The Ripley advertiser. [volume] (Ripley, Miss.) 1843-1897, 1856-05-15
From the Richmond Enquirer.
Stephen A. DOUGLAS.

Il is not at all surprising that the
persons implicated in the conspiracy
to impose a forged paper upon the
Senate, for genuine memorial from
the Legislature of Kansas, should
writhe and howl under the lash ofpub-
lie Indignation. Neither is it strange
tha. they should seek TO avengc their
shame on the gentlemen who were
mainly instrumental in the detection
of fraud and in the exposure Of
their villany. Foremost among these
was Senator Douglas: and accordingly
tits against him thai the gang ofcoun-
,er.reitcrs direct their assaults.
The exposure Of the fraud was com.
plete; the conviction Of guilt perfect.
There is no use, therefore, in attempt
ing to escap. the ignrminy with which
slch an Infamous act must cover every
individual implicated in the attrocious
affair But revenge is a resource
winch never fails the bascst even; and
it was determined among the bafflcd
ielons thatnp Judge Douglas, as the
instrument Of their exposure, should
fall the weight Of their resentment
With sort of guilty consistency in
crime, they resolved, moreover, that
hey would cxpiate the shame Of de.
tected forgery, by taking the life ofthe
man who had set them in the pillory
ofpopular execration. 1t happened,
fortunately for the success Of their
scheme, Mat the individual who was
deepest dyed in the guilt Of the trans
action, and who had suffered most
from the public contempt, was rcpu.
ted man of courage and desperate
resolution: Col. J. II. Lane, (not the
gallant Joseph, of lndiana,) was then
selected to execute the bloody pur-
pose; and ho set about his work with
an obvious aim at ass assination, or the
alternative result of involving Judge
Douglas in his own infamy. All at
once the Abolition papers, habitually
50 averse to violence and bloodshed,
bCgaa to talk vaiiantly of the prowess
Of their champion, and to clamor for n
iirht. Some suspicion of the courage
Of their Hector was excited by the
publicity which he contrived to impart
70 his belligerent purposes, and the
punctual advertisement, in Abolition
journals, Of the Successive steps in the
controversy.
Tha, neither Lane nor his party had
really any idea Of fight, is evident
from the ridiculous result to which
the, have conducted their pompous
preparations.
The King OF France with forty thousand men
Marched up the hill and then mached down again"
and so, after all their valiant talk and
warlihe manilcstoes, the individuals
implicated in the forgery of the Kan
sas memorial, have quietly subsidized
into pacific mood and state ofmeek
endurance ofinfamy. But they laun-
chel Parthian shaft in their retreat
u vulgar publication from the pen
Of Lane, in which he attempts to con-
rict Judge Douglas of want of princi.
pie and want ofspirit. The produc-
ton will only provoke derision, and
involve Lane in a deeper abyss Of in
fanny. The correspondence between
the parties is printed in another col |
umn Of this paper; and the reader will
admit that in this affair, as on every
other occasion, Judge Douglas be.
haved with the spirit and dignity Of a
true gentleman.
We do not wonder that the Aboli-
tionists pursue Judge Douglas with
such impiacabie hate and unscrupu-
lous resentment. From no man in the
country have they suffered SO much,
in loss of character and in the discred-
IT of their cause. BY his vigilance
their knavish schemes have been de-
tccted; by hisinvec,iye have their bra
zen bcows been blasted with the light
nlnS of popular indignation. He
hves amongst them; knows all their
vile habits and low haunts; is familiar
N''h their vulgar instincts and gfoycl-
- 1|anI".i'"s; ru icrstan1s thcif crin