The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-19

chettain of Tennessee. In the debates upon
repaying the line imposed upon General jack
son at New Orleans, for contempt of court
Douglas went beyond all other men in iusti-
Tying Jackson's conduct, and denouncing
that of the court which had condemned
him. He made a pilgrimage to the Hermi-
tage, where he received the warmest aoltuow-
Judgments from General Jackson and such
an Endorsement from him as gave him at once
a certain standing in the Democratic party.
Upon national topics he always took the
popular side, and always went to an extreme
In the debates upon the Oregon question, for
example, he was the most strenuous and
audacious of the ifty-four-forty men. Cup to
that line," said he, ''the title of the United
States is clear and unquestionable; never
would |, now or hereafter, yield one inch of
Oregon, either to Great Britain or any other
government" Nay, more, he went so far as
to propose 'an immediate military occupa-
tion' OF the territory in disputes he recon-
mended an instantaneous preparation for war,
and declared that, if war resulted from these
measures, we ought to drive "Great Britain,
and the last vestiges of royal authority,
from the continent of North America, aud make
the United States an ocean bound republic"
Here was evidently a man who knew the i'm
portance of the Irish vote, and of whose future
much might be predicted.
Nor was he Slow to discover what was in
reality the ruling power in the Democratic
party, and what were the means by which
alone that power could be cOnciated. He re-
solved to pay the price. There was no mea-
sure favored by the Southern oligarchy, or
likely to be favored by them of which he was
not, for several years. the ablest and extreme
supporter. The whole of his policy as a
seeker of the Presidency consisted in one idea
TO extend the area of slavery by making that
extension the act of the settlers in the terrific
Ties. In other words, his aim was to do the
work of the Southern leaders effectually, with
out incurring personal responsibility for
it, He made the most prodigious and obvious
bids for the support of the planting interest,
with which he was allied by marriage. As
Chairman of the Territorial Committee, he
uniformly maintained the principle that Con-
gress had no power to interfere, in any way
whatever, with the question of slavery in the
Territories, but that the people resident in
them should be left absolutely free to esta-
blish or exclude it. As far back as lS4S, he
began to tamper with the Missouri COmpro-
mise ITSELF by proposing to extend the line
established in 1920 across the continent to the
Pacific Ocean-a measure which he thought
would quiet the North by prohibiting slavery
above that line, and satisfy the South by
recognizing its existence south Off
This adroit proposition was accepted by
Southern politicians as giving its author
1852 he was the favorite candidate of the
Southern leaders. The choice on that occasion
lay between the aged Cass and the "Little
Giant" of the West, both of whom had sur
passed all living men in assiduous and un-
scrupulous subserviency to the reigning
power. Neither of them, however, was strong
enough in the convention to supplant the
other. The struggle was severe and pro-
tracted. The ballotings continued for five
days. and the vote was taken forty nine times.
1t being then evident that neither of them
could obtain the nomination, the Southern
leaders resorted to the device which had
succeeded so well in 1874, when Polk
was sprung upon an astonished country,
and elected to the presidency over Henry
| Clay. The person chosen in 1852 was
Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire a gentle
man of excellent temper and highly agreeable
| manners, against whom personally not word
| can be said. Having associated chiefly in
Congress and in the army with Southern men,
he was not only captivated by their frank and
easy demeanor, but he sincerely believed that,
in the great controversy which appeared to be
rending the Union asunder the North was
wrong and the South right. He thought that
the Southern people had a natural and con-
stitutional right to take their slaves into the
new territories, and to be protected in so doing
by the law. The device, as we all know, sue
ceeded once more. Franklin Pierce was
| elected, and the whole moral power OF his
administration was given in support of the
measures ultimately designed to make slavery
national and universal Jefferson Davis was a
member of his Cabinet, and distinguished him
self by the vigor of his administration and the
malignant obstinacy of his temper.
There is no example, we believe, in our
politics of a man who has proposed to himself
to become tenant of the Presidential man
sion, who has voluntarily given up the pur--
suit of his object. 1t RACES in a mans blood
like mania, and blinds his eyes not only to
all considerations of the public good, but to
the facts of his own position. There are men
now seeking the Presidency, spending money
for it, performing continual labors in the ex-
pectation OF gaining it, who have little more
chance of being President than one of the
Japanese iugglers. Two or three of them have
been employed in this business for twenty
years or more, and at every convention they
succeed in getting few delegates to vote
for them. And still they pursue this
will-o' -the-wisp, foundering through swamps
and mire, disturbing corruption as they go
Nothing can cure them of this madness. You
may see them at their rooms in Washington
literally up to their eyes in public documents
and pamphlet speeches, which two or three
clerks are preparing for the mail, while theil
employer sits assiduously franking them t.
the uttermost parts of the land. Vain anC
ridiculous pursuit If the history of oul
politics proves anything, it proves that pub
lie man who makes the Presidency the frs
object of his endeavors will never be Presi
dent-neUer ! We might infer that this would
be the case even if we did not know that i
uniformly had been. We admit that one O.
two or even three, seekers of the Presidency