The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1860-08-04


tain for bis Democratic competitor. There
are few, if any, living men concerning
whom more has been said, and less really
known, than Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois
There are thouSands-by far too many
thouSands-now sustaining him under the
mistaken and delusive idea that he is direct
7 ing his efforts to counterfeit the plans of the
/ Southern Democracy. This is q frightful
! hallucination, but natural one when we
\ take into consideration the humiliating fact
/ that all that devotion could do has
/ been done by those surrounding his person,
/ to distort true record, and to stamp
/ counterfeit character for him on the public
mind. Viewing him as one of the most I'M
/ safe and treacherous of leaders, you will
| pardon me certain statements which it now
seems necessary should be made and the
! correctness of whict, presume, will not be
| impugned. | have not yet forgotten, when
in the winter of 1856, during the first
sessionof the Thirty-fourth Congress, theresi-
dents of Kansas, asseverating that the car
dinal principle of the Nebraska Kansas act
had been wantonly and wickedly nullifed,
/ that fraud and violence, concocted in the
/ Blue Lodges of Missouri, had invaded their
homes and imposed a foreign rule upon them
for the purpose of forcing upon them insti-
tons which they abhorred, and invoking the
| interposition of Congress in their behalf the
prided farther of 'tuntrameled Popular Sove-
reignty" turned his back upon his violated
child, and closed his ears, as in death, to
complaints of outrage almost without par
allel in the civilization of the century.
These despoiled pioneers, who had taken up
/ their abode in a Territory under the most
solemn guarantees of seifgovernment, only
asked to prove their accusations, and to be
relieved from oppression. In other words,
they declared they had never been able to
enjoy self-government;t that they were ruled
by invaders, and demanded the sovereignty
conferred by law upon them. Mr.. Douglas
should have been the first man to fly to
their relief; and If he had been as COM
pletely dedicated to the principles Of his
bill as some would make us believe, he
would have urged investigation and carried
it. So far from having done so, he put
himself in the lead of those Senators most
hostile to an exposition, and became the
mere mouth piece, advocate, and apologist
of those engaged in the work of forcing
slavery upon an unwilling people. He en-
| joyed at that time the full confidence of the
South, and his Democracy was orthodox,
because he was loyal to his task masters
\ willing to do battle for their most extrava-
! CANT demands. He was then Chairman of
the Committee on Territories, and I call at
| tention to bis report as, such, made March
IL, 1856, as conclusive upon the point
have stated. In that paper he could find
nothing TO say against foreign conspiracies
| to invade the soil of Kansas and control
elections, but he had much to offer in con-
demnation of Eastern associations to en-
courage removal thither. He could discover
no irregularities in the return of Mr.. Whit
field, the pro-slavery delegate to the House
of Representatives, but he clearly discerned
that the Territorial Legislature was a legal
ly elected body, with perfect authority to
enact the most cruel and arbitrary slave
codes, and that the complaints of fraud and
force were gotten up merely to stimulate
ard excite Northern emigration. At the
time of which Ispeak there was no one in
Congress or out Of Congress, in Office or out
OF Office, who exerted himself more uutir-
ingly to perpetuate that reign of terror in
augurated to insure the admission of Kansas
into the Union as slave State. | fear
there are many now bearing up the hammer
inscribed with the name of this Senator
who never have fully understood or who
have forgotten, this furnished page in his
history. If there has ever been a more de-
termined foe to the growth of freedom in
Kansas, or to the principles of the Nebraska
Kansas bill, than Stephen A. Douglas, he
has been able to keep himself very much
under cover. 1t is gratifying, however, to
make a single remark IN his favor; it is
this: that he seems as willing as the most
ardent of his friends to divert attention
from this period of his career | am not
aware that, in either essay or address, ne
has ventured to recur to it; but, on the
contrary, he seems disposed to treat it as !.
blank in his lita44@aasraa
Whilst these. proceedings were progress
ing in the Senate, the other branch of Con-
gress carried resolutions of investigation
under close division of parties, and sent a
select committee to the Territory. The
consequence was such an exposure as sat
isfied the country not only of the truth OF
everyth charged, but of existing conspi-
ncies beyond anything that had been
/ imagined The published evidence effectu-
ally revealed the intentions Of the South,
and made a deep impression upon the
North 1t was then established that nei-
Their law nor properties were to be allowed
to stand in the way of slavery extension
and we are almost driven to the conclusion
that the repeal of the Missouri Restriction
was but a part of a general and well
matured plan of operations at the head of
which stood the self crowned chief of popu-
| lar Territorial Government. Mr. Douglass
/ term of Office was now approaching its
| close. 1t is not unlikely that desire for
| reelection, and a knowledge of the convic-
| ton forced upon his State by the examina-
ton alluded to, induced him to look with
different eyes upon Kansas, and created an
| apxiafu on his mart to take nm the fa1sey of