Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1854-11-07
wAsHMGros NEWS AND GOSSIP.


Gee Of the most active and trying ever under
taken by public man in this country. He
has, in comparatively very short time, ad-
dressed nearly all the people of Illinois in the
habit Of listening to political speeches; for
his reputation as an orator and statesman,
drew out the voters of all sides in politics to
hear him. Night and day, he was either con
the Co." or " on the stump" 1t is due to him
to say that he met every responsibility of his
position like true-hearted man as he is, sus-
tanning his celebrated Nebraska bill before
his own constituents, precisely as he sustained
it in his place in the Senate of the United
States. His leading point Gf we understand
him correctly has been, throughout this can
vass, that the General Government has no
right to interfere directly or indirectly to
shape the domestic institutions of any terri
tory or State; and that the Missouri compro.
mise was wrong, because it violated that lead
ing principle of popular sovereignty under
the Limitation of the Constitution of the United
States, involved in the doctrine laid down
above. He has not pretended to prefer
Southern to Northern institutions, and he has
contended that, left to decide the question for
themselves, when coming to frame q State
Constitution, the people everywhere, except
in extreme Southern latitudes, where Ameri.
can and European whites cannot labor at agri
culture, will prefer not to legalize African
slavery though he has held and enforced that
if they decide otherwise, it is the duty of all
others to acquiesce in such decision made at
the constitutional time, by those (he particu.
lar community who then alone have legal
interest in their determination. We make
this explanation concerning his positions, as
We have been able to Gull them out from
among the Misrepresentation on both sides
with which the partisan press has teemed, by
way Of setting him right before our readers.
Southern men as we are, We can ask no more
from Northern public man than due respect
for Southern rights under the Constitution and
laws, which Senator Douglas has nobly and
cheerfully accorded.
General Cas-, too, has fairly earned the graft
tude of all the South in this short canvass,
Notwithstanding the Misrepresentation of his
positions made by handful of Southern news
papers of both parties, afflicted, as all the
world knows, with chronic Discrimination to
him and all he says and does His speech
and conduct at Chicago recently, show him to
the world, for the nundredth time as the de-
fender of all the rights of all sections of the
confederacy, willing to sacrifice himself at
home, if necessary, ia the discharge of that
great public duty Of the statesman who has
come to belong to the country at largo, rather
than to State or section. While we do not
agree with the Generals views of the rights
OF squatters, We, nevertheless, fully appreci-
ate the patriotism on which those views are
founded, so manifest in his determined oppo.
sltion to an Interference on the part of tn.
General Government in the domestic inst;tn.
tions of the United States Territories. That
ne does not advocate "squatter sovereignty,
as means of indirectly doing against the
South that which he admits cannot be- done bv
the Federal Government either Justly OF le.
gally, all know who are familiar with the de.
tails of his public history. Nor is he an aa
Eocate for any action on the part of the set.
tiers In Territories which shall directly or in.
directly prevent the southern portion of the
confederacy from enjoying all their constitu
tional or legal rights there In the whole
course Of his long Senatorial career, General
Cas- has never, by word or deed, given the
South the least reason to believe that he has
been sctuated by disposition in any way to
strengthen his own section at her expense. 1t
is but simple justice to judge such public mon
as Cass and Douglas by their whole ourse in
public life, their record being long, plain and
full Of incidents on which satisfactory opin.
ions may properly be based. They should not
be judged by partisan reports of their speech
es to miscellaneous crowds. We know from
Dur knowledge of the newspaper business that
a sketch of stump speech is rarely published.
which is not reported with bias one way or the
other. We, therefore, place the least possible
reliance upon such things.
The Trial in Loweu.-Having heard sur.
prise expressed at the action of the Judge in
The Lowell rape case, in permitting the witness
refuse to answer questions with re-
ference to occurrences in Know Nothing
lodge, on the ground that his "fear of punish.
ment'' justified bis refusal, we have to say in
explanation, that the laws of Massachusetts
make the taking of an illegal oath punisha-
BILE as crime; and that the oath which the
witness had taken, as explained by himself,
babe fair to bring him under the penalty of
statute. The witness evidently meant that he
dreaded punishment from the lodge; though
his explanation of his reason for refusing to
reply to certain of the questions put to him by
the defendants counsel was so couched, as to
compel the Judge to excuse him from answer
ing, on the ground that, otherwise, he might
be compelled to criminats himself under the
statute of the State.
Extreme Illness Of the Venerable Widow
Of Alexander Hamilton.-We regret to have
to announce the extreme illness of the beloved
and venerable lady, Mrs. Hamilton, being