The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1859-10-08
From the New Orleans Delta.
PICTORIiL.ISM AND POLITICS.

Harper's Magazine, no doubt, made 4
considerable '' hit" by the publication Of
Mr.. Douglas Squatter Sover ,ignty speech
in the form Of an essay. 1t Was something
new in the annals Of Magazines as well as
in the politics, to have an electioneering
argument of Il Presidential aspirant offered
to the sutfragans of the country in the shape
of vendible literature. Heretofore, psl-
iticians were content if the people Of the
press would give any attention to their
lucubratiens, even when franked to them
with the utmost intelligence and in the pro-
fu>est abundance. Under that system tho
reader paid nothing for such documents,
and did not care. in most eases, to receive
them even on those terms. Douglas and
Harper have changed all that. /, was .
bold stroke, daring innovation, to turn
the tables 50 abruptly; but Louis Napoleon
has prospered amazingly by similar steps,
and why shouldn't Douglas and Harper, in
this case, prosper famously, prodigously,
sumlimcly?
| Yet there is one glaring oversight to be
noted in come ton with this enterprise-an
astonishing oversight, considering the skill
and experience of the publisher, and the
evident anxiety of the author to avail HIM
self of every aid which the publisher could
afford to bazon his peculiar political no.
tions before the country. At moment
when pictoralism is all the "rase' in pop
ular literature. Douglas momeotous con-
trbution to Harper's Magazine appeared
without a solitary wood cut, to illustrate
/ its romantic history of the Territorial ques-
tion. There's not so much Us a mark to
denote the dividing line between federal
a local authority. Such an illustration,
we take it, would have been very simple.
1t would only have been necessary to sketch
u snake Of changeabIe Eucs. which,
Winding in and wiading out.
Left the observer still Ill doubt,
Whether the snake that Iuade the track,
Was going North or coming back.
! 1t would have only needed to draw an ugly
reptile umlstakably black, or rather. to use
the more appropriate Republican adjective,
| Black Republican from head to tail, encir-
! cling the Territories and endcav oring to
i swallow the States.
There mi ght have been, too, some very
happy illustrations Of Douglas classifea-
! ton of opinion that the Constitution estab-
| fishes slavery in the territories could have
been mlsrepresented by a huge, dingy and
diIapldated roll of parchment, supporting
in an upright position a dead niger en- tho
borders of Kansas, while gang Of Absli-
ton sharp shooters, headed by Jim Lane,
are making target of the carcass.
As for Douglas own doctrine that Ter
ritory, from the beginning has all the pow
ers Of the States. and much more besides
without owing auy obligations either to the
States or the Federal Government, that
might have BEEN presented in the picture of
retired sea pirate, squatted on beautiful
island. nomina!ly the property of the Uni
ted States, and Justify singing from morn
ing till night-what time he was not engag-
ed in rightfully robbng unfortunate voya-
gers of hel pless emigrants-thes sublime song
of Rob !nson Crusp: