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diff --git a/2593.txt b/2593.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..65ed2d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/2593.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6068 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Life of Stephen A. Douglas, by Gardner +#1 in our series by William Gardner + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + +*It must legally be the first thing seen when opening the book.* +In fact, our legal advisors said we can't even change margins. + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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Douglas + +by William Gardner + + + +Preface. + + + + +De mortuis nil nisi bonum, (of the dead speak nothing but good), +is the rule which governed the friends of Stephen A. Douglas after +his death. "Of political foes speak nothing but ill," is the rule +which has guided much of our discussion of him for forty years. +The time has now arrived when we can study him dispassionately +and judge him justly, when we can take his measure, if not with +scientific accuracy, at least with fairness and honesty. + +Where party spirit is as despotic as it is among us, it is difficult +for any man who spends his life amid the storms of politics to get +justice until the passions of his generation have been forgotten. +Even then he is generally misjudged--canonized as a saint, +with extravagant eulogy, by those who inherit his party name, and +branded as a traitor or a demagogue by those who wear the livery +of opposition. + +Douglas has perhaps suffered more from this method of dealing with +our political heroes than any other American statesman of the first +class. He died at the opening of the Civil War. It proved to be +a revolution which wrought deep changes in the character of the +people. It was the beginning of a new era in our national life. +We are in constant danger of missing the real worth of men in these +ante-bellum years because their modes of thought and feeling were +not those of this generation. + +The Civil War, with its storm of passion, banished from our minds +the great men and gigantic struggles of the preceding decade. We +turned with scornful impatience from the pitiful and abortive +compromises of those times, the puerile attempts to cure by futile +plasters the cancer that was eating the vitals of the nation. We +hastily concluded that men who belonged to the party of Jefferson +Davis and Judah P. Benjamin during those critical years were of +doubtful loyalty and questionable patriotism, that men who battled +with Lincoln, Seward and Chase could hardly be true-hearted +lovers of their country. Douglas died too soon to make clear to a +passion-stirred world that he was as warmly attached to the Union, +as intensely loyal, as devotedly patriotic, as Lincoln himself. + +The grave questions arising from the War, which disturbed our politics +for twenty years, the great economic questions which have agitated +us for the past fifteen years, bear slight relation to those dark +problems with which Douglas and his contemporaries grappled. He +was on the wrong side of many struggles preliminary to the War. +He was not a profound student of political economy, hence is not +an authority for any party in the perplexing questions of recent +times. The result is that the greatest political leader of the +most momentous decade of our history is less known to us than any +second-rate hero of the Revolution. + +It is not of much importance now to any one whether Douglas is loved +or hated, admired or despised. It is of some importance that he +be understood. + +I have derived this narrative mainly from original sources. The +biography written during his life-time by his friend Sheahan, and +that published two years after his death by his admirer, Flint, +are chiefly drawn on for the brief account of his early life. +The history of his career in Congress has been gathered from the +Congressional record; the account of Conventions from contemporary +reports, and the Debates with Lincoln from the authorized publication. + +I have not consciously taken any liberty with any text quoted, +except to omit superfluous words, which omissions are indicated by +asterisks. I have not attempted to pronounce judgement on Douglas +or his contemporaries, but to submit the evidence. Not those who +write, but those who read, pass final judgement on the heroes of +biography. + + + + + +Chapter I. Youth. + + + + +Stephen Arnold Douglas was born at Brandon, Vermont, on the 23rd +of April, 1813. His father was a physician, descended from Scotch +ancestors, who had settled in Connecticut before the Revolution. +his mother was the daughter of a prosperous Vermont farmer. Before +he was three months old his father, whose only fortune was his +practice, suddenly died. A bachelor brother of the widow took +the family to his home near Brandon, where they lived for fifteen +years. When not needed at more important work Stephen attended +the common school. but the serious business of life was tilling +his uncle's fields. + +At fifteen he sought help to prepare for college. His uncle declined +to assume the burden of his education and advised him to shun the +perils of professional life and adopt the safe and honorable career +of a farmer. The advice was rejected and he obtained permission +to earn his way and shape his future. He walked to Middlebury, a +distance of fourteen miles, and apprenticed himself to a cabinet +maker. He worked with energy and enthusiasm, became a good mechanic +and bade fair to win success at his trade, but owning to delicate +health he abandoned the shop after less than two years' service, +and entered the academy at Brandon, where he pursued his studies +for about a year, when his mother married again and moved to +Canandiagua, New York. He there entered an academy and continued +an industrious student for nearly three years, devoting part of his +time to law study. This ended his preliminary training. He quit +the schools and applied himself to the work of practical life. + +In June, 1833, he left home to push his fortune in the West. His +health was delicate, his stock of money scant. He went to Cleveland, +Ohio, where he became acquainted with a lawyer named Andrews, who, +pleased with the appearance of the youth, invited him to share his +office and use his library, with the promise of a partnership when +admitted to the bar. The offer was accepted and he began his duties +as law clerk. A week later he was taken seriously sick, and at +the end of his long illness the doctors advised him to return home. +He rejected the advice and in October took passage on a canal boat +for Portsmouth, on the Ohio river, and went thence to Cincinnati. +For a week he sought employment. Unable to find it he went to +Louisville, where another week was spent in vain quest of work. +He continued his journey to St. Louis, where he landed in the late +autumn. An eminent lawyer offered him free use of his library, +but an empty purse compelled him to decline the offer and seek +immediate work. He went to Jacksonville, Illinois, arriving late +in November, and addressed himself to the pressing problem of +self-support. The remnant of his cash amount to thirty-seven cents. + + + + + +Chapter II. Apprenticeship. + + + + +In those days Illinois was a frontier State with about 200,000 +population, chiefly settled in its southern half. A large part of +the people were from the South and, in defiance of the law, owned +many negro slaves. The Capital was at Vandalia, although Jacksonville +and Springfield were the towns of highest promise and brightest +prospects. Chicago contained a few score of people to whom the +Indians were still uncomfortably close neighbors. Railroads and +canals were beginning to be built, with promise of closer relations +between the villages and settlements theretofore lost in the +solitudes. + +Finding no employment at Jacksonville, he sold his few books to +keep off hunger and walked to Winchester. On the morning after +his arrival he found a crowd assembled on the street where a public +sale was about to open. Delay was occasioned by the want of a +competent clerk and he was hired for two dollars a day to keep the +record of the sale. He was then employed to teach a private school +in the town at a salary of forty dollars a month. Besides teaching +he found time to read a few borrowed law books and try an occasional +case before the village justice. + +Having been admitted to the bar in March, 1834, he opened a law +office at Jacksonville. His professional career, though successful, +was so completely eclipsed by the brilliancy of his political +achievements that it need not detain us. The readiness and agility +of his mind; the adaptability of his convictions to the demands +of the hour; his self-confident energy, were such that he speedily +developed into a good trial lawyer and won high standing at the +bar. That the profession was not then as lucrative as it has since +become, is evidenced by the fact that he traveled from Springfield +to Bloomington and argued a case for a fee of five dollars. + +But his time and energy were devoted to politics rather than law. +The strategy of parties interested him more than Coke or Justinian. +Jacksonville was a conservative, religious town, whose population +consisted chiefly of New England Puritans and Whigs. But the +prairies were settled by a race of thoroughly Democratic pioneers +to whom the rough victor at New Orleans was a hero in war and a +master in statecraft. + +Douglas was an enthusiastic Democrat and an ardent admirer of +President Jackson. The favorite occupation of the young lawyer, +not yet harassed by clients, was to talk politics to the farmers, +or gather them into his half furnished office and discuss more +gravely the questions of party management. + +A few days after his arrival the opportunity came to distinguish +himself in the field of his future achievements. A mass meeting was +called at the court house for the purpose of endorsing the policy +of the President in removing the deposits of public money from the +United States bank and vetoing the bill for its recharter. The +opposition was bitter. In the state of public temper it was a +delicate task to present the resolutions. The man who had undertaken +it lost courage at the sight of the multitude and handed them to +Douglas, and the crowd looked with amused surprise when the young +stranger, who was only five feet tall, appeared on the platform. He +read the resolutions of endorsement and supported them in a brief +speech. + +When he sat down, Josiah Lamborn, an old and distinguished lawyer +and politician, attacked him and the resolutions in a speech +of caustic severity. Douglas rose to reply. The people cheered +the plucky youngster. The attack had sharpened the faculties +and awakened his fighting courage. He had unexpectedly found the +field of action in which he was destined to become an incomparable +master. For an hour he poured out an impassioned harangue, without +embarrassment or hesitation. Astonishment at what seemed a quaint +freak soon gave way to respect and admiration, and at the close +of this remarkable address the hall and courtyard rang with loud +applause. The excited crowed seized the little orator, lifted him +on their shoulders and bore him in triumph around the square. + +The young adventurer in the fields of law and politics was thenceforth +a man of mark--a man to be reckoned with in Illinois. There were +scores of better lawyers and more eminent politicians in the State, +but a real leader, a genuine master of men had appeared. + +In January, 1835, the legislature met at Vandalia. Early in the +session it elected Douglas State's Attorney of the First Judicial +District--an extraordinary tribute to the professional or political +ability of the young lawyer of less than a year's standing. He +held the office a little more than a year and resigned to enter +the legislature. + +This was a really memorable body. Among its members were James +Shields, afterwards United States Senator, John Calhoun of Lecompton +fame, W. A. Richardson, afterwards Democratic leader in the House +of Representatives, John A. McClernand, destined also to distinguish +service in Congress and still more distinguished