The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-08-18
WASHINGTON CITY.
WEDNESDAY. AUGUST Is. 1865.
STUMP oUIBBIING IN ILLINOIS.

PIE OF JuuSe uougias more fccent sPeoeh'"' :" -
lnois. The topics ON which the senator opened the
canvass early last month already TO have fali-
ed him and he uses US as the leading subject OF
his later lucubrations. With his change Of subject
we are sorry TO see that the senator's efforts have
fallen off vastly in tone and point Ills earlier
speeches in the canvass were characterized if not
by power least by ingenuity and skill Of I'D cap
taadum appeal ; his later ones. those devoted to
ourselves, have degenorated to be the vehicles
Of absurd accusation and feeble abuse. We crit
cised his first speeches with severity and exposed
their sophistries without reserve but we treated
their author with the consideration due to talents and
conspicuous position his efforts We're adroit and
effective, if they were not candid, and we could re-
spect the ingenuity Of the workmanship though we
had lost all regard for the workman.
We find it difficult to comment his later
speeches, however, without displaying some of the
contemptuousness of emotion which they inspire We
upon speeches which are really beneath criticism.
We shall present sample Of the senator's charges
against us, in order to show with what recklessess
of misrepresentation they are characterized.
We happened, some ak weeks ago, at tho time
great efforts were making to organize Peoples
Party and to contrive platform which to rally
it, to write article against resolution which APP
peared in Of the proposed platforms of the pro-
posed party, couched in these words:
.Rsora That the constitution of every new State shall
be submitted to the people for ratification rejection be
fore being accepted by Congress :
We assailed the resolution involving the
heresy of congressional Intervention in local affairs
as requiring Congress- to interfere in the domestic
affairs Of the new States, to prescribe the modes
in which they should adopt their constitutions,
the modes in which they should perform the high
est act of State sovereignty. This was the sub
stance Of what we said:
ga State constitution Is a local affair exclusively
within the pale of the local Jurisdiction The framing Of
constitution appertans peculiarly to the sovereignty OF
State and IL subject especially and sacrediy exempt
from the unbaowed touch of Congress To contend that
Congress may interfere in the OF State mper
tnently dictate the modes in which the State author
tiles shall direct their internal concerns especially
the modes in which they shall oain their organic law
and perform of the highest acts Of State sovereignty
is ignore the whole idea of State sovereignty and to
forget the cornerstone principle Of State rights,
" 1t is this precise policy Of offensive intrusion and
impairment interference that the opposition guilty
Of in the resolution which we have quoted from their
States the precise mode in which their constitutions shall
be ratified The mode they aoganty prescribe may be
very good but the dicatiop is monstrous II Con-
gress may interfere dictate the States the modes
which they shall ordan their organic institutions, it may
dictate any regulation proceeding whatever What
would be thought Of party which should propose for
Congress to enact law requiring the States to provide
that the judges of their courts shall be elected by the
people And yet such proceeding would not be
strous If Congress dictate to the States the
in which they shall ordain their organic laws.
Such the position We took against the new
dogma of the Peoples Party and such the rea-
sons we urged in support of our opposition Be-
hold now, the commentary which Judge Douglas does
not scruple to make upon this language of onrs In
one Of HE speeches in Illinois, he says
1.-THE Washington Union comes out and declares that the
recommendation of the President that the example set
in the Minnesota shall hereafter be followed in the
admission of States is rank federalism and without
referring the President in connexion with it, declares
that Douglas advocates it, and that therefore he is trail
tor to the democratic party Iaughter.] Now, let us
the position which the Union occupies in this matter
The Union takes Mr. Buchanans recommendation, that
tho constitution of State shall be submitted to the
people, and attributes it instead of the President
and then charges the author of it as being traitor TO
the party and yet the editor Of that paper whilst thus
denouncng and branding with infamy the leading oardi
nal proposition recommended by President Buchanan has
the hardhood and mpudence to pretend to be the
of him and his administration =
Never was much misrepresentation packed
away in the Same compass. We never declared any
Recommendation of the President to be "rank
federalism" We never charged that Judge Douglas
advocate of the dogma of the people s
Party on which we were commenting, although he
himself now avows that he is. We never attributed
any Recommendation of Mr.. Buchanan to Judge
Douglass either in order to impeach the senator of
treason, or for any other purpose whatever nor,
so far as we rocolect, have we ever made the most
distant allusion to either the President himself in
connexion with this dogma of tho Peoples Party"
to which we have referred. The whole substance OF
all we have ever said on the subject is embraced
in the paragraphs we have quoted from our remarks
on the obnoxious resolution. Nobody was alluded
to in the article but the Peoples Party; and the
paragraphs we have quoted furnish the sole basis
of the string Of allegations which the senator is
palming off upon the people of Illinois. The reader
will see that not one of the senator's allegations is
founded in the truth---that they Inventions all
of them. SEQ
The inventions, too, are gratuitous, for Judge
Douglas was not mentioned in the whole course Of
the article which suggested them to his fertile inn
aginaton he had not then gone out to Illinois but
was still in the East assuring his friends of his pa
cifc intentions in regard to the English bill, and Of
his INSTRUMENTATION IN burv forever the sby.goncsn oil