Franklin Repository

We have often told poor men that their bitterest foes were to be found within the ranks of locofocoism. We have known that every principle which that party advocates is in direct conflict with the best interests of poor men--men who earn for their wives and little ones the necessaries of life by their daily occupation. There can be no doubt that the passage of laws for the promotion and protection of American labor against ruinous foreign competition--we mean the products of foreign work-shops--is infinitely better calculated to elevate poor men than is the policy of breaking down our working men and building up those of other countries--a leading feature of locofocoism.

Notwithstanding the fact that we have always been able to see that the policy of the locofoco party was fatally injurious to the hopes and prospects of all classes of community who earn their "daily bread by their own daily labor;" yet we were not prepared for the bold, unblushing avowal made by Mr. Wigfall, of Texas, one of the leading politicians, on Wednesday, last, in the United States Senate, "that poverty is a crime."

After this daring piece of locofoco affrontery, from a modern expounder of the faith of that party, we may well expect that there will be no more professions of friendship made, through empty resolves, for poor men by the leaders in the North. Heretofore the song which the sirens of that party were constantly singing--thereby enticing the thoughtless, charmed, unsuspecting to their certain temporal ruin--was that of especial regard for poor men; now, however, the tune is changed and we hear the jarring discordant notes of tyranny denouncing poor men by declaring "that poverty is a crime."

Hitherto the rank and file of the locofoco party in the North, have followed blindly, the bell-wethers of the party wherever they saw fit to lead, no matter where, only so that the leaders hailed from the sunny South. These dupes have been told, over and over again, that there was not, nor could there be from the nature of the case, the smallest particle of sympathy between the haughty owners of "working people" in the South and free "working people" of the North; but the faithful adherent to "the party," being honest themselves, could not believe that their leaders--who made such fine and strong professions of attachment to "poor men"-- could be so utterly heartless, so false to all their pledges. Now, however, they can see for themselves that the Republicans advocate the homestead bill--while locofoco leaders say "that poverty is a crime."

If poverty is a crime, as is alleged by a certain locofoco United States Senator, from the South, we may look for the passage of a law punishing every "poor man" in the land for not being rich. If poverty is a crime, then indeed, it must be punished. What is the nature of the suffering that these haughty haters of "poor men" would inflict upon their helpless victims, if they had the power? Doubtless if such men as Senator Wigfall had the control of the Government (and who knows how soon his sentiments will prevail throughout the South; for at one time the dogmas of John C. Calhoun, now the sentiments whereby the whole locofoco party swear, were as unpalatable as, we suppose, Northern locofocos would have us believe Wigfall's horrible utterance to be) there would be a remedy commensurate to the evil. Poverty being regarded as a crime its punishment would not be salutary by increasing every "poor man" within the walls of a prison; but, doubtless the prolific brain of Wigfall would invent something that would answer all practicable purposes. He would exert his mighty intellect to its utmost powers but what some method of inflicting punishment upon "poor men," criminals in his sight for not being rich, should be discovered.

There is one solution to this apparent mystery; the denunciation of "poor men" by a leader of the party which has always professed to be the special friends of poor men. There is a reason for the position taken by the Texas slave-driver. It is to be found in the fact that the general sentiment down South is that SLAVERY IS THE NATURAL AND NORMAL CONDITION OF ALL "POOR MEN?"

It is high time for poor men in the North, who have heretofore assisted in fastening upon their limbs the manacles of a slavery extending party, to pause, before it is forever too late. Now they possess the power of saying to slavery--their natural foe--remain within your present limits; extend no further; thus far shalt thou go, but no farther; and here shall thy proud tyranny be stayed; but hereafter--if the aggressions of slavery are not arrested--the free men of the North, the bone and sinew of the land may be unable to assert their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The "poor whites" of the South are now in a condition of helplessness in every respect as degrading as that of slavery itself. How long would Northern "poor men" enjoy any greater liberty of slavery becomes--as locofocos desire it shall--national, and freedom becomes sectional?