Year: 1859

Douglas Reply to Black.


Mr.. DoUGLAs quotes authorities extensive
ly to sustain his views, and argues the
points at issue with great force. In con-
clusion, he repcls the charge preferred that
he is working hard for Presidential nomi-
nation. He says:


| The reasons for singlng me out as the
especial object for anathema will be found
| on the first page Of the Attorney General $
pamphlet, where he says, "He, Douglas, has
been for years working, struggling candi-
date for the Presidency" Suppose it were
true that am Presidential aspirant, does
that justify combination by host of 9TH
er Presidential aspirants, each of whom may
aglne that his success depends upon my
destruction and the preaching a crusade
| against me for boldly avowing now the same
principles to which they and were pledged
at the last Presidential election. Is this a
sufficient excuse for devising a new test of
political orthodoxy, and, under pretext of
fidelity to it, getting up a set of boiling del
egates to the Charleston convention in those
States where they are unable to control the
regular organization? The time is not far
distant when the Democracy of the whole
Union will be called upon to consider and
pronounce Judgment upon this question.


| What authority has the Attorney Gene
raj, aside from his hopes and fears, for say
ing that | am working, struggling candi-
date for the Presidency? My best friends
know that | have positively and perempto-
rily refused to have anything to do with the
machinery of the conventions in the several
States, by which the delegates to the Charles
ton convention are to be appointed. They
know that personally do not desire the
Presidency at this time; that prefer seat
in the Senate for the next six years, with
the chance of reelection, to being Presi-
dent for four years, at my period of life
They know that will take no steps to OBJ
tain the Charleston nomination that will
make no sacrifice of principle, no conceal


ment of opinions, no concession to power.
for tn, purpose Of getting it. They know,
also, that only consented to the use of my
| name upon their earnest representations that
the good of the Democratic party required
it; and even then upon the express condi


ton that the Democratic party shall deter
mine, in the Presidential election of 1860,
as have full faith they will, to adhere to
! the principles embodied in the Compromise
measures of 1850, and approved by the peo-
| pie in the Presidential election of 1852, and
incorporated into the Kansas-Nebraska act
of 1854, and confirmed by the Cincinnati
| platform and ratified by the people in the
Presidential election of 1856, nor can the
Attorney General pretend to be ignorant of
the fact that the people were informed long
since, that if, on the contrary, it shall be-
come the policy of the Democratic party,
which cannot anticipate, to repudiate these,
their time-honored principles, on which we
have achieved so many patriotic triumphs


and in lieu of them the convention shall in.
tcrpolate into the creed of the party such
new issues as the revival of the African
slave-trade, or a Congressional slave code
for the Territories, or the doctrine that the
Constitution of the United States either es-
tablishes or prohibits slavery in the Terri
tories beyond the power of the people legal
ly to control it as other property, it is due
to candor to say that in such an event |
could not accept the nomination if rendered
me. Is this the language of man who is
working and struggling for the Presidency
upon whatever terms and by the use of
whatever means it could be obtained? or
does this language justify that other charge
that was making new issues and prescrib-
ing new tests in violation of the Cincinnati
platform? While I could have no hesita-
ton in voting for the nominee of nv own
party with whom might differ on certain
points in reference to the candidate of the
Black Republican party, whose whole creed
is subversive of the Constitution and de-
| structive of the Union. am under no OBJ
llgatlon to become candidate upon plat
form that would not be willing to carry
out IN good faith, nor accept the Presidency
on the implied pledge to carry into effect
! certain principles and then administer the
government in direct conflict with them: in
other words, prefer the position of Sena-
tor, or even that of u private citizen, where
| would be at liberty to defend and maintain
the well defined principles of the Democrat
lc party, to accepting Presidential nomi-
nation upon platform incompatible with
, the principle of selfgovernment in the Ter
rltorles, or the reserved rights of the States,
or the perpetuity of the Union under the
Constitution. In harmony with these views
| sad in those very speeches in Ohio, to
which Judge Black refers in his appendix,
that loas an .taror Of conducting the great
struggle Of 1860 upon the Cincinnati Plat
form aoittout the addition Of a cord or the
sr6traction cf a letter. Yet, in the face of
all these facts, the Attorney General does
not hesitate to represent me as attempting
to establish new school of politics, to force
new issues upon the party, and prescribe
new tests Of Democratic faith. In conclu-
sion have only to suggest to Judge Black
and his confederates in this crusade, wheth-
er it would not be wiser for them and more
consistent with fidelity to the party which
placed them in power to exert their energies
and direct all their efforts to the redemption
of Pennsylvania from the thraldom of
Black Republicanism, than to continue their
alliance with the Black Republicans of Illi-
nois in the vain hope of dividing and defeat
ing the Democratic party in the only West
ern and Northern State which has never
failed to cast her electoral vote for the reg
ular nominee of the Democratic partv al