The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1857-10-06
SENATOR DOUGLAS BY AN OPPO.
SITION PAPER

A. Douglas, by the editor of a ''Republican"
paper, The Newburyport (Mass.) Herald,
is graphic and amusing. According to our
policy of giving every shade of opinion
fair hearing, we let this writer speak for
himself. 1t appears that he was passen-
ger with Judge Douglas in a trip in the cars
from St. Louis to Chicago, at the close of
the celebration of the opening of the Ohio
and Mississippi Railroad in June last:
That little man, with big, round head,
brow almost as broad as Webster's, and
quick. active eye, that rolls under the
heavy, projecting brow, watching every
other man and not allowing motion to es-
cape him-with arms too short for his body,
which is full and round, as though it never
lacked the juices which supply life; and
| with small. duck legs. which, had they
grown as thick as his back bone land they
would, probably, if Providence had not fore
seen that he would want more backbone
than legs in his battle of life) would have
made him of respectable stature-that little
man is no less than the great politician of
| the West, who has attracted more attention
in the last four years than any other man
! of the nation. and done more to give direc-
ton to public affairs than even the Presi-
dent. with million and half voters at his
back and the army, navy and treasury of
! North America at his command. 1t is the
Little Giant" Stephen A. Douglas, with
whom parted company at Vincennes,
and who has slowly come along. feeling the
public pulse to learn the political health of
the suckers" up to Springfield, the capitol
of the State.
The means of success in Senator Doug
las are very apparent. First, he is really
and intellectually a great man. Eastern
people who view him only as e. low politi-
clan. should dsabuse their minds in relation
70 one who is to exercise wide influence
in the affairs of the country, and very pro-
bably-for he is yet young-to be the head
of the Republic. He is massive in his con-
ceptons, broad and comprehensive in his
views, and in a good measure is endowed
with all those powers of mind that make a
statesman.
But he is greater still in energy of char
acter. There are those who think that a
defeat of him next year would te his death
in politics; but the man who sprung from
a cabinet makers shop in Vermont, and
without father or friend worked his way to
an honorable place upon the bench OF
Judges who entered Illinois with less than
fifty cents in money. and not one cent in
credit, and has acquired great wealth, and
the highest station and influence, is not east
ly to be whipped out. But if he is great in
mind, and greater in energy, he is greatest
in those winning manners for which the
world calls him demagogue. Scarcely a
man woman, or child in the cars escaped his
attention, or was passed by unspoken to.
At one moment he talks with the old,
sternvisaged politician, who has beon eour-
ed by thousand defeats and disappoint-
ments in the next, to that we'll formed and
genial Kentuckian, who has just sought a
free State; now he sits down with the little
girl approaching her teens, and asks of her
school studies; and he pats the little boy
on tho head, and in the presence of his fond
mother and proud father, (what father is
not proud to see his boy noticed y says a
word of his mild eyes or glossy locks
Agnn the lady is approached with fair
word and bland smile, and goes home
pleased to tell her husband or father how he
looks, or what he says; and then half a
| oh Ill IL
He can talk religion with the priest as well
as politics with the statesman he can con-
gratu ate the newly appointed Buchanan
officeholder, who has supplanted his friend,
tell the displaced friend of the good time
coming" when his wing shall be up and
at every station, more regularly than the
| conductor, Mr.. Douglas is upon the plat
form with a good bye to the leaving, and a
welcome to the departing traveler--a shake
of the hand with the man that stands at the
depot, and a touch of the hat to another.
He knows everybody; can tell the CUES
ton that affects each locality; call the
name of every farm owner on the way; tell
all the travellers something of the homes
they left, that they never knew themselves,
and suggest what they are adapted 70: in
this life, and what place they deserve in
heaven. Now, such a man as that, in con-
tact with everybody, knowing every body.
and capable of pleasing every body, and at
the bottom wrapped up with the one idea
of preferment, power, and dominion among
men, is not easily to be put down; and his
opponents might well believe at once.
that when they fight him they fight strong
man--a little giant indeed. He would be
popular in Boston or anywhere else, and
half the 'three thousand clcrgymen'' he
denounced, would have their hearts stolen,
if he could speak to them half hour"
! Bishop ATKINsoN.-Bishop Atkinson, of
North Carolina, preached in the Monument
tai Church on last Sunday morning, and in