Evening star., 1961-01-04
THE NEEDLESS WAR
Compromise Spurned
Over Slavery Issue
BY BRUCE CATION

BY BRUCE CATION
3 Written for The Associated Press
q Compromise is an unpopular
Z word. It seems to mean that
s you are rather wishy-washy-
8 you don't have the courage OF
: your convictions, you won't dig
: In your heels for q final stand,
! But we do need to remember
Z that compromise is what en-
! aahles democracy to work. II
enables us to face UP to ques-
tions which. left to themselves,
would become explosive.
In 1860 nobody tried to find
. compromise over the slavery
issue-nobody seemed willing
even to talk over the possi-
bility Of a compromise-end
there was no compromise.
The Democrats, holding their
convention in Charleston, S. c.,
promptly got into a dogfight
that wrecked the party beyond
repair.
Offered Brightest Hope
Here was the party that Of
fered the brightest hope for a
solution, simply because it was
the one truly national party
at that time. It was strong in
the North and the South alike:
it embraced all shades of feel
ing in regard to slavery, and
its leading candidate for the
nomination. Senator Stephen
A. Douglas of Illinois, was
eagerly trying to find o middle
of-the-road approach.
Senator Douglas had the
strange notion that the coun-
try had important things to do
and that it ought to get on
with the job without wasting
all its energies in the argument
over slavery; he said quite
frankly that he himself did not
care whether slavery was voted
up or down, just as long as 1t
was somehow disposed of.
That was exactly Senator
Douglas problem. He wanted
a compromise approach at q
time when nobody wanted to
compromise. He was in an old
fashioned political fight, in
volving nothing much loftier
than q struggle for party con-
troll; but he was also caught up
in the fact thatstoo many peo.
pie had taken extreme positions
and refused to hear any talk
Of compromise.
Douglas Baked
Consider what the Senator
from Illinois was up against:
Leaders from the cotton
South wanted a fiat declara-
ton, in the party platform and
from the lips Of the candidate,
in favor Of the extreme pro-
slary position-slavery was ur.
touchable. and the question of
restraining or modifying the
institution in any way must not
even be discussed. ,..
Douglas and the Northern
Democrats would accept moth
ing Of the kind. They wanted
abroad statement Of the kind
which ordinarily Is dear to the
politician s heart - something
that would mean almost any
thing anyone wanted it to-
mean. on the ground that if
this problem could just be side
tracked for q few years it would
eventually come down to man
ageable proportions. Under
pressure from Southern pro-
slavery extremists. they were.
also under pressure from
Northern anti-slavery ertrem-
lists. Somewhere between. the
extremes, they believed, the
coming election could be won.
Usually. in such a situation,
a political convention blows of
steam for a time and then
works something out. This time
that proved impossible: instead
Of blowing of steam, this con-
vention built up an unendur-
able pressure-and, in the end,
broke squarely in half. The
northern half of the party NOM
mated Senator Douglas. and
the southern half nominated
John c. Breckinridge of Ken.
tucky. 1t Immediately became
obvious that as a result the Re-
publicans were going to win the
election.
Little Republican Debate
The Republicans guided
themselves accordingly. Con-
vening in Chicago, they did not
bother with much debate. De-
claring fiatly that slavery was
wrong and must eventually go,
they nominated Abraham Lin
coin and set out, with immense
singleness Of purpose, to pick
up the victory which the Dem
ocrats had dropped in their
laps.
Now another party took form
the Constitutional Union
Party, which wanted to pre-
serve the Union and nominated
John Bell Of Tennessee, with a
platform calling simply for rev.
erence to the Constitution and
the Federal Union-a creed to
which almost anybody could
subscribe. And then the cam
paign got under way.
The campaign shed no light
whatever, bee ause nobody
wanted to talk about the one
shattering issue.
Lincoln refused to make any