service as a major +general and rival in arms of Grant and Sherman, Abraham Lincoln, +an awkward young lawyer, from Springfield, and Douglas, whose fate +it was to give Lincoln his first national prominence and then sink +eclipsed by the rising glory of his great rival. The only memorable +work of the session was the removal of the Capital from Vandalia +to Springfield, and the authorization of twelve millions of debt, +to be contracted for government improvements. + +Douglas, who had opposed these extravagant appropriations, having +distinguished himself as a debater, an organizer and a leader, was, +a few days after the adjournment, appointed Register of the United +States Land Office at Springfield, to which place he at once removed. + +In the following November he was nominated for Congress. The +district, which included the entire northern part of the State, +was large enough for an empire, with sparse population and wretched +means of communication. The campaign lasted nine months, during +which, having resigned the office of the Register, he devoted himself +to the task of riding over the prairies, interviewing the voters +and speaking in school houses and village halls. The monotony was +relieved by the society of the rival candidate, John T. Stuart, +who as Lincoln's law partner. Stuart was declared elected by a +doubtful majority of five, and Douglas, after soothing his wounded +feelings by apparently well founded charges of an unfair count and +threats of a contest, abandoned it in disgust and returned to his +law office. He announced his determination to quit politics forever. + +But in December, 1838, the legislature began a session at the old +Capital. The Governor declared the office of Secretary of State +vacant and appointed John A. McClernand to fill it. Field, the +incumbent, questioned the power of the Governor to remove him and +declined to surrender the office. Quo warranto proceedings were +instituted by McClernand, with Douglas and others as counsel. The +Supreme Court denied the Governor's power of removal. The Court +became involved in the partisan battle which raged with genuine +Western fervor for two years. + +In the early weeks of 1841, a bill was passed, reorganizing the +Judiciary, providing for the election by the legislature of five +additional Supreme Judges, and imposing the duties of trial Judges +upon the members of the Court. Meanwhile, Field had grown weary of +the struggle with a hostile Governor and legislature, and, being +threatened with a sweeping change of the Court, resigned in January, +1841. The Governor appointed Douglas his successor. Five weeks +later the legislature chose him Justice of the Supreme Court and +presiding Judge of the Fifth District. He resigned the office of +Secretary and began his judicial career, establishing his residence +at Quincy. + +This appointment to the bench was one of the most fortunate incidents +in his busy and feverish life. He was not twenty-eight years old. +Adroit, nimble-witted and irrepressibly energetic as he was, he +had not yet developed much solid strength. His stock of knowledge +was scanty and superficial. From force of circumstances he +had devoted little time to calm thought or serious study. Early +convinced that all truth lay on the surface, patent to him who had +eyes to see, he had plunged into the storm of life and, by his +aggressive and overmastering energy, had conquered a place for +himself in the world. He was an experienced politician, a famous +campaign orator, and a Justice of the Supreme Court at a period +when most boys are awkwardly finding their way into the activities +of the world. The younger Pitt was Chancellor of the Exchequer +at twenty-three; but he was the son of Chatham, nurtured in +statesmanship from the cradle. the younger Adams was Minister to +the Hague at twenty-five; but he was already a ripe scholar and heir +to his father's great fame. Douglas was a penniless adventurer, a +novus homo, with none of those accidents of fortune which sometimes +give early success to gifted men. + +The opportunity afforded the young Judge to extend his knowledge +and mingle on terms of equality with the masters of his profession +was such as rarely falls to the lot of a half-educated man of +twenty-eight. He did not become an eminent Judge, yet he left the +bench, after three years' service, with marked improvement in the +solidity and dignity of his character. + + + + + +Chapter III. Member of Congress. + + + + +The legislature met in December, 1842, to chose a Senator. Douglas +still lacked six months of the thirty years required, but came +within five votes of the election. + +In the following spring he received the Democratic nomination for +Congress and resigned his judgeship to enter the campaign. The +District included eleven large counties in the western part of the +State. O. H. Browning of Quincy, a lawyer of ability, destined to +a distinguished political career and to succeed to Douglas' vacant +seat in the Senate twenty years later, was the Whig candidate. +They held a long series of joint discussions, addressed scores of +audiences and so exhausted themselves that both were prostrated +with serious sickness after the campaign. The questions discussed +are as completely obsolete as the political issues of the +ante-diluvians. Douglas was elected by a small majority. + +He was in Washington at the opening of Congress and entered upon +his eventful and brilliant career on that elevated theatre, though +he was as yet only the crude material out of which a statesman +might be evolved. He was a vigorous, pushing Western politician, +with half developed faculties and vague, unlimited ambition, whose +early congressional service gave small promise of the great leader +of after years. + +The famous description of him contained in the Adams diary relates +to this period of his life. The venerable ex-President, then +a Member of the House, mentions him as the homunculus Douglas and +with acrid malevolence describes him as raving out his hour in +abusive invectives, his face convulsed, his gesticulation frantic, +and lashing himself into such heat that if his body had been made +of combustible matter it would have burned out. + +"In the midst of his roaring," he declares, "to save himself from +choking, he stripped off and cast away his cravat, unbuttoned his +waistcoat and had the air and aspect of a half-naked pugilist." +With all its extravagance and exaggeration, it is impossible to +doubt the substantial truth of this charicature. Adams did not +live to see the young Member become the most powerful debater, the +most accomplished political leader and most influential statesman +of the great and stirring period that ensued. + +The time was strange, as difficult of comprehension to the generation +that has grown up since the War as the England of Hengist and Horsa +is to the modern Cockney, or the Rome of Tiberius to the present +inhabitant of the Palentine Hill. Only sixty years have passed, but +with them has passed away civilization, with its modes of thought +and sentiment, its ethics and its politics. The country had +but one fifth of its present population. A third of our area was +still held by Mexico. Wealth was as yet the poet's dream or the +philosopher's night-mare. Commerce was a subordinate factor in +our civilization. Agriculture was the occupation of the people +and the source of wealth. Cotton was king not only in the field +of business, but in that of politics. The world still maintained +its attitude of patronizing condescension or haughty contempt toward +the dubious experiment of "broad and rampant democracy." Dickens +had just written his shallow twaddle about Yankee crudeness and +folly. Macaulay was soon to tell us that our Constitution was "all +sail and no anchor." DeTocqueville had but recently published his +appreciative estimate of the New World civilization. Americans knew +they had less admiration than they claimed and had lurking doubts +that there was some ground for the ill-concealed contempt of the Old +World toward the swaggering giant of the New, and a fixed resolve +to proclaim their supreme greatness with an energy and persistence +that would drown the sneers of all Europe. It was a time of +egotism, bluster and brag in our relation to the foreign world, and +of truckling submission in our home politics to a dominant power, +long since so completely whirled away by the storm of revolution, +that it is hard to realize that half a century ago the strongest +bowed to its will. + +Douglas was in no sense a reformer or the preacher of a crusade. +He was ready to cheerfully accept the ethics of the time without +criticism or question. Political morality was at its nadir. +The dominant power of slavery was not alone responsible for this +depravity. The country was isolated from the world and little +influenced by foreign thought. Its energies were devoted to material +aggrandizement, to the conquest of Nature on a gigantic scale, to +the acquisition of wealth. Since the settlement of the Constitution +moral problems had dropped out of political life and the great +passions of the heroic age had died away. Education was superficial. +Religion was emotional and spasmodic. Business ethics was low. + +Party politics was in a chaotic condition. The Whig organization +was not in any proper sense a party at all. It was an ill-assorted +aggregation of political elements, without common opinions or united +purposes, whose only proper function was opposition. It was so +utterly incoherent, its convictions so vague and negative, that it +was unable even to draft a platform. Without any formal declaration +of principles or purposes it had nominated and elected Harrison +and Tyler, one a distinguished soldier and respectable Western +politician, the other a renegade Virginia Democrat, whose Whiggism +consisted solely of a temporary quarrel with his own party. The +one unanimous opinion of the party was that it was better for +themselves, if not for the country, that the Whigs should hold +the offices. The Democrats had been in control of the Government +for forty years. Their professed principles were still broadly +Jeffersonian. Their platform consisted mainly of a denial of all +power in the Federal Government to do anything or prevent anything, +the extravagant negations borrowed from the republican philosophers +of England and the French Revolutionists. + +But a half century of power had produced a marked diversion +of practice from principles, and, in spite of its open abnegation +of power, the Government had become a personal despotism under +Jackson, which had vainly struggled to perpetuate itself through +the Administration of VanBuren. But notwithstanding the absurd +discrepancy of their practical and theoretical politics, the +Democrats had one great advantage over the Whigs in having a large +and influential body of men united in interest, compelled to defend +themselves against aggression, prepared unflinchingly to take the +initiative, to whom politics was not a philosophic theory but a +serious matter of business. + +The slave-holding aristocracy of the South was the only united, +organized, positive political force in the country. With the +personal tastes of aristocrats and the domestic habits of despots, +they were staunchly Democratic in their politics and had full control +of the party. They had positive purposes and aggressive courage. +A crisis had come which they only had the ability and energy to +meet. The control of affairs was in the hands of the timid Whigs. +Decisive measures were needed. By a peaceful revolution they seized +the Government out of the hands of the Whigs in the midst of the +Administration and embarked on a career of Democratic conquest. + +President Tyler, having quarreled with his party, eager to +accomplish something striking in the closing hours of his abortive +Administration, with unseemly haste rushed through the annexation +of Texas under a joint resolution of Congress. Mr. Polk, the new +President, did not hesitate in carrying out the manifest will of +the people and the imperious behest of his party. The South was +clamoring for more territory for the extension of slavery. The West +was aggressive and eager for more worlds to conquer. New England, +impelled by hatred of slavery and jealousy of the rising importance +of the