The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-03-16

Douglas.
Mr. Douglas has taken the new Administration
in hand at the outset, and 1t is his purpose, by
the most unscrapulous efforts of ingenuity to get
it within his grasp and crush it. Douglas is no
comman man. With an unbounded stomach for
political preferment, he pursues his end without
the slightest regard to the fairness of his means,
and from each disaster rises with renewed
strength, insolence and recklessnsss. Wholly
unfettered by those moral restraints which COM
pei some statesmen to pay respect to the claims
Of decency, Douglas dashes on, unawed by expo
| sure, unabashsd by detection. If truth stand in
his way it is ruthlessly thrust aside and shame
lessly evaded. If honor forbid the use of po-
litcsl weapon, an excuse is not wanting for its
violation. Thus Douglas induced Republican
Senators to vote apparently In favor OF squatter
sovereignty upon his pledge that the vote should
| not be used against them politically; yet upon
the plea that Lincoln pressed him hard in the
Illinois canvass he did not hesitate to cite this
vote against the men who cast it in consequence
of his pledge. Throughout his whole political
caree, Douglas has been esteemed tricky and uE-
trustworthy in his personal character. He began
life demagogue, and he has pursued his polit
cal way, keeping the same character, and dis
playing an aptitude for political intrigue which
has no parallel.
Although nomnally lawyer, Douglas never
| had any legal training to speak Of and his gen.
ersl education was extremely limited. Yet at the
age of % he was Attorney-General OF Illinois,
which at that time was an office quite as impor-
| tant as that of District Attorney in one of the
counties of this State, and therefore required
some knowledge oflaw. But this was nothing in
comparison to his leap upon the bench of the Su-
preme Court of Illinois at the age of 20. This ju-
dicial feat was, in fact, political maneuver got
up by Douglas and others to overslaugh the old
| Supreme Court by adding more Judges, and in
cdentally to provide places for briefess politl-
clans. From this little operation has doubtless
arisen Judge Douglas reverence for Courts in
general, especially the Supreme Court of the
| United States So entirely devoted was he to
politics, that before being made a Judge he had
twice run for Congress in the great Congress
iopal District which ut that time held within its
limits Chicago, Galena, and Springfield. His
first canvass was made in 1888, against William
L. MAY, and the modest youth did not scruple to
advocate his own election on the ground that
| Henay Clay required some one to demolish him,
and Douglas was the man to do it. In lS4O, be
ran against John 7. Stuart. and displayed con.
siderable ability in conducting the canvass. At
both of these elections the Illinois Canal was in
progress, and every man could legally vote
once who lived six months in the State, Douglas
devoted himself to the personal cultivation OF
the canal-diggers, every man of whom voted for
him as often as the law allowed, and some good
deal oftener. BY extensive pipe-laying he was
got into Congress, but the extension OF suffrage
was not SO successful as in 1858, when he beat
Lincoln for the Senate by carrying couple Of
doubtful counties When he first sought to get
into the Senate his very eagerness to drive the
Legislature to support him caused his defeat
But he was not man to be put down by his
party, and he soon became Senator, after serv
ing two or three terms in the House Of Repre-
| .:sL ;nc int he
Senate. the road to the White House seemed
nearly Travelled. Willing to concede everything
to the South, having, in right of his wife, plan
tation in Mississippi well stocked with negroes
ne still remembered that Illinois was Free
State. and that he had position to maintain al
home Hence it came to pass that his course or
the Slavery question was yscillating and tempo
rizinc. One day the Missouri Compromise wal
pronounced "canonized in the hearts OF the
'.American people" and as sacred as the Consti
tuition itself, and little while afterward bill
vas introduced by him to repeal that cannon
ICED measure. Not caring whether Slavery wa!
'.yoted up or voted down." he still did care to-
! the support of his own State, and, therefore
gave halfvigorous, Misunderstanding opposition
to the Lecompton policy, failing TO sustain thu
English vil!ainy only because some leading
!, friends restrained him almost by force. Hi
. scheme of Squatter Sovereignty, designed TO
the spread of Slavery, while it seemed to threat
= en its restriction, nullified by accepting tn
e dscta of the Supreme Court in the bred Scot
ease, and declaring the question judicial one
: and when finally more decided policy thai
. Squatter Sovereignty prevailed at the polls, h
Q rushed back to the support of that canonize,
Compromise which his ruthless hand had struc
}, down. At Charleston, he broke up the Demo
l. cratic party upon q pretended principle which
/ now abandons, conceding eagerly more than tn
o Convention demanded. At Norfolk, he made
e valiant speech in favsr Of enforcing the law,
Il promising to aid Lincoln TO enforce them; "
e after Lincons election, he discovered that thev
u was no way Of enforcing the law against reyol
t. ed States except by the aid Of Npstaycs. Thu
n after twisting and turning and trying to rid
y both sides Of the eapling At once, We have 81
/ pben A. Douglas brought face TO face with Il
ADMINISTRATION Of President Lincoln, and r