Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1859-09-14


again upon the dodge Of his late Illinois cam
paign. He is playing "traveling menagerle,
aided by MANY of the usual appliances OF that
"peculiar institution" Of our country-oill post
inc cutelv prepared advertisements, newspaper |
pufing.) brass brands claquers by hundreds, |
&c. &c. The only one of those appliances not |
vet resorted to In his behalf Is the mammoth |
gilded chariot drawn by forty spans Of horses 1t
is high time that his followers had provided that
Else their osher efforts to make effective sensa-
tons everywhere he goes, may prove failures
after all. Ee is now speaking from railroad
platforms in the West wherever the cars hearing
him stop for five minutes His presence on the
train Is announced everywhere in advance of his
appearance; and at the West idle folks cluster
around railroad stopping places when passenger
trains are expected, far more than with u.s. he al
ways finds a crowd, great small, ready, az such
crowds invariably are, to shout themselves hoarsc
over any political speech, over a crazy or drum
ken man; and hoarser, over the didoes Of a drum
| ken woman. So he is having another ''tiumph-
| al speaking tours Of 1t, as marked with loud
| popular demonstrations ever were the similar
tours Of ''the Hon. Daniel Pratt, the great Ameri-
| can traveller, and selfnominated standing candi-
date for the Presidency" as he call himself.
| The political labor Of his (Douglass) present
tour is to fix his doctrine Of squatter sovereignty
II
wherein the Opposition are in the ascendency. Yet
alarmed at the reception at the South Of his last
bid for abolition sympathy he is again approach
ing that section Of the Confederacy with honeyed
phrases, in none OF which, however, does he take
back his declaration Of adherence to the doctrine
that the squatters in Territories may lawfully de-
prive the citizens Of Southern States Of coequal
| rights in the common property Of all the sover-
| eigns of the American Union. On the contrary,
he classes those who maintain that squatters have
| no such power under the law and Constitution
| the whole South-in a category with those at the
North who claim the right Of Congress to interfere
against the existence Of slavery in the Territories;
which he now holds to be the right only Of squat
tiers, maintaining, also, that the courts Of the
United States may not raise finger by way Of in
terfering with the operation Of any - unfriendly
legislation" with reference to the coequal rights
of the South to which the squatters may resort in
the prosecution of the purposes Of the Emigrant
Aid Societies sending them out.
| Such Is the platform Mr.. Stephen Arnold Doug
las has erected for himself In mounting it, he has
deliberately bartered the votes Of every savehold
ing State for the votes Of such at the North as may
fancy his phase Of abolitionsm more than the less
insidious phase Of it involved in the platform Of
| Senator Seward. How he is gradually creeping
sup in the degrees Of abolitonism, is aptly illus
traed in the following extract from the Louisville
| Journal:
''Mr. Douglas has fully and thoroughly aban-
| doned the ground which he has held hitherto in
| Congress, and which he taught and labored with
all his ingenuity and strength to enforce through
out the whole Of his last energetic in li-
| nols. In that canvass whenever called on by his
| vigorous competitor or by the gathered multitude
say II Southern men possess and should enjoy
the right of holding slaves in the Territories dur
ing the territorial condition, his uniform and i'm
mediate reply was that the question was one to be
4 decided by the Supreme Court of the United
States and that the decision of that high tribunal
| whatever IT might be, must necessarily be final
and binding upon all parties concerned This
| very poi was argued more frequently and more
| deliberately than any other between him and Mr.
| Lincoln-he contending for the supreme authority
of the court in relation to slavery in the Terrific
| ries. and Mi Lincoln insisting that, if the court
should declare slavery to exist in the Territories
by the force Of the United States Constitution the
| decision should not be executed by the govern
ment.
" But Mr.. Douglas has now abandoned this
ground and comedies no more power or right to the
| supreme Court than his competitor did in their
| Illinois canvass when the two were battling daily
| aud nercely with each other upon that very sub
Ject He argues not only that the court has no
power to settle the question of the right of men
hold slave property in the Territories, but that it
ought not To have it. He insists that the 50 uaters
| possess and should USE the power to decide the
| whole matter for themselves without any inter-
pos ton from either the Judicial the Legislative
or the Executive branch of the Federal Govern
ment- He assumes not only that there is no RENE
| dy FOR Southern men in the event of war being
] made upon their property i'm the Territories by
hostile legislation or hostile non-legislatioh, but
| that there should be rone-that there would be no
wrong or grievance or just cause Of complaint in
The case. The Supreme Court that he talked so
much about he really considers of no more prac-
tcu importance in respect to slavery in the Terri
| :erIes than the dctum of Northern magistrate
| an this he thinks is as 1t should ben
i