West, opposed the entire project and earnestly protested +against annexation. + +In the feverish dreams of the slavery propagandists rose chimerical +projects of conquest and expansion at which a Caesar or an Alexander +would have stood aghast. Mexico and Central America were contemplated +as possible additions to the magnificent slave empire which they +saw rising out of the mists of the future. They began to talk of +the Caribbean Sea as an inland lake, of Cuba and the West Indies +as outlying dependencies, of the Pacific as their western coast, +and of the States that should thereafter be carved out of South +America. The enduring foundation of this tropical empire was to +be African slavery, and the governing power was to rest permanently +in the hands of a cultured aristocracy of slave-holders. The people +of the North-Atlantic States and heir descendents in the Northwest, +who churlishly held aloof from these intoxicating dreams, were to +be treated with generous justice and permitted to go in peace or +continue a minor adjunct of the great aristocratic Republic. Already +the irrepressible conflict had begun. + +Douglas heartily accepted the plans of his party. He was by +temperament an ardent expansionist, a firm believer in the manifest +destiny of his country to rule the Western Continent, a pronounced +type of exuberant young Americanism. He was an unflinching partisan +seeking to establish himself in the higher councils of his party, +which was committed to this scheme of conquest. On May 13th, +1846, he delivered in the House a speech, in which he defended the +course of the Administration in regard to the Mexican War and, in +a spirited colloquy, instructed the venerable John Quincy Adams in +the principles of international law. He based his defense of the +war upon the treaty with Santa Anna recognizing the independence +of Texas. Adams suggested that at the time of its execution Santa +Anna was a prisoner incapable of making a treaty. Douglas insisted +that, even though a captive, he was a de facto government whose +acts were binding upon the country, and to establish his proposition +cited the case of Cromwell who, during his successful usurpation, +bound England by many important treaties. The niceties of international +law were not very punctiliously observed. His arguments were warmly +received by men already resolved on a career of conquest. + +The war was a romantic military excursion through the heart of +Mexico. There were battles between the triumphant invaders and +the demoralized natives, which were believed entitled to rank among +the supreme achievements of genius and courage. Americans had not +yet acquired that deep knowledge of carnage, those stern conceptions +of war, which they were destined soon to gain. Military glory and +imperial conquest have rarely been so cheaply won. The war gave +enduring fame to the commanding generals and shed a real luster +over the lives of thousands of men. + +The material results were stupendous. We acquired nearly twelve +hundred thousand square miles of territory--a region one-third larger +than the area of the United States at the close of the Revolution. +The extravagant dream of making the Pacific the western boundary +of the Republic was realized and no one seriously doubted that this +vast domain was surrendered to slavery. + + + + + +Chapter IV. The Compromise of 1850. + + + + +Douglas served two terms in the House and was again elected in +1846, but in January following was chosen Senator, taking his seat +on March 4th, 1847. In April following he married Martha Denny +Martin, daughter of a wealthy North Carolina planter and slave-owner. + +The Senate, during the early years of his service, was in its +intellectual gifts altogether the most extraordinary body ever +assembled in the United States. Rarely, if ever, in the history of +the world, have so many men of remarkable endowment, high training +and masterful energy been gathered in a single assembly. It was the +period when the generation of Webster, Clay and Calhoun overlapped +that of Seward, Chase and Sumner, when the men who had set at the +feet of the Revolutionary Fathers and had striven to settle the +interpretation of the Constitution met the men who were destined +to guide the Nation through the Civil War and settle the perplexing +questions arising from it. + +Webster was now an old man, his face deep lined with care, +disappointment and dissipation. Though sixty-eight years old and +the greatest orator of the century, his heart was still consumed +with unquenchable thirst of the honor of succeeding John Tyler +and James K. Polk. Calhoun, now sixty-five years old, a ghastly +physical wreck, still represented South Carolina and dismally +speculated on the prospect of surviving the outgrown Union. Cass, +equal in years with Calhoun, still held his seat in the Senate and +cherished the delusive hope of yet reaching the Presidency. Benton +was closing his fifth and last term in the Senate, and Clay, the +knightly leader of the trimming Whigs, though now in temporary +retirement, was soon to return and resume his old leadership. + +Within the first four years of Douglas' service, Salmon P. Chase, +William H. Seward and Charles Sumner made their appearance in the +Senate. A new generation of giants seemed providentially supplied +as the old neared the end of their service. Douglas, though serving +with both these groups of statesmen, belonged to neither. Running +his career side by side with the later school of political leaders +and sharing in the great struggles on which their fame, in large +part, rests, his character and ideals were those of the older +generation. + +The questions confronting Congress were of transcendent interest +and incalculable importance. A sudden and astounding expansion had +occurred, calling for the highest, wisest and most disinterested +statesmanship in providing governments for the newly acquired +domain. A million and a half miles of new territory, extending +through sixteen degrees of latitude, was now to be organized; the +future destiny of this vast territory, and indirectly that of free +institutions generally, was supposed to depend on the decision of +Congress. Above all, the fate of the American apple of discord, +human slavery, was understood to be involved in the construction +of territorial and State governments for these new possessions. It +was deemed by the South indispensable to the safety and permanence +of slavery to plant it in them. + +For that half-disguised purpose they had been acquired at great +expense of blood and money. New States, it was hoped, might now be +created south of the line below which slavery flourished, balancing +those to be admitted from the growing Northwest. Thus far the +adventurous West had powerfully supported the South in its schemes +of conquest, but had no sympathy with slavery. The old North, +thought ready to submit to its continued existence in the States +where already established, was implacably hostile to its further +spread. + +It was not a question of ethics or of sober statesmanship, but one +of practical politics, that divided the North and the South at this +period. Each hoped to secure for itself the alliance and sympathy +of the new States thereafter admitted. Each applied itself to the +task of shaping the Territories and moulding the future States to +serve its ulterior views. + +When Congress attempted to organize territorial governments, +the people of the North insisted on the exclusion of slavery from +Oregon and the territory acquired from Mexico. The people of the +South made no resistance to its exclusion from Oregon. It was +already excluded by "the ordinance of Nature or the will of God." +But that the vast territory torn from Mexico, acquired by the common +blood and treasure, should now be closed to their institution, was +intolerable. To secure it they had sinned deep. After the conquest +their position was peculiarly awkward. The laws of Mexico excluding +slavery continued in force. Hence in all this territory slavery +was as effectually prohibited as in Massachusetts until Congress +could accomplish the odious work of introducing it by express +enactment. Calhoun strenuously argued the novel proposition that, +on the overthrow of the authority of the Mexican government by +American arms, the laws and constitution of Mexico were extinguished +and those of the United States, so far as applicable, occupied the +vacant field; that the Federal Constitution carried slavery with +it wherever it went, except where by the laws of a sovereign State +it was excluded. + +He announced the proposition afterwards established by the Supreme +Court, that, as the Constitution proprio vigore carried slavery +into all the Territories, neither the territorial legislatures nor +Congress itself had power to interfere with the right of holding +slaves within them. + +Webster conclusively answered this refined sophistry, pointing +out that slavery was merely a municipal institution, in derogation +of the common right of mankind, against the native instincts of +humanity, dependent wholly for its right of existence upon local +legislation, and that the real demand of the people of the South +was not to carry their slaves into the new Territories, but to +carry with them the slave codes of their several States. + +While the venerable leaders who had ruled Congress and swayed public +opinion for thirty years were uttering philosophic disquisitions +on constitutional law or the ethics of slavery, Douglas had with +practical sagacity offered an amendment to the Oregon bill, extending +the line of the Missouri Compromise to the Pacific. This would not +decide the great moral question between those who believed slavery +an unmixed good and those who believed it the sum of all villainies. +But he thought that moral ideas had no place in politics. It would +not decide the great question of constitutional law between those +who, like Calhoun, believed slavery the creature of the Federal +Constitution, and those, who, like Webster, believed it the creature +of local municipal law. But it promised a temporary respite to +the vexed question. He had already, in the House, advocated the +extension of this line through the Western Territories. He believed +that adhesion to this venerable Compromise, now as sacred as the +Constitution itself, was the hope of the future and succeeded in +persuading the Senate to adopt his amendment as the final solution +of the vexed problem. It was rejected in the House and the question +indefinitely postponed. + +In the Territories, meanwhile, events moved fast. While Congress +had been wrangling over the new possessions, gold was discovered +in California. A tumultuous rush of people, unparalleled since the +Crusades, at once began by all routes from every region to the new +El Dorado. More than 80,000 settlers arrived in 1849. A spontaneous +movement of the people resulted in a Constitutional Convention, +which met at Monterey on September 3d of that year, and adopted a +Constitution which forever prohibited slavery. It was submitted +to a vote and adopted in November. + +Congress met on December 3d and resumed the Sisyphean labors of the +last session. Douglas was chairman of the Committee on Territories, +to which were referred all measures affecting the recent +acquisitions--altogether the most momentous of the session--which +stirred the deepest passions of Congress and held the keenest attention +of the people. In the early days of December he submitted to his +Committee two bills. One provided for the immediate admission +of California; the other for the establishment of governments for +Utah and New Mexico and the adjustment of the Texas boundary. On +March 25th they were reported to the Senate. Meanwhile Taylor, +in a special message, had recommended the immediate admission of +California. Senator Mason had introduced a bill providing more +effective means for the summary return of fugitive slaves, in +effect converting the population of the free States into a posse +comitatus charged with the duty of hunting down the fugitive sand +returning him to bondage. The clash of arms had begun. Both sides +were passionately in earnest and resolved to encounter the utmost +extremity rather than yield. The Democrats had a small majority +in the Senate, while in the House