The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1879-10-16
TRADITION IN POLITICS.

TR aDIH1ON IN PULL hCS-
Douglas and Lincoln taught the pee
pie an invslusb'e le.so1. There was
never personal political contest like
theirs, in the degree of popular ex-
cItement begotten, except those in
which John Randolph and Patrick
Henry, James c. Jlnes, and Jlmes X.
Polk, and S. S. Prentice and McNutt
maddened multitudes by elo9uence
such is not heard or felt 10 our time.
When Douglas won the prize of the
United States Senatorship he had gwen
Lincoln fame enough to make him
president, the same results having been
evolved in Tennessee between Jones
and Polk, the heaten sspirant in each
immediate COT fl ct wen the highest
honors ever bestowed upOa man. But
when Douglas wal Senator, Lincoln
came to Washington on the third Of
March, 1861. to assume the off. Of
President. When, on the fifth, he sto- d
by the mean little table on the
portico OF the Cipitol. aud men
feared a popular outbreak, and the
Blair family have filled the Ptreets
with toldiers, and armed men were
every where, aud old Winfield Scott
was wrought up to a degree OF excite
ment SO wcighty that lis vanity was in
visible-eyen then Stephen A. Douglas
used his personal power with the mul-
tltude to assure the peaceful inaugurs-
ton of Mr.. Lincoln. The | tile table
would not hold the Presidents papers
and his tall hat. Douglas stepped for
ward, SO that the vsst, silent, excited,
apprehensive throng could see him, and
taking the hat, held it, while Lincoln
pronounced the memorable speech
which contemplated peace, but pro-
Vided for war.
Dlug!as was the intellectual gait
of his tim and curious story
was told of the secret of his over
throw as a candidate for the presi-
dency. Buchanan was nominated at
Cincinnati in 1856. Douglas was
Buchanan's strongest competitor, final
ly surrenderIug the place to Buchan-
ans "age, experience and long leadeI-
ship" by his own voluntary action.
He was then of the United States Sen
ate. He became widower. Society
in Washington was divided into two
cliques, Northern and Southern, in
which famous women of those days
were potent leaders. The war between
them was even more violent than that
between the Secessionists and Summers
patty. When Douglas welded Ada
Coutts, a Southern" woman belong
Ing to the "Northern" coterie of fash
ionable danes, he fell like Lucifer, and
Benjsmip, the ingenious, elo quent and
facile Hebrew politician from New
Orleans, was induced, it was al
legged, by Mrs. Slidell and other
ladies to make that memorable speech
in the United States S,nate
devoted to the discussion of Douglas
popular sovereignty" theory. Ben
jamin demanded positive aggressive
pro-slavery legislation, while Douglas
proposed TO have the people of the
territory, like those of State, reg
ulate their domestic institutions as they
chose. But Benjamin's speech cleft
the party in twain, and Ada Coutts'
enemies triumphed. She was never
the wife of President. On the con-
trary, it happened of this admirable
woman when her husband was max
ing his ever memorable tour through
the South, in 1860, urging the main
tenance of the Union and acceptance
of his policy of peace and 'local
freedom" that even in Selma, Ala
bama, a vulgar, maddened mob
pelted her with rotten eggs, an Incl
dent which caused Federal soldier,
in 1865, to call down heavens mightiest
curses upon the place when it was given
over to pillage and conflagration. For
the verify of these vague stories no
body is responsible. They pass down
those side-cuTents of history denomi-
mated tradition and are told at wine
tables and will finally take their places
in curious books like Wraxall's Me-
moirs delighting posterity even more
than those sober, solemn recitals of
majestic facts that jut far cut. arrest
ing all human eyes, like lofty promon-
tories along the seashore of the worlds
stormy history.