Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1859 — Which is the People's Party-A Conelusive Test. [ARTICLE]

Which is the People's Party-A Conelusive Test.

The recent votje in < dngress on the Homestead Bill,.which is. emphatically, the Poor 'lan’s L-r^-^pras it does, that every poor man may receive, gratis, one hundred and sixty acres of tiie public lands of the- ! .United States, if he will settle on and cultivate il—-dfijrde.l as (air a test as was ever prcsi. i.’-'d to prow which ol the political piil-ti.;, is, and which i- nut, the friend of the free laboring classes of this country. That question was decided, as far as the House of Representatives is concerned, favorably to the poor man; but, let the fact be remembered and forever afterward kept in mind, that while every Northern vote except seven was in favor of the bill, all the Southern votes except three only were against it. Six Northern and the whole I delegation of Southern Democrats voted against this most beneficent bill for the benefit of the poor man! Only one Republican (and we are.heartily sorry to know there is even one such) opposed the measure, namely, Mr. Nichols, of Ohio; all the rest of the Republicans were strong support- ; ers of the bill, thus showing conclusively that while .the Republican pa-ty is the. People's party in, truth, the Democratic is Dem- • ocratie. only in name. This bill would do more for the advancement of the material interests of the West, pind of the nation as u whole, anil more to insure the success of free labor in the future States of the Confederacy, than ali the laws, enterprises or measures that have yet ; been adopted or inaugurated in this country. . And yet the Democracy, professing to be the ■ party of the people and the friend of the ! poor laborer, does its utmost to defeat it, j Every slaveholder in Congress votes against it, because it promises to benefit the free laborer ; and the Northern Democratic Doughfaces also vote against it, because they would rather serve the slaveholder than to benefit the free “sons of the soil.” The Republicans vote for it, because they know that what is calculated. to benefit and advance the interests of the free laborers of the land js sure also to advance the interests of the nation and of humanity. VVe have but little hope that this great and beneficent measure will become a law ’ just yet. The Pro-slavery Democratic ma jority in the Senate will kill it. At all events, if they do not, we shall be agreeably disappointed.— C’A ic-.igo Joumat.