Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-09-24
SOAP AND sQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY.
7. W. PORTER.

SOAP AND sQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY.
PIrrsBURoH, Pa. Sept. IL, 1859.
ED. BUoLE: Permit me to send you q few
words on Soap and Sq%uatter Sovereignty.
In this city we have recently been favored with
the visits of two somewhat renowned, live Yam
KEGS, one hailing from Connecticut, and the other
originally, | believe from Vermont. The former
has made himself somewhat celebrated by his sue
cess in selling Professor Gardeners Soap-being
the Prof. himself each cake lonly 25 cts.) hav-
ing a likeness of the seller, who is distinguished
by wearing a blue cap. His verbosity and elo-
quence in favor of the good qualities Of his soap
are great. for there seems 10 be no end 30 his soap
stories, both in prose and rhyme, in e%xtolling its
super excellence. | suppose he puts the right
sort OF ley (qu. lie p in as one Of the ingrede-
ments, rs DR.. ~Sangrado would say. Well, as 1
commenced telling you, he paid our place a visit
and advertised by word of mouth on the streets
that be would lecture near The Monongahela
House on a certain evening. The time came
the Prof. came and so did the crowd. He lee
tured and lathered his audience for a WHILE, and
in his efforts made a very free use of soft soap,
for as the Irish people say, he has clicked the
blarney stone" and appreciates, keenly, the value
VI PuttluS ~ ou iiBut Dy MS latneE anu
soft soap he sold a good deal of the hard for the
lin. Thus far the Prof. is a success.
You have, probably, read of the topper who once
tossed a copper, and was to be governed by the
"heads up" or down, as to whether be should
stop, or go past the first d~runkery and take .
horn. The toss indicated, he said, that he was to
go in, and as he was very conscientious about it,
he said he did not like to do so-but, ''honor
bright"-he had to. Just so il was with the YER
mont Yankee, who visited US since the adven. of
the Soap NAH. Mr.. Douglas didn't cant to stop
in Pennsylvania in %hurrying on his way to ILL
nois, but he had to give this city a revisit, and Q
speech, of course. 1t was announced that on
Tuesday evening last he would speak at the st.
Charles Hotel. The shades of evening witnessed
the collection of some thousands to see the petit
giant, and hear him, too, on questions in which
he has, of course, no particular interest-the pre-
liminaries for the next presidency. The president,
Mac or Fftz something, of the Douglas Club OF
this place, after several laborious and wonderous
gestures, had the honor &C., of introducing the
great Stephen. Wbereupon a rather Gumpy look
ing customer. rose and said Deer, for perhaps the
l5Oth time, his stcreospoked Speech. To one who
has read the papers, it was as old ms Webster's
ISPS''6 WA P"'b NV i tu0
beginning he was very free in the use of soft soap.
with which he endeavored to titillate the patriot
ism and union loving Pennsylvanians. Like a
roosting goose he stood on one leg at a time, and
said this part OF the programme without eliciting
much enthusiasm in himself, or raising much of a
shout in the crowd. Indeed, so far as generating
q feeling in his favor here, it was very evident
that his effort was a fat failure, for the respon-
ses were few, weak, and far between. Not a real
manly effort did he make, nor did he, that I now
recollect, utter a noble sentiment-on which
would cause his hearers to feel proud that they
we're men nor did he make q single appeal to the
high moral instincts and nobler feelings of on,
kind. His aim and the gist of his argument was
to r~epudiate the nobility of real manhood, and re-
press every aspiration after a more elevated and
humane public sentiment. He did not say SO dis
tinctly, but implied it with all the signifcapsy he
could master, that he was trying to answer and re-
flute the position attributed to Mr.. Seward, when
he said, there must ever be an irrepressible con-
6ict between free and slave labor. To for.ify his
position he resorted to all the usual ~claptrap Of
demagogues, whose only strength lies in the sue
cess with which they can hoodwink and befool the
people. He Iepudiated the higher law as once
duuounCcu III icSafu " IL cohotttutluu ny Uous
Jackson, that he had the right to construe it az he
understood it-and 80 has everybody else.
The great theme Of his speech was his idea Of
Squatter Sovereignty. Yes, he is a regular squat
.er-he squats low-he is the humblest of the
Bowdown's to the south and its requirements. IL
it Milton who says in reference to that serpent No
read Of in Eden.
"Squaf, like q toad at the ear Of Evef"
Well. Mr.. D. is a good squat. o, those terrific
RIGS are ever SO sovereign-they can have slavery
or not, and it is all just right. l was anxious to
hear him on the Mormon part of this territorial
sovereignty question. Congress has no power 10
say what the territories shall do about slavery,
but it can make fugitive slave laws, and enforce
submission to them on the part Of the states, and
all is well. Squatter sovereignty and state rights,
with q vengeance. 1t is like the harmony Benton
once spoke of when Congress was passing the
omnibus bill. I. was all for union and peace,
said Clay. Webster, Mason and Stevens. Yes,
said Benton, i. is a HI Of a harmony. Are not
such sentiments noble? They should inspire
every man with great ideas Of his Godlike man
hood, that the chief end of his creation Is to catch
niggers.
All this argued very plainly, to my mind, that
Mr., D. kslieves in a very free use Of soft soap for
his constituents, and plenty Of latter for the poor