The Feliciana Democrat. (Clinton, La.) 1855-186?, 1856-05-24
SEN AToR DOUGLAS ANDCOL LANE.
alt is excellent to have giants strength,
ID. n In liLn u ninnI. "

ait is excellent to have a giants strength,
| But il is tyrannous to use IL like giant.
| Senator Douglass is ar extraordinary man.
| Tie has been called the Little Giant, and ccr-
tainly in intellectual. proves he is u veritab'c
Sampson His latest achievements has been
the utter humiliation of an individual named
Col Lane, bogus Senator from Kansas. The
following is u brief history of the Case: On the
eighth instant u memorial was presented to-
the Senate by Mr.. Cass, purporting TO be sign
ed by the members of the late humbug Free
State Legislature of Kansas. This document,
Gen. Cass had received from Col Lane, with
request to present il, which he did. Upon
inspection, it was found that the signatures
were all written in one hand, and further that
the paper was base forgery concoctcd by
this fellow Lane. And it was so pronounced
by several Senator's Senator Seward then
stated that Col Lane had desired him to say
that the paper was true copy of memorial
which he had seen sighncd by all the members
of the Free State Legislature. The paper
was then rejected by vote Of 80 to 3. Its
subsequent fate will be asccrtaincd by pcris-
ing the following extract from letter of Mr..
Douglass.
Your friend, Col Lane, rested under those
charges until the next week, when he attempt
ed to exculpate himself not by calling on the
Senators who made the charges for an cxpla-
nation, but by presenting petition signed by
himself with the original memorial made
,,nu Of tl,, dad
which had been rejected on the previous Thurs
day, might also be received and inviting
comparison between the two, with view of
enabling the Senate to determine whether the
one which the Senate had rejected was copy
or forgery. AS the chairman Of the commit
tee having charge of Territorial affairs, it
become my appropriate duty to institute the
comparison which had been invited by Col
Lane in his petition and to give the Senate
the result of my investigation. | found that
while the rejected copy lurrorted to be au-
thenticatcd by the signatures Gall in one hand
writing of the members Of that spurious Log
islature, the original, from which it was pre-
tended to have been copied, had no signature
at all attached to it, and no authorization
whatever, except an eyasiyc affidavit taken
that day before Judge Mclean.
also found that the first three pages Of the
original were entirely suppressed in the pre-
tended copy. | also found many Other mate
rial omissions and supprcssionS many interpo-
lations and alterations running all through the
paper, aud changing its whole character, not
only in form, but in substance and principle.
| exposed these things to the Senate in plain
and unmcasnred terms as it was my right and
duty to do. did not go ont oil my way to
criminate or eXculpate any one. | dealt with
the fraudulent paper as it came before me in
the line OF my duty, and left the authors OF
the nqnity free to pursne their own course.
showed that the original memorial which it
is alleged was adopted by the spurious Legs-
laturc Of Kansas, was based on the fnndamen-
tai idea or principle that Congress had no
power to establish governments for the Terri.
tories, that the Kansas Nebraska act was I'M
constitutional and void for that reason that
the people of the Territories owed no allie.
glance to the Governments which had been OF
should be established by Congress in the Ter
, ritories; and hence they had an inherent right
to take the steps which they had taken to
> overthrow the Territorial authority of Con
gress. | also showed that in the pretended
copy all this had been suppressed since the is
a sue was made up between the two parties by
q the reports OF the ma orlty and minority of the
Committee on Territories and in lieu of it hat
y been inserted an humble petition to Congress
$ recognizing its authority, and praying for it
i interpostion. In short, showed and prove,
t by a comparison of the two papers, that TIN
+ pretended copy was not copy in any sense o
:, the word-that it was spurious, fraudulen
paper; in other words, that it was base ant
d impudcnt forgery. No Senator did, no mai
}, in or out of the Senate can, yindicate the pape
J. from this just condemnation.
The most forciblc comments could add moth
ing to the weight of this simple narrative q
C facts nor show up in a stronger light the chal
u acter of the base fraud and forgery pcrpctrate'
by Lane. Wounded under this whitening c,
q posuyc and writhing like Prometheus on hi
~ rock, Col. Lane gave out that he would cha
J. lenge Mr.. Douglass, and the Free Soil news
papers even went so far as to mention the tim
10 at which the hostile message was to be sen
70 Rather queer proceeding for a hero to pull
VI lish his beligerent designs beforehand whic
u would have no other effect, as Senator Dou!