Norwich bulletin., 1912-02-14

EQ, l spoke Tn other parts of the state, he met many people who recall the ! gaunt figure and the brilliant remarks ot the man who was destined to be- come so great a figure in his coun- 1 try's history, says the Hartford Times | Ot this number, perhaps none was bet | ter qualified to grasp the full signif- canoe of the principles which MT. Lin l coin enunciated than the Hon. Lewis | D. Stanton. MT. Stanton was a young | lawyer, who quite naturally had heard | not little and expected much of the lanky man from Illinois, who even ear l ly in 1860 was looked upon as a possi- 1 ble nominee of the then practically newly formed republican party. What l impression MT. Lincoln made on the | young lawyer and upon others who saw him at that time is admirably set | forth in the address which Mr Stan | ton save Monday evening St the ob- | servance of Union Defenders day at the Center church house under the auspices of Camp Stedman, Sons of l Veterans. MT. Stanton's address in full | is appended
 "Iu May or June, 1854, together with a Yale classmate, I stood upon l the college campus, and on a week ] day we heard bells tolling from ! were told that a day or two before 1 congress had repealed the Missouri compromise and the people feared | civil war.
 What was the Missouri compro- mise? In 1920 and 1921, Maine, free, and Missouri, slave, states were admit | ed into the Union. Of course, it was 1 a compromise. Our ancestors were | well accustomed to such things. h. deed they had put both freedom and | slavery into the same constitution. l heard Wendell Phillips say that they 1 put powder into one end of their ] cannon and fire in the other end. and 1 then hoped it wouldn't explode In | the bargain of 1920. congress pro- vided that slavery should not be per- mitted north of the line 36.30 in the | territory acquired from France. In 1 1854 a new doctrine was ad- vanced. The bill to admit Kansas and Nebraska declared that the true ! intent and meaning was not to legis- l late slavery into any territory or state and not to exclude it there | from, but to leave the people perfect i ly free to regulate their domestic in 1 stitutions in their own way The authors of this modern creed named 1 it popular sovereignty, but the north 1 nicknamed it 'squatter sovereignty, l and over 'squatter sovereignty in the territories the battle ragged.
 Lincoln and Douales.
 What now, had Abraham Lincoln 1 to do with this? In 1856 Buchanan was elected president, and the great 1 struggle, which Seward called an ir- repressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces freedom and ! slavery, began. In July, 1858, the 1 senatorial term of Stephen A. Doug i las of Illinois was drawing to a close | and he left Washington to conduct his canvass. The republicans of H. linois had nominated Lincoln as the man best equipped to cope with l Douglas. Stephen A. Douglas was of 1 short stature, and it was said that 1 Seward once remarked to him, Doug ] las, you can never be president and when he asked the reason, Seward re- l piled, The fact is, Stephen, you carry those coat tails altogether too near the ground But if Douglas was a little man, he was mighty debater, the Little Giant of the west. Then came the great canvass. No contest ever surpassed it in the public mind Seven times these champions met in l joint discussion. Lincoln had a won derful skill in capturing his audience l in advance. It was related that once | when he rose to reply, he made quite a show, in taking off a long linen coat, and laying it aside, and then l said, Lie there while I stone this lit- tie martyr, Stephen At Freeport | Illinois he put four questions to his adversary. The second was this: Can the people of a United States 1 territory in any lawful way against the wish of any citizen of the United States exclude slavery from its linn it's prior to the formation of a state constitution You will see at once 1 as Douglas did, that this was a cru
 cial test. His only answer was that
 the people of a territory had the law full means to introduce or exclude
 slavery, as they chose. But that
 was exactly what the south denied Their position was that the copstttu-
 tion by it's own force carried slavery
 into the territories. Before this
 meeting Lincoln had said in private
 that Douglas could not answer this
 question in such a way as to be elect
 ed both senator and president. Int
 result was that Douglas did gain the
 senatorship, but lost the presidency.
 Exciting Election in Connecticut.
 Tn the spring of 1860 we had il
 Connecticut an exciting election
 Spring elections had not then beer
 given up. Abraham Lincoln was in.
 duced to come here to aid the lepub'
 licans. He delivered a wonderful
 speech in Hartford, and soon after
 ward went to Norwich and spok'
 there in the town hall It was m!
 great privilege to listen to that ad
 dress It is impossible to convey an!
 adequate idea of its simplicity anC power Take thls sentence: 4
 house divided against itself canno
 stand. 1 believe this government
 cannot endure permanently hal
 slave and half free. I do not expec
 the Union to be dissolved. I do no
 expect the house to fall, but l do ex
 pect it will cease to be divided. l
 will become all one thing or all thu
 other Here is one of his illustra
 tions: Judge Douglas was full of hi
 felicitations that we were just at th'
 end of the slavery agitation. Tn
 last tip of the last joint Of the olt
 serpents tail was just drawing out o
 view. But hHs this proved so
 Again the four most prominent oppo | nenets of his views were Chief Justic
 Roger B. Fancy, Stephen A. Douglas
 Franklin Pierce and President lame
 Buchanan. He indicted all four in
 scheme, probably the most ingenieu ever contrived by an American pub
 lie speaker. He said; If we saw
 lot of framed timbers gotten out a
 different times and places by differ
 ent worlmen-Stephen and Franklin
 Roger and James-and if we say
 these timbers joined together and ex
 actly make the frame of house, wit
 tenOns and mortises all fitting, wha
 is the conclusion? We find it. impos
 sible not to believe that Stephen an
 Franklin and Roger and James al
 understood each other and all worke. upon common plan before the frs
 blow was struck How long would i
 take his audience of Connection l