neither party had a majority. + +The Free Soilers held the balance of power, but by a refusal +to cooperate with the conservative opponents of slavery extension +left the control of the House in the hands of the Democrats. The +chief business of the early weeks of the session was the delivery +of defiant speeches and the presentation of resolutions defining +the opinions of various segments of distracted parties and revealing +the chasm that was opening between the friends and opponents of +slavery. + +On the 21st of January the rival Whig chiefs of the Senate held +a confidential conference. Clay submitted a plan of compromise +covering the whole field of controversy. Webster promised his +cordial support. A week later Clay presented the first draft of +his famous slavery Compromise. He was under the sincere illusion +that he had been spared by Providence that he might save his country +in this great exigency and that his bill would secure long years +of peace and harmony. At least, as many of them were old men, it +would postpone the evil day until they had been safely gathered to +their fathers, and, according to the political morals of the age, +the next generation must take care of itself. Douglas moved to refer +the resolutions to the Committee on Territories; but, on motion of +Foote of Mississippi, they were referred to a select Committee of +Thirteen, consisting of three Northern Whigs, three Southern Whigs, +three Southern and three Northern Democrats, with Clay as chairman. +Douglas was not on this Committee. It was composed of old Senators +whose established reputations were expected to give credit to any +proposition of compromise. + +On May 8th the Committee reported, recommending the immediate admission +of California, the establishment of territorial governments in New +Mexico and Utah with no mention of the slavery question, the settlement +of the Texas boundary dispute and the enactment of a law providing +for the more effectual return of fugitive slaves. Substantially +it was Douglas' two bills joined together, with Mason's Fugitive +Slave bill annexed. It was a mass of unrelated measures, jumbled +together for the illegitimate purpose of compelling support of the +whole from friends of the several parts. + +Clay spoke for two days in support of his great masterpiece of +compromising statesmanship. He insisted that it should be accepted +by all for the reason that "neither party made any concession +of principle, but only of feeling and sentiment," and ingeniously +sought to soothe the anger of the North by the assurance that the +principle of popular sovereignty embodied in the bill was not only +eminently just and in harmony with the spirit of our institutions +but entirely harmless, inasmuch as the North had Nature on its +side, facts on its side and the truth staring it in the face that +there was no slavery in the Territories, proving that the law of +Nature was of paramount force. + +On March 4th Calhoun attempted to speak, but found himself unable +and handed his speech to Mason who read it for him. He rejected +Clay's Compromise as futile and denied utterly the right of the +inhabitants of a Territory to exclude slavery. He accused the North +of having pursued a course of systematic hostility to Southern +institutions since the close of the Revolution, and cited the +Ordinance of 1787, the Missouri Compromise and the exclusion of +slavery from Oregon as instances of Northern aggression; and now, +he said, the final and fatal act of exclusion was attempted. He +denounced the action of the people of California in organizing a +State without congressional authority as revolutionary and rebellious. +He grimly announced that the South had no concessions to make, even +to save the poor wreck of a once glorious Union. He plainly told +them that if the Union was to be saved the North must save it. It +must open the Territories to slavery. It must surrender fugitive +slaves. It must cease agitating the slavery question. The +Constitution must be amended so as to restore to the South the +power of protecting itself. If they were not willing to do these +acts of justice, nor that the South should depart in peace, let +them say so, that it might know what to do when the question was +reduced to one of submission or resistance. + +Three days later Webster delivered his famous 7th of March speech. +He criticized with severity the Northern Democracy for its eager +and officious subserviency to the South throughout the whole +controversy arising out of the Mexican War, hinting that it had +been even more eager to server than the South had been to accept +its service. He said that the Mexican War had been prosecuted for +the purpose of the acquisition of territory for the extension of +slavery, but that the nature of the country had defeated, in large +part, the hopes of the South. He declared that the whole question +of slavery was settled by a higher law than that of Congress and +that there was not then a foot of territory whose status was not +already fixed by the laws of the several States or the decree of +the Almighty; that, by the irrepealable laws of physical geography, +slavery was already excluded from California and New Mexico. He +"would not take pains uselessly to reaffirm an ordinance of Nature, +nor to reenact the will of God." He denounced the Abolitionists +and urged upon the Northern States the duty of faithfully and +energetically enforcing the abhorred Fugitive Slave Law. + +Seward, speaking a few days later, insisted that it was their +clear duty to admit California under any Constitution adopted by +it, republican in form, and assured then that had its Constitution +permitted slavery he would still have deemed it his duty to vote +for its admission. He protested against the Fugitive Slave Law as +necessarily nugatory and utterly impossible of execution because +unanimously condemned by the public sentiment of the North. In +answer to the crushing argument that the Constitution carried +slavery into the Territories and that cheerful obedience must be +yielded to the supreme law, he announced the startling doctrine +that there was a HIGHER LAW than the Constitution, to which their +first duty was due; that slavery was a violation of this HIGHER +LAW and hence the Constitution itself was powerless to establish +it in the Territories. + +On the 13th and 14th Douglas spoke. The speech was able and +adroit. It was marred by the introduction of party-politics into +a discussion of such gravity. He was always prone to lapse from +statesmanlike dignity to the level of the politician and viewed +most matters primarily in their relation to he transient questions +of party politics. He undertook the ambitious task of replying +to the speeches of Webster, Seward, and Calhoun. He repelled the +charge made by Webster that the Northern Democracy had surrendered +to the slave power in supporting the annexation of Texas and the +Mexican War, declaring that they had supported those measures from +patriotic motives, and that he was "one of those Northern Democrats +who supported annexation with all the zeal of his nature." "With +a touch of the Northwest--the Northwestern Democracy," sneered +Webster, who contemptuously looked upon him as a crude blustering +youth from the far West. But Webster, whose contempt for his coarse +taste was justified, had misjudged his resources and power. + +"Yes, sir," replied Douglas, "I am glad to hear the Senator say +'With a touch of the Northwest'; I thank him for the distinction. We +have heard so much talk about the North and South, as if those two +sections were the only ones necessary to be taken into consideration +* * * that I am gratified to find that there are those who appreciate +the important truth that there is a power in this Nation, greater +than either the North or the South--a growing, increasing, +swelling power, that will be able to speak the law to this Nation +and to execute the law as spoken. That power is the country known +as the great West, the Valley of the Mississippi, one and indivisible +from the Gulf to the Great Lakes, stretching on the ones side and +the other to the extreme sources of the Ohio and the Missouri--from +the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mountains. + +"There, sir, is the hope of this Nation, the resting-place of the +power that is not only to control but to save the Union. We furnish +the water that makes the Mississippi and we intend to follow, +navigate and use it until it loses itself in the briny ocean. So +with the St. Lawrence. We intend to keep open and enjoy both of +these great outlets to the ocean, and all between them we intend +to take under our especial protection and keep and preserve as one +free, happy, and united people. This is the mission of the great +Mississippi Valley, the heart and soul of the Nation and the +continent. We know the responsibilities that devolve upon us, and +our people will show themselves equal to them. We indulge in no +ultraism, no sectional strifes, no crusades against the North and +the South. * * * We are prepared to fulfill all our obligations under +the Constitution as it is, and determined to maintain and preserve +it inviolate in its letter and spirit. Such is the position, the +destiny and purpose of the great Northwest." + +He told Webster that, according to the doctrine of his 7th of March +speech, to permit Texas to be divided into several States would be +harmless, because slavery was excluded from a large part of it by +the ordinance of Nature, the will of God. He taunted him for not +having discovered his now celebrated principle of the ordinance of +Nature and will of God until after Taylor's election, and reminded +him that prior to the election Cass and Buchanan, the recognized +heads of the Democratic party, had advocated leaving the question +to the decision of the settlers in the Territories or, in other +words, leaving the ordinance of Nature and will of God to manifest +themselves. But Webster had then opposed Cass' election and +denounced his doctrines and proposed policies. The Whigs, having +run counter to the overwhelming popular sentiment in their unpatriotic +opposition to the Mexican War, found themselves ruined. They chose +a distinguished soldier of that war President, and hoped to rally +by adopting this Democratic doctrine. + +He accused Seward of carrying New York for the Whigs in the late +election by assuring them that Taylor, though a slave-holder, would +approve the legislative monstrosity known as the Wilmot proviso, +excluding slavery forever from the new Territories. But Taylor +had ignored Seward's promise. New York's vote had elected Taylor +and a few weeks later Seward was chosen Senator. Taylor was made +President and Seward Senator by the latter's successful fraud. + +Calhoun's charge of Northern aggression and encroachment he met +with a sweeping denial. Neither the North nor the South as such +had any right in the Territories, but all the people of the States +had equal rights there. The Ordinance of 1787, denounced by Calhoun +as a Northern aggression on Southern rights, was voted for by every +Southern State. That Ordinance did not, in fact, exclude the South, +or even slavery, from the Northwest Territory. A majority of the +settlers in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were from the South. Slavery +had actually existed in Indiana and Illinois and had but recently +disappeared. The Missouri Compromise was not an act of Northern +aggression, but was passed by a united South which had made repeated +efforts to extend it to the Pacific. The exclusion of slavery from +Oregon was not an act of Northern aggression, but the work of the +settlers during the period of joint occupancy under the treaty with +Great Britain, and should be accepted by the anti-slavery agitators +as proof of the wisdom of popular sovereignty. the objection that +the people of the South were forbidden to emigrate with their property +to the new Territories was simply a complaint that they could not +carry the laws of their States with them, but must be governed by +the laws of their new domicile. Calhoun's project of maintaining +an equilibrium between free and slave States or of compelling States +to accept or retain slavery against their will was impossible. + +At the organization of the Government twelve of