The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1858-08-21
HIM, r. l.. Dickey.


DouaLAs DEuocRAcY.-Judge Dicksy, in |
his letter indorsing Douglas, says the Demo
cratic party, while protesting popular SOW
ereienty, is doing all in it. power to nationa-
lize Slavery, and the Times and other Doug
las Democratic q papers indorse this false.
hood by publishing the letter with common
datory comments. Such is Douglas Dem
ocracy.-Chicago Herald.
Similar articles to the above in other ''Na-
tiona" ard Republican papers, together
" tn an avalanche of personal abuse poured
out upon Judge Dickey for which their was
no provocation and can be no excuse, rem
der it no more than just that we should say
4 word in explanation and defence.
The personal abuse Judge D. has received
is ungenerous as the ground Of it is false
The burden of it is, that Judge d. has al
ways had an ungovsrnable itching for Of
fee, and because he failed to have this quail
fled in the Republican ranks, he has turned
his coat and gone over to the Democracy
Both are false. Judge d. has never been
characterised by q greed for Office, never
sought Office from the Republicans. and has
not, as We understand it, 'Joined the Dem
ocracy." Judge D.. ever since We have
known him, and the acquaintance dates back
eighteen years, has been an honest, straight
forward Henry Clay National Wing, and
nothing else. He was such uncompronis-
ingly and unequivocaly, during fourteen
years, at least, while LaSals county, and
this whole congressional district was over
whelmingly democratic, and wing stood
no more chance for Office here than a man
who is not an abolitionst does now. Yet al.
ways leading, prominent man, popular and
winning in his ways, will it be pretended
that had he been Influenced by an ungov-
! ernable itching for Office, he could not have
had it grcttfied by deserving his party and
joining the Democrats In doing so, Judge
d. would at least have been able to plead
the example Of good many prominent Re-
publican leaders whom We could name, who
were wings at the east, became democrats
in Illinois, and again deserted the democracy
when Office seemed most attainabls by Join
ing the republicans. Judge d. never did
anything Of the kind.
At the disruption of the whis party in
1854, and the organization OF the republican
party on its ruins, Judge d. like thousands
Of other honest wings, was in doubt where
to go. Cherishing all his old hatred of the
democracy, he rs cordially hated what Henry
Clay had called the miserable abolition fac
ton" In his strait, he joined the republic
cans conditionally, with the hope that, by
prudent management, it might be rescued
from the gulf Of abolitionism towards which
he clearly saw it rapidly tending. With this
view he attended and frequently addressed
republican meetings, ever protesting and
fighting against the evident abolition pro-
clivitiss Of the party. 1t was in this spirit
that he sought, in 1856, to defeat the nom
ination Of Lovejoy in this district; but he
was not, as has been falsely charged can
didate before the convention against him,
himself, and the wings acting with him hav-
ing supported an entirely different man.
That convention, however, and through its
action the republican party Of this district,
having been swallwed up bodily by old line
abolitonism, Judge D. refused longer to
act with the party of this district. He op-
posed Lovejoy, and was at one time persuad-
ed by the old line Wings, that had thus far
stood shoulder to shoulder with him, to take
the stump against Lovejoy, although the
project was finally abandoned.
On the nomination of Fremont, however,
and the construction of tho Philadelphia
platform, ID which Judge d. imagined he
saw abo!itionism utterly ignored and scout
ed, cherishing all his old hatred Of the dem
ocracy, and parti uiarly as represented in
the person Of Mr.. Buchanan, he attached
himself to the Fremont republican party"
although he still refused to act with the
"Lovejoy republicans" at home. In the
Fremont party" he imagined he saw COM
bined nearly ali the old wig elements of
hostility to the democracy, while at the
same time it was purgcd of the putrid sore
of abolitionism that gave it such stencil
about home. How true this was, we shall
not stop to inquire. No man who knows
Judge d. and is disposed TO be candid, will
at least doubt but he as honest in his views,
and being thus honest, must admit that his
whole political course thus far had been
Straightforward and consistent, and admit
ting this, be must also admit, that his course
so far from evincing an inordinatc greed for
office, was just such an one that would be
most likely to defeat any political aspirations
he might have cherished.
Having thus answered the personal abuse,
and indicated the consistency Of Judge D.
we are also prepaid from this brief
SIX etch, to understand and appreciate his
present position. We 10 not understand
Judge ID. as having either turned his coat,
or Joined the Douglas or any other dem
ocracy," nor did we or the Chicago Times,
that we are aware of s.endorse" the position
of Judge d. by publishing his letter with
'cominendatory comments" AS Judge ID.
in 1856 refuses to act with the Republican
party OF this district because it was wholly
debauched with abolitionisin, for the same
reason he now refused to act with the Re-
publican party Of this state, because ho
holds, and we believei it ia susceptible of the
clearest proof. that, by endorsing the senti-
men,s Of Lincoln's April speech, and the
nomination of Farnsworth, Lov.joy, &C.,
the whole Republican party Of this state has
abandoned the Philadelphia platform and
become debauched with abolitionism. The
ejaculation Of 1866, as Lovejoy would say,
has b, oxen out in the party all over t. state
Ike the small pox. While Judge D. (and
We can say there are hundreds of other
nFremopt RenuhIicans" about here in the