated gathering was addressed by that disinterested opponent of the constitution, the Secretary of the territory, who of course disclaimed any personal interest in his opposition, and based his objections to the adoption of the constitution upon the articles of homestead exemption and the rights of married women and the celebrated sixth section of the bank article. We notice the last objection that our antibank friends may see that the opposition of the enemy is being diverted from those features of the constitution against which all their influence was first brought to bear, but which by calling public examination to them have only rendered them the more deservedly popular, but now shifting their ground from sheer necessity they are compelled to fall back upon their real sincere cause of opposition-that is the prohibitory article upon banks and banking. Political principle and a decent return for political favor must all be forgotten when "saint seducing gold that touch of hearts leads on the way."

Another motive, perhaps more personally interesting in this instance than the one that can be generally addressed to the sordid speculator to oppose this the people's constitution, might be found in the fact of

O what a world of vile, ill-favor'd faults

Look handsome in three hundred pounds a year.

We are gratified that the attempt of this official to endorse foreign paper was made. It has opened the eyes of many to

the imaginary objections that have been used before with the people as reasons against the constitution, when no such objections exist in fact—and when he is able to satisfy the people of Dane that they had better have foreign trash circulated among them, then his bank speech may meet with a popular response and not before.

Another gentleman (Dr. Fox) addressed the meeting, not, however, upon the bank article, but upon questions on which republicans might entertain different opinions, but which did not appear to us as sufficiently satisfactory why we should not adopt the constitution. The councillor from this district (Hon. A. L. Collins) broke ground against "the sixth section," also. Though as a Whig we have not the right to arraign him for sacrificing any principle-altogether it was a droll crowd-bank Democrats (what an anomaly) and bank Whigs. Successful Whig councillors and defeated Democratic ones, officers and aids, "black spirits and white," friends of equal suffrages -and enemies thereto. We wish them all joy of their new allies.

TIMES THAT TRY MEN'S SOULS

[March 20, 1847]

We are frequently told that the old stand-bys of the Democratic party are found arrayed against the constitution; and we regret to say that there is some truth in the statement. Our regrets are somewhat mitigated, however, by the satisfaction of finding out our men. When the hard fighting is to be done which is necessary to extend liberal principles, it tries men's souls, and those who have gone with the multitude to share in the loaves and fishes, on the approach of danger desert to their natural allies, the enemies of liberty to the people. It is easy for men of accommodating virtue to profess Democracy while the party is in the ascendancy, and they can thereby appropriate to themselves the place of leaders and the rich share of the spoils, and for these they will battle manfully; but when our dearest principles are assailed and in danger, none but the true of heart are to bear the brunt and heat of the battle; the mercenary coward is not there. Some of these men have been taken by the Democracy on their professions and honored with high and responsible stations; others have been foisted upon them, but acknowledged and received because there was no test at the time but their words by which to try their sincerity. We do not include in this class those men who honestly oppose the constitution on account of some of the details in which no party principles are involved, but such as seek its overthrow by treacherously stabbing at those

principles which we hold dear and by the profession of which they have been elevated to power. Such is the Secretary of the territory, who from the organization of the territory to the present time has fattened upon the spoils of office more than any other man in it, and now uses the influence of his high government station to defeat the constitution, it is fair to presume because it will strip him of his pay and official dignity, but as he himself said in a speech on Saturday last-it prohibits the circulation of bank paper! Such is the Clerk of the Court, and late Territorial Printer, who has been elevated from the keeper of a “doggery” to responsible places, and having got rich from the pickings of office now opposes the constitution because its adoption will be a pecuniary injury to him—that is, he will lose his place. He openly avows this to be the reason. Such is the great leader and embodiment of the opposition, who having been stuffed to repletion now turns upon his feeders. Such is H. N. Wells, who has had his full share of office. He presided at the territorial meeting which declared hostility to banks and bank issues as a Democratic principle, but carrying out the principle in the fundamental law of the land he now pretends to regard as a horrid thing. But the faults of this gentleman we cannot but regard with lenity. He is so mercurial that he cannot adhere to anything long at a time but has to keep bouncing like a teetotum or swinging like a pendulum first to one extreme, then to the other. His friends say that if election finds him at the proper poise, he will yet vote for the constitution. And such is the Tyler postmaster at Milwaukee, who is somewhat notorious through the territory for "errors of the head" by which his own pockets became well lined to the no great advantage of the public treasury. He, too, has been well paid for his professions of Democracy. But having by a little flirtation with the late administration got himself into a comfortable office beyond the reach of the people, there is no longer necessity for keeping down old sympathies, and he returns to his first love as the cashier of a Michigan wildcat bank.

In speaking thus of men who have heretofore acted with our party, we shall undoubtedly be accused of attempting to create divisions in the party; but we wish it distinctly understood that we are not bound to any party that is not bound to principles. Men may call themselves what they please, but words are not things; by their fruits we claim to know them. Some of the veriest aristocrats that we ever knew we have found claiming to be Democrats, and some excellent Democrats from the force of circumstances or

association acting with the Whigs. The present contest will draw the lines where they should be.

ARE THEY HONEST?

[March 20, 1847]

On the first organization of the Democratic party in the territory at the capitol, at which H. N. Wells presided, they pledged themselves as a party to certain principles, among which was hostility to all banking corporations, and they appealed to all honest men of all parties to discountenance the use of bank paper as a circulating medium. Nearly every Democratic meeting in the territory from that day to this has asserted emphatically the same as the principles of the party in Wisconsin. With this understanding and with these views delegates were elected to the convention to form a constitution for the state, and acting under these instructions they incorporated an article in that instrument prohibiting the charter of banks and the circulation of bank paper below a certain denomination. Now what do we hear and see daily? Men who have contributed largely to make up the public opinion upon which this action of the convention was based, who have harangued public meetings, drafted resolutions, and assumed the lead in all questions of doctrine in our party, who have not only allowed but assisted in making this the established policy of the party oppose the constitution and predicate their opposition upon this very bank article. If their professions heretofore have been hypocritical, their opinions are entitled to no consideration now; but if they have believed what they professed, then they have apostatized, and can no longer be counted in the party, the mass of which has acted in good faith and will still adhere to their principles despite the attempted dictation of their would-be leaders.

Are those Whigs honest who have contended at every election that they were the only real antibank men; who published to the world as Whig principles, in Dane County at least, "opposition to banks," an "elective judiciary," the "homestead exemption," etc., and now oppose the adoption of the constitution on account of these provisions? We have a deep interest in knowing these facts, for in a Democratic government he who deceives the people by false pretenses defeats the popular will, robs men of their just rights, and should be held up to public execration as the most dangerous kind of a thief.