the thirteen States +had slavery. but six of them voluntarily abolished it. Delaware, +Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee would +yet adopt the system of gradual emancipation. Seventeen free States +would soon be formed out of the territory between the Mississippi +and the Pacific. Where would they find slave territory with which +to balance these States? If Texas were divided into five States, +three of them would be free. If Mexico were annexed, twenty of +her twenty-two States would be free by the ordinance of Nature or +the will of God. He urged the duty of promptly providing governments +for the unorganized domain and closed with a graceful tribute to +Clay and the prediction that the Territories would soon be organized, +California admitted and the controversy ended forever. + +There were three generically distinct groups of statesmen participating +in this great debate--the aggressive, unyielding men of the South +to whom slavery was dearer than the Union; the temporizing politicians +of the North and the border, with their compromises and concessions, +hoping to save the Union by salving its wounds; and the stern +Puritans of the North, bent on rooting out the sins of the Nation, +through the heavens fell. + +The climax of the debate was now past, but it continued to agitate +Congress until the middle of September. President Taylor, who had +exerted his influence against the Compromise, died on July 9th, and +was succeeded by Fillmore, who at once called Webster to the head +of his Cabinet and turned the Executive influence to the support +of the bill. It proved impossible, even with his help, to pass +it as a whole; but after it had gone to wreck its fragments were +gathered up and each of the several bills which were jumbled together +in the "Omnibus" was passed. The great Compromise was accomplished +and the slavery question declared settled forever. + + + + + +Chapter V. Results of the Fugitive Slave Law. + + + + +In 1850 Douglas moved to Chicago, which had become the chief city +of the State. + +The people were greatly exasperated by the passage of the Fugitive +Slave Law. The City Council, on October 21st, passed resolutions +harshly condemning the Senators and Representatives from the free +States who had supported it and "those who basely sneaked away from +their seats and thereby evaded the question," classing them with +Benedict Arnold and Judas Iscariot. This was a personal challenge +to Douglas. It happened that he was absent from the Senate on private +business when the bill was passed. But the charge of evading the +question was grossly unjust. + +On the evening of the 22nd a mass meeting was held at the city +hall, attended by a great concourse of angry citizens, who, amid +tumultuous applause, resolved to defy "death, the dungeon and the +grave" in resisting the hated law. Douglas appeared on the platform +and announced that on the following evening he would address the +people in defense of the Fugitive Slave Law and the entire Compromise. +The announcement was received with a storm of hisses and groans. + +The next night an enormous multitude gathered to hear him. The +audience was not only sullen but bitterly hostile. After a +contemptuous reference to the resolutions and a brief vindication +of himself against their insinuations, he plunged into the defense +of the law. He insisted that the provision for the return of +fugitive slaves contained in the recent act was analogous to the +general provision of law for the return of fugitives from justice, +and, while abuses of the process might occur and wrong occasionally +inflicted, that was one of the inherent infirmities of human law, +and the same objection could be urged with equal force to all +extradition statutes. While free blacks might be seized in the +North and carried South on the false charge of being fugitives +from service, innocent white men might also be seized in Chicago +and carried to California on the false charge of being fugitives +from justice. + +He reminded them that the law of 1850 was substantially a reenactment +of that of 1793, passed by the Revolutionary Fathers, the founders +of the Constitution, and approved by President Washington. He +did not argue, but assumed the justice of the old law; nor did he +allude to the increased ardor of pursuit of fleeing slaves since +their increase in value. He rested his case on the close resemblance +of the letter of the new law to that of the old. He told them that +the duty of returning fugitive slaves was created not by THIS law, +but by the Constitution, and that the real question was not as to +the existence of the duty, but which law performed it most justly +and efficiently. + +A listener asked him whether the Constitution was not in violation +of the will of God. He warned them of the danger of that objection, +arising from the difficulty of authentically ascertaining the will +of God. It was not practicable to allow each citizen to determine +it for himself. Hence, certain fundamental principles had been +established as a Constitution, which must be assumed to be in harmony +with it and from which no appeal lay. The Constitution provided +for the return of fugitive slaves. The sacred duty of citizenship +bound them to support it. Appeals to a higher law were impracticable +and a mere evasion of duty. + +Read in a the calmer light of after years the effectiveness of this +speech is hard to understand. The literal difference between the +recent act and the law of 1793, was not great. But the difference +between the ethical views of slavery held by the people in 1850 +and those held in 1793 was not to be measured. The changes in the +law were vicious and in the opposite direction from the radical +changes in popular sentiment. The specially odious provision of +the new law, distinguishing it from general extradition statutes, +was that forbidding resort to the writ of habeas corpus by the +alleged fugitive at the place where seized. The fugitive from +justice in California seized in Chicago could, on writ of habeas +corpus issued by an Illinois court, have it judicially determined +before his deportation whether the facts charged against him +constituted a crime and whether thee was probable cause to believe +that he had committed it. + +Under the new law the Federal Commissioner of the State where the +arrest was made had no power to inquire into the truth or sufficiency +of the charge. He could only determine whether the person arrested +was probably the one who had committed the escape, and must decline +to hear the testimony of the fugitive himself. The fact of escape +was judicially determined in advance, ex parte, in the State from +which it had been made, and the alleged fugitive was remanded to +that State for such further proceedings as its laws might provide +and "no process issued by any Court, Judge, Magistrate or other +person whomsoever" could molest the captor in bearing away his +prize. + +The speech was adroit, clever and marvelously effective. It +strikingly illustrates the mental habits of the times. It sought +to stem an irresistible moral current with ingenious plausibilities +and appeals to precedent. It treated the question as one of +political expediency. It sounded no moral depths, discussed no +ethical problem, though the country was aflame with moral indignation +and rising passionately against the ethics of the past. It mastered +the audience by its fidelity to literal truth and sent them home +dazed, troubled, doubtful and ashamed. At the close of the speech +resolutions affirming the duty of Congress to pass the Fugitive +Slave Law and that of citizens to obey and support it, and repudiating +those of the Common Council, were presented and unanimously +adopted by the subdued and humbled crowd. On the following night +the Council repealed their offensive resolutions. + +Meanwhile the country was enjoying the fruits of the Compromise +and striving to persuade itself that it would endure. The people +earnestly desired to believe that the slavery question was settled +forever. So strong was the wish to be done with it that, but for +the restless ambition of the politicians, the truce might have been +protracted for many years. Permanent peace on the preposterous +condition of maintaining on equipoise between active, aggressive and +hostile forces was, of course, impossible. but it was confidently +expected. Clay, Stephens and fifty-two other Members of the Senate +and House issued a manifesto in January, 1851, in which they +announced that the Compromise was final and, to give their manifesto +the highest solemnity, gravely declared that they would not support +anyone for office who was not in favor of faithfully upholding it. +In the North approval for the Compromise was general and enthusiastic. +It was hoped that money-making would no longer be disturbed by +fanatical agitation of moral questions. + +And yet there were murmurs of anger against the detested law. It +was hard to compel the descendents of the Puritans to hunt down the +fleeing slaves when they believed that the curse of God rested on +the institution and that the rights of the fugitive were as sacred as +those of his pursuers. There were outbreaks of defiance, violent +rescues, occasional riots. But resistance was sporadic. The people +were disposed to wash their hands of all responsibility for the +law, to deprecate its existence, but, since it had been pronounced +a final Compromise, to pray that it might prove so. In the South +the general opinion was that the danger was past and that years of +peace were in prospect. Enthusiastic meetings approving the compromise +were held everywhere outside of South Carolina and Mississippi. + +While the entire moral victory of the Compromise rested with +the people of the South, they had won nothing substantial but the +Fugitive Slave Law, which was of questionable value. The great +object for which they had conspired, sinned and fought had slipped +from their grasp. California was a free State. New Mexico with +indecent haste had called a Convention, adopted a Constitution +prohibiting slavery, and now demanded admission. + +The Compromise, however, bade fair to endure. Fillmore in his +annual message in December said, with perfect truth, that a great +majority of the people sympathized in its spirit and purpose and were +prepared in all respects to sustain it. In Congress an optimistic +feeling prevailed. Clay complacently congratulated the country on +the general acquiescence in the law and said that it had encountered +but little resistance outside of Boston. Douglas assured the +Senate that Illinois in good faith discharged its duty under the +late Act. It was flanked on the east and west by the slave States +of Kentucky and Missouri. It did not intend to become a free negro +colony by offering refuge to the fleeing slaves of neighboring +States and, not relying on the action of the Federal Government +alone for protection, had enacted severe laws of its own to prevent +it. When a Judge in that State he had imposed heavy penalties +on citizens convicted of the offense of harboring fugitives from +service. It was the duty of all citizens to sustain and execute the +law, a duty imposed by patriotism and loyalty to the Constitution. +But there was an organization in the North to evade and resist +the law, with men of talent, genius, energy, daring and desperate +purpose at its head. It was a conspiracy against the Government, +and men occupying seats in the Senate were responsible for the +outrages the Boston mob perpetrated in resistance of the law. The +Abolitionists were arming negroes in the free States and inciting +them to murder anyone who attempted to seize them under the provisions +of the law. + +Already he aspired to the Presidency and began to jealously guard +his reputation against the sinister suspicions which in those days +haunted the ambitious statesman. The great problem which then taxed +the ingenuity of the aspiring politician was, how to win the South +without alienating the North, or how to hold the North without losing +the South. Irreconcilable differences of opinion on fundamental +questions, deepening ominously into passionate hostility of sentiment, +were already manifesting themselves. The task of the politician +was to steer his dangerous course between this Scylla and