The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-09 00:00:00

the boroughs the constituencies are so very small
that it would be next to a miracle if corruption
did not prevail to a very great extent in these
boroughs. (Hear.) Now, I will only say that I
believe in my conscience that the course for us
to follow is to co-operate with the masses of the
English people, who have given us, I maintain,
the most unmistakable proof of their generosity—
(hear, hear)—and unite with them and endeavour
to secure for this country the widest possible ex-
tension of the franchise with the protection of the
ballot. (Cheers.) As there are a good many of
our friends here who are going to address you, and
as the heat is a trifle—(laughter)—l will now read
the resolution for you :—,4 That this meeting,
whilst claiming for Ireland an immediate exten-
sion of the Parliamentary franchise at least equal
to that conceded to the English electors, and pro-
posed to be conceded to those of Scotland, ex-
presses its deep conviction that no suffrage short
of residential registered manhood suffrage will or
ought to be permanently satisfactory to the people
of either Ireland, England, or Scotland." (The
O'llonoghue resumed his seat amidst loud and long-
c ontinued cheering.)
Mr. O'DONNELL seconded the resolution, which
was supported by Mr. Mom, of Glasgow, and carried
unanimously. _ _

The Rev. Mr. MULLEN, P.P., Castle Pollard,
moved—" That this meeting, deeply impressed with
the prudent action of the English Reform League,
and in view of the success it has already attained,
is prepared cordially to unite with that League
in agitating for the ballot, the more especially as
the circumstances of the voters in this country
imperatively require that they should have that
protection to enable them to exercise the franchise
with freedom and independence."

Mr. MOWATT seconded the motion, which was
supported in an eloquent speech by Mr. ERNEST
JONES and carried.

Mr. COOKE moved—" That this meeting earnestly
calls upon the people of Ireland to unite in sup-
porting the Irish Reform League by the forma-
tion of local branches, and in enabling it to co-
operate in continued action with the Reform
Leagues of England and Scotland, for establishing
the political rights, without distinction, of the
whole people of the three countries."

Mr. CLEARY seconded the motion, which was sup-
ported by Mr. GRANT, of Leeds, and Mr. FREDERICK
CLAYTON, Secretary to the Northern Department
of the Reform League, and carried.
A vote of thanks to the Lord Mayor concluded
the proceedings.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND SENATOR
DOUGLAS;

The following letter has been addressed to the
editor of the Anglo-American 7imes:—

Sir,—A debate took plee hi the state of Illinois
in 1858, which was of great historic importance,
whether considered in relation to the question de-
bated, the talents of the speakers, the offices to
which they aspired, the impression it made on the
popular mind, or the results it secured, the chief of
which was the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presi-
dency. Lincoln, a native of a slave state, who was
yet to become chief of the Abolitionists, was then
determinedly resisting the extension of slavery, while
Douglas, a native of a free state, who had been
known for twenty years as the ablest, most indefatig-
able, and most unscrupulous adversary to emanci-
pation, was attempting to open the flood-gates to
slavery, that it might pour itself abroad and
find no limits but at the Pacific Ocean. Both
Lincoln and Douglas were the children of poor
parents ; both toiled at manual labour ; both
were determined to rise ; both were able men ; both
made the great West the field of their enterprise ;
both studied law at Springfield ; both became lead-
ing politicians, and rose rapidly, one in the Whig,
the other in the DeMocratic, party.
The chief article then in the creel of the Demo-
cratic party was that the Federal Government had
net the constitutional power to exclude slavery
from the Territories, an article which defied justice
and denied American history. For the Federal Go-
vernment by the ordinance of the North-West ex-
cluded slavery from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi-
gan, and Wisconsin when they were territories; it
also excluded slavery by the Missouri Compromise
Then, too, the chief article n the creed of
party was, "No more slave states
from the territories north and west of the state of
For many years the slaveholders had made and
noti‘hl small cur pre ban
slave l i e
unmade the Presidents of the United States, and
Douglas, who was ambitious, determined to gain
territory."
their favour, with the hope that they would make
him President. Already he had succeeded as Sena-
tor in repealing the Missouri Compromise, and had
thus caused the civil war in Kansas; and be had now
been nominated by the Democrats as a candidate for
re-election to the Senate, an office which he valued as
abesetn nominated steppingstone to the Presidency. Lincoln had
as candidate for the same senatorial
office
,heare to travel through the State, meet the
people
Republicans ; and both Lincoln and
Douglasnlltheir primary assemblies, and each defend
ce b
in
t
in debate the policy of the party be represented.
By this means the Americans try the nature of the
candidate for popular favour.
Lincoln opened the canvass of the State at once
iu a " terse, forcible, and thoroughly Radical speech,
wherein he enunciated the then startling, if not ab-
solutely novel, doctrine that the American Union
could not permanently endure half slave and half
free." Ile said, "I do not expect the Union to be
dissolved ; Ido not expect the house to fall, but Ido
expect that it will cease to be divided. It will
become all one thing or all the other."
Douglas promptly joined issue, and contended,
on the ground of " popular sovereignty," that the
o replyo
people in each Territory should decide the question
for themselves whether to establish or exclude
said, " This is an attempt
o
that Lincoln, inself-government
vernment amounts to just
this—that if one man chooses to enslave another,
slavery.t
no third man should be allowed to object."
Thus an oral canvass of Illinois of " unequalled
interest" for a seat in the Senate was prosecuted by
these capable and practised popular debaters before
immense audiences of their fellow-citizens up to the
eve of the State election. Douglas, by a small
majority, was elected Senator ; but he lost his hold
of the popular sympathy, and eventually the Pre-
sidency, the object for which he was striving.
Lincoln failed in his efforts to gain a place in the
Senate, but he obtained such a hold of the popular
sympathy that he was elected to the Presidency.
Lincoln gained by the debate national repute—an
honour he had
not previously enjoyed; while
Douglas, who had previously been thus honoured,
forfeited it in the prosecution of the debate.
Douglas, in his appeals to the people, said, " Mr.
Lincoln wants my place." This was true. Mr.
Lincoln wanted his place that he might relieve the
oppressed. Douglas wanted it from a desire to gain
a still higher seat. The one had a benevolent, the
other a selfish, motive.
In mental ability Lincoln and Douglas were alike,
but how different was their training ! The talents
of Douglas were developed and exercised at an early
period of his life. For this the praise is due to the
State rather than the man. Vermont has a stony
soil, but it was never trodden by a slave. In care-
ful mental culture, in high morality, in regard for
religion, in freedom from party intrigue and the
leadership of demagogues, Vermont stood unrivalled
among the States. Tile citizen, before he gives his
first vote, must take the freeman's oath. With
his hand uplifted he must swear allegiance to the
Constitution of the United States, as well as to the
Constitution of the State of Vermont. Now forth
from such a State and such training came Douglas
to be the champion of the slave power, and to laugh
at human nature, and duty, and compassion. In
the service of his slave-masters he dared to say he
was ashamed of his native State of Vermont !
Lincoln came from the " dark and bloody ground"
—Kentucky,where slave-law and lynch-law held their
carnivals, where a clasp was placed on the lips of
the ministers and editors, and where the curse of
the Almighty was on the clasp ; where knowledge
was a terror, and education a crime. It was a
disadvantage that his talents were developed and
exercised later in life than those of Douglas, He