The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1860-10-30
Douglas Don,t-CarP-ism.

Mr.. LINCOLN opinion of what Mr.. DouG-
LAS meant when the latter said he did
not care whether slavery is voted down
or voted up" Certainly we will, with
the greatest pleasure. Mr.. LINCOLN has
persistently, has constantly, contended
that Mr.. DoUGLAs intended to express his
Indifference to the question of slavery
not only in Kansas, but everywhere that
Mr.. DOUGLAS was anxious to impress the
doctrine of Indifference upon the public
mind. In Mr.. LINcoLN's Springfield
speech, made June II, 1853, he says,
speaking of Mr.. DOUGLAS:
How can he oppose the advances of slavery :?
He don't care anything about it. His avowed
admission is impressing the "public heart" to
care nothing about it,
Again, Mr.. LINCOLN said, in speech
made at Chicago, July 10, 1853, speak
ing of Mr.. DOUGLAS
He tells you, not in his speech last night, but
substantially in former speech that he cares
not if slavery is voted up or down. If YOU
indorse him, you tell him YOU do not care
whether slavery be voted up or down.
Again, Mr.. LINCOLN, in the first Joint
debate with Mr.. DOUGLAS, at Ottawa,
spoke as follows, and we commend it to
our neighbor, and to those who, like
him, assert that the negro has no part in
the Declaration of independence
Henry Clay, my beau ideal OF a statesman
the man for whom | fought all my humble life
! Henry Clay once said of a class of men who
would repress all tendencies to liberty and ult-
innate emancipation, that they must, if they
would do this, go back to the era of our indie
! pendencc, and muzzle the cannon which thnn-
ders its annual Joyous return ; they must blow
ont the moral lights around us ; they must pen
citrate the human soul and eradicate there the
| love of liberty and then, and not till then,
could they perpctuate slavery in this country
To my thinking, Judge Douglas is, by his ex-
ample and vast influence, doing that very thing
in this community, when he SAYS the negro has
nothing in the Declaration of Independence. -
Henry Clay plainly understood the contrary.
Judge Douglas is going back to the era of our
Revolution, and the extent of his ability, muz-
cling the cannon which thunders its annual
joyous return. When he invites any people,
willing TO have slavery, to establish it, he is
blowing out the moral lights around us When
he says he" cares not whether slavery is voted
down or voted up"-that it is a sacred right of
self-goyernment-hc is in my Judgment, pen
Grating the human soul and eradicating the
light of reason and the love of liberty in this
American people. And now | will only say
that when, by all these means and appliances,
Judge Douglas shall succeed in bringing pub
lie sentiment to an exact accordance with his
own vcws-whcn these vast assemblages shall
echo back all these standardization they
shall come TO repeat his views and to ayow his
principles, and to say all that he says on these
mighty questions-then il needs only the form
ality Of the second bred Scott decision, which
he Endorses in advance, TO make slavery alike
lawful in all the States-old us well as new
North as we'll as South.
Again, Mr.. LINCOLN says, in the joint
debate at Galesburg, Oct. I, 1855:
Every thing that emanatcs from him or his
coadjut in their course of policy, carefully
excludes the thought that there IS anything
wrong in slavery. All their arguments, if YOU
will consider them, will be seen to exclude the
thought that there is anything whatever wrong
in slavery. If you willtakc the Judges speech
es, and select the short and pointed sentences
expressed by him--as his declaration that he
" don't care whether slavery is voted up or
fectly logical, If you do not admit that slavery
is wrong. If you do admit that it is wrong,
Judge Douglas cannot logically say he don
care whethera wrong is voted up or voted down
Judge Douglas declares that if any community
want slavery they have right TO have It, HeI
can say that logically, if he says that there is
no wrong in slavery but if you admit that
there is wrong in it, he cannot logically say
that any body has right to do wrong.
We might go on and multiply these
extracts from Mr.. LINcoLN's speeches
made in the joint debate between Mr.
DOUGLAS and himself, but we have given
enough, we think, to satisfy our neigh
Dor. In almost every speech made by
Mr.. LINCOLN. he charged Mr.. DouGLAs
with his perfect Indifference to the rise
or fall Of slavery, and not in single in
stance did Mr.. DOUGLAS complain that he
was msrepresented. Mr.. DOUGLAS nev-
or said that he did care whether slavery
was voted up or voted down. No single
of the kind ever passed his lips.
His position, trumpeted everywhere, is
that Of indiilerence-a position fast being
assumed by his followers-a position
now assumed by our neighbor. This
debauchins of public opinion upon this
question is the great evil of Mr.. DouG-
Lass teaching, and will stand out against
him in history as his great crime. To
educate the people 10 care not whether
Slavery or Freedom is uppermost, is TO
prepare them for the certain triumph OF
slavery. This is lie mission Of the
Democratic party This IS wha! its