Charybdis. +If he gave color to the suspicion that he even tolerated the growing +anti-slavery sentiment of the North, the South would reject him +with horror. If he espoused too warmly the cause that had become +so dear to the heart of the South, the North, goaded by its +over-sensitive conscience, would spurn him with disgust. In the +existing state of party organization the highest success was not +possible without at least partial reconciliation of these irreconcilable +forces. Northern statesmen could not hope to succeed by brave +appeals to the passions and prejudices of the South, for they would +lose their home constituencies, the worst fatality that can befall +an American politician. They could not hope to succeed by brave +appeals to the earnest convictions of the North, for they had not +yet authority as affirmative rules of political conduct. + +The charge of dodging a vote on the Fugitive Slave bill had annoyed +Douglas deeply. Any doubt cast upon his fidelity to the South +in its contest with the rising anti-slavery sentiment would be +disastrous. It was extremely distrustful of Northern politicians +and ready to take alarm on the slightest occasion. When the +session was but three weeks old he spoke, defending himself against +a series of political charges and boasting his partisan virtues in +a way that plainly proclaimed the candidate and savored strongly +of the stump. He explained that he had been called to New York +on urgent private business on the day of the passage of the law +and that on his return he was taken seriously ill and confined to +his bed during the latter part of the session and for weeks after +adjournment. He claimed credit for having written the original +Compromise bills which Clay's Committee joined together with a wafer +and reported as its own. He denied vehemently having favored the +Wilmot Proviso, excluding slavery from all territory acquired from +Mexico, and declared that he had sought to extend the Missouri +Compromise line to the Pacific. He said that the legislature of +Illinois had instructed him to vote for the exclusion of slavery +from the Territories, and that, while he had cast the vote of his +State according to instructions, he had protested against it, and +the vote cast was that of the legislature. He regarded the slavery +question as settled forever and had resolved to make no more +speeches on it. He assured them that the Democratic party was as +good a Union party as he wanted, and protested against new tests +of party fidelity and all interpolations of new matter into the +old creed. He conjured them to avoid the slavery question, with +the intimation that, if they did so, it would disappear from Federal +politics forever. + +Already the approaching presidential nominations were casting their +shadows over the political arena. Though not yet thirty-nine, +Douglas was as eager for the Democratic nomination as Webster at +seventy was for that of the Whigs. + +His picturesque youthfulness, energy and aggressiveness, so +strikingly in contrast with the old age, conservatism and timidity +of the generation of statesmen with whom he now came in competition, +aroused to the highest pitch the enthusiasm of the younger Democrats. +It is not impossible that he could have been nominated but for his +own imprudence and that of his counselors, who seem to have been +more richly endowed with enthusiasm than wisdom. To make sure +of getting him before the people in the most dramatic way, and +at an early stage, they brought out in the January number of the +"Democratic Review" a sensational article which immediately gave +him great prominence as a presidential candidate and solidified +against him an opposition which assured his defeat. + +This famous article said that a new time was at hand, calling for +new men, sturdy, clear-headed and honest men. The Republic must +have them even if it must seek them in the forests of Virginia or +in the illimitable West. It was necessary to have a more progressive +Democratic Administration than theretofore. The statesmen of a +previous generation, with their antipathies, claims, greatness or +inefficiency, must get out of the way. Age was to be honored, but +senility was pitiable. Statesmen of the old generation were out +of harmony with either the Northern or Southern wing of the party. +Those who were not so were men incapable of grasping the difficulties +of the times, of fathoming its ideas or controlling its policy. +It had been in the power of these superannuated leaders to do +much good; but their unfortunate lack of discreet and progressive +statesmanship had ruined the party. The next nominee for the +Presidency must not be trammeled with ideas belonging to an anterior +age, but a statesman who could bring young blood, young ideas and +young hearts to the councils of the Republic. + +"Your mere general," it continued, "whether he can write on +his card the battle-fields of Mexico, or more heroically boast of +his prowess in a militia review; your mere lawyer, trained in the +quiddities of the court, without a political idea beyond a local +election; your mere wire-puller and judicious bottle-holder, +who claims preeminence now on the sole ground that he once played +second fiddle to better men; * * * and above all, your beaten horse, +whether he ran for a previous presidential cup as first or second +or nowhere at all on the ticket, none of these will do. The +Democratic party expects a new man * * * * of sound Democratic +pluck and world-wide ideas to use it on. * * * Let the Baltimore +Convention give to this young generation of America a candidate +and we are content." + +The candidate thus presumptuously demanded by "Young America" was, +of course, Douglas. the superannuated statesmen, incapable of +grasping difficulties, trammeled by the ideas of an anterior age +and sinking into pitiable senility, were clearly, Cass, Buchanan +and Marcy. The description of them as the hero of a militia-review, +the mere lawyer with his quiddities, the political wire-puller +playing second fiddle to better men, was so clear that greater +offense could not have resulted from the use of their names. + +On June first, 1852, while Congress was still sweltering in the +tropical heat of the Capital, the Democratic Convention met at +Baltimore, and began its five days of debating and balloting. There +was a general belief that the nominee was certain to be elected. +The Whigs in their Compromise measures had given the Democrats +substantially what they wanted. The chief desire of the latter +was to hold fast what they had and secure the administration of +the offices. They proposed no reforms, made no complaint against +the Administration. Their platform endorsed its chief measure. It +pledged the party to the Compromise, including the Fugitive Slave +Act, and to "resist all attempts to renew the agitation of the +slavery question in congress or out of it, under whatever shape or +color the attempt might be made." Like most political platforms, +it was made to win votes, not to announce moral truths; and the +four statesmen who were competing for the nomination believed that +platform best which would offend the fewest prejudices. + +The speeches were delivered. the first ballot gave Cass 116, Buchanan +93, Marcy 37 and Douglas 20 votes. Day after day the managers of +the three veteran politicians plotted and counter-plotted and "Young +America" shouted for Douglas. On the fourth day he had risen to +second rank among the candidates, having 91 votes, while Cass had +93. On the fifth day the four distinguished statesmen were dropped +and Franklin Pierce, an inoffensive New Hampshire politician, was +nominated. + +The Whig convention met at Baltimore on June 16th. Already the +Whigs, though in power, were demoralized. Their mission, never +very glorious, was ended. In the North, tinctured with the old +Puritanism and sincere reverence for the primary rights of man, +there was a widely diffused feeling that a party responsible for the +Fugitive Slave Law could be spared without great loss to civilization. + +In the South slavery had definitely placed itself under the +protection of the Democratic party as the more reliable, if not the +more subservient, of the two. There was an appropriate funereal +air about the Convention as it struggled with the question of who +should stand on its platform of pitiful negations. The platform +solemnly declared that the Compromise Acts, including the Fugitive +Slave Law, were acquiesced in by the Whig party as a settlement +of the dangerous and exciting questions which they embraced. It +insisted upon the strict enforcement of the Compromise and deprecated +all further agitation of the question thus settled. If further +evidence of the collapse of the party were required, it was furnished +by the attitude and character of the candidates. Fillmore was a +passive candidate. Webster, his Secretary of State, was an eager +competitor. General Scott, though without experience in civil +affairs, was the third candidate and received the nomination. + +This was the last serious appearance of the Whig party on the stage +of national politics. The election resulted in the overwhelming +defeat of Scott and the gradual dissolution of the party. + + + + + +Chapter VI. The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. + + + + +In January, 1853, Mrs. Douglas died. In 1856 he married Miss Adele +Cutts of Washington, a Southern lady of good family. + +He was reelected Senator in 1853 without serious opposition. He had +hitherto been one of the most earnest defenders of the sacredness +of the Missouri Compromise. He had strenuously sought to extend +it to the Pacific. In 1848 he had declared it as inviolable as +the Constitution, "canonized in the hearts of the American people +as a sacred thing which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless +enough to disturb." But events had moved fast and he moved with +them, adjusting his opinions to the advancing demands of the dominant +wing of his party. + +During half a century the people of the South had been in control +of the Government, but Nature and advancing civilization had been +steadily against them. They had won a brilliant victory in the +Southwest, but found it barren. The only remaining territory in +which they could hope to plant slavery was that stretching westward +from Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota to the borders of Utah and Oregon. +It was wholly unorganized, devoted mainly to Indian reservations. +The plan was to organize this region, embracing the present States +of Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and parts +of Colorado and Wyoming, into a Territory to be called Nebraska. +The final contest between freedom and slavery for the possession +of the public domain was now to be waged. + +The South was at this time in peculiarly favorable situation. The +right to recover runaway slaves was secured. Both the political +parties had declared in favor of maintaining and faithfully executing +the Compromise. The people of both sections were in favor of +maintaining and faithfully executing the Compromise. The people +of both sections were in favor of standing by their bargain in good +faith, the South enjoying its slavery and the North its freedom in +peace. There is no apparent reason why this could not have lasted +for many years. But the South could not rest easy under the sense +of increasing hostility to slavery and wanted to entrench it more +strongly against assault. It would like more Senators and was ready +to stake everything on the capture of this last territory out of +which new States could be carved. + +Congress met for a memorable session on December 5th, 1853. Douglas +was chairman of the Committee on Territories, and his trusted +lieutenant, Richardson, was chairman of the Territorial Committee +of the House. He was thus in position to control the legislation +of deepest importance and greatest political interest. During the +closing days of the last session Richardson had pushed through the +House a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska. It was reported +to the Senate, referred to the Committee on Territories and Douglas +attempted in vain to hurry it through. + +Dodge of Iowa, now introduced in the Senate a bill for the organization +of the Territory which was