Arkansas true Democrat., 1858-01-05
The Speech of Douglas.

Great events are on the eve of birth The dirty little village which struggles along the marshv banks of the Potomac and desecrates the name of Washington, Is about to become the scene of q struggle as memorable as any which ever split the ink of historians or decided the late of nations. Its long and spider eb streets, Its wretched and costly taverns infested by mos luItoes Tn summer, by congressman in wluter and by fever ans. ague and hack drivers all the tune, are now thronged with people anx- louS about other things than the manufacture of l DunkumS or the pIunder of the treasury. After great outcry and bitter sectional strife, the sovereign States of thlS nation have contided their central agency at Washington to the great democracy-and now sudden and formidable revolt has arisen in the ranks of that great party, and threatens to deliver ever practical veto on democratic measures into the hands of the eue- mics of one-half of the country.
 The teterr1naa causa beM is the weary, stale, fiat and unprodtable Kansas question That distracted territory has prepared a constitution with the intent to ask of this Congress admis- sion as a State. It has disposed of the noisy slave question by leaving to the people of Kan sas to determine whether slavery shall or shall not exist in the new State, and by self acting provision of the schedule, the application for admission is to be made whether the people keep in or strike out the slavery clause All this Is so Tn conformity with the Kansas bill, the Cincinnati platform and the general senti- ment of the democracy, that the impartial ob- server cannot but wonder that any reasonable man, disposed to submit to the will of the ma. lority much less any democrat bound by the usages and the desires of his glorious party, should because of this result raise rebellion in its ranks, or desert to those of the enemy Yet Stephen A. Douglas, the author and champion of the Nebraska Kansas bill, the Agamemnon of the last Congress. but perhaps, alas, the BriSeS- losing Achilles of the Cincinnati con vention, has raised the standard of revolt aud amidst the applause of the men whose minions lately hooted him and the gravest sadness of the men who lately embraced and defended him, made a set speech against the party to which he owes all he is, and which has hitherto been always eager to do him honor.
 We have laid this speech before our readers in full. They, in common with all good demo- crats, will doubtless lament over his loss as a fathe aments over the disgrace of his first brn. The democracy pursnes its principle regardte less of men, and therefore those who stand in its way must fall but there will be lamentation over Douglas in the bosom of the democracy sncerer thon any rejoicing in any new found companonship he can ever form. It was we'll and nobly said ot Calhoun, by political enemy: C. Ths conquering wave
 Kissed, as it sank, his hrow's majestic pride
 And waved in ntournful murmurs OCT his grave '' The conquering wave of democracy will bear sad hearts on its breast as it overwhelms Dou slas
 | The speech itself is fierce and powerful: in parts it is acute and plausible, but we have searched through it in vain for any argument of force enough to draw democrats from their party allegiance. The leading idea it contains is that, the Kansas bill pledges the party to sub. init to the actual residents of Kansas, not only the slavery clause, but every clause of the pro- posed constitution. It argues with great force and adroitness the right of the people to self. government and the consequent right to vote separately and distinctly on every provision oi | the organic law. clear statement of this de- mand is enough to refute it without argument It is an impossibility. The people at large car only vote on some single and we'll defined issue The very use of convention chosen by the people, IS to form constitution approximatins to the wishes of the majority in most things If this constitution should be submitted to tht people clause by clause, what sort of an instru
 ment would remain after ciphering up the ma jorities on each clause and striking out the sen tences voted down? If the constitution wert submitted to the people as a whole which the, might accept or reject as whole, how does tha
 give them the right to determine on each sepa
 rate clause as Mir. Douglas demands? No-i is plain that the people are sufficiently consulted
 when they elect representatives to frame con
 stitution, and especially when the real matter il