Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1860-09-28

man in his proper position. You SEE we
are not AFRAID of your combinations.-
[ Applause.
But the mistake was comnited, They
opposed him to the last. and Judge Doug
las saw that his nomination in Charleston
was an impossibility. Then his friends
moved an adjournment of the convention.
and carried it, They were to reassemble
at Baltimore few weeks afterward In
the meantime, Mr.. Douglas saw last
chance of appcasing the South. He grasp
ed at it with desperate cagerness. and be
saw the great prize slipping from his hands,
and he staked his all upon last cast
On the 18th ard 10th of May, he arose in
the Senate, and in one of the most clabo-
rate efforts of his life, he made the follow
ing statement and Douglas Democrats, |
claim your special attention. Listen:
1T is part of the history of the country
that under this doctrine Of nonintervention
this doctrine that You delight to call
squatter soyereignty-the people of New
Mexico have introduced and protected
slavery in the whole of that Territory un-
der the doctrine they have converted a
tract of free territory into slave territory
more than five times the size Of the State
of New York Under this doctrine slave
ry has been extended not only up TO So
deg, and 30 min, but up to 3S deg, Civ
ing you degree and a half more of slave
territory than you ever claimed. * *
What square inch of free territory
has been converted into slave territory on
the American continent since the Revolu-
tion, excepting New Mexico and Virginia,
under the principle Of non-intevention az
frmed at Charleston If it be true that
this principle Of non-intcrvention has pro-
tected slavery in that comparatively north
ern and cold region, where you did not ex-
pect it to go, cannot you trust the same
principle further south, when you come to
acquire additional territory from Mexico? +?
VIII not the same principle protect in the
Northern States of Mexico when they are
acquired, since they are now surrounded by
slave territory?
On, Douglas men, what a fall is this?
Did you not tell US that when the Nebras-
ka bill was enacted that this law was the
most efficient way of Introducing free la
most solemly assured us, every day since
1854, that the principle of popular sovc-
reignty, as expoundcd by Mr.. Douglas,
would most certainly save all the terrific
ries from the grasp of slavery? And now
look there Your own master and prophet
admits, acknowledges, and BOASTS of it
that this same principle gave to slavery
one and one half degrees of latitude more
than it ever claimed, and that since the or
ganization of the American Republic not Il
square foot of free territory was ever con-
verted into slave territory, but by the same
measure which you represented to us as
the greatest and most reliable engine of
free labor. Your own master and prophet
tells you in your own faces, and in the face
of all mankind, and i'll the face of posterity.
that you have been lying most atrociously
lying every day for the last SIX years
This was unkird-was it not, Douglasites
of the North
No: I am not joking. Tt was terribly
unkind. All he said was most certainly,
most undoubtedly, most uncontravertably
true ; but, declare that if he had the least
regard for the feelings of his friends-the
least sympathy for them in their awkward
embarrassments-he, he ought to have been
the last on earth to make that statement
Oh, that was ungenerous? 1t was mean
very mean-unspeakably mean. If
your selGsacrifcing friendship had'awaken-
ed the least echo in his heart he ought to
have Seen the last man to do so. But
that heart seems to be so filed with cal
louscd selfshness-so destitute of the gen
erous impulses Of human nature-that if
his friends, like Broderick; die for him, he
promptly puts them to shame. Disowns
them and puts them to shame. And for
what? For the purpose of retrieving the
lost lavors of the South regaining the lost
smiles OF the slave power, to be sacrificed
to them, Was that the reward you had de-
served at his hands?
Look at it again. See him stand be-
fore tbs shareholders in the Senate of the
United States busy bargaining away your
honor for their favors See there your
master and prophet, prostrating himself
before the slave power-in the dust, before
your proud opponents You can no long
er say you stand by him, for since that
day he does not stand by himself. If you
are with him stil-there, at the foot of the
slave power, where he lies, you lie with
him. And what did the shareholders do
after he had So meanly Inundated himself,
and Frustrated his friends? Did they
smile upon him? Aye, they did, with
scorn and said; 1--WE love thy treason
well enough, but we spurn with contempt
the traitor - and there be lies still The
time of the Baltimore convention arrived,
and the struggle recommended. 1t became
at once manifest that Douglas nomination
could not be forced upon the Democratic
party without splitting that organization in
twain +; and he saw clearly enough that
then his election would be an impossibili-
ty. The South was seeding en- naasse, and
leaving the rump convention to do as it
pleased. Then Mr.. Douglas, seeing dis
graceful defeat inevitable, wrote letter
to his friends in the convention, requesting
them to withdraw bis name if they found
it in any way consistent to do so. And |
declare, if Douglas was ever honest in any
thing he did or said, | believe he was hon
est then and there
But now the moment had arrived when
1t became manifest that there is justice in