Weekly Minnesotian and times., 1859-12-17
The Charleston ConventiOn.-The Black
Douglas ContrOversy..Its Effects.

Douglas ContrOversy--Its Effects.
We'll, the Democratic National COnven-
ton is at last appointed for the 23d of April
next-so the month Of fools is the appropriate
time, and the commercial metropolis Of Slave
ry, Charleston, South Carolina, the appropri-
ate place, where the Anti-J Jeffersonian, Liber-
ty-hating and Man-Stealing Democracy of the
Union meet to present candidates for Presi-
dent and Vice President-candidates who
will probably not get single northern electo-
raj vote, and against whom million and
half of intelligent Northern Freemen will cast
their triumphant ballots in November next, as
surely as election day arrives.
Since the time for the Convention is fixed,
speculation will now grow rife, as to who will
be the Standard Bearers selected by it to car
ry the black banner of Slavery during the
next Presidential fight.
If Douglas ever stood chance, he has been
effectively wiped out by the war Of essays,
letters, and pamphlets, waged between him
and Judge Black, and other champions of Bu-
chanan's Administration, during the past two
months.
Agreeing with neither side, we hesitate not
to declare, as an impartial bottle-holder, that
in our opinion Douglas, standing upon the
premises he does, has been completely worst
ed in the argument; while the discussion has
but given ammunition to the Pro-Slavery
fire-eaters of the South, to damage him fatally
with the Southern people, as a man whose
concessions to Northern sentiment in his
Squatter Sovereignty doctrine, prove him, in
their polite phrase, to be only an " Abolition
ist " in disguise, the more dangerous to the
Slave Oligarchy from his cloak of fair SEEM
ing.
For our part, we think they do Mr.. Doug
las injustice for we hold him to be but a
plausible denagogue, seeking power regard
less of the means of attaining it, and who hon.
estly "don't care" as he said in his Freeport
speech in Illinois, whether Slavery is voted
up or down"-whether the human race is
born to freedom, or the babe emerging from
the womb sees daylight first as a " Chat
tie |"
Still, the South is an inexorable master
Its black slaves it sometimes pets and in
dulges but its white slaves, the Demo-
cratic doughfaces of the North, must crawl on
their bellies all the days Of their lives, and
never dare to raise their heads erect in the
slightest antagonism to the institution" else
crack goes the whip, and down goes the con-
tumacious hereto to the worship of the
Southern Moloch.
Yes: Mr.. Douglas is dead !! dead dead !
in the Southland the North does "care
whether Slavery is voted up or down." and
will none of him
Albeit. we acknowledge that the discus
sion Mr.. Douglas so recently inaugurated by
the Harper's Magazine article, has not been
without its profitable results to Freedom and
Republicanism, however disastrous to him.
God overrules all events to his glory, how
ever ill man may intend them.
Through Free Discussion, Truth wins and
Error dies in pain.
What student of history does not recollect,
that the great Cromwellian struggle for Liber-
ty in England, was preceded by an age of
pamphlets. The topics Of the day were for
many years discussed by the ablest men of
the age, until the popular mind finally arrived
at the truth and fought for it. 1t was the
same likewise just before our Revolution
And it would seem now as if we were in the
midst of another such era. The discussion
between United States Senator and a men,
Der Of the Cabinet the essays with which
the press teens; the sermons of the Progress
sive Pulpit; the convulsions of the Man Own
ers in Congress over "Helper's Impending
Crisis )" John Browns Martyrdom giving
the whole subject bloody intensity that
speaks trumpet-tongued; are all signs of a
portentous agitation in the popular mind, cast
ing the shadow of Truths coming triumph be-
fore.
What man loses, God gains. Aswe before
intimated, better had it been for Mr. Stephen
A. Douglas, if satisfied with the opportunities
of display afforded him by the United States
Senate, he had not entered the arena of pamph-
lets. He is in consequence hors du combat
for the Presidential nomination of the Charles
ton Convention; while broadcast Republican,
ism has had all the substantial adoantuae
from his labors.
Better also for the Democratic Party, North,
had Judge Black, Attorney General Of the
United States, not replied to Mr.. Douglas
AS the smoke of the battle between them
blows away, the public mind has obtained a
clearer view of the questions at issue, and the
real merits of both sides of the case.
Republicanism has gained ecerything By
the contest.
The first effect, to be sure, was to show up
the flimsy character of Judge Douglas theo-
ries, land his unstatesmanlike position-his po-
sition endorsing the binding validity of the
dictum of the United States Supreme Court,
declaring the constitutionality of Slavery in
the Territories, while he dishonesty sought
to ecade its force by "unfriendly legislation"
to destroy an admitted constitutional right!
The second effect, however, of the Black
Douglas discussion,is to point out distinctly to
the world, the direction in which the ortho-
dox Black Democracy leads, and the results
to which it will bring the nation-the utter
death Of Liberty, and the Naturalization of
Chattleism in Man over the whole Union -
Thus, "when rogues fall out, honest men get
their own"
The Charleston Convention is about to as
semble. But Douglas has pamphleted himself
to death. He is out of the ring. He is not
possible for a Presidential nomination. If
there was no other reason, the times admit of
no halfway men-of no trimmers. It is
Roundhead and Cavalier over again-the
Ironsides, who "trust in the Lord and keep
their powder dry" against the 'rakehelly''
Aristocrats, who riot on the sweat and blood
and labor of the poor
God has but one side in such contest
In all history, this battle never had but one
result. However baf1ed, it Is ever won.