St. Paul weekly Minnesotian. (St. Paul) 1860-1861, 1860-11-09

been the better Tor thus gift, Liberty!
History, chanting the worlds advance,
sings, through all her varied recital, one
ever recurring refrain:
"our God hath crushed the tyrant,
Ger God hath raised the slave,
And Knocked the counsels OF the wise,
And the valor of the brave"
Well, here is this great principle and
there is Mr. Douglas. Jury, look upon
the prisoner. Prisoner, look upon the jury.
What say you--gulty, or not guilty :"
"Why," says Mr.. Douglas, +" | care not
whether Slavery is voted up, or voted
down"
Think Of it, American people!
He drew in that sentiment from the
mountain air Of Vermont, when his infant
lungs inflated for the first cry.
lie got that idea from the public schools,
founded and supported for the sake Of
Liberty.
The institutions Of free government,
wrought out of the worlds sorrowful ex
perience, enabled him to rise that he might
enunciate it.
God has poured the accumulated bullion
of the past into the lap of the present, and
has built up this amplest theatre Of all the
ages, on which stands Mr.. Douglas,
spreading his legs, cooking his hat, rolling
his Quid, and announcing his amiable and
entertaining doctrine, i care not whether
slavery is voted up or voted down."
Well, let US go step farther.
The worlds history is action and reac-
ton. To-day, peace tomorrow, war.
The excesses of Charles produced the Re-
pnblic. The excuses of the Republic re-
acted into the Protectorate. the excuses
Of the Protectoratc swung back into the
Restoration. The excuses Of the Resto-
ration reacted into another Revolution.
So in France. The abuses Of the throne
begot the Republic; the abuses of the Re
public, the Empire; ahe abuses of the
Empire, the Restoration the abuses Of the
Restoration. the Republic; the abuses OF
the Republic, another Empire.
The pendulum once violently displaced,
will continue to swing backward and for
ward, with gradually decreasing oscillation,
until the last faint vibrations die away in
remote ages, which feel while they do not
comprehend them.
And yet, my friends, there is, through
all these movements, which may appear
wild and unfruitful, one continuous chain
Of progress, never forgotten, never varied,
never lost sight of:-the first links Of
which glimmer in the fainLest recollections
of history, the last Of which lie bright and
massive and refuigent in our own midst al
our very feet.
And as our eyes look back over the
turmoils and troubles of the agitated
world, that one continuous chain alone ap.
pears the line Of Gods purpose All else,
kings, desp0tS, usurpers, IevoIutionists,
the blind and brutal Instruments OF His
great will.
Violence can eventually be but tributa-
~ to that viii. Wisdom, prudence, ge-
MUS can not avert it. Neither the capaci.
~ OF Stafford, nor the audacity of Laud
can delay it. Improbable alike TO the vi.
ces or the virtues Of men, uninauenced
alike by popular tumuits or ages Of peace
that great chain stretches on, unobscuYed,
underwriting, the index Of our destiny, the
sole clue to the Almighty's meaning.
" here are now the men who shouted
applause when the head Of Cromwell, cut
from his exhumed body, was raised aloft
on the pixies Of the kings soldieryY
Where are now the wild masses, who in
1880 followed Lord George Gordon to the
very doors OF the Parliament House?
Where are now the opponents Of Zach.
airy Macaulay, Of Henry Brougham, oil
Wilberforce?
Scattered, mouIdering, forgotten, in ten
thousand nameless graves. Over them
the long grass waves, the great winds
play, the little flowers blossom;
Their hands are dust,
Their swords are rust
But whittier, ali whittier, goeth that graa,
principle of humanity against which they
warred? Whittier goeth that great princi.
pie NJ tnn'in progress against which they
vainly flung themselves? Broad as the
world, vast rs Time, it PAGES forth along
the track of the ages, decked with the star
ry crown Of unchangiug victory.
Small indeed is the strength ofman, vain
indeed his devices, against the eternal
movement of en- immortal principle. Loi
it passes over him away from inland
leaves him iorsaken upon its track like the
scattered bubbles Of the great wave.
Well, what says Mr.. Douglas to the
cause Of human progress?
Hear him -
Between the white man and the black
man nay sympathies are with the white
man; between tine black man and the croc-
odlle, | rather prefer the black man."
In the days of ancient Rome, when Pop
nIar Sovereignty vas exhibited in the am.
phltheatre, it was matter Of Indifference
whether the man or the crocodile won.
They left them perfectly free to form their
Own institutions, V their own way.n Their
doctrine was, ''non.intervention. They
made ring, and cried, go in, and may
the best man vim
But We thank the good God for 1900
years They have advanced mankind at
such prodlgious pace, that leading
statesman Of this great American Repubbc
has to-day the hardwood to express n pre.
ference for the human combatant. and to
rather desire that the crocodile should oct
the worst of it.
Eighteen hundred years! Come for
ward, old Father Time; lay aside your
reaping machine, clear the hair out of
your eyes, and behold the result of vour
labors. Step FORTH, shadow of the on.
pressed and by-goDe Humanity, SCARED
with wounds, bent with sufferings. bloody
with revolutions come forward, clang
the broken shackles at your wrists, and
look, too, upon the results of your toll.
There he stands Stephen A. Douglas
The child of the past THE representative
of liberty, --the.g grand resultant and sum
total of American institutions! lie "cares
not whether Slavery be voted up or voted
down, he thinks, ''he rather prefers the.
black man to the crocodile"
But, my friends, this is more than a
question of admiration for this or that
man, or even of devotion to this or that
principle. Mr.. Douglas dootrias i,vs,ces
the perpstuity Of our government, tie con.
taauance Of peace, the personal welfare of
goa and land all of us.
There are portentious consequences
flowing from it; dark terror in the back
ground, which every man who spmpathj-
ses with Mr.. Douglas should well under
stand.
Who seiU arrest this Territorial System
schsn once established?
like the young lion that has once Tapped
The heafsr -, h
else" w So"Neu pach 10 angnt
Win Mr.. Douglas c...-act IN mill !.
wall around III . Who cb,s ~ r""u