The weekly Mississippian. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1859-1864, 1859-07-06

i his position IN regard to the Presidency
WAsHrNaToS, JUNE I'D.
B. losss Esq, Dubugnas loxa--M y Z dsaEl
have .iI;,;iiii Luz URN
- ~ my ends M - liberty to preser
ny mime to the Charleston Convention 70
= Presidential nomination. Before this cues
ton can be finally determined, it will be neces
n sary to understand distinctly upon what is
). sue the canvass is, to be conducted
: Ii, as have full faith they will, the Demo
cratic party shall determine in the Presiden
5 tial election of 1860 to adhere to the principle
embodied in the compromise measures 0
1850, and ratified by the people in the Presi
!. dental election of 1852, re-affimed in the Kan
sas-Nebraska act of 1854 and incorporated
with the Cincinnati platform of 1856, as ex
pounded by Mr.. Buchanan in his letter ac
j cepting the nomination, and approved by tht
people in his election; in that event m,
friends will be at liberty to present my name
to the Convention, if they see proper to do so
Ii, on the contrary, it shall become the poll
cy OF the Democratic party (Which | can not
anticipate to repudiate their time -honored
principles on which we have achieved so many
patriotic triumphs, and in lieu of them the
Convention shall interpolate into the creed OF
the party such new issues as the revival Of
the African slave trade, or Congressional
slave code for the Territories-on the doctrine
that the Constitution of the United States
either establishes or prohibits slavery in the
Territories beyond the power of the people,
legally to control it as other property--it is
due to candor to say, that, in such an event,
| could not accept the nomination if rendered
| to me.
Trusting that this answer will be deemed
/ lncff r IL
i Your friend,
s. A. DOUGLAS.
This presumptuous manifesto has provoked
smile of derision or of contempt wherever it
has been read. There is sublimity of alb
stlrdity in the idea that Douglas should speak
with an air Of gravity of his nomination for the
Presidency at the hands of party whose con-
fidence, he has so wantonly abused, which
battles all attempts at serious remark but
the whole thing rises to an incalculable height
of preposterousness when the same reckless
undertaken of adventures arrogates to his IN
fallible self the Office of prescribing line of
policy for the guidance of the party. If Ar
mold from the cayernous depths of infamy to
which his treason had consigned had sent forth
his voice to proclaim the condition upon which
he would consent to become the generalissmo
of the revolutionary army, this manifesto of
Douglas might find its parallel.
The reader will not fail to note that the
thing was gotten up by its author chiefly to
pandeetaa yitiated and we fear predominant |
Eati-slayerv spptiment
I-zfistasce. who OF ali the aasecates OF I
the re opening of the african slave trade has
proposed to carry that question into the ap- |
preaching Convention of the National Demoe-
racy And what means the phrase-"a Con-
gressional slave code for the Territories ?''-i
It is inappropriately applied to the constitu-
tional proposition that the South is entitled to,
and ought to have, adequate protection from
the federal government for the slave property
of her citizens who settle in the common ter
rItories, to arouse against it the sectional pre-
judices of the ignorant and anatical masses
in the Northern States While it is clear
declaration against this unquestionably just
proposition and is plea for "squatter soyer-
eighty" in its most offensive form, it is an un-
/
mistakeable bid for anti-slavery sympathy and
support. OF course the expedient of the mis-
cradle thimblerigger viii sink him still lower
in the estimation of the true Democracy,
North as well as South while the Abolition
lists themselves win scarcely be willing to trust
one who has discovered to the world his re-
markable capacity TO betray.
With every returning day, is increased the
strength of our conviction that the Democrat-
ie party, or those who have guided its fortunes,
have not administered the proper treatment
to this inscriptions demagogue. Thanks to
an Independent and outspoken press, and to
the unbiased judgment of the honest people
to whom they have appealed, he has been put
under the ban Of public opinion, but still there
has been shown disposition in many influen-
tial quarters to tolerate his apostacy, to humor
his whims and to avoid the force of his sup
posed influence. When it became patent to
the world that he had sold himself to the enc
mics Of the South and entered into compact
with Seward & Co., instead of treating him
as spoiled child and soothing him with dull
Get words and gentle strokes, he ought to have
been scourged until every pore of his callous
hide was red with blood-orhe ought to have
been drtunmed out of the nnks, with all the
honors of deserter. And when he returned
TO Illinois, to scramble with Lincoln for seat /
IN the Senate, he ought to have been left to
the tender mercies Of his new made abolition
friends-eyery Southern Democrat, at least
looking on with indifference and exclaiming
Eight dog, fghEbear,
- " I7s1l3ls theFe ~
Incapable Of approaching = q ~ "a.
toleration Of those whose confidence hi had
betrayed, he has construed their conductinto
concession to his heresies and dread OF
Ibis power, and viii continue to weld the