a copy of the House bill of the last +session. It was referred to the Committee on Territories. Douglas +as chairman on January 4th reported it to the Senate in an altered +form, accompanied by an elaborate report. It provided that when +the Territory or any part of it should be admitted as a State it +should be with or without slavery as its Constitution should provide. +The report justified this non-committal attitude by citing the +similar provisions in the Utah and New Mexico bills. It declared +it a disputed point whether slavery was prohibited in Nebraska by +valid enactment. The constitutional power of Congress to regulate +the domestic affairs of the Territories was doubted. The Committee +declined to discuss the question which was so fiercely contested +in 1850. Congress then refrained from deciding it. The Committee +followed that precedent by neither affirming nor repealing +the Missouri Compromise, nor expressing any opinion as to its +validity. It intimated that in 1850 Congress already doubted its +constitutionality. The Compromise was now doomed. The inventive +genius of the Senate now applied itself to the task of shifting +the odium of its repeal upon the previous Congress. + +While this bill was pending in the Senate Douglas was anxiously +scanning the field to ascertain what effect it was producing among +the people. The South was not likely to be duped. If the Missouri +Compromise was in force that alone excluded slavery, and no advantage +could accrue from organizing the new Territory without mention of +the subject. It did not care to take the risk of proving the law +of 1820 invalid. Let it be repealed. But the thought of explicitly +repealing the Missouri Compromise, which he had been wont to declare +inviolably sacred, appalled him. He dreaded its effect in Illinois +and throughout the Puritanical North, where moral ideas were +annoyingly obtrusive. The South, though not demanding the repeal +of the Compromise, would surely welcome it with joy and gratitude. +The question of expediency was a hard one. + +The bill, consisting of twenty sections, was printed on January +2d in the Washington Sentinel. Again, on the 10th of January, it +appeared in the same paper with another section added. The new +section provided that the question of slavery during the territorial +period should be left to the inhabitants, that appeals to the Supreme +Court should be allowed in all cases involving title to slaves or +questions of personal freedom, and that the Fugitive Slave Law should +be executed in the Territories as in the States. This remarkable +change in the form and spirit of the bill was explained as resulting +from an error of the copyist, who had omitted this vital section +from it as originally printed. + +On the 16th of January Senator Dixon of Kentucky offered an +amendment repealing the Missouri Compromise. The next day Sumner +gave notice of an amendment affirming it. The question could no +longer be dodged. When Dixon's amendment was offered, Douglas, +who was greatly annoyed by it, went to his seat and implored him +to withdraw it. But he refused. He called upon Dixon and took him +for a drive. They talked of the Nebraska bill and the amendment. +The result of the conference was that Douglas said to him: "I +have become perfectly satisfied that it is my duty as a fair minded +national statesman, to cooperate with you as proposed in securing +the repeal of the Missouri Compromise restriction. It is due +to the South; it is due to the Constitution, heretofore palpably +infracted; it is due to that character for consistency which I have +heretofore labored to maintain. The repeal will produce much stir +and commotion in the free States * * * * for a season. I shall be +assailed by demagogues and fanatics there without stint. * * * * +Every opprobrious epithet will be applied to me. I shall probably +be hung in effigy. * * * * I may become permanently odious among +those whose friendship and esteem I have heretofore possessed. +This proceeding may end my political career. But, acting under +the sense of duty which animates me, I am prepared to make the +sacrifice. I will do it." + +The bluff Kentuckian was much affected, and with deep emotion +exclaimed: "Sir, I once recognized you as a demagogue, a mere party +manager, selfish and intriguing. I now find you a warm hearted +and sterling patriot. Go forward in the pathway of duty as you +propose, and, though the whole world desert you, I never will." + +He had now decided on his course. Cass, who had been forestalled by +his alert rival, was understood to be ready to step into the breach +if Douglas faltered. He was on perilous heights where a false step +would be fatal. Already a storm of opposition was brewing in the +North, which would surely break upon him with fury if he proposed +the repeal. It might fail in the House and thus leave him with +both the North and South angrily condemning him,--the South for +his rashness and the North for his treachery. Pierce was known +to be opposed to the express repeal of the Compromise. On Sunday, +January 22d, Douglas called on the Secretary of War, Jefferson +Davis, explained the proposed change and sought the help of +the Administration in passing the bill. Davis was overjoyed and +at once accompanied him to the White House. Pierce received his +distinguished visitors, discussed the plan with them and promised +his help. + +The next morning Douglas offered in the Senate a substitute for +the original Nebraska bill, in which two radical changes appeared. +The new bill divided the proposed Territory, calling the southern +part Kansas and the northern part Nebraska, and declared the Missouri +Compromise superseded by the legislation of 1850 and now inoperative. + +On the next day appeared the "Appeal of the Independent Democrats +in Congress to the People of the United States." The paper was +written by Chase and corrected by Sumner. It denounced the original +Kansas-Nebraska bill as a gross violation of a sacred pledge, a +criminal betrayal of precious rights, part of an atrocious plot to +exclude free labor and convert the Territory into a dreary region +of despotism inhabited by masters and slaves, a bold scheme against +American liberty, worthy of an accomplished architect of ruin. +It declared in a postscript, written after the substitute bill +was offered by Douglas on January 23d, that not a man in Congress +or out of it, not even Douglas himself, pretended at the time of +their passage that the measures of 1850 would repeal the Missouri +Compromise. "Will the people," it asked, "permit their dearest +interests to be thus made the mere hazards of a presidential game +and destroyed by false facts and false inferences?" + +The Appeal, which (except the postscript) was written before the +substitute was offered, was published in many papers in the North +and produced a deep sensation. On the 30th Douglas entered the +Senate Chamber angry and excited. He had already begun to hear +the distant mutterings of the storm. He opened the debate on his +substituted bill, but he was smarting under the cruel lash and, +before beginning his argument, poured out his rage on the authors +of the Appeal. He accused Chase of treacherously procuring a +postponement of the consideration of the bill for a week in order +to circulate their libel upon him. Chase interrupted him with angry +emphasis. Douglas waxed furious and poured out his "senatorial +billingsgate" upon the offenders. Yet, amidst his wrath, he kept +his head and made a keen and ingenious defense of his course. + +The basis of his argument was the proposition, assumed though no +where stated, that while the laws of Congress were specific and +enacted to meet particular demands, the PRINCIPLE embodied in each +law was general, and if the philosophic principle of any law was +repugnant to that of any prior law, however foreign to each other +the subjects might be, the latter must be held to repeal the former +by implication; that the principle of the legislation of 1850 was +repugnant to that of the Missouri Compromise and hence repealed +it. + +Chase at once replied briefly to the fiery attack, and on February +3d delivered an elaborate speech against the bill, which Douglas +recognized as the strongest of the session. As a legal argument +it was a complete and crushing answer to the quibbling sophistry +of the advocates of implied repeal. But it was not merely the +argument of a great lawyer. It was the earnest remonstrance of a +moralist who believed in the eternal and immeasurable difference +between right and wrong. + +He reminded them that the Missouri Compromise was a Southern measure, +approved by a Southern President, on the advice of a Southern +Cabinet. While in form a law, it had all the moral obligation of +a solemn contract. The considerations for the perpetual exclusion +of slavery in the Territories north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes +were the admission of Missouri with slavery, the permission of +slavery in the Territories south of 36 degrees and 30 minutes, and +the admission of new States south of that line with slavery if their +constitution should so provide. The North had honorably performed +its contract by the admission of Missouri and prompt consent to +the admission of all other slave States that had sought it. The +South had yielded nothing to the North under the contract, except +the admission of Iowa and the organization of Minnesota. The +slave States, having received all the contemplated benefits under +the contract and yielded none, proposed to declare it ended without +the consent of the free States. He closed with an appeal to the +honor of the South, earnestly imploring the Senators to reject the +bill as a violation of the plighted faith and solemn compact which +their fathers had made and which they were bound by every sacred +obligation faithfully to maintain. + +Seward, speaking on the 17th cautioned them that the repeal of the +Compromise would be the destruction of the equilibrium between the +North and the South so long maintained, the loss of which would be +the wreck of the Union. He warned the North that if this territory +was surrendered to slavery the South would be vested with permanent +control of the Government; for every branch of it would be securely +within its power. Already it had absolute sway. One slave-holder +in a new Territory, with access to the Executive ear at Washington, +exercised more political influence than five hundred free men. +The recital of an old repeal was made for the demagogic purpose +of confusing the people, but was false in fact and false in law. +The Missouri Compromise was a purely local act. That of 1850 was +likewise local. They affected entirely different localities. Hence +the later law could not by implication repeal the former. It was +an ingenious device to attain the desired end by declaring that +done by a former Congress which no one then thought of doing, and +which the present Congress dared not boldly do. The doctrine of +popular sovereignty meant that the Federal Government should abandon +its constitutional duty and abdicate its power over he Territory +in favor of the first band of squatters who settled within it. It +meant that the interested cupidity of the first chance settlers +was more fit to guide the destinies of the infant Territory than +the collective wisdom of the American people. + +Sumner, speaking a week later, declared that they were about to +determine forever the character of a new empire. An effort was +made on false assumptions of fact, in violation of solemn covenants +and the principles of the fathers, to open this immense region to +slavery. The measures of 1850 could not by any effort of interpretation, +by any wand of power, by an perverse alchemy, be transmuted into +a repeal of that prohibition of slavery. The pending proposition +was to abolish freedom. When the conscience of mankind was at last +aroused, they were about to open a new market to the traffickers +in flesh who haunted the shambles of the South. They had as much +right to repudiate the purchase of Louisiana as this compact. +Despite the temporary success of their political maneuvers, let +them not forget that the permanent and irresistible forces were all +arrayed against them. The plough, the steam engine, the railroad, +the