The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1860-10-05
Tittiu AtIfrEIg Tribaat,
DOUGLAS IN TtPFINl
How the "Litilo DOiget"
Dodgod.
(Rcpbrted expressly for the TsihuNf)

tRcpOrlcd expressly for the TsthuNtl
Mn. EpgroR;--Your Reporter dcposcth
aud suyth as follows to wit: That on the
gath day of September, A. ID. 1850, he
was present in obedience to your request
At the great Douglas demonstration held
III the city Of TifHn. lie reached the
stand whereon the great man, stephen
A. Douglas, ives TO proclaim 10 his fell
foN citizens, his eligibility for the office
of President of these United States, and
on application for admittanoe TO the stand
was told by a man with red ribbon
around his hat that, unless he could dis
cover 10 the vision Of said man a green
card Of udmittanee his reportorial fee
could not press The plonks Of the plat
form; but the man added that ifyour Re-
porter would wait Until the platform was
fill Of hearers he (thb mani codld then
be invested with discretionary powers as
10 who should and who should not be Od;
mittcd, and that then he possibly
might be honorcd with a scat. Thcgreat
man Stephen came. Your Reporter EN-;
deuvorcd TO catch the eye of the man who
was to exercise discretionary powers
without success, and was forced 10 wait
until a friend escorted him to the stand
and secured him position. This oc-
counts Tor the moOgre report.
Stephen A. Douglas mounted the stand
and having unsheathed himself from his
oyer-coat and having disposed of the same
in a summary munItr began to deliver
his piece. When your Reporter secuted
a place on which he could scratch, Mr..
Douglas spoke us Collowsi
"And in the face of these incontro-
vertible facts.-truths recorded in history
lin your school-books, the leaders oftho
Republican party have the cflrontery and
hurdihood to talk to intelligent people,
about the aggression of the slave power
I thank God we have a written Hiss
tory. thank 6od we have no school
in which our children are taught
Greek, nor that will not enable them At
II years of age TO contradict and coni
found these Republican leaders by these
plain historical facts. (Cheers) There
are other historical facts; for instance
nothing is more common than these alb
lition leaders to tell you that Ohio, Indi.
ana, illinois and Wisconsin were all
made free states by tho Ordinance o
l7STi But for that Ordinance they wohlt
Z harv vit- a., es stare futeses. z,oHvi'uy .s,ss
tell you so in every ono Of the states! d,
they not celebrate the ! 9th July instepd o
the 9Th Of July! Did il ever occur Il
them what compliments they pay the in
telligent people Of Ohio, when they say
you are free, not of your own choice
not because you desire to be free, but be-
cause your Congress passed a law com
polling you to be free! daughter aht
cheers.) Coercion is never freedom. /
is tyranny 10 compel any people on eurtl
to have any institutions they do'not wan
(cries of thut's SOY You have no right {,
compel people to adopt even goo,
thing or bad thing, Whenever yo,
compel them you destroy their ch6racte
as freemen and make them slaves, so ia
as that is concerned. Il is the funda
mental principle ofevery Government tn
world over, that the people have a righ
to decide for themselves. What law
are good and What ure bad Every pco
pie have a right to decide for (hemseVe
what institutions are base and what or
worse. Did you ever See an Englishmai
who did not claim that his government wa
/ better than ours (Cries ofncver.) Is there
tyrant on earth Who does not say heis a BET
ter judge what the people need than tn
people themselyesl Take any one of tn
petty tyrants of Germany; ask them VIII
they do not permit their people to have
Voice in making the laws under which the
livel and the answer will be that th
people would ruin themselves by ba
laws If you only live them chance.--
(Laughter.)
Go to old England which claims to b
Che freest go9erhment in the World ed
, cepting America, ask the tories Of thl
government, why they deprived Irelan
Of her parliament and the right Of sell
goyernmentl the answer will be the pee
pie of Ireland would ruin themsel9e
with bad lawsS then ask the modern Re
publicans the feason they DO not perm
Che people of the territories to decide III
Slavery qaestion themselves and the
tell you If they only permit that, the pee
pie of the territories would ruin then
sel3esb by adopting slavery certain Luugl
ter.) That is the argument-a tyrant
plea to the right of self-government IN
der the prete1t that they would max
bad avs fyou give them a chance.
shall not ask that question for you pee
pie in Ohio. leave yod to make you
own answer to the imputation, but so ia
as the state and people of Illinois ar
concerned, 7 tell you we are free stat
because we choose to be, (cries Of goot
good) and we would haze slave State
If we thought ii was for our good, and tn
good Of our children to have had slavery
Illinois is free state from choice an
not from abolition. l have no respec
for the freedom of any people who ar
not so from choice. What are the histo
rical facts on this pointl All the North
tlf,.,.,,s Catotos heearna fraa l. IL a