Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-03-16
Gbt aailgg SPY.
sennfor DouRIns.

Senator DouRlns'
We are great people, for what the french
call soubriquets, and what, in our mother
tongue, are called nicknames. We are not
content with the titles which prescription has
conferred upon men and things, but we give
them other titles, Just as it suits our humor or
strikes our fancy There seems to be very
little reason in some of our nicknames, never
theless we repeat them, and hold to them,
with complacent pertinacity There seems to
be no reason why we should call a native Of
Indiana Hoosier, or a native of Wisconsin a
Badger, yet we do it, and each Of these SOU
briquets is currently received. In the same
category with these, wemay include the name
applied to Stephen A. Douglas, of ''The Lit
tie Giant" This name is paradoxical 1t is
self contradiction, yet it is applied to Mr..
Douglas as a compliment, and he, doubtless
from modesty, does not repudiate it. The
idea of the title seems to be, that Stephen
A. Douglas, though diminutive in outward
stature, is giant in his intellectual soul. 1t is
only upon this supposition, that we can ac-
count for its application to the Illinois Sena-
tor, by his admiring friends. Now, is this idea
really based upon TRUTH Is there any evil
dence that Mr.. Douglass mind is larger than
the integument in which it resides: We be-
ieye it would be hard for his most ardent ad-
mirer, to produce any such evidence. There
is no act, no speech, no process of manly en-
deavor to distinguish his name from the ten
thousand men of lucky mediocrity, who have
got on in the world. Impudence, want Of
principle, and a marriage to several hundreds
of Mississippi negroes, seem to constitute all
the elements Of his Gigantic" celebrity.
But the appearance which Mr.. Douglas
made, on the 14th inst, in the Senate Cham
Der, when the memorial of the clergy of New
England, against the passage of the Nebraska
bill, was presented, would have put all doubts
to rest, about his vulgarity and mediocrity,
had there been any doubts upon that ques-
ton. The unrefned insolence, the coarse
Vituperations, and the presumptuous impu-
dence which he disgorgcd upon the 1850
clergymen Of New England, were worthy
only of q pot-house brawler, and were calcu-
lated to excite only scorn and disgust, in every
manly breast, though they did bring one Ed
ward Everett, down on his knees, in abject
apology, before the impairment reviler.
Mr.. Douglas said the clergy of New Eng
land, who signed the memorial, were thepub-
Lie endorsers of an atrocious falsehood; and,
had prostituted the sacred desk, to the miser-
able and corrupting influence of party poll
tics.
The "falsehood," according to Mr.. D., is
the declaration, that the abrogation of the
missouri compact is breach of national
faithl And the ''proof'' adduced to show
that the abrogation of the Missouri Compact
is not breach of national faith, and that the
clergy are therefore public liars, is the fact
that the Senate voted to pass the Nebraska
bill.
How triumphant Mr. Douglass conviction
of the 1880 clergyman would be, if a vote Of
the Senate could establish truth. But truth,
like the "Higher Law" Mr.. Douglas and the
Senate to the contrary notwithstanding, can
not be effected by either votes or ribald
speeches; and We are certain that the me-
mortal of the clergy was true, not only in it
self, but in the strong, honest, earnest con-
victions of those who signedit
Mr.. Douglas said the memorialists ought to
be rebuked, and required to confne them
selves to their vocation. We trust they will
never be rebuked by the concentrations of
ambitious politicians and tyrannical slave
holders; and we trust they viii never be more
out Of the line of their vocation, than when
they protest against the violation Of national
faith. national honor, and natural Justice
The God Of Truth and Justice will always be
with them, if they do, though Stephen A.
Douglas may try to insult and condemn them.
Mr.. Douglas evidently looked through the
medium of his negro plantation, when he
spoke of the memorialists. He may live to
find that the North viii not be SO complacent
under his Senatorial impertinences, as he evil
IDENTIFY supposes it will.