The Portland daily press., 1895-05-25

ballotings ran for several days and xroro
cast forty or fifty times. Mr.. Donolac
failed to obtain two-thirds vote of tho
convention The South took the ground
that they would never support him or
any man who held to the doctrine that
the squatters of a Territory had the law
full power to exclude any property Of a.
STAKEHOLDER from such territory by "po
lice regulations or unfriendly leoisla-
tion." They regarded Mr.. Douglas as
heretical on that important point. be-
cause if they could not get foothold in
a territory before it was organized into a
State they had no hope or prospect of such
Territory being admitted as slave State.
and they rung the changes all over the
South on his Freeport reply to Lincoln,
that no matter what the decision of the
the squatters in the Territory as Douglas
held, could by police regulations and un-
friendly territorial legislation drive out
or exclude the slave property of the
Southerners. They regarded that DO
sition as little better than abolitionism
or than that of the Republican party, and
they declared they would never support
any man for President holding such
views.
The convention failed to nominate
Another convention was held, at which
only Northern delegates appeared, with
few exceptions, and it placed Douglas in
nomination. And another convention
| hold of Tho Coutharp xxripor of +bo
Democratic party and it placed John c.
Breckenridge. in nomination, who pro-
claimed exactly the opposite doctrine of
Douglas on the power of squatters to ex-
clude slavery in Territories, and the Dem
ocratic party was thus hopelessly rent in
| twain. The final result at the polls was
the triumphant election of Lincoln to the
Presidency, he carrying about all the
Northern States and Breckenridge nearly
all the Southern States, and Douglas
practically no State.
Two or three days after the election of
1850 learning that the active workers of
the Republican party in the State were
calling ON Mr.. Lincoln in Springfield
from all parts of Illinois to congratulate
him on his triumphant election to the
Presidency, I concluded to make the same
pilgrimage and went down on the Alton
cars with a number of other Chicagoans,
reaching there in the morning. After
breakfast walked up to the State House
in the public square in that city, where
Mr. Lincoln was holding his levee in the
office of the Secretary of State. After
passing into the room, which was quite
full of men, Mr.. Lincoln saw me and ad-
vanced to where I was and extended his
hand and gave me very cordial grip. I
congratulated him on his great success
and hoped for him a useful and successful
administration. He bent his head down
to my ear and said in low tones, some
thing like this:
"Do you recollect the argument we had
on the way up to F'reeport two years ago
over my question that I was going to
ask Judge Douglas about the power of
squatters Ito exclude slavery from the
Territories?" And replied that I recol-
lected it very well.
"Now,'' said he, 'tdon't you think 1
was right in putting that question to
him?"
said: eyes, Mr. Lincoln, you were,
and we were both right. Douglass re-
ply to that question undoubtedly hurt
him badly for the Presidency, but it
elected him to the Senate at that time as
I feared it would.
Lincoln then gave me broad smile
and said: "And have won the place
that he was playing for. y We both
laughed and the matter was never again
referred to.
have recalled this episode in Mr.. Lin
coins career for the purpose of showing
his remarkable keenness as a controversial
list. Douglas himself was a debater of
great power, but he was really no match
for Lincoln in making points and in in
cisiveness in debate Lincoln was I'M
questionably the sharpest and strongest
man in discussion with an antagonist
who put him on his mettle that the West
has ever produced This famous question
looked very innocent in casual reading
and appeared to be blunder in the eyes
of some of the leaders IN the party at that
time; but it is the velvet paw which con-
ceals the sharp claws beneath it. Mr..
Douglas "gave himself away" to use
slang term, completely on that occasion,
and fell into Lincolns trap, rendering
his election to the Presidency impossible.
Whether he saw clearly the intended effect
of Mr. Lincoln's interrogatory or not I
have no means of knowing, as I never
discussed the matter with Judge Douglas.
Perhaps he concluded that it presented
a dilemma, and that the bluntest horn to
take was the one he did-viz. to placate
and conciliate his own people and secure
his reelection to the Senate, trusting to
the two years time before the Presiden-
tial convention to render his posi-
tion acceptable to the South But he
failed to accomplish that purpose The
South grew more and more hostile and
implacable towards him as they studied
his Freeport reply to Lincoln, and finally
oame to believe that he was an unsafe
man for them to support for the Presi-
dency; and they took the desperate reso-
luton to defeat him at all hazards and
let the Republicans have the Presidency.
At all events that was the outcome of the
whole matter