Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1860-07-25
THE wAR OF THE ROSES

Lane, everybody saw that it was a ticke,
"made to kill" In their desire to chastise
Douglas for his revolt against Slavery Propa.
gandism, they violated, in this nomination
that clause of the Constitution which declares
that "cruel and unusual punishments shall not
be inflicted
Douglas had right 70 expect that they would
| select as the executioner of their purposes, a
nominee for President who would combine in
his character and conduct personal enmity to
him, conspicuous hostility to Popular Sover-
elgnfy, and a repulsive advocacy of Slave
Code for the Territories. He has reason to
complain of unusual cruelty in the selection of
Breckinridge, the gentleman, the whilom
friend, for the task of putting him to deoth.
The headsman of the scaffold was chosen not
more for his unerring eye and vigorous arm,
than for his hideous visage. The wielder of
the guilIotine decapitated his victims under
the guise of horrid mask. Jack Ketch was
proverbially vulgar miscreant in heart, garb,
and manners. The condemned could feel the
appropriateness of dying felon's death by
such hands.
If it be claimed that Douglas cannot proper
ly be classed among criminals about to be put
to death for ofenses against his party, but that
the fight precipitated upon him Is more analo-
gous to the duello, then we insist that the
canons of the code required that an enemy who
had put upon him some peculiar indignity, or,
at all events, man who had not laid him un-
der obligations by great service, rendered at
critical period, should have been chosen to
cross rapiers with him. He bad a right to re-
quire that his foes, though showing him no
quarter, should give him an antagonist not on
ly worthy of his steel, but whose hostility to-
ward him was of such long standing ard so
malignant a type, that the Little Giant would
have been provoked to put in requisition those
forensic weapons of misrepresentation vitupe-
ration, and coarse personal abuse, in the use
of which he is so skillful.
Now, tested by these criterions, Mr.. Breck-
inridge is not suitable person to do the odi-
GUS work of killing off Mr.. Douglas. For ex-
ample, he is a gentleman, distinguished for a.
menity of manners and respect for the propri-
eties of life. Cautious in statement, weighing
well his words, refined in his illusions, not un-
mindful of rhetorical embellishments, he is q
respectable debater. He presides in the SEN
ate with dignity and liberaify. Now, Douglas
would have been far better matched against,
and would have infinitely preferred to encoun-
ter, some foeman OF coarser grain than Breck-
inridge, some vulgar brawler like Atchison or
Green, or some impulsive and imprudent de-
claimer like Brown or Toombs, whose utteran-
ces could have been turned against him.
Douglas Has won many friends by affecting
the airs, the buOyancy, the hilarity of youth.
He has always relied much upon the support
of ssfast" young men. He is popular with the
"boys." But Breckenridge is the youngest
He is the favorite of the young Chivalry. In
1856, when Republicans contrasted the vigor
of the ssPathfinder'' with the weight of years
that bent down the cold public functionary,"
the young Democracy used to point with pride
to the erect form and elastic step of their can
didate for the Vice-Presidency, whose running
qualities were SO much superior to those Of his
aged leader, that wags called the combination
ssthe Kangaroo ticket" because its longest
legs were behind. Breckinridge has the ad-
vantage Of Douglas on the score of youth by
some ten years.
Beyond all cavil Douglas had the right to re-
quire that his opponent should be an early, an
answering, an avowed disciple of the Propa-
gandist school of the most extreme type. But
Breckinridge could not be claimed with any
certainty, until recently, a convert to the
dogmas of that school. In 1856 he made
noninteryeption speech of the most unmis-
taxable hue. In the thickest of the Lecomp-
ton contest he was charged, and not without
reason, with ssskulking' from the chair of the
Senate for weeks together, lest, on some tie
vote, he be compelled to throw his weight into
one scale or the other of the vibrating Democ-
racy. In fact, he permitted himself to be pro-
claimed qualified AntiLecomptonite On
this point Douglas has been treated with rank
injustice. In common fairness there should
have been pitted against him keen, profound
exponent of the Slave Code dogma, who has
brought out the doctrine in all its plausible
diabolsm, like Davis, the Luther of the Negro
Propaganda; or, some bold, dashiDg advocate
of the doctrine, like Wise, who, emulating
Mohammed, would propagate Slavery with fire
and sword.
But the cut given by this nomination which
Douglas must feel the keenest, is the oft-shown
friendship of Breckenridge for Douglas perso-
nally, aud his supposed federation Of his polit-
ical eccentricities. The Vice-President treat
ed him with marked kindness, while in the
chair, during the Lecompton struggle, thereby
provoking the hostility of the enemies Of
Douglas in the Senate. When battling for a
re- election before the people of Illinois, in
1858, Breckenridge wrote a generous letter in
his behalf, which refreshed the hunted rebel
like ssthe shadow of a great rock in weary
land.'' On that January morning, in 1859,
when, triumphant over the Administration,
Douglas, with long strides and defiant wag of
the head, walked to his seat in the new Senate
Chamber, crowd of friends in the packed gal
leries receiving him with subdued cheer,
many Democratic Senators scowled coidly up
on him, bat the gallant Kentuckian extended
to him cordial greeting, shaking the victor
fervently by the hand. Then, again, just at
the close of that session, when Davis, Brown,
Clay, Iverson, Mason, Gwin, and the rest of
the Lecompton conspirators. made their COM
bined attack upon him, worrying him like
wounded stag, and satisfying all impartial OBJ
servers that he could never be the nominee of
the united Democracy, the Vice President,
panied at the spectacle, left the chair, retired
to the cloak-room, and occasionally glancing
in upon the quarreling Democratic Orlandos
and divers, seemed to say, like good Adam,
ssSweet masters, be patient; for your fathers
remembrance, be at accord!'' Doubtless, both
Breckinridge and Douglas, looking, each for
himself, to Presidential nomination, intend
ed to maintain such relations toward one an
other that each could have the support of the
other in his respective section Of the coun-