Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-06-12

bell at the same time he pursued his academical /
course, having finally adapted that as his profess
sion In the spring of 1888, he went to the West
in search of an eligible place in which to estab
lish himself as a lawyer.
At Cleveland he was detained the whole sum- /
mer by severe illness, after his recovery from 4
which he went to Cincinnati, St. Louis, aud Jack /
sOnville Illinois. At Jacksonville he found his /
funds reduced to thirty seven and a-half cents, /
and accordingly he walked to Winchester little |
town sixteen miles distant, where he hoped to
get EMPLOYMENT as a schOOl-teacher. He found
there a large crowd assembled TO attend the auc |
ton sale of the stock of deceased trader. The |
auctiOneer was without clerk to keep the ac-
count of the sale, and perceiving that Mr.
Douglas who stood among the spectators, looked |
like a man who could write and keep accounts, |
requested him to serve in that capacity. III,
Douglas consented. and acted as clerk during the
three DAYS of the SALE receiving for his services
Sc. With this capital in hand he promptly open
ed a school, and obtained forty pupils whom he
taught for three months at 50 quarter, devOting
his evenings to the study of some law books
which he had borrowed in jacksonville, and on
Saturday afternoons practieing before the justice
of the peace of the town In March, 1884, he
| opened an Office, and began practice in the
higher courts, for which, after examination, he
had obtained license from the judges of the Su
preme Court He was remarkably successful at
the bar, as may be inferred from the tact that,
within a year from his admission, while not Yet
TWENTY-FIVE years of age, he was elected by the
Legislature Attorney General of the State. This
| flee he resigned in December, 1885 in conse-
quence of having been elected to the Legislature
by the Democrats of Morgan county. He took
his seat in the House of Representatives, the
youngest member of that body.
In 1887 he was appointed by President Van
Buren, register of the land Office at Springfield
Illinois, post which he resigned in 1899. III
November, 1887, Mr.. Douglas received the
Democratic nomination for Congress, although
he was under twenty-fiv years of age, and con-
sequently Ineligible. He however attained the
requisite age before the day of election, which
was the first Monday in August, 1888. His con-
gressional district then the most populous
one in the United States, and the canvass was
conducted with extraordinary zeal and energy.
| Upwards of $4,000 votes were cast, the Wing
candidate was declared to be elected by major
/ itv of FIVE only. A number of ballots sufficient
to have changed the result, were rejected by the
canvassers because the name of Mr.. Douglas was
incorrectly spelled. After this defeat, which, un
der the circumstances, was claimed by his friends
as victory, Mr.. Douglas devoted himself exclu-
sively to his profession until 1910, when he en-
tered into the Presidential campaign of that year
with so much ardor that he traversed the State
in all directions for seven months, and addressed
more than 300 political gatherings. To his ex
ertions ascribed the adherence of Illinois at
that election to the Democratic party. In De
cember, 1910, Mr.. Douglas was appointed Secre
tary of State of Illinois In February, 1871,
he elected by the Legislature Judge of the
Supreme Court, which office he resigned in lS43,
to accept the Democratic nomination for Con-
gress, which was urged upon him against his
known wishes, on the ground that he was the
only Democrat who could be elected. After
| spirited canvass, Mr.. Douglas was chosen by up
wards of 400 majority. He was elected in
1874 by majority OF 800, and again in 1916,
by nearly 5000 majority. He did not. however,
take h S seat under the last election, having in
| the meantime been chosen to the Senate of the
| United States for six years from March 18th,
lS47.
In the House of Representatives, Mr.. Douglas
was prominent among those who, in the Oregon
| controversy with Great Britain, maintained that
our title to the whole of Oregon, up TO 81 deg.
and 40 min. was "clear and unquestiOnable He
declared that he '.never would, or hereafter,
yield up one inch of Oregon, either to Great
Britain or any other Government" Headvocated
the policy of giving notice to terminate the joint
occupation; of establishing territorial govern
ment over Oregon, protected by a sufficient mill
tary force and of putting the country at once into
state of preparation, that if should result
from the assertion of our just rights, we might
drive Great Britain and the last vestige of royal
authority from North America and make the
1
denied the right of the Federal Government to
prosecute system of internal improvements in
/ the States, though he maintained the cOnstitu-
| tiOnality and expediency of improving rivers har
bOrs and navglble waters, and advocated
scheme of tunnage duties for that purpose, to be
levied and expended by the local authorities. He
was mainly instrumental in securing the passage
of the law extending the maritime and admiralty
jurisdiction of the Federal courts over the great
chain of northern lakes, having reported the bill
as a member of the Judiciary committee, and put
it upon its passage, when member of the House
of Representatives. He was among the earliest
advocates of the annexation of Texas, and after
the treaty for that object had failed in the Senate
| he was one of those who introduced propositions,
in the shape of joint resolutions, as a substitute
| for that treaty.
| AS chairman of the Committee on Territories
in ls46, he reported the joint resolution declaring
| Texas to be one of the United States of America
and he vigorously sustained the administration
of President Polk in the measures which it
adopted for the prosecution of the war with Mex
/ leo, which was the ultimate consequence of that
act. As chairman of the Territorial Committee
first in the House of Representatives, and after
ward in the Senate he reported, and successfully
carried through, the bills to organize the terrific
ries of Minnesota. Oregon, New Mexico, Utah,
Washington Kansas and Nebraska, and also the
| bills for the admission into the Union of the
| states OF Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Mime
sofa and Oregon. So far as the question of
slavery was involved in the organization of terri
tories and the admission of new States, ne early
| took the position that Congress should not inter
fere on one side or the other, but that the people
of each territory and State should be allowed to
form and regulate their domestic institutions
to suit themselves. In accordance with this prin-
ciple, he opposed the Wilmot Proyiso, when first
passed in the House of Representatives in 1871
las oarfr 70. Ill
50, O00, 600 to enable President Polk to make a
treaty of peace with Mexico, and afterward in
the Senate, when offered rs amendment to the
bill for the organization of the territory of Ore
| gon. In August, 1919 however he offered an
amendment to the Oregon bill, extending the
Missouri COMPROMISE Indefinitely westward to
| the Pacific Ocean, in the same sense and with the
same understanding with which it was originally
adopted in 1890, and extended through Texas in
1915, prohibiting slavery in all the territory
north of the parallel of 36 deg. 80 min. and by
implication recognizing its existence south Of
that line. This amendment was adopted in the
Senate by decided majority, receiving the sup
p0r. OF every Southern Senator, but was defeated
in the House Of Representatives by nearly sec
tiOnal 5ote.
The refusal of the Senate to adopt the policy
OF Congressional prohibition of slavery in all the
territories, and the rejection in the House of Rep
resentatives of the proposition to extend tie Mis-
souri, COMPROMISE to the Pacific ocean, gave rise
to the sectional agitation of Ie49- so which was
then temporarily quoted, by the legislation
known the compromise measures of 1850.
Mr. Douglas supported these measures with zeal
and vigor; and on his return to his home in Chi
cago, fading them assailed with great violence,
he defended the whole series in a speech to the
people, October "a. lS50,) which is regarded by
his friends as one of the ablest he has ever made
In this speech he defined the principles on which
the compromise acts of 1850 were founded. and
I upon which he subsequently defended the Kansas
Nebraska bill in these words: These measures
are predicated on the great fundamental principle
that every people ought to possess the right of
framing and regulating their own internal con-
Germs and domestic institutions in their own way
These things are all confined by
the constitution to each State to decide for itself
and know of no reason why the same principle