Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1859-09-27
Correspondence.
Icorespondence 81 the Meigs Co. Telegraph
senator TfnnbuII I'm Ohio.

september II, 1859.
The announcement that Senator Trum.
bull Of Illinois. the distinguished colleague
and dissector of Stephen A. Douglas,
would speak at Bellefontain to-day, created
quite . sensation among the people, of this
and adjoining counties, who have watched
and admired his public career; and at the
appointed hour a large crowd had assem-
bled to hear him. He is tall, slim, wiry
man, whiskered and spectacled, with a
compact forehead, piercing blue eyes, and
mouth Of infexible frmness, which
closes at the end Of an emphatic sentence
as if never again 10 open. There is moth
ing of the actor in his manner, but his de-
livery, though perhaps i little labored, is
unaffected and simbued with the ap-
pearance Of sincere conviction. His only
gesture is made with the long fore-fnger Of
his right hand, with which he emphasizes
his periods, aud forces into the heart Of
his antagonist, as it were, his decisive con-
clusions. After listening to him for ten
minutes you well understand why
Douglas shoaid wish 70 avoid that terri
bic fore-fpgef when directed against him
by the Incarnation Of pitiless Logic"
who wields it. l
The present campaign in Ohio is waged
by our opponents solely on the zone idea"
of popular sovereignty, aud "the head boy
of the GLASS;" as Trumbull calls Douglas,
lis himself earnestly at work, teaching the
new dogma. AS know ofuothing which
could more concluslvely expose the fall
lacies of this patented hobby than the
speech heard to-day, / have thought it
might be bothFinteresting and useful to
send you as good a report of it as ! could
crowd into reasonable limits. For the
sake of perspicuity / shall drop henceforth
the Reporters style, and present, as well
as l am able, The substance of the argu-
ment.
. The political year of 1852 dawned au-
spiciously upon the country. Both of the
then existing parties were alarmed at the
dangerous form which the agitation of
Slavery threatened to take, and solemnly
pledged themselves to discountenanee all
attempts to renew it anywhere, or in any
form. The South had secured the passage
of stringent law for the rendition of fugl-
Lives--the North had al the same time Sc
cured to freedom the States and Territories
acquired from Mexico-aH the Territories
were pledged to freedom-and by these
successive Compromises" the question
was avowedly settled. How different the
aspect ofafairs nowl Not a speech has
been delivered on national politics for the
last five years. whose burden was not
Slavery" No other question despite the
efforts of trimmers, can. now command at
tention. In a time of profound peace this
question, SO momentous that it excludes
all others and so vexations that it threat
ems to divide the country into parties of
ungoverned passion, rather than of tenn
perate difference of opinion, has been
sprung upon the country without an hon
est purpose or without decent pretext.
Who irresponsible (orall this? Whoever
he may be, how is he better than traitor?
We have only to go back 20 the year
1854 to discover at once the origin of the
present political parties and the source of
the present agitation. Then it was that
the Missouri Compromise was repealed,
by the passage Of Douglas Kansas-Ne-
braska Act, and the Territories opened to
Slavery. Then it was that compromises
ceased to be worth the paper on which
they were written, and the North was
forced either 70 take stand of .open op-
position to the Slave Power or to sue
cumb to its every demand. Then it was
that were organized, the one on the prin-
ciple. of legislation for Slavery, and the
other against it, the. present Democratic
and Republican parties. Then it was that
began the "irrepressible conflict of which
this campaign in Ohio is an important
battle. And then twas that lecturers and
writer's first sought to lay the spirits they
had reused thoughout the land. by utter
ing andluniting hequack charm of Pop
ulor Sovereignty. 'l
And for whose benefit was this great
principle discovered and applied? The
Territories did not wish it, for they were
then an unpeopled wilderness. Did ii
benefit the people Of the States? How
many of them have SIN interest in the re-
moyal ofobstacles to the spread ofslavery?
To all but the Shareholder, the institution
is confessedly an injury. Of the free
whites Of this nation, but one man in sixty
holds slave; of the whites in the South