The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1861-06-05
Death or fudge Douxfxs.


~ With feelings Of more than ordinary sor.
row we chronicle the death Of STEPHEN
A. DOUGLAS. lie has been sick several
weeks at Chicago; reports Of his illness
have been sent upon the wires to all parts
ofthc country he has SO nobly served: pub
lie anxiety was so awakened to his condition
.--such weight was attached to his influence
and his powers Of debate in the approach
ing Extra session Of Congress that all
persons, without distinction Of party, seem
ed to have made his sickness personal
question. The telegraph has inquired his
hourly condition with a prcmptness which
implied no common desire for his rcstora-
ton to health; his name indeed has been
associated with almost all the hope the
country had for possible settlement Of our
great troubles. Notwithstanding the vas,
preparations made Northand South to push
their columns into that vortex Of horrors
vet unimagincd, there was latent hope
that the great man whose death we deplore
would be an instrument in the hands Of
Almighty God to stay the cffusion Of blood
and assist by his counsels to restore our
suffering country to peace and Union. All
seemed convinced that to him more than to
any other statesman could we look for the
exercise Of that moderation, the skill in
debate which would arrest the dreadful car
mage that exhibits its gaping graves before
Us. That this confidence in his ability was
real, is proved by the sincerity of the grief
which hangs Ike pail over every neigh
borhood, village and city that has received
the intelligence Of his death. Men who
have been his lifelong opponents meet his
warmest admirers and with the strong grasp
Of the hand which tells of mutual aiHiction,
they address each other as brothers and in
voices husky withcmot;bn they say, "What
a National calamity p ",tnti at time like
this too, when our country wanted all her
byal. Ssns to aid her!' the sad words
"Douglas is dead = pass from eye to
eye without the necessity Of speech and Mcn
mstinctivcly pause in their vocations to ask
themselves, ''What is LIFE, when he, who
but yesterday was welcomed to his adopted
city as the idol Of the Nation, amid the APP
plausc of twenty thousand Of aisneighbors,
carrying to his home the approving cheers
Of millions of frcemcn, now lies stiff and
stark in that same city never again to move
on that great theatre where, by universal
consent, he was recognized as an intellec-
tual giant.
But VIC cannot write lengthily of Doug
las. 1t is not proper that We should do so.
Our Partially for him would lead us to say
aluck that might appear like flattery Of the
dead. The ablest pens of the nation will
make record of his life Eloquence and
Song will enbaln his statcsmanlke virtues
ind his iron VIII men and women, cities
and States viii mourn for him, and Time
will run many cycle before We "look upon
his like again." Had he lived for Fame
alone then has he filled the measure of AM
bition. The history of his life is the hsto-
ry of the country for the last twenty years.
He has been prominent in every act of
legislation where the position of public
man would be remembered, always warmly
opposed, never conquered in debate, he has
incurred partisan hostility to an extent
which would have driven less brave man in.
to retirement, and yet he has lived down the
prejndiccs Of his bittercst foes and to-day
he sleeps his last Sleep without al ere
MY, except among those who have raised
fraitorous hands against the Constitution
and the UNION. The hatred of such men
is his highest honor.