The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1854-05-20
the strugg,e im Congress.


We are entirely without intelligence from
Washington to give us any light upon the
doings of Congress Of the present week.
Telegrap hic communication having been cut
off generally between the East and West we
are left in a PerPlexing state Of suspense as
to the issue of the mountain labors, which
were at last accounts CONFUSING and dis.
grazing the House Of Representatives.
Whatever may be the fate Of the Nebraska
bill, we have no opinion to changein relation
to it. We entered our protest, first, against
the till as worthless and unneces sary, trust
ing too far in the virtue of Congress to be-
lieve for moment, that it could ever become
the hideous abomination in the sight OF a
free people which we now behold. Upon a
searching exc mnation of its merits during
the three or four months that it has disgraced
the Halls of Congress, after hearing the best
arguments Of its advocates and supporters,
we are compelled to add to the utter worth.
lessness Of the measure, the grossest villainy,
treachery and bribery with which political i'm
cendiaries seek to force it upon the Ameri-
can people. We are not yet prepared TO ad-
nit, with many of our contemporaries who
have opposed this bill, that such measure is
"nearly through" or sis about to pass Con-
gress." We shall encourage no cessation of
opposition, either in feeling or action by con-
ceding that all hope is lost. The members
of Congress who are now fighting this swim
die, manfully. against the most unprincipled
opposition, aud resisting the influence of Gen.
tralized executive power, should be sustained
by an unfatering zeal from their constitu-
ency. Argument upon the merits Of the bill,
by its advocates, has almost entirely ceased
fnCougress. The magic managers are now
seeking its passage by bribery and parlia-
mentary trickery. Even the pet argument
that the bill would "effectually and forever
pu, an end to Congressional agitation, and
the dear people" is scarcely mentioned now.
To Judge the future action of men by their
own presidents, it would not be at all sur
prising 10 see Stephen A. Douglas, the "little
giant" of this monster s,cindle, e Entertaining the
same views with regard to ii merit January,
that he expressed on the 4th day of January
last, in his report from the committee on
territories. when he regarded the compro
misses of 1920 and 1850 "as cardinal articles OF
faith, which proclaimed to the world q final
settlement of controversy and an end to agita-
tiOn." He then deprecated any expression
Of opinion by Congress as to the consttu-
tionaI rights of either section of the Union,
under the act of 1920 or even under the Con-
stitution itself; because, he says, "they in.
yolve the same grave issues which produced
the agitation, the sectional strife, and the
fearful struggle of 1850"
He then had a clear conception of the
dire'ul consequences which would result
from repeal of the Missouri Compromise,
and in that same report Uarnsd the country,
that such course would be disastrous in the
extreme. Let us 60 back to ls49, and see
what his views were then about the Missouri
Compromise, and contrast these views with
the black-hearted treachery which he is now
is any safeguard against agitation" In
speech to his constituents at Springfield, ILL.,,
in lS4e, in discussing the proprety of apply
ing the Missouri Compromise line to Texas
AMI Oregon, che said, he was not aware that
any man or any party, from any section Ct
the Union, had ever urged as an objection
to Mr. Clay, that he was the great champion
of the Missouri Compromise. On the con-
trary, the effort was made by the opponents
of Mr. Clay to prove that he was not entit-
led to the exclusive merit of that great pat
riotic measure, and that the honor was
equally due to others as we'll as to him, for
securing its adoption; that it had its origin
in the hearts of all patriotic men who desired
to prsserve and perpetuate the blessings of
our glorious Union-an origin akin TO that OF
the Constitution CT the United States, con-
ceived in the same spirit of fraternal affec.
ton, and calculated to remove forever the
only danger which seemed to threaten, at
some distant dsy, to sever the social bond OF
union. All the evidences of public opinion
at that day seemed to indicate that this CON-
promise had become canonized in the hearts
of the American people, as a sacred thing,
which no ruthless hand would be reckless
enough to disturb"
Should such men be permitted to insult
the intelligence and virtue of the country.
by talking about "peace measures" after con.
cocting this nefarious scheme, the Nebraska
bill, which has for its object the total ami
hilation Ut those measures which he SO re-
Gently declared "were akin to the const,u.