The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1879-03-01
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.

Col. Forney's "reminiscences
of the Little Giant"
The Most Remarkable Demo-
Graf of Modern Times.
Not longer than a common-sized woman
when first took him by the hand in the
rotunda of the old Capitol, thirty six wears
ago. He was just thirty years old, and |
do not think ne was bigger then than my
attenuated old friend, Alexander H. Ste
phens, of Georgia, whe, in his sixty sew
cnth year, is not much larger than the cele-
brated Tom Thumb. And yet, in lsi3
when first met Stephen A. Douglas, he
had gone through adventures enough To
float i novel by Charles Reade, or put to
blush some of the London stories by Charles
Dickens. Born at Brandon, Vermont, he
lost his father while an infant. and became
An APPRENTICE
TO a village cabinet maker. TO support his
destitute mother. People who talk about
the miseries of the mechanics in these DAYS
have no idea what Yankee. or even a
Pennsylvania apprentice, thirty or forty
years ago. or even an ordinary house ser.
want, had to undergo. [ at dawn in Win
ter. eating breakfast 10y candle light, doing
all soils of chores in the cold. the same
dana i,y II, IN,
benevolent institutions, under the overfed
policy which cnddles the inmates and en-
riches matrons and directors: the old time
apprentice was AZ bad oil as the Southern
slave. But when stephen a Douglas was
learning how To make primitive furniture
in Vermont, he was IN training for a greater
vocation. lie could not have been more
than thirteen, and he worked So hard at his
trade that he lost his health and he was
several years
STUDENT OF LAW,
IN Canandalgus. New York. where his
mother removed and then he could not
have been eighteen, for | find that, while
he was still a student. he :. cmigrated " To
Cleveland. Ohio. IN 1891, when lie WAS only
nineteen. Cleveland, which is now lovely
metropolis, was then a miserable hamlet on
Lake Erie. and the little STRIPPING, rvid-ut-
ly Disguised, pushed on to still smaller
town in a still smaller State-.Iacksonville,
Illinois. Here he kept school, clerked for
an auc,ionecr, and still read law Attwen.
Z he Id mil t.H h. ,,-
at once into good practice. and was elected
ATTOKNLY-GESERAL OF THE STATE
IIonors crowded on the precncious boy In
ls4o he was elected Secretary of State. ana
IN 1871 Judge of the supreme Court of the
State, when he was only -. Iii health
forced him 10 decline this last office bat in
lSi3 he was chosen to the national House
of Representatives, il his thirtieth year
There wero seven members of the House
from Illinois: there are nineteen now
Douglas passed through all the honors his
adopted State could give him, rose to the
Senate of the United States in ls47, and
served till 1861. On the 3rd of June OF
that year. he died in his forty eighth year
at Chicago.
call that putting lsng experience into
a short space or, TO use an old simie. fore
ing a quart into pint. 1t is worth while.
at the present time, to pause and make
note ho~ much this one brief and busy life
has nodded and mastered the destiuiss oi
empires. lie was the absolute
CREATOR or A SCHOOL
There were others who appreciated and
cultivated tho future of Western America;
but there was no one man who so fully un
derstood it as Douglas. Benton, Allen.
Linn and few mose did much, especially
Benton, whose great picture and prophecy
of the future Of Oregon, in 1916 seemed
to indicate that he had caught the inspira-
ton of the coming time. Douglas alone
had the good sense to grasp the political or
party issue when Kansas pruilcred the OPP
poriunity. OF all his contemporaries If
any distinction. one only survives-Wil-
liam Allen. of Ohio. lie was born in 1906,
in North Carolina, and is still liSing near
Chllicoihe, Ohio; but although Douglas
has been dead over seventeen yeas,
HIS NAME
far out weighs the fame of his old colleague.
The secret is easily traced. Slavery aud
,he prejudices that grow out of slavery
have dwarfed sections and statesmen The
experience is exceptioness. aud Douglas
and Allen both prove It. The present con
diiion of this South proves il. All history
proves il; and it stands among the un
solved miracles of eur time. that the South
should have So long and stubbornly closed
its eyes to fact plainly seen snd boldly
acted ou by most other people.
AS Douglas grew in year. he grew in
size; hs broadened, but did not heIgkten.
aud when he rose To speak the first impress
sion was uoi agreeable, but he soon won
has way, aud
NEVER LOST WHAT HE wOS.
He had great following. Older and
ablor men willingly yielded to his Influence.
In making friends he was always ready to
sacrifice himself Leading in all great
movement, bOiu 10 Itsnncss. iaF-Slnnted
and prophetic, one weakness was inscpara-
BILE from such methods. lie cared too lit
tie for the practical objects of life. He
enriched thousands, and never stopped TO
provide ways and means for his own well
fare; and it must bs said, If he bad, his
boundless influence would have been shofn.
IL was bis utter disregard of self that made
even selfish men trust him, and naturally
attracted 10 him the enthusiastic and pa.
triotic elements OF the country, North and
South. He died in Chicago in the flush of
HIS HEROIC SACRIFICES,
and spoke his euiogy in July of 1861, at
the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, ID.
C., in the presence of Mr.. Lincoln and his
Cabinet, and great audience, the iilustri-
"as Prof. Joseph lisnry in The chair
The civil war had Just begun. Most of
the great actors on the Government side
were present Stevens stanton Chase