The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-06-21

which 10 remembered as one OF the most re.
markable which has ever taken place in
that Legislature. 1t was during this session
that those vast projects of internal improve
ments, suggested by the apparently bound,
less capabilities of the Prairie State, were
shaped into system of legislation, which
had at one time well nigh crushed her
giant expansion. Against the system which
was finally adopted, Mr.. Douglas protested
and combatted, suggesting schemes which
subsequent experience has demonstrated
would have averted many of the evils which
followed. Before his legislative term had
expired, he received the appointment of
Register of the Land Office, and removed
to Springfield. Supervening upon these
days was the Van Buren, Administration
with its brood of panics and commissions.
The opposition was mastering strong and
b.ave the State government was recusant
of the principles upon which it had been
placed In power the Administration party
appeared to succumb,-and, upon his sug.
gestion, the first State Convention was
called at Vandalia, and the Democratic
party of the State of Illinois had its first
organization. Mr.. Douglas had now reached
the age of "a. In the same year, and be,
fore be was Is, he was put in nomination
for Congress, and in August, 1888, was de.
feated by minority vote.
From this time forward to 1841, Mr..
Douglas devoted himself mainly to his pro-
fession, amongst the members of which it is
no disparagement to say he was facile
princeps." In January, l84l, he was APP
pointed Secretary of State, and in February
of the same year he was elected by the
Legislature to the Bench Of the Supreme
Court, which position be continued to &C.
cupy until the spring of 1843, when the
exigencies of his party called him down from
the Bench which he adorned to compete
with the Hon. o. III. Browning for Con-
gress. He was elected and remained in the
House of Representatives until 1916, at
which time he was elected Senator of the
United States. Since 1916 his name has
been, not only to the United States, but to
the world, "familiar as household words"
From his entrance on the wider field of
national politics in 1843, down through all
the distinguished periods of American His
tory, no great measure has occupied the
attention of the country, but has felt the
impress of his mind. He did not graduate
up to bis high place by slow degrees, it was
the steady, sustained, armed advance of the
leader to the head of the column-and when
lesser men were acquiring the routine of
Congressional duties, he stepped at once
into the arena, the accomplished athlete
smooth and round, the cOnsummate states
man.
The first occasion upon which he was
signalized to the country as a remarkable
man was in the debate which arose upon
the proposition to refund to Gen. jackson
the fine which had been imposed upon him
by Judge Hall, at New Orleans, for disre-
spect to the civil authority. Mark the
self asserting egotism, the defiance, the glo-
rious eoquence of the young Representative
from the West, then scarce warm in his
seat:
For one, am not disposed to shrink from
the investigation of any question connected
with this subject nor am prepared to acqui.
esce silently in the correctness of the imputa-
tions cast upon the friends of this measure by
gentlemen in the opposition. They have been
pleased to stigmatize this act of justice to the
distinguished patriot and hero as humbug-
party trick--a political movement, intended
to operate upon the next Presidential election.
These mputatiOns are as unfOunded as they
are uncourteous, and hurl them back, in the
spirit which they deserve, upon any man who is
capable of harboring, much less expressing,
such sentiment. 1t i'll becomes gentlemen to
profess to be the real friends of Gen. Jackson
and the exclusive guardians of his fame, and
to characterize our efforts as sinister and in
sincere, while in the same breath they charge
him with violating the Constitution and laws,
and tramplng with ruthless violence upon the
judiciary of the country. They seem to act
upon the principle that the most successful
mode of blackening the character of great
and good man is to profess to be his friends
while making unfounded admissions against
forever. If these are to be taken as the kind
Offering of friendship, well may the old hero
pray God to deliver him from the hands of his
friends, anu leave to take care OF his enemies.
insist that this bill has been brought forward
and supported in good faith as an act ofjustice
.-strict, rigid, impartial justice to the American
people, as well as their ablest defender. The
country has an interest in the character of her
public men--their unsullied fame gives bril-
liancy to her glory. The history of General
Jackson is so inseparably connected with the
history of this country. that the slightest blot
upon the one would fix an indelible stain upon
the other. Hence the duty, the high and pa.
triotic duty, of the representatives of the PEG.
pie to efface every unjust stigma from the spot.
less character of that truly great man, and
transmit his name to posterity adorned with
all the charms which the light of truth will i'm.
part t0it.
He then proceeds to place the justifca
tion of General Jackson upon impregnable
constitutional grounds, and with a terseness
of Statements power of argument which
ranks it among the most splendid instances
of judicial eloquence, and concludes with
language so characteristic of the orator, so
opposite to the occasion and withal so inn.
pressive in its significance at the present
juncture in the affairs of the country, that
must be allowed again to quote.
But, sir, for the purposes of General Jack.
sons justification, care not whether his pro.
ceedings were legal or illegal, constitutional
or unconstitutional, with or without precedent,
if they were necessary for the salvation OF
that city. And l care as little whether he OBJ
served all the rules and forms of court. and
technicalities of the law, which some gentle.
men seem to consider the perfection of reason
and the essence of wisdom. There was but
one form necessary on that occasion. and that
| was to point cannon and destroy the enemy.