The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-09-07
stephen A. Douglas.

From The Tribune.
The President of the United States, the first
General of the Army, the first Admiral of the
Navy and many thousands of their fellow-citi-
zens, assembled yesterday on the beautiful
shores of Lake Michigan to do honor to the late
Stephen A. Douglas. 1t is not often that states
men find eulogists in their own generation. The
men who stood around the grave of stephen A.
Douglas were his companions. They knew him
well In the course of nature he should still
be with them; for Douglas died comparatively
young in the very tulness of his life. In fact,
the orator who yesterday discussed his career
is almost old enough to have been his father.
1t is thlrty-two years since Douglas a poor
wayfaring Yankee boy, went to seek his fortunes
in the State which afterwards honored him as
one Of her most eminent citizens. He wandered
early from mis- Green Mountain home, with
nothing but plain New England education,
and determination TO rise. Tired of cabinet
making and teaching, he engaged in what was
called studying law" The fame of Jackson
filed the land, ana the smart Yankee, not OPP
pressed with scruples, saw that the sign in Ten
nessPP was the star OF conquest. His great
rival, Lincoln, was keeping post office, fresh
from the glories OF the Black Hawk war. An.
drew johnson, was Mayor of a little mountain
town in Tennessee, Jefferson Davis, lieu
Seward was gIievlng over his defeat as Gov
ernor, BTeckinIldge was studying the ora
tions of Cicero against Cataline at Ken
tuCky College, Chase was endeaVoring to
gain law practice in Cincinnati, Sumner
was entering the Boston bar, Broderlck was
cutting stone, Grant was D schoolboy, in his
teens, Farragut was watching the honor of his
fac on the torrid coasts of Brazil, and II orator
of to-day, tired OF war and law, had entered
politics and become the New York Secretary of
state: Unlike many of these men, Lincoln
especially, Douglas blOssomed early He be-
longed to that hardy breed oil men who suit any
soil and every lattuoe Torrld or frigId, sun
shine or snow, the lite in him was enduring He
believed in the rowdy virtue of American poll
tics, and had much Of the rowdy in. his nature.
He managed his debates very much as Mr.
Heenan manages his prize fights, and conquered
by sheer humping The records of our Senate
show no debates more brutal, and yet more
powerful, than those of Douglas, especially on
the Nebraska bill; and it was curing this debate
that he showed the amazing power which made
his personal influence while he lived greater
than that ofany American statesman.
We say american statesman" and yet we
cannot rank Mr.. Douglas among the men whose
lives have become a part of the nations history
10y the very nationality of their services and
their fame. HIS career in Illinois was that of
one who Conquered by energy, audacty, and
qualities of mind and body that made him the
leader of mob. AS popular leader, no one
possessed so many elements OF success as Mr..
Douglas, and when we say this we have an
swere6 the highest demand OF his fame. Con-
science would have made hun a radical. but by
pandering to an Illinois mob, he MANAGED to be
for the greater part OF his career always vcto-
rous by surrenderng himself to the spirit of
slavery he became conspicuous as leader OF the
extreme pro-slavery wing OF the Democratic
party. During the period of the Southern do
mlnation tnat succeeded the fail of Van Buren,
when pubic men of the North strove to outdo
each other in pandering to the South, Mr..
Douglas went beyond them all, and offered up
the Missouri Compromise as a sacrifice tor the
Ml,af Nlann
did not dream of doing, what they scarcely
dared to ask, Mr.. Douglas did. The repeal of
the Missouri Compromise was the great event of
his public life. II is not tor us to consider his
afterthought OF an argument called Popular
SoveregOty"-not an argument, indeed, but an
excuse and prOpitiation. The nation saw only
an ambitious, striving politician, clamorng for
the Presidency, and willing to rise upon the
ruins of sacred, tme-honored compromise
Whether their Judgment was the true one or
not, we have not the power 10 say, but certainly
the American people thus believed and Douglas
lost the confidence that otherwise would have
made him President Even the Missouri Com
promise would not proptiate the South: and at
Cincinnati the men tor whom he had incurred
public scOrn, for whom he had rsked his fame
and fortune, abandoned him with cowardly
tmdlty, ana selected James Buchanan.
This desertlOn convinced the aspiring Senator
that the system OF slavery added to other SINS
that OF dupllcIty and beartlessness. From tho
moment of MIR. Buchanan's election, Mr..
Douglas ceased TO act with the slave-power.
Had he lived through the war, this might have
been the tuInlng-point ut an lllustnous and use
full career. He created the Anti-Lecompton
party and fought Mr.. Buchanan with as mucn
courage as could be expected from a statesman
who would insist upon being politician. He
saw nothing GRANGER in our system than the
Democratic party, and to this party he clung
with superstItious tenaclty, But one step
higher, and he might have become the leader OF
the American people. He refused that step In
1863 when the country yearned Tor him, when
leaders of the Republican party were willing
to carry his colOrs. Rather than abandon
an organization that was really In the hands
of thieves and money-changers, he stood
begging in the Senate ior his old committee
only to be repulsed with contempt by the South
and to 60 to Illinois and do theiI bidding. l
was the want OF moral purpose which make
men create eXpedieuts that III the case OF Dou
glas led him TO seek a third party when he RAJ
tor the Presidency. HIS friends in the Soutl
sacrificed him for Brecklnrldge while othe
friends in the North, claiming to follow M
principles, walked over him as a bridge, to tn
side OF the victorious Lincoln. 1t is in these las
days OF his career that we find the real, merit c
Douglas lite. Taxing him all in all, as one {
the lustiest men of this generation, his fate II
MINDS us OF Spanish matador who goes dow
to the arena gorgeous with spangles and feathers
and valiant with his spear. He threw the re
rag az the country, and made a magnihceI
fight But matadors have misfortunes, and tn
from Illinois was tossed, and gored, ald tran
Med dyirg in the very moment when he of a
men seemed called upon to liye-never 10 fol
his red rag any more.
What the war would have made Douglas it
VAIN TO imagine. He was strenuous America
and be knew that the Sumter guns meant wa
The last words Of his life were loyal and bray
He saw the necessity of national unity al
energy While urging and warning the peop
and insisting upon manly, patrlouc action, I
strange tendency OF his nature soughtlts CHM
in the declaration that the Democratic pal
~ ha narnpfuatp0 unless DemOCl