Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-08-02

Thayer placed himself by making a speech,
upon the floor of the house, so anti-republican
in lis character, and so much in harmony with
the sentiments Of the opponents OF the repub
licans, that Judge Douglas could sit by through
the whole Of it, applauding it TO the echo, and
clubbing Mr.. Thayer, at the close, 'the very
king of squatter sovereigns." Mr. Ihayer
knows full well that if his constituents remain
passive while such scenes as these are passing
before them, the country has the right to infer
that they do not disapprove, even if they do
not directly approve of them How any man
can vote as Mr., Thayer has voted, speak as he
has spoken, act as lie has acted, and propose
what he has proposed, and then come home
and ask his republican fellow citizens to re-
elect him as their representative, is to us an
ineXplicabe anomaly in politics to be exceed
cd by no one thing more ineXplicabe, unless
it should be by his reelection by the constitu-
ency whose confidence he has abused, whose
principles he has misrepresented, whose char
acter he has magned by designating them
'pinks of piey," "rigidIy righteous" ''polit-
cal Cassandras," &C., and who has not sufi-
cient sensibility to his position to return to
his constituents the trust he has so much mis-
used.
There is something specious in the argu-
ment by which Mr.. Thayer sustains the posi-
ton he takes, that it is a reflection upon the
men who go into the territories to settle them,
to say that they are not competent to govern
themselves and therefore congress shall have
the right to decide what shall be the character
of their institutions. That sophistry was hap.
PLY annihiated by Abraham Lincoln in the
great contest between himself and Judge
Douglas, in Illinois, in 1858. "What !" said
Douglas, "would you deny me the right to
govern myself in the territories 2" ooh, no !"
replied Lincoln; 81 only deny your right to
take another man into the territories with you,
and govern him there UiHtoW his CONSENT" 1t is a
sufficient answer to all the clamors of the day
for popular sovereignty" in the territories,
come they from Eli Thayer, Judge Douglas,
or whomsoever they may.
Of Mr.. Thayer's complaints, that the Palla-
dunn does not publish his speeches, we have
the sufficient answer, that we did publish his
speech before the state convention OF 1858, in
which may be found the "sum and substance"
OF all his subsequent speeches; and, further
more, that we do not consider ourselves under
any obligation to publish speeches that are not
republican in character, and whose influence,
like that Of their author, cannot be otherwise
than injurious to the republican party and the
cause it sustains. When Mr.. Thayer sustains,
in good faith, republican principles and mea.
sures, he will find himself sustained and COM
mended by the Palladium. But when he al
upon his vanity, his inordnate self-conceit, his
love of notoriety, of all which he has plenti-
full share, and thus lead him into eccentricities
that harm his constituents, and himself
most of all, it is a duty from which we
shall not shrink, to tell him that he does
not represent his constituents. And if with
the knowledge before them, that in his
speeches, in his votes, and in his acts,
Mr.. Thayer has strangely, perversely we be-
lieve, misreprescnted his constituents, broken
his pledges, and forfeited his honor as a man,
the people of this district see fit to re.eect him
they may take to themselves the representa-
tive and all the honor Of his election. 1t COM
ports with our ideas of political obligation, that
if we are going to place republican at the
head of the government, we should give him
a strong, reliable, united majority in congress.
Would you select driver tor a stagecoach,
mount him upon the box with a smart whip.
and then hitch half Of his team behind to pull
the other way If not, then carry into poll
tics a little of the common sense of ordinary
life"