The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-06-10

Giant Poiemic and a Debator.
A Washington correspondent of the
Louisville Courier Journal writes:
OF all the men in public life for the
sixteen years that interviewed between
the Inauguration OF Polk in 1876 and
the Inauguration of Lincoln in 1861
there was no man who filled greater
space than Robert Toombs. he was
graduated from the University of Vir-
GINA at the age Of Is. In 1886 he was,
at the age of rs, a soldier in the Greek
war. Nine years later he entered Con-
gress as a Wing, but whea Mr.. Clay,
the father OF that party, passed through
the Senate his compromise measures,
admitting California as q free State,
he, with Stephens, Benjamin, Wise.
and others, joined the Democratic
party. Two years later he became
member of the United States Senate,
and continued one of the most dis
tinguished statesmen of that body until
his withdrawal therefrom upon the
passage of the ordinance of secession
by the State of Georgia, in 1861.
Toombs was less skillful debater
than Benjamin, less able as dialecti-
clan than Davis, less potential as an
orator than Soule, less profound as q
political philosopher than Stephens,
but in the elements of strength, vigor,
masculinity, manhood, virility, he was,
with the possible exception of Thaddeus
Stevens, the foremost man that ever
sat in the Congress of the United
States after Henry Clay ceased TO be.
He was utterly without concealments,
wearing his heart upon his sleeve, and
living in open day. This was the most
prominent feature of his character. He
was tribune among Senators and .
patrician among plebes, Coriolanus
everywhere-"Ajax, the great, himself
a host"
The speeches he delivered in Con-
gress would fill large volume. He
was, perhaps, the readiest man in the
Senate. He rarely appealed to pre-
cedent. He had but one test, and that
not is it expedient?" but as it right?"
He was the boldest opponent of
Douglas from 1857 until his retirement
from Congress. He made a dozen
speeches which it puzzled the Little
Giant to answer; and, to show the
candor of the man, when asked by
friend in 1859 if Douglas was really
great man, he responded, in his hearty
way, by Cd, sir, there has been
but one greater, and he the Apostle
Paul.
There is little doubt that Douglas
was the greatest debater either house
ever contained. He was born polem-
ic, and if he had possessed 1.-THE of
the acquired knowledge Charles Sum-
ner or Caleb Gushing or Mr.. Lamar
possessed, he would have been a giant
indeed. One branch of the knowledge
he did possess in its entirety. He knew
American history and knew it more
thoroughly than John Quincy Adams or
John Randolph. In that realm he was
supreme. Not Amos Kendall or
Francis p. Blair, not Horace Greeley
or Samuel j. Tilden, was so familiar
with the writings of American states
men, the speeches in Congress, and the
history of American politics as Stephen
A. Douglas. Before he was ID years of
age he was politician, and before he
was 20 years of age he was magnifi-
cent stump orator. He was poll
tician from crown to sole; it was his
vocation.
In the second speech Douglas made
in the House Of Representatives, when
he was scarce 30 years of age, he at
tackled John Quincy Adams. The ques-
ton was purely an historical one, re-
lating to the Texas boundary and the
Louisiana purchase. Not since George
Evans had left the House and Tom
Marshall had been demolished by the
"old man eloquent" had any member
Of that body had the temerity to en-
gage in discussion of that nature with
the old man. Douglas had not been a
member three months, but he demol-
ished Adams completely and over
whelmingly. 1t was the principal speech
made at that session-lS44-and from
that day he was marked man, and
was the acknowledged leader of his
party until seventeen years later he
died, less than 80 years of age.
The compromise measures Of 1850
were the work of Douglas. He was
their real author, and Mr.. Clay said
as much publicly and privately. 1t was
Douglas that defended those measures
in the Senate against all opposers, and
he it was who convinced Congress of
their wisdom and the country of their
expediency. Though mobbed when he
reached Chicago by the ultra-abolition-
lists, he soon gained the applause of
the mob when he began to address
them on the subject. Four years later
he was again mobbed, but the leaders
of the mob prevented him speaking, or
he would have made the rank and file
applaud the Kansas-Nebraska bill as
he had made them give their adherence
to the compromise measures.
In 1859 Douglas had but one follower
in the Senate-Pugh, of Ohio. Four
years before he had combated and over
thrown Seward, Chase, Sumner, Fes-
sender, and Wade: now he was to meet
the Southern Senators. OF all these,
BENJAMIN and Green, of Missouri, most
worried him. Davis and Toombs con-
fronted him day by day, goading him
and prodding him and reproaching
him. But he never failed, and re-
turned blow for blow. And while his
victory over them was less complete
than the one over the Republican Sen
ators four years before, it was never
theless a victory. The American youth
-