Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian., 1858-12-18

oio~oso VI our adventurous and generous
people. II these qualities had been Joined to
sincere moral worth and an honest and hon.
orable purpose, there is no ace in the affec-
tons Of his country to which STEPHEN A.
DOUGLAS might not aspire. But Providence.
which seldom sends upon earth . perfect CON-
bination Of character, has denied him those ele-
ments which belong to a truly great man. The
internal vigor Of his character may drive him
through obstacles to success, but success onlv
serves todisplay his lack of moral elevation and
the littleness Of his aims. His speeches have al.
ways exhibited the traits of a common place
mind. From all that he has spoken or written
mis- admirers cannot select one sentence that
would indicate either originality or profoundly
OF thought; one allusion which would show a
spirit kindred with anything beautiful or no.
ble in the whole world Of intellect that has
preceded him; one generous sentiment that
would serve to lift himself or his audience
| above the low routine of common and sordid
life.
His speeches in the late contest were only
charges rung on the word niger" L" niger"
order Of populace and denial of the funda-
appeals to the brutal prejudices of the lowest
mental truths Of the Declaration of Indepen.
dence.
1t may be said that this is ascribable to his
practical nature, and his advocates may de-
fend him by contrasting it with the mawk-
ishness Of weaker intellects. But there is
wide distinction to be drawn between the SEN
timentalities of the hero of novel and those
high associations of thought which are the
natural accompaniments of great mind, and
which flow naturally from important events
and occasions. DOUGLAS whole career has
exhibited common and even low intellect
urged on by great internal force Of character
His political stations have placed him above
his proper range, and, as a consequence, we
find him readily falling into blackguardism,
but never rising into sublimity.
The efforts and aspirations of such . man,
would, in ordinary times, be matters of very
little importance, but fortunately, or unfortu-
nately, an all-wise Providence, working all
things to its own good ends, has selected him
to play an important part in the great moral
movement Of our country, and his relations to
to that movement give him an importance not
otherwise belonging to the man.
When the storm in which the Republican
party was born, burst upon the land, it found
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS at ashington intriguing
for the Presidency by the old and often used
nleSps, subserviency to the South. To in
sure success he seemed determined to out
Herod Herod; to go farther than the farthest;
and he had accordingly made most bold and
novel move on the national board when the
Fremont vote put a new face on the whole
game. A strange force was in the field and
one SO potent that the very instruments de-
vised for the benefit of the South were turned
into implements of torture to be used against
her. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS could not utterly
overlook the Republican movement; it was
more than a party, it was great sentiment,
made of the very stuff from which were
formed our institutions and with its index
finger pointing steadily to the future. No
man could completely estimate it; no man
could measure its length and breadth; it had
sprung fully armed from the brain of the peo-
pie and once i'll the field it was impossible to
ioreteli its movements STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS
did not look at all this with the eye of phil
osOpher or a statesman; he could not trace
back the roots of this great movement until
they were found twining themselves around
the bones of our patriot fathers. To him the
whole thing was an existing fact that lay
across his path and which must be either
avoided or overcome. The trucker to the
South who had bent the plant hinges of the
knee that thrift might follow fawning," sud-
denly, like clown in the ring, doffed his old
suit and came out in new character. The
world was then for the first time assured that
the author of the Kansas and Nebraska Act
had brought it forward from q high love Of
liberty and to advance free institutional The
trickster turned q somersault and came down |
a patriot. The slave owner was seen in the |
act of throwing open the wide doors of the |
West to freedom. With the adroitness of
Uriah Heep he was found adapting himself to |
the dispensations of Divine Providence and |
drawing from the very blows that had fat !
tened him out honor and self congratulation
Poor Mr.. BUCHANAN, who like the peasants !
of Italy had lived all his life over slumber-
ing earthquake, was paralyzed when it burst
forth. He could not adapt his old brain to |
the nature Of it 1t crooked his reflective |
and apologetic neck crookeder than ever His |
wretched and solitary heart could not take in |
the vast proportions Of this great sentiment |
which invoked neither the tariff question nor |
the bank question neither free trade nor
homo protection, nor any of the dead ques-
tons Of the past; and yet dealt in flesh and |
blood and rights and wrongs more pressing
and pertinent than any Of these. He had
always knelt at one shrine, the President
making South he could not believe that in
his old age any new god would arise greater
than this. 1t was all delusion Anti Christ
had come and the old man clung to the fit
ting and fading dream of the past
Not so Douglass With his eye still on the
White House, the little wretch, uniting in
himself the determination of Jackson with
the craft of Van Buren, but without the
honesty of the one or the polish of the other,
hurried to Illinois, and there commenced the
battle ever fought in our political
history. It was the contest Of Wrong against