Year: 1861

It has seldom fallen to our lot to perform so
sad duty as to pen so few words, and so full
of significant meaning in the present crisis, as
that the great Douglas is dead Even in or
dinary times with no portentous clouds hang
iug over our happy country, such an announce
ment would cast gloom over our people as a
nation. But, in troublous times like the pres
ent, environing our nation, and demanding of
every loyal citizen a self sacrificing devotion
to the cause of his country, in her time of
greatest need, it is calamitous in the extreme,
to hush the voice and still the energies of one
of her chiefains, and remove him from his
fame. But the fat of Heaven has gone forth
" Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt re-
turn and to this irrevocable law, statesmen
and patriots, the high and the humble, with
reverent submission bow


Senator Douglas was born in the State OF
Vermont, in April, 1913, and after passing
the trying vcssitudes of struggling genius,
haunted by poverty, in seeking a new field for
his energies, he emigrated to- and located in,
Illinois, in 1888 studied law, while teaching
school, and was admitted to the Bar in 1884
in less than one year, was elected Attorney
General OF the State, and passed to the Legis-
lature, Register of Land Office was appointed
/ Secretary of Stale: elected one of the Judges
of the Supreme Court, and having served three
years, was elected to Congress for three sue
cessive terms. and, in the session of his State
Legislature of '46-7, was elected to the Z. S.
| Senate, and has been twice re elected to that
high position. In the period of twentysix
years laboring in his start, under all the disad-
vantages of a stranger in a strange land, un-
backed by friends and unaided by wealth, be
marched up from the ranks and became the
great leader of his day, in the struggles of the
/ National Democracy to defend and maintain
the Government and the Union as it had been
handed down to US by our fathers.


He was of the people, and emphatically a
representative man. He was most accom-
!
perior in this, his great forte. He was always
courteous and affable to his opponents; but
met them at every turn, with a sagacity and
promptitude that always challenged admiration
/ from his enemies As leader of the National
Democratic party for years past he maintain
ed an influence almost equal TO Jackson. He
! Nd IF fba
cy of the country, and his memory will ever be
enshrined in their hearts, until they, too, yield
to the fiat of Nature.


AS lawyer, be stood in the foremost ranks
Of his compeers, and shed lustre upon any
subject that passed under the investigation o
his strong analytical and logical mind.


As a statesman and patriot, he has acquired
a name and fame, as undying as the history Of
his country. To serve that country, he posses
sed laudable ambition, worthy of one of SC
gifted an intellect. and yielded up all selfish
ness, TO promote her perpetuity and welfare
The closing acts of his useful life were entirely
devoted to his country, and so elevated hin
above partizanship, that history and fame vii
award him niche in their temple, as lasting
as the Republic. In the language of another
. His name and fame were elevated far above
party-made national by noble sentiment;
expressed and actions performed in behalf o.
the Union and Constitution The affection:
of the people will cluster more devotedly
around his memory than if he had died an ex
| President. He will be remembered as a man o
towering intellect, great ambition, but, whose
love of the Union, of liberty and his country
was greater than either"