The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-06-01

One after another of the Southern Sena-
tors, following the lead of JEFF. DAVIS,
have made speeches attacking Judge DOUG
LAS On Tuesday last, Mr.. BENJAMIN made
very bitter speech, in which he praised
LINCOLN and denounced DOUGLAS, stating
that in the Senatorial caucus of 1858, in
Illinois, the former stood on principle, and
the latter, " faltered and gave way gave
way, we suppose, because he defended Pop
ular Sovereignty. BENJAMIN, like all others
of the Senatorial clique, would undoubtedly
prefer the election of LINCOLN to that of
DOUGLAS. Mr.. PUGH replied to BENJAMIN.
We find the following abstract of his speech
in the telegraph reports:
Mr.. Pugh said the Senator from Louisi-
ana had demonstrated that there was moth.
ing equivocal in the Kansas bill, or the
Cincinnati Platform. The power of the
people of the Territories was to be deter
mined by the Supreme Court, and the ques.
ton had not arisen. He denied that the
bred Scott decision settled the points at
issue. The question of the power of the
people of the Territories was not argued in
that case, nor supposed to be involved. If
submission to the demands of the Senator
from Louisiana was the price of peace in
the Democratic party, he warned them all,
that peace was at an end.
Mr.. Pugh examined at length the bred
Scott case to sustain his views. He argued
that if the Constitution established slavery in
the Territories, it also established it in the
States, and combatted the correctness of
this dogma. He retorted the charge of
want of faith and abandonment of bargains,
upon the Senator and his friends. He de-
Tended and explained MIR. Douglas Freeport
speech from the attacks made upon it, con-
tending that it simply meant that slavery
should not be forced upon the people against
their will. Mr.. Douglas was not only
pressed by his immediate political enemies,
but by the Administration, which invaded
a sovereign State to interfere to control the
elections.
Mr.. Wade asked Mr.. Pugh if he believed
a Territorial Legislature could prohibit
slavery and that prohibition be legal and
efectual?
Mr.. Pugh replied atflrmatlvey.
A long debate followed as to whether the
votes at Charleston expressed the view of the
majority.
Mr.. Pugh said the rupture at Charleston
grew out of the fact that Judge Douglas
having incautiously said that he would not
allow bis name to be used in case a certain
platform was adopted, the friends of the
other candidates united to construct plat
form on which he could not stand. He
wanted the Richmond convention to nomi>
nate their candidates. They had no bust
ness to come to Baltimore, and if they come
he would sit and vote till the 4th of March
to keep them out. The men who voted for
Stephen A. Douglas ffty-seven times had
not goti tired of doing so. Gentlemen
of the South had made the issue, had made
it question of personal honor, and so it
would stand. The North would not submit
to the dictation of the South, and would not
level themselves in the dust at the bidding
of any set of men. Douglas was the i'm
PRESERVATION Of Northern honor. His ene-
mics have made him greater than his friends
ever could. They might kill him at Balti-
more if they choose, but his friends would
carry his bleeding body to the Northwest
and show him to young men coming to cast
first votes, and tell them this is the author
of the Kansas-N ebraska bill, and this is
Southern gratitude.