Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-05-23
NOT LINCOLN BUT DOUGLAS.


preaching the doctrine that Abraham
\ Lincoln preached" said Mr.. Roosevelt
in his speech at Canton. Mr..
Roosevelt is again mistaken. He Is
preaching the doctrine that Stephen A.
Douglas preached.
It was Douglas who invented this
doctrine of popular sovereignty, and
he invented it to sustain slavery in the
territories. Theodore Roosevelt has
now seized upon 1t and is using 1t to
establish the third term and dicta-
torship.
1.-THE people dripped from the lips
Of Douglas as unctuously as 1t drlps
from the lips of Roosevelt.
AS Douglas said In his Chicago
speech July 9, 1858:
II there is any one principle dearer
and more sacred than all others IN
free governments, it is that which as
serts the exclusive right OF free peo-
pie to form and adopt their own run
damental law and to manage and regu.
late their own internal affairs and
domestic institutions.
Roosevelt said substantially the
same thing at Canton recently. Doug
las said it to vindicate the right OF
the people of Kansas and Nebraska to
establish slavery in those territories.
Roosevelt said it to vindicate his own
ambition. Douglas was as enthusiast
tic about ''the rule OF the people as
Roosevelt is:
regard the great principle of popu'
lar sovereignty as having been vlndi-
cated and made triumphant in this land
as a permanent rule of public policy
in the organization of territories and
the admission of new states.
Again: "
MI Lincoln is alarmed for fear that
under the Dread Scott decision slavery
will 60 into all the territories OF the
United States. All have to say Is
that. with or without that decision,
slavery will go just where the people
want it and not one inch further.
And again: ..-.
II this principle of popular sover-
eienty asserted in the Nebraska bill
be fairly carried out, by letting the
people decide the question for them
selves by.a fair vote at fair election
with hone5t returns, slavery will never
exist ono day or one hour against the
unfriendly Legislation OF an unfriendly
people
These quotations from Douglass
speeches In the debate with Lincoln
might be extended Indefinitely. Doug
las was forever ringing the changes
on popular sovereignty" and the
right Of the people to rule, precisely
as Roosevelt Is now doing. And as
Lincoln contemptuouslyy remarked at
Cincinnati:
Douglass great principle, popular
sovereignty" he calls it, gives you by
natural consequence the revival of the
African slave trade whenever you
want II = 'I' E
say that Douglass popular sover-
eisnty. establishing his sacred right
in the people If you please, II carried to
it's logical conclusion, gives the equally
sacred right to the people of the states
or the territories themselves to buy
slaves wherever they can buy them
cheapest.
II it Is popular sovereignty for the
people to have slaves because they
want them, 1t is popular sovereignty
for them to buy them in Africa because
they desire to do 80.
The Roosevelt doctrine Is the Doug
las doctrine in new form-the sacred
right of a majority to do anything 1t
pleases regardless OF right or justice
or honesty or decency or humanity.
Douglas thought that If the people
wanted slavery they ought to have 1t.
Roosevelt thinks that If they want to
destroy constitutional government and
the courts they should be allowed to
do 80.