Year: 1860

lnvent, the dilemma stares him lii the face


(and here put myself on his own ground, J


either slavery is excluded from the terri.


tories SO long as it is net admitted by a


special act of territorial legislation or if


a STAKEHOLDER has the right to introduce his


slave property there before such legislation


is had, he can possess that right by virtue


OF no other but the only law existing there,


the Constitution of the United States.


Either slavery has no rights in the terrtor-


les, except those springing from positive


law of local or municipal character, or,


according to Judge Douglas own admis-


sion, the Southern construction Of the Con-


stitution and of the principle of popular


sovereignty is the only Legitimate one; that
! the Constitution by its own force carries
slavery wherever it is the supreme law of


the land; that Congress is obliged to enact


slave code for its protection, and that po-
pular sovereignty means no laws against it.


There is no escape from this dilemma.


Which side will Mr. Douglas take {?


Win he be bold enough to say that slavery,
being the creature of local law only, is ex-
cluded from the territories in the absence
of positive law establishing it; or viii he
be honest enough to concede that according
to his own propositiop ia bis New Orleans
speech, slavery exists in the territories by
virtue of the federal Constitution He
will neither be bold enough to do the first,
nor honest enough to do the second he
will be cowardly enough to do peither


Applause. He is in the position of that
Democratic candidate for Congress in the
west, who, when asked: EAre you Buch-
anan or Douglas man p answered, Il am


Great laughter and cheers If you ask
Mr.. Douglas, Do you hold that slavery is
the creature Of local law, or that slave
holder has the right to introduce his slave
property where there is no local law p he
will answer Il d. [Gontipped laughter
and applause.


Such is Mr.. Douglas doctrine of popu-
lar sovereignty. But after having given
yop Mr., Douglas own definitions II his
own words, | see you puzzled all the more,
and you ask me again What is it |
will tell you what judgement will be pass
ed upon it by future historians, who may
find it worth while to describe this impor-
tant attempt to daily and trife with the
logic of things. They viii say: 1T was
the dodge of man who was well aware
that, In order to be elected President of
the United States, the vote of few North
crn states must be added to the united vote
of the South, Knowing by experience
that the Democratic road TO the White
House leads through the slaveholding
States, he broke down the last geographi-
cal barrier to the extension Of slavery. So
he meant TO secure the South. But in con-
ceding undisputod sway to the slaveholding
interests, he saw that he was losing his
foothold in the Northern States necessary
to his election he availed himself of the
irresistible pressure of the free State move
ment IN Kansas, and opposed the Lecomp-
ton Constitution. So he saved his Senator
ship in nlinoise, as the champion of free
labor. But the South frowned, and imme-
diately after his victory he went into the
slaveholding States, and admitted in his
speeches, that slavery may go into the ter
ritories without special act of territorial
legislation. Believing the South satisfied,
and seeing his chances in the North en-
dangered, he wrote his Harper Magazine
essay, assuming that slavery can exist only
by virtue of local law. The South frown-
ed again, he endeavored to make his peace
with the shareholders by declaring that he
would submit to the Charleston Convention,
and instructing his nearest friends in the
house to vote for the Administration can
didate for the Speakership. So he endeav-
ored to catch both sections of the Union
successfully in the trap of double faced
sophistry. He tried to please them both
in trying to cheat them both. But he
placed himself between the logic of liberty
on one and the logic of slavery on the
other side. He put the sword of logic in
to the hands of the opponents, and tried
to defend himself with the empty scabbard
of unfriendly legislation fApplause.
Unfriendly legislation, which in enc case
would have been unnecessary, in the other
eonstitutional-the invention of mind
without logic and of a heart without SYM
pathies; recognized on all sides as mere
substitute, behind which the moral cowar-
dice Of Residential candidate entrench-
ed itself [Cheers.


Such will be the verdict of future his
torians. They willindulge in curious spec
ulations about the times when such doc
trines could be passed off as sound states
manship,-(a craftsmanship indeed, the
prototype of which may be found, not in
Plutarch, but in Aristophanus,) but they
will be slow to believe that there were peo-
pie dull enough to be deceived by it. Zap
plause.]


Leaving aside the stern repudiation
which Mr. Douglas popular sovereignty
has received at the hands of the people at
the last State elections all over the Union,
it is characteristic sign of the times, that
even one of his political friends, an anti