Year: 1860

Delirered at Springfield Mass, January 4h


When great political or social problems,


difficult to solve and impossible to put aside,


are pressing upon the popular mind, it is a


common thing to see a variety of theories
/ springlng up, which purport to be unfail-


ing remedies and to effect a speedy cure.


Men, who look only at the surface of things,
will, Ike bad physicians, pretend to re-


move the disease itself by palliating its


most violent symptoms, and will astonish
the world by their inventive ingenuity, no


less than by their amusing assurance.
But close scrutiny will in most cases show
that the remedies offered are but new forms
of old mistakes.


/ Of all the expedients which have
been iHEaRted fer the settlement of the
slavery question, Mr. Douglas doctrine OF


Popular Sovereignty is certainly the most
remarkable, not only by the apparent nov
city Of the thing, b4t by the pompous as
sur-nce With which it was offered to the
nation as perfect and radical cure. Form
erly compromises were made between the
two conflicting systems of labor by separa-
ting them by geographical lines. These
compromises did indeed produce intervals
OF comparative reposc, but the war COM
menced again with renewed acrimony, as
soon as a new bone of contention present
ed itself. The system of compromises as
u whole proved failure. Mr.. Douglas
doctrine Of Popular Sovereignty proposed
to bring the two antagonistic elements in
70, Il 90 la Il,
gle hand to hand on the same ground for
the supremacy. In this manner, he pre-
dicted the slavery question would settle it.
self IT. the smooth way of ordinary business.
He seemed to be confident of success but
hardly was his doctrine, in the shape ot
law for the organization of territories, put
upon the statute book, when the struggle
grows hercer than ever, and the diff
culties ripen into a crisis. This docs
not disturb him. He sends forth manifesto
upon manifesto, and even during the State
campaign of last fall, he mounts the ros-
truEl in Ohio, in order to show what he
can do, and like second Constantine he
points his finger at the great principle of
Popular Sovereignty, and says to his follow
ers: In this sign yQq will conquer But
the tendency of events appeared unwilling
to yield to bis prophecy. There seemed to
be no charm in his command there was
certainly no victory in his sign. He had
hardly defined his doctrine more elaborate
ly than ever before, when his friends were
routed everywhere, and even his great par
ty is on the point of falling to pieces.


There certainly was something in his
theories that captivated the masses. / do
not speak of those who Joined their politi-
cal fortunes to his, because they saw in him
a man who might be able some day to scat
ter plunder and favors around him. But
there were a great many, who, seduced by
the plausible sound of the words Popular
Sovereignty meant to have found there
some middle ground, on which the rights
of free labor might be protected and secur-
ed, without exasperating those interested
in slave labor They really did think that
two conflicting organizations of society,
which are incompatible by the nature of
things, might be made compatible by leg
islative enactments But this delusIon van
ished. No sooner was the theory put to
pfactlcal test. when tHe couStEuclIOH VI tue
Nebraska bin became no less matter of
fierce dispute, than the construction of the
Constitution had been before Is this pro-
slavery, or is it anti-slavery? it was asked.
The South found in it the right to plant
slave labor in the territories uncondition-
ally, and the North found it the right to
drive slavery out of them. Each section
ton Of the country endeavored to appro-
pirate the results of the Nebraska bill to
itself, and the same measure, which was to
trasfer the struggle from the halls of Con-
gress into the territories, transferred it
from the territories back into Congress, and
there the Northern and Southern versions
OF the Nebraska bill fight each other with
the same fury with which the Southern and
Northern versions nf the Constitution have