Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1860-02-14
From the Cincinnati Commercial. .

" ha'e'el may NC the intellectual OF
more deficiencies of Stephens A. Doug
las, no man can charge him with lack
of fertility, or want of audacity. He
never fails to find an occasion to adver-
tise- himself and his claims, or if he can
not fnd one, he makes one. He is the
moststrenuous, persistent and indefatiga-
BILE Of all the hunters for political no.
toriety- His ambition is boundless and
unsleeping, and his means toward the
realization of it are as shifting and un-
scrupulous as the character of the man
himself. The foremost of political
tricksters, he never hesitates at inconsis-
tencics, nor boggles at contradictions
He is always ready to repudiate his past
principles, when he can make anything
by it, and never scruples to kick down
the ladder which has raised him to in
huence
A conspicuous illustration of this quail
ity is to be found in the last proposed
measure which has found birth in the
ambitious brain of Mr.. Douglas. This
measure, proposed and advocated in an
elaborate speech in the Senate last week,
is no less, in effect, than Congressional
Slave Code for the States. He has
abandoned, at one fell swoop, the doc
trines Of State Rights and Popular
Sovereignty, and proposed direct, high
handed and wanton interference. by the
Federal Government, within the limits
of the sovereignties Of the States. He
has gone beyond the most ultra claims
of the ultra -disunionist of the South, in
behalf Of slavery, and its protection:-
He has proposed to give the South the
most odious and oppressive of Congress
ional slave codes, by undertaking to try
to punish, IN adrance of the commission
of any overt act, conspiracies and COM
binations to invade State, to molest its
inha bitants, to disturb It's property, or
to subvert its institutions or its laws.
. This proposition is ftly made by the
man, who, Of all other in the nation, has
gone farthest in profering aid and com
fort to the institution of slavery. Mr.
Douglas has worn two faces for long
time, but only for those who could not
or would not perceive his tru aspect
That aspect has always been Southwark
more intensely, more boldly, more un-
scrupulousIy Southwark, than that of
any other Northern man of any eminence
Under the specious pretext of
fairness and of Democracy, he pre-
cipitated upon our Western Terri
tories a four years struggle between
slavery and freedom. He contriyed to
keep the credit of fidelity to his 'great
principle of popular sovereignty, by
repudiating the Presidents Lecompton
policy, but soon turned back to the sup
port of the wretched Administration he
had denounced. Always schemer and
a demagogue, he contrived to stand we'll
with the people of the North, while
doing the work of the slave power Of the
South. With the hollow cant of ''popu-
lar sovereignty on his lips, he has man
aged to secure maj ority Of the North
ern delegates to Charleston, and now he
is ready to go as far as he who goes far
thcst, in his bid for the suffrages of the
South
He has begun in his customary bold
and striking manner, SO well fitted to
make an impression upon the class he
wants to conciliate. He offered the
South, in the Kansas Nebraska Bill, more
than they ever clailned-and he now
proffers them, in this new Federal Slave
Code and Force Bill, more than they
ever dared to ask. Not the hottest of
the disunionists has ever yet demanded,
On the nnGor of Congress, that the Fede-
al power shall interfere to put down the
1ancied combinations of fanatics in the
free States. 1t was left for Stephen A.
Douglas to suggest the idea oft Fede-
al Government constituting itself al
grand inquisitor and spy, to watch and
log the citizens of the Northern States,
20 listen to their conversations, attend
heir meetings, inspect their movements,
guard against their designs, and under
AXE to try and to punish men, not for
my crime they have committed, but for
heir intentions, real or imaginary, to
commit crime
This proposed measure violates every
sound principle of jurisprudence, and
;ubverts the cardinal principles Of our
FcderatiYe system. 1t aims to clothc
he Federal Government with most
lrbitrary, despotic and dangerous power.
It tends to convert the union of the
States into consolidated Government of
force and espionage 1t uproots all the
reserved rights of the States from their
and is adapted most eff
Rectually to stir up the waters Of strife
throughout the Union. .s....
This dangerous and unprecedented
MEASURE is brought forward under cover
Of the power 'tto protect the States
against invasion. Everybody knows
here is no danger of invasion, and that
here never has been an invasion that
begins to be worthy of the name. Yet
MIR. Douglas gravely pretends to base
his artful bid for Southern favor upon
he ''invasion'' of old John Brown, his
seventeen white men and four negroes.
He opens his speech in its support with
quoting the famous appeal by Gov. Wise
10 Mr.. Buchanan, pending the execution
IF Old Brown, informing him that he
(Wise) had reliable information of a
of formidable numbers and
extent, formed in the States of Ohio,
and New York, to invade
Virginia and rescue the prisoners, and
the President to cake steps
20 preserve peace between the States"
To this singular demand, that the
United States Government should turn
,ut its troops to invade the frontier of
Ohio and Pennsylvania for the purpose
IF arresting, putting down and Furnishing
Gov. Wise's formidable "men in buck
am" Mr.. Buchanan replied that he was
lware of no constitutional provision
which would authorize him to "take
steps for any such purpose. This de-
ect of power, Mr.. Douglas now proposes