Year: 1860

The DemOcracI Ex-senator Douglas.


We have undertaken the ungrateful task
of Offering counsel where it has not been
asked, and may not be needed. If we con-
tinue to do so, our deep concern for the well
fare Of the country must be our apology


That welfare is put in peril by the suci-
dal action of a section of the Democratic
party. They are attempting to make head
against maxim under whose magical in
huence alone parties have hitherto been
able to conquer. The maxim is, the right
of the people to govern themselves. The
time to challenge its power is past Uni
versal suffrage is an accomplished fact. The
people are masters. They are soyereigns.
They appoint judges to hold their COM
missions "lurante 6ene placito,' at the will
of the people; they vote themselves farm;
they dispose of the community's wealth by
the voiceof casually collected assembly.
The right to take money from the pockets
of the propertyholder is in the hands Of
any irresponsible gathering from a city S
streets and lanes. In thousand ways
thy indicate their supremacy. They rule
in the States. They rule in the Territories
The deluge is universal. 1t covers plain
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can resist it? What man-what party?


The attempt of our Southern leaders, in
and out of Congress, by eloquent speeches,
to stem the tide of popular supremacy is
bold and spirited. 1t is worthy of all ad-
mration. We know nothing so plucky in
al history. Nothing except it be the ex-
ploit of the old lady of Portsmouth, made
famous by Peter Plimby in his celebrated
letters. A storm tide was rolling over the
beach into the lower floors of the nearest
houses. Everybody was disrnayed. All
fed from the rush of water. All save Mrs
P,rtington, who stood in her door, with
mop, tub, and broom in hand, and petit
cats tucked up for battle, and made war
with indomitable spirit on the encroach-
nents of the angry ocean. Our Southern
statesmen are waging similar war with an
equal chance of success Their nice refine
nents and arguments will serve the same
Purposes as the mops and brooms of the
heroine whose honOrs they emulate.


1t is not with such aid that American
politicians march to victory in the conflicts
OF party. He only is sure of ultimate sue
CESS who recognizes and maintains the
great American principle, the right Of the
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g.ound Senator Douglas stands. His posi-.
ton is impregnable. Nothing can shake it.
He occupies the same field that the Jeifer.
son Republican party formerly held, and
his triumph over all adversaries is as GER
tam as theirs has been


The controversy which RACES in Congress
AMI elsewhere, on the merits of Senator
Douglas, is skirmish on collateral subjects
only. 1t does not touch the strong poin
on which his foot rests invincibly. 1t mat
terS little whether he holds or not the same
opinion now as in 1850; whether the South
did Dr. did not then agree with him on ths
doctrine Of non-intervention; whether the
Kansas Nebraska bill does or does not clear
ly and fully affirm that doctrine. These
and other similar qu" stions are relatively
and personally important only to particular
parties. The people care little about them
They will ask, what now is the principle
maintained by Senator Douglas; What is
it? The right of the people to regulate their
own interests by their own laws. What is
the maxim on which the opposition to hin
rests? 1t is that the people of Territory
shall not govern themselves. Should the
quarrel proceed on this point of difference
and not swerve aside on collateral issues
the opponents Of Senator Douglas will bt
in ten years where the old Federal party
now are If ability and honesty, and hon
or and public service, could save party
from ruin, the old Federalists would have
been secure. But they opposed the ire
sistiblc food Of popular supremacy, and
the opposition sealed their doom.


The only event that can prevent the ult
mate success of Senator Douglas, will bt
the assumption of his principles by his
present opponents. TO overcome him they
must borrow his thunder. 1t is not unusual
in the progress of parties, for one to rcaT
where another sows. Lincoln sails inN
port with the favoring gales that Stewards
incantatDns had evolved. The Illinois mar
has become the genuine lcader-the tru,
author of the ''irrepressible conflict" He
is clothed in the special attributes of the
New York presiding divinity, and wears
them all as his own. Some similar freak O.
party may cheat Senator Douglas of sue
cess, and another man may conquer under
his banner But, if the game be fairly
played out by Douglas on the one part, anG
Yancey as a representative man on the
other, the fate of the last is as certain as
that of the elder Adams and his party
Burnt brandy, as they say in Virginia, cant
save him. No contrivance can, but the
dexterous assumption of his opponents
thunder.


Nothingis now preserving the country
from the fatal domination OF the Republi
can party but their inability to see that the
only maxim on which party can surely tri
umph in America, is the right of the people
to govern themselves. 1t is this inability
that constitutes their weakness. They de.
mand limit, a condition, gives, shackles
for the popular will. The people of Ter
ritory, they say, shall not have slaves; they
shall not regulate their interests by their
own rules. They shall take laws from die.
tators at Washington. 1t is this that makes
the weak point in their position. For this
reason Senator Douglas can overthrow
them in the Northwest. If the Southern
politicians refuse to cooperate; if they will
repudiate their strongest party leader, they
may defeat his election to the Presidency
but to prevent the ultimate success oc the
principle on which he stands is beyond then
power. They are committing the same
mistake that embarrasSes the Republicans.
They would impose the same fetters for a
different purpose. They would have inter.
vention on the right hand, just as the Re-
publicans demand it on the left They
differ in the end, but agree in the MEANS
They are alike alert and earnest in stopping
the popular flood with sand, and lettering
the fires of the popular will with bands OF
flax. In either case their labors will prove
to be nothing more than Loves labor lost


Nothing can be more obvious than that it
is the duty of the Democratic party to
unite at Baltimore. They should agree on
some standard bearer. But whoever may