The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1889-12-26
A POLITICAL GAMBLER.
4 Claim That Stephen 4. Douglas Pre-.
cipitatsd the Rebellion.
He Was n Political FFeebOOteF..EHIs
Ambition Rnlned Him and Made
Lincoln and Jeff Davis.

to precipitate upon the country the state
Of affairs which led to the rebellion was
not Jefferson Davis; he was Stephen A.
Douglass" ..H..r.
After the compromise measures Of 1850
were passed Davis, who had opposed
them, resigned his seat In the senate and
appealed to his state to elect him governor
on that issue, but was beaten by his col
league In the senate, "Hangman" Foote.
Up TO this time Davis's extreme ideas
were those Of the minority in his state,
for Davis had been elected In 1S47 on the
strength Of his gallantry as a soldier at
Buena Vista and Monterey. In 1851
Davis could not carry his state on the
issue Of his extreme pro-slavery views.
The Herald points out that sit was Doug
las who made Davis, while he ruined him.
self" Douglas wanted to be president,
and he proposed the repeal Of the Ms
souri, compromise in order to make him
self acceptable to the south as q candi-
date. Douglas was, In fact, utterly desti-
tute Of moral sense, and spoke the exact
truth when he described himself as one
who did not care pepper corn whether
slavery was voted up or down"-with
this qualification, that he would vote II
up or down to help himself. A more
arTant, unpatriotic, selfish political scoun-
drel than Douglas never lived in this
country. Douglas upset the Missouri
compromise, when even President Pierce
would have been glad to let the compro-
mise Of 1850 stand as final, because he
(DouRlas) expected to get the support Of
the south for the presidency. Douglas
would have succeeded had he not under
rated the moral sense of his own state Of
Illinois, where his proposition to repeal
the Missouri compromise excited the
strongest indignation among many adher-
ents to his own party. In order to secure
his reelection to the senate from Illinois
Douglas was compelled to take the back
track and oppose the south in its further
policy regarding slavery. This step
saved him temporarily in Illinois, but 1t
lost him the south finally and forever;
for the south, even as It never forgave
Van Buren, for wavering on the Texas
question, never forgave Douglas for his
shutting. Douglas at last saw clearly
that the south would never support him
for the presidential nomination, and in
revenge he deliberately refused to with
draw as candidate, split the democracy
and thus assured the election Of Lincoln.
The result, as the Herald truly says, was
that Douglas ruined himself and not only
made Lincoln but made Davis too.
After Davis's defeat by the Union can
didate for governor In 1851 Pierce re-
stored him to public life by making him
secretary Of war. Douglas, who was ct
best nothing but q gifted demagogue, by
forcing the repeal Of the Missouri COM
promise killed the whig party at the south
and drove the moderate union democrats
over 10 the Calhoun-Dayis extremists.
Douglas made q sectional democratic
party that absorbed the whole south, and
Of such party Davis, Douglass old-time
rival for the leadership Of the democracy
in congress, naturally. became the leader,
and the result was q premature, abrupt
precipitation Of secession, rebellion and
war, which, bad Il not been for Douglass
incendiary action in repeating the Mis-
souri, compromise, might have been put
of for many years.
Douglas receives his deserts from his
tory. His devotion to the union in 1851,
which by his selfish ambition he had
done 50 much to break up, was nothing
but ''Hobson's choice" Hewas ruined
political gambler; he had no friends at
the south and had made his party help
less minority at the north. But In event
Of victory for the union he would be NOR
ally certain, through the fusion and re-
casting Of parties by the feryent heat Of
war 10 draw q prize. He was too able
and aggressive q man 10 have turned
"copperhead," !" and he was by nature too
aggressive and vindictive to spare the
south. He would have been as jealous
and merciless . unionist as Butler, while
the war lasted, and after the war he would
have stolen the thunder Of the republi-
cans and sought the democratic nomina-
ton on his war record, thus forcing Sey-
mour and all the copperhead democracy
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