The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1860-10-25

appeasing the South. He grasped at
it with desperate eagerness, and he
saw the great prize slipping from his
hands, and he staked his all upon a
last cast. On the 18th and 18th OF
May, he arose in the Senate, and in
one Of the most elaborate efforts OF his
life; he made the following statement; ;
and Douglas Democrats, / claim your
special attention. Listen:
at is part of the history of the
country that under this doctrine of non-
intervention-this doctrine that you
delight to call squatter sovereignty
the people of New Mexico have intro
duced and protected slavery in the
whole of that territory. Under 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
26o 30, but up to 3S %, giving you q
degree and half more of slave terri
tory than You ever claimed. y
What other inch of free
territory has been converted into slave
territory on the American continent
since the Revolution, except in New
Mexico and Virginia, under the princi-
pie of non-intervention affirmed at
Charleston? 1t it be true that this prin-
ciple of intervention has protected
slavery in that comparatively northern
and cold region, where you did not
expect it to go, cannot you trust the
same principle further south, when YOU
come to acquire additional territory
from Mexico? Will not the same prin-
ciple protect in the Northern States Of
Mexico, when they are acquired, since
they are now surrounded by slave ter
ritory?"
Oh, Douglas men, what lesson is
is this Did you not tell US that when
the Nebraska bill was enacted that this
law was the most efficient way of intro
ducing free labor into the Territories n
Have you not solemnly assured us evs-
ry day since 1854 that the principle of
Popular Sovereignty, as expounded by
Mr.. Douglas, would most certainly save
all the Territories from the grasp of
slavery! And now look there! Your
own master and prophet admits, dc-
k,aoaoledges and BOASTS of it-that this
same principle gave to slavery one and
a half degrees Of latitude more than it
ever claimed, and that since the organ
ization of the Americen republic not q
square foot of free territory was ever
converted into slave territory, but by
the same measure which you represent
ed to us as the greatest and most relia-
BILE engine of free labor! Your own
master and prophet tells you to your
own faces, and in the face Of all man
kind, and in the face of posterity, that
you have been lying most atrociously
lying every day for the last six years,
This was unkind-was it not, Douglas
ties of the North?
No, l am not joking. It was terri.
bly, unkind. All he said was most
certainly, most undoubtedly, most un-
controvertibly true-but, declare that
if he had the least regard for the feel
ings of his friends-the least sympathy
for them in their awkward embarrass-
ments-he, he ought to have been tho
lasl on earth to make that statement.
Oh, that was ungenerous I! 1t was
mean-very mean-unspeakably mean.
If your selfsacrifcing friendship had
awakened the least echo in his heart,
he ought TO have been the man to do
SO. But that heart seems to be so filled
with caloused selfishness-so destitute
of the generous impulses of human ma.
ture-that if his friends, like Broderick,
die for him, he cody disowns them;
and if they lie for him, he promptly
puts them to shame And for what?
for the purpose of retrieving the lost
favors of the South regaining the lost
smiles of the slave power, to be sacri.
feed to them. Was that the reward
you had deserved at his hands?
Look at it again. See he stands be-
fore the Shareholders in the Senate of
the United States busy bargaining
away your honor for their favors.
"Who has ever served you more faith
fully than | with my great principle ?"
he asks them. "Why not let my friends
in the North preach up that principle
as the pioneer of freedom? The fools,
perhaps, believing in what they say,
but we know better. Do you not see
the result? Why not permit me the
joke of bamboozling the peo-
pie of the North into believing that /
am the great Champion of Freedom ?"
Ah, Douglas men, what sight is this ?
He has prostituted you, and now pro-
claims your disgrace. How do you like
the attitude i'm which he has pla ced you?
How do you like the pillory to which,
with his own hand he has nailed your
ears? And You are willing to stand
there quietly in the eyes
of mankind Do you not sometimes
hear an earnest voice speaking within
you-speaking of self-respect and the
natural dignity of man? Does it new
er tell you that the fairest blush of
shame would be an ornament to your
cheeks ? My friends, l love to esteem
all that bears the attributes of human
nature but if sometimes, at an un-
guarded moment, cloud Of contempt
irises in my soul, it is at the aspect of
ms gratuitons self-degradation, for
Which ignorance and error can hardly
serve as an excuse.
See there your master and prophet,