The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-07-26
Beautiful Tribute to the Memory or
Senator Douglas from his Colleague
and Old Political Opponent, senator
TrulmbulI. ~ @" ~ '-

ana Oid Folftical Opponent, senator
Trumburl.
In announcing the death of Senator
DOUGLAS, In the Senate of the United
States, Mr.. TRuMBULL his colleague, said,
after brief notice of bis political career:
From this brief history, it appears that
Judge Douglas devoted more than half of
his life and all the years of his manhood to
the public service, and so prominent was
the part he took in public affairs, so intim.
ate the connection between his own rise and
lame and the progress and renown of bis
State and the nation, that the history of the
one would be incomplete without that of
the other. No great public movement has
taken place since he entered public life
which has not felt the influence of his will
and his intellect. Perhaps no one man since
the government began ever exercised a
greater influence over the masses of the
people than he. No one ever gathered
around him more devoted followers or more
enthusiastic admirers, who were willing to
90 and dare more for another than were his
friends for him. What this charm was that
SO linked the popular heart to him that it
never faltered, even under circumstances
apparently the most discouraging, seems al
most mysterious. This feeling of attach.
ment followed him even to the grave, and
was rever more manifest than after his de.
cease, when he had become alike Indifferent
to the adulation of friends or the censure of
enemies, and when his power had forever
departed, either to reward the one or to
punish the other. 1t was then, if ever, as
bis body lay lifeless in the city of Chicago,
that the true feeling of people would man.
ifest itself f; and it did show itself not only
there, but throughout the nation, to an ex-
tent scarcely if ever witnessed since the
death OF the Father of his Country. The
badges of mourning were seen displayed not
only from the public buildings and the man
sions of the rich, but the cottages of the
poor, the carts of the workmen and the i'm
plements of the laborer were everywhere to
be seen draped with the habiliments OF woe,
all the more touching as they were simple
and plain. The peoples favorite in life, be
was followed by their lamentations in death.
But Judge Douglas possessed not only
the power OF fascinating the masses-he was
a marked man wherever he went and with
whomsoever he associated. No matter
whether as lawyer at the bar, as Judge
on the bench, at an agricultural society
where the skilled in mechanic and Industrial
pursuits were assembled, at some college
commencement where the learned were con.
vened, in the other House of Congress in
the midst of tumult and commotiOn of its
most excited debates, in this more deliber.
ate body or before the popular assembly of
the people,, wherever he appeared, he all
ways shone conspicuously. He was one of
the few men who have proved themselves
equal to every emergency in which they
have been called upon to act. / remember
when he was transferred from the House of
Representatives to the Senate, his enemies
predicted and his friends feared, that his
talents were not fitted for this body, and
that he would not be able to sustain the
reputation he had acquired in the more
popular branch. He entered here when the
great men, whose talent, and learning, and
eloquence, have shed undying lustre on the
American Senate,-when Clay, Webster,
Benton and Calhoun, in the vigOr of man.
hood, full of wisdom and experience, were
o1iA LULU, ouu PAOfCu uluScI1 UU mean COW~
peer of either. His sfeech of 1850, where's
in he met and refuted the positions of the
great Carolinian upon the very points
which have been made the pretexts of the
Southern rebellion, was perhaps the great
est effort of his life. The distinguished
characteristics of Judge Douglas, which en-
abled him to cope successfully with the
greatest intellects of the age, were fearless
ness, quickness of apprehension, strong
will and indomitabe energy. He knew no
such word as fail. He had full confidence
in himself, and of his ability to accomplish
whatever he undertook. 10 controversy he
was unsurpassed, and without profession
either to accomplished scholarship or elo
quence, there was fullness in his voice, an
earnestness 10 his manner, directness in his
argument, and a determination in his every
look and action, which never failed to com,
mand attention, and often, eIectrifying the
multitude, would elicit unbounded applause.
This crowded chamber has often been wit
ness OF the delight with which the multitude
hung upon his words.
In social life Judge Douglas was genial
and attractive. Open, frank, and generous
almost to fault, he never failed to exercise
large influence over all with whom be
came in contact, and few men have ever had
more numerous or more devoted personal
friends. Such were some of the character
istics of our departed brother. InheritiDg
neither wealth nor position from an illus
trious ancestry, he acquired both by the
active, energetic, laborious and never ceas.
ing use of those noble faculties with which
be was endowed by the Great Author of
all and if the wealth be at one time pos-
sessed does not remain to those were de-
pendent on him, it is because the energies Of
his great mind were devoted rather to the
country and to the whole people than to
providing for his own. Laboring under the
defects OF an imperfect education in early
life, his industry and his energy supplied
the want. He was emphatically self
made man, and the history of his life affords
striking illustration of what industry and
energy, united with strong will, can accom-.
plish. But that iron will which had so
o{to