Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-04-29
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TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 1856.
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from Gen Lane, in reference to his treatment by
Senator Douglass. Gen. Lane gives copy of
letter he addressed to Douglas on the 18th, call
ing for explanation as to the offensive language
used by the latter in the Senate during the dis
eussion upon the Kansas Memorial This letter
is worded in friendly manner. Douglas asked
I'LL one O'clock, to reply; then till four o'clock
and afterwards until Monday morning, when he
addressed letter to Gen. Lanes friend, .'re.
peating the ehargein the most brutal language"
and declining to communicate with the writer for
the following reasons:
First--Other Senators used language equally
Objectionable.
See...a-The Senate rejected the Kansas mem.
orial by large majority.
Third--Gen. Cass would not vouch for its gen
uineness.
Feurlh-Rumors of the purpose of hostile
meeting, promulgated through the press, of
which my request for an explanation was the
forerunner
=, Fifth--As chairman of the Committee on Ter
rItories, it was his duty to compare the memoir.
ais: and for what he mas said, stands behind his
privilege and constitutional protection.
For such cowardly and skulking course the
Illinois Senator is dissected in the following Sc
we're but deserved style, by the Kansas Senator
On my coming to Washington (says Lane) the
Senator met me with great cordially; he advised
me Of his particular regard, and pleasantly up
braided me for not giving him an opportunity to
welcome me at his house. became his guest, and
communicated with him in honest frendship.-
He thus anuihilated distance between us, and
baptized me his friend and equal, beneath his own
roof, and before his very household gods The
word Hypocrisy" is found in dictionaries because
the thing exists; when, therefore, in the Senate
Chamber, where all his deeds, by his constitu.
tional oath, ought to be bound in truth and hon
or, / found him breaking open and betraying the
conversation of an invited friend, which occurred
in his own house, as resident burglar would
break open the chest of betrayed guest; when
the conversation was related in such tortured
and misshapen manner that it ceased to be truth
and became falsehood; when, to damage the cause
of an honest and accused, but brave and hopeful
people, he struck the blow through me, their rep.
resentatiye, with vulgar atrocty of manner
which characterized the insncerity of his friend
ship-the words of which were not yet cold-and
with the vehemence that evinced the laborious
zeal with which he had studied the dictionary of
Billingsgate, common sensibility to the value of
private fame demanded that should call on him
for explanations which would lead to a proper
vindcation, as was my right. 1t was the right
he had especially sanctifed to me by his over
lures of friendship, and it was the more his duty
to give it, because the injury was done to me in
the Senate, where SANDER and falshood, if their
existence there be possible, have constitutional
protection.
Gen. Lane proceeds as follows, to reply to the
reasons given above, by Douglas, for refusing to
give an explanation:
His first statement is untrue. After my flank
explanation it was not possible for any other Sem
ator to have used such language 1t is the plea
of every ragged offender at the bar of the police
courts-'how full the world is of crime; how
many more there are like him ! but the Judges
have always oyerruled the plea. In the next
place Senator Douglas parades against me the
very injury he caused me by his personal infu-
ence and energy, and the force of party discipline
Thelothtr objections are unworthy of him, unless
perhaps, it be that of privilege. The third and
fourth objections are unworthy of his judgment
His heart, constitutionally adapted to it, pleads
privilege"
Like a heroic dog, grown insolent upon fat
diet, with his head out of the kennel he yrowls
with swollen courage, with constitutional privi-
lege at his back, behind which to retreat,
. Honored with trust similar to his from the
brave and loyal people of Kanzas, yield to the
ability for language used in debate, if he sees fit
10 avail himself of it; but yield it in the letter
only, not in its spirit; for by the spirit, while
aiming to surround with safeguards the utmost
freedom of opinion and debate in the Senate
Chamber, and SO preclude all accountability for
it. it implies and comprehends that high notion
of Senatorial decorum, candor, and truth, which
excludes the idea of wanton and malignant wrong
1t was given to protect the Senator, in the expect
alton that his duty and justice would protect all
others"
"Safely sheltered and hidden behind this con-
sttutional privilege, which exists legally in all
cases. but morally in none, Senator Douglas now
compels me TO the unpleasant alternative of pro-
testing before the public, against this personal
outrage, perpetrated where my voice then ST.
lent, and which he technically declines to repair
under every obligation Of HONOR
''Senator Douglas cajoled me into an unde-
served trust Of his sincerity He made the
guest OF his hospitality to deceive and circumvent
me. He has broken the seals of friendly conf
dence, and published it with criminal effroutery.
To make the personal indignity the greater, he
has impeached me, his friend and witness and
he has SO distorted what did say, that am un-
able to call it my own. He has inveighed with
gross criminal imputations against me. unsus-
tanned by single fact in my own history, and all
denied by the public and familiar history of Kan
zas. | so stigmatise the imputations and charges
and when sfnarting under it, and presuming on
some sincerity in our past relations Task for jus
tice or for explanations that shall lead to Justice
he hunts out from the Constitution that magical
word for weak kneed spirits-fPrivilege r--and
flies to his eovfr.
The public shall be our judges. To this COM
plexion has it Gomez Is the ferocious braggari
heroism of the Senate chamber--whch boasts in
its place of having gazed down pistol barrels
only that quality which "oozes out at the finger
ends, and expires outside of the portals Of the
chamber Are treachery falsehood, cowardice
~ oesset oeSousS 1ney are prlu'skeu! IS PRIV
lege to have another meaning Win the Sena.
tor from Illinois abuse it, and make want of cour-
age and privilege convertible and equivalent
terms? appeal from the attrocious conduct o.
the Senator from Illinois, and submit to the hon
est public, and its just sense and conviction, that
in morals, no elevation of place can dignity and
protect injustice-that because person is hum
BILE, his oppression becomes more aggravated, and
he is doubly within the protection OF all honora-
bic men above him--that accusation and account
ability always go together; that character as
sailed may always compel the accuser to the
proofs and If the offender becomes fugitive from
this plain duty. and attempts to retire 10 legal
suoterfuges, public justice will take up the retri-
euuon OF the wrong, pursue him over his legal
oarrlers, and whip the volator Of the universal
laws OF friendship and hospitality, and the SLAM
MS refuge ]. II. LANE.
Washington City, National Hotel, No "a.