The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1861-06-27
DOUGLAS;
AS Seen from GTeeley's Desk.

the centre of gravity of the planet" And
thus we all, by our daily conversations
and discussions, our periodical convon-
ventions aud annual votings, are contrib
uting to shape the history of our coun-
try-of the century-of the world
Doubtless. all ages are in their several
ways eventful yet the future historian
will mark the years 1S60-61 as among
the most important and memorable which
checker the annals of the American Re-
public. Let US endeavor for few mo-
ments to regard them from his stand
point, and realize what, in substance, he
will have to say of them.
Unquestionably, his book or chapter
which treats of these years will open with
a glance at 1854, and discern the inau-
guration of new era in the introduction
and final shaping of Mr.. Douglass Ne
braska bill That bill first brought dis
tinctively, emphatically before the coun-
try for its adjudication the principle or
affirmation that Freedom and Slavery arc
to be regarded and treated in Our Nation.
al policy as equals, with parallel claims
to the protection, regard, and fostering
care of the Republic. In the passage of
the Ordinance Of 81, contrary doctrine
had been affirmed without question, and
not less in the equally unanimous prohi-
bition of the African Slave-Trade. In
the Missouri struggle, Slavery rested its
lo boei1 oE ,anccncSInn and nf
State Rights. Slavery was in Missouri
before she became ours-she was cedcd
to us by France with an express reserva-
ton and guaranty Of all the property
rights of her citizens--she had always
since held slaves-she was determined
still to hold them-and she had ri ght,
as Sovereign State, to order her own
domestic affairs. Whether Slavery was
good or bad for her was entirely her own
affair, in which Puritanic New England.
grasping New York, and stolid Pennsyl-
vania had no right to meddle. And in
1850, the various questions involved In
in the organization of the vast regions
newly acquired from Mexico were SO mix
ed and muddled by the Compromise
measures, so called, of that year, that no
principle was clearly affirmed, no interest
specially triumphed. The resistance to
those mearures came from the two ex'
tremes of the Union, each equally vehe'
ment and persistent, and the result was
rather triumph of Quiet, of Trade, Of
Stock kiobbing, than of Slavery or Anti
Slavery. In the passage of the Nebraska
DILL did Congress first uuequivoeally as
sert and ratify the doctrine of the natu'
raj, rightful equality of Slavery with Free
dom as an object of National concern and
encouragement.
And here let me turn aside from my
main purpose to speak of the author OF
that measure. Mr. Doug las is just dead,
in the prime of life, with his great aspir-
alton unsatisfed. Like Clay, like Web
ster, and other greater men than himself,
he may be said to have failed of the grand
aim of his life, that of attaining the Pres
idential chair. I never admired Mr..
Douglas never but in single strug-
ole-that in resistance to the Lecompton
Constitution-co- operated with him.
Though We were school-boys at the same
time and of nearly equal years in Yer
mont districts but few miles apart, |
first saw him in Washington when he had
lust won his way through dozen minor
stations to the Senate OF the United
States, With the grand goal of his ambi-
ton full in view before him; and then
his training, his modes of thought, his
habits Of life. were so different from mine,
that we could never, save ftfully, have
seen eve to eye. Listening to his free,
familiar ezpositions of his views of the
great Slavery question, | could only feel
more strongly than ever before the utter
hopeIessness of any attempt to reconcile
our discordant ideas. 10 my mind, the
first consideration was one Of abstract,
fundamental, eternal Right does this
man belong to that one by any law of the
universe Suppose A is white and b
black-the former wise, strong, intelli.
gent; the latter foolish, weak, and igno-
rant-does all this give a any right to
compel B to serve him for nought through
life and bequeath like fate to his chill
dren? say Nc, emphatically No-the
exaction is so palpably, monstrously wrong
that all the priests and Legislators, scrbes
and sophists on earth could not make it
even plausible. No matter if such a re-
lation had existed from the grayest dawn
of History, and been lauded by saints and
sages as the acme of holiness and wisdom,
it is nevertheless jntolerable, and ought
to be denounced and resisted by every
righteous soul. Mr.. Douglas saw the
matter in a very different light In GER
tain climates, under certaip physical con-
ditions, Negro Slavery was convenient
to the Whites; it enabled them to culti-
vate or rather to profit by the cultivation