Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1860-09-28
The Persecution Of Stephen A.
EAnSsUEspS

the opponents OF Judge Douglas is not sat
isied with attacking him upon that issue a.
lone which was made the only objection to
him by the politicians before his nomina-
ton for the Presidency, viz !: the territorial
question. Discarding the weapons Of legiti-
mate party warfare, the airelings Of the
Northern press grasp the dagger of the as
sassin and strike blow in the dark at his
political honesty and private character
The "Nex York Day Book was made the
medium Of the publication of an article,
over the signature of John Hancock, which,
BY the courtesy with which we have in.
dulged the supporters of Mr.. Breckenridge
in this county, was allowed place in the
columns Of the Findicator last week.
Whether we consider this article as the EN-
bodiment Of the lowest order of billingsgate,
or the most atrocious SANDERS ever perpe-
trated on an intelligent community, it is a.
like entitled to the palm over anything pro-
duced in this campaign To follow the au-
thor through the sewers of his mendacious
insolencc, is an undertaking We most res
pectfully decline.
The charges as made against the honor
and good faith of Stephen A. Douglas have
been met and most signally refuted by men
of the highest standing in the party. on the
floor Of the House of Representatives and
before the people. The endeavor to cast O.
dium on the reputation Of Judge Douglas
by connecting it with the name of Horace
Greeley, is too puerile for Virginia peo-
pie even to consider. The charge that he
was elected by the Black Republicans Of H.
linois to the Senate Of the United States, is
made so directly and SO recklessly in oppo-
sition to the truth, as to discredit every
other charge contained in this miserable eff
fusion, if they were not already contradicted
and proven false by evidence direct and
positive-1alsum an umo, fazsuns IN omnibus
Every school boy knows that the most Bit
ter and terrible encounter with the excep-
ton of that Of the gallant Henry A. Wise
with the adherents of Sam) ever engaged in
before the people of any State in the Union.
was that of Stephen A. Douglas, leading on
the fierce Democratic of Illinois, against A.
BRAN Lincoln, backed up by the Black Re-
publicans Of that State and the myrmidons
of James Buchanan. All remember the
anxiety and sympathy with which every
patriot watched the chivalrous and undaunt-
ed manner with which the Little Giant bore
himself throughout all the yicissitudes Of
that campaign, and with what emotions Of
pleasure he was seen emerging from the
smoke and din of the contest, bearing aloft,
without one spot upon its radiant folds, the
banner of the Democratic party. If Ste
phen! A. Douglas had ever been untrue to
the South, or had not been made up Of ster-
ner stuff than that Of a traitor, would the
impous hatred of Black Repubicanism have
burned his efigies on every hill top aid on
every prairie of the North and North west I?
If Stephen A. Douglas had not been good
man and true, would he have barred his
bosom to tie assaults of infamed incensed
mobs, all in defence of the fugitive law and
the Kansas Nebraska act ? The records of
history furnish no such instance of heroic
devotion to principle and right, in opposi-
ton to violent and perverted public SEN
timcnt, as that of Stephen A. Douglas Civ
ing battle to all the infamous isms of the
North in vindication Of the equality of South
ern citizens and the Constitution of the u
MON; and there is afforded in the records
of partizan warfare no parallel to the ma
Lightly and hatred with which a man de-
voted to principle has been hunted down,
such as that presented at this time to the
American people, in the unjust persecution
of Stephen A Douglas
The INSCRIPTIONS and vindictivc charges
contained in the article of ''John Hancock
which bear upon their face the brand of
falsehood, and should, with every honest
man, carry their own antidote pro-
nounced to be wilfully. deliberately, and
maliciously false and their author branded
to his face as a "liar" in the House Of Rep
resentatives last Winter. In 1853, in
Judge Douglas campaign with Lincoln in
Illinois, the little wizard who presides over
the Sub Treasury at St. LoIis. first produced
those charges through the columns Of the
Jefferson City Examiner. The St. Louis
Republican, upon the direct, positive and
personal authority of Judge Douglas, pro-
nounced them to be false in every particu-
lar, and Frank Blair and Gratz Brown,
dared to make good their assertions. The
st. Louis Democrat, Frank Bair's organ,
never did cease its warfare upon Judge
Douglas, but on the contrary was ever, and
is now, his most interruptions and vindic-
tive maligner and traducer. Judge Doug
las, as did Horace Greeley himself. through
the N. 7. Tribune, denounced the whole
affair as a malicious and mahdacieus SLAM
der. From beginning to end the statement
is mean, low, lying publication, and must
recoil with terrible effect upon the heads Of
its authors and abettors. With the same
propriety thatthe Greeley charg is made, be-
cause he visited Judge Douglas, might it be
asserted that Judge Douglas is in league
with w T.. Yancev for nrevious TO the Ral