The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1857-09-19
senator Douglas, by an Opposition Paper,

Senator Douglas, by an Opposition Paper. |
The following sketch of hon. Stephen A. !
Douglas, by the editor of Republican pa
per, the Newburyport (Mass) Herald, is
graphic and amusing. According to our
policy Of giving every shade of opinion a
fair hearing, we let this writer speak for him
self. 1t appears that he was passenger
with Judge Douglas on 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 rs Webster's. and a
quick, active eye, that rolls under the heavy
projecting brow, watching every other man,
and not allowing a motion to escape him
with arms too shor. for bis body, which is
full and round, as though it never lacked the
juices that supply life; and with small duck
legs, which, had they grown as thich as his
backbone land they would probably if Pro-
violence had not foreseen that he wanted
backbone more than legs in the 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 at
! tracted more attention in the last four years
! than any other man of the nation, and done
! more to give direction to public affairs than
even the President, with million and a half
voters at his back, and the army, navy, and
/ treasury of North America at his command.
I 1t is the Little Giant" Stephen \. Doug
| las, with whom we parte at Nincennes, and
who has slowly come along, feeling the pub
lie pulse to know the political pulse OF the
Suckers" up to Springfield, the capital Of
the State.
| The means Of success in Senator Douglas
are very apparent. First he is really and
intellectually n great man. Eastern people
who view him only as low politician, should
disabuse their minds in relation TO one who
is to exercise wide influence in the affairs
of the country, and very probably-for he
is vat young-to be the head of the Repub
lie. He is massive in his conceptions, broad
and comprehensive in his views and in a
good measure is endowed with all those
! powers Of mind that make statesman.
But he is greater still in energy of charac-
ter. There are those who think that de-
feat of him next year would be his death in
politics; but the man who sprung from
cabinet-maker's shop in Vermont, and with
out 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 aud not one cent IN credit, and has
acquired great wealth and the highest sta
ton and influence, is not easily to be whip
ped out. But if he is great in mind, ana
greater in energy, he is greatest in those
! winning manners from which the world calls
him demagogue. Scarcely man, woman,
or child in he cars escaped his attention, or
was passed by unspoken to. At one moment
he talks with the old, -visaged politi
clan, who has been soured by thousand
/ do Il in ~
that well-insormed and genial kentuckian,
who h 5 just sought free sta e; now he
sits down with the little girl approaching
her teens, and asks Of her school studies :;
and he pats the little boy on the head. and
/ in the presence of his fond mother and proud
father, (what father is not proud to see his
boy noticed: , says word of his mild eyes
or glossy locks.
Again the lady is approached with fair
word and bland smile, and goes home
pleased 10 tell her husband or father how he
looks and what he says, and then half a
dozen are about him, all standing together.
He can talk religion with the PRIEST well
as politics with the statesman; he can con-
gratulate the newly appointed Buchanan Of
hce-hoder, who has suppanted his friend
tell the disappointed friend OF the good
time coming" when his wing shall be up :;
the conductor Mr. Douglas is upon the plat
form with goodbye TO the leaving, and a
welcome 10 the departing traveller shake
of the hand with one man that stands at the
depot, and 4 touch of the to another. He
knows every body can tell the question that
affects each locality; cal! the name of every
farm owner on the way; tell all travellers
something of the homes they LETT THAT they
.....--- - - -..I suggest "IEss
they are adapted for IN this life, and what
place they deserve in heaven. Now, such a
man as that, in contact with everybody,
knowing everybody, and capable Of pleasing
every body, and at the bottom wrapped up
with the one idea of preterment, p wer, and
dominion among men, is not easily to be put
down; and his opponents might as well be-
lieve at once, that when they fight him they
fight strong mana little giant indeed.
He would be popular in Boston or anywhere
else, and half the " three thousand clergy
men" he denounced would have their hearts
stolen If he could speak to them half hour
Orr GRAIN MARKET.-Our commercial
column indicates largely improved feeling
of confidence in buyers accompanied yes
terday by large transactions, the present
condition of the money market considered.
The improvement on yesterdays figures for
spring wheat over those Of Friday last Is
I IleUyju fIrsUtu rsgfs n .unst la