telegraph, the book, were all waging war on slavery. Its +opponents could bide the storm of vituperation and calmly await +the judgment of the future. + +There was at no time the slightest doubt that the bill would pass, +and the arguments against it were in the nature of protests against +a wrong that could not be averted and appeals to the future to +redress it. + +From the beginning it had a well organized majority. But, assailed +by the invectives of Chase, Seward and Sumner, it could not stand +before the world undefended. There was but one man enlisted in +its support at all fit to measure swords with any of these great +leaders; but he was undoubtedly more than a match for them all. + +At midnight on March 3rd Douglas rose to close the debate. The +great arguments were delivered; a safe majority was assured. While +numerous Senators still wanted to be heard in support of the bill, +all conceded his right to close and yielded him the floor. The +scenes of that wild night, while he charged upon his foes and stood +for hours at bay like a gladiator, repelling their savage assaults, +are among the most memorable in our congressional history. + +He laughed at the charge that his bill had reopened the slavery +question against the will of both political parties, as expressed +in their platforms, and had disturbed the country at a time of +profound tranquility. These men, he declared, who where singing +paeans of praise over the legislation of 1850, were the same men +who had most bitterly opposed it and predicted dire results from +it, just as they were prophesying evil from the pending measure +which simply carried to its legitimate conclusion the beneficent +principle of the former law. The substance of all the opposition +speeches was contained in their manifesto published in January. +Chase in his speech had exhausted the entire argument. The others +merely followed in his tracks. + +"You have seen them," he said, "on their winding way, meandering +the narrow and crooked path in Indian file, each treading close +upon the heels of the other, and neither venturing to take a step +to the right or left or to occupy one inch of ground which did not +bear the footprint of the Abolition champion." + +The repeal of the Compromise was a mere incident of the bill. He +quoted his speeches in 1850 to show that he then defended the +popular sovereignty principle, also resolutions of the Illinois +legislature approving it. The Committee assumed in reporting +the original bill that the law of 1850 had repealed the Missouri +Compromise and hence did not mention it. Finding a diversity +of opinion and desiring to clear the ground for the unobstructed +operation of the principles of 1850 in all the Territories, they +had expressly recited the repeal. Did not the bill as originally +reported repeal the Missouri Compromise as effectually as the +amended bill did? If so, why this clamor about the amendment? They +denounced the original bill in their manifesto as a repeal of the +Missouri Compromise. If they told the truth in their manifesto their +speeches denouncing the amendment were false. If their speeches +were true their manifesto was false. The Missouri Compromise was +not a compact at all. It was simply a piece of ordinary legislation, +passed like other bills, by means of compromise and concession. +The statement that the North had faithfully performed all the terms +of he alleged contract and, hence, the South was estopped from +repudiating it, was not supported by the evidence. The North had +broken it immediately by resisting the admission of Missouri with +slavery. A resolution of the New York legislature had been passed +a few months after the Compromise instructing their Senators and +Representatives to oppose the admission of Missouri or any other +State unless its Constitution prohibited slavery. Objection being +made to the slavery clause of the Constitution, Missouri had not +been admitted until 1821. The North having broken its alleged +contract, had relieved the South from all obligation under it, if +such obligation ever existed. All this moral indignation had been +stirred up over the repeal of an ordinary law. By their manifesto +and speeches the anti-slavery Senators had roused the people to rage +in their States. The citizens of Ohio had burned him in effigy. +He could be found hanging by the neck in all the towns in which +they had influence. + +Chase protested his sorrow that the people of Ohio had offered this +insult. Douglas angrily reminded him of the vituperative epithets +contained in the manifesto, which evidently wounded him more +deeply than the coarser indignities. He drew Seward and Chase into +debate on the literal correctness of details of their arguments, as +to which he had the better of them, having fortified himself with +voluminous documents, and elaborately proved the inaccuracy of +their statements, and elaborately proved the inaccuracy of their +statements, which gave him a brilliant opportunity to indulge +in a burst of indignation and in his wrath at the errors of his +adversaries' neglect, the awkward moral question which, was the +core of the controversy. He intimated that Chase and Sumner had +obtained their seats in the Senate by questionable compromises. +Chase hotly branded the statement as false. Sumner contemptuously +denied that he had even sought the position, much less bargained for +it. The speech was closed with an earnest appeal to the Senators +to banish the subject of slavery forever and refer it to the +people to decide for themselves as they did other questions, with +assurance that this would result in a satisfactory settlement of +the vexed problem and bring abiding peace to all. As the day was +dawning he closed. + +With difficulty the presiding officer had repressed the bursts of +applause in the crowded galleries. Even Seward, moved to admiration +by the overwhelming power and marvelous skill of his adversary, +impulsively cried out, "I never had so much respect for him as I +have to-night." + +Amid the solemn hush of anxious expectancy the crowd awaited the +calling of the roll. While no one doubted the result, all listened +in breathless silence to the voting of the Senators as though it +were the voice of doom. Fourteen voted no, and were thirty-seven +voted yes. The Senate adjourned amid the loud booming of cannon +at the Navy Yard, which celebrated the great victory. In the chill +gray dawn, as they stood on the steps of the Capitol and listened +to the exultant booming of cannon, Chase said to Sumner: + +"They celebrate a present victory, but the echoes they awake will +never rest until slavery itself shall die." + +The bill now went to the House, where its management was entrusted +to Douglas' lieutenant, Richardson, chairman of the Territorial +Committee. But the country was aroused. The loud storm appalled +the Northern Members, whose votes were needed. Pierce hesitated +until goaded on by his Southern counselors. The attempt to refer +the bill to the Territorial Committee failed. It was referred to +the Committee of the Whole and went to the foot of a long calendar. +This alarmed Douglas, who now spent most of his time in the House +assisting Richardson. The Administration brought all of its +power to bear on the refractory Members, and on the 8th of May the +forces were ready for the attack. The House resolved itself into +a Committee of the Whole, laid aside all previous business and +proceeded to the consideration of the bill. The struggle at once +began between the domineering majority and the rebellious minority +and continued with increasing bitterness all day, all night and +until midnight of the 9th, when the session broke up in angry riot, +the enraged members leaping on their desks and shrieking in frenzy +or striving to assault each other with deadly weapons. + +All were exhausted by the long, sleepless strain, and many were +drunk. Douglas was on the floor during most of the session, passing +about swiftly among his followers and directing their movements, +the master-spirit who guided the storm of his own raising. At +midnight the House, now a mere bedlam, adjourned. + +The struggle dragged along from day to day, the minority stubbornly +contesting every inch, and the majority, under the personal direction +of Douglas, hesitating to use their power. At last, on May 22nd, +at nearly midnight, the final vote was forced and the bill passed +by a majority of thirteen. Among those voting against it was Thomas +H. Benton of Missouri, now a Member of the House, after his thirty +years' service in the Senate. His terse characterization is more +generally remembered than anything else said against it. Speaking +with a statesman's contempt of the explanatory clause, he said it +was "a little stump speech injected in the belly of the bill." + + + + + + +Chapter VII. The Brewing Storm. + + + + +The powerful will and effective energy of the young Senator had achieved +a legislative revolution. Perhaps, like Geethe's apprentice, he +had called into action powers of mischief which he would not be +able to control. With the instincts of the politician he had sought +to devise a fundamental principle to meet a passing exigency. He +had cooked his breakfast over the volcano. + +The whole doctrine of popular sovereignty which became thenceforth +the central article in his creed did such violence both to law and +philosophy as to discredit the acumen of any statesman who seriously +believed it. It was a short lived doctrine, speedily repudiated +with disgust by the South, in whose interest it had been invented, +and rejected as a legal heresy by a Supreme Court of learned +advocates of slavery. It is hardly possible that Douglas believed +that Congress could delegate its highest duties and responsibilities +to a handful of chance squatters on the frontier. This doctrine, +to the establishment of which he devoted a great part of the remaining +energies of his life, "meant that Congress, which represented +the political wisdom of an educated people, should abdicate its +constitutional right of deciding a question which demanded the +most sagacious statesmanship in favor of a thousand, or perhaps +ten thousand, pioneers, adventurers and fortune seekers, who should +happen to locate in the Territory." + +The proposition to give the squatters actual sovereignty in all things +was an evident reducto ad absurdium. And yet it was the inevitable +result of Douglas' reasoning. The only excuse for the existence +of territorial governments was that the inhabitants were not yet +ready for the duties of self-government. Squatter sovereignty rested +on the assumption that there was no such period of immaturity, and +hence no period in which territorial governments were justified. +The clear logic of the doctrine would entitle the first band of +squatters on the public domain to organize a State. But it was +a superficially plausible proposition that appealed with peculiar +power to the uncritical popular prejudice. The equality of men +and the right of self government were the central truths of the +American polity. The sentimental devotion to these two principles +was passionate and universal. A dogma that seemed to embody them +was a rare invention, the supreme feat of the highest order of +practical political genius. + +But the omens were not good. People seemed absurdly in earnest +about this harmless political maneuver. Throughout the North rose +a storm of vehement protest, not merely from Abolitionists and Whigs +but from insurgent Democrats, which resulted in the consolidation +of the incoherent anti-slavery factions into the Republican party +and its early conquest of the Democratic States of the Northwest. +It developed later that the Northern Democracy was hopelessly ruined +by this political masterpiece of the greatest Northern Democrat. + +Lincoln, who had been quietly maturing in modest retirement, was +roused by this shock and began that memorable battle with Douglas, +which finally lifted the obscure lawyer to heights above the great +Senator. A resolution endorsing the Nebraska bill was pushed through +the Illinois legislature with difficulty, several of the ablest +Democrats denouncing it bitterly. Other Northern legislatures either +protested against it or remained ominously silent. Throughout the +North pulpit and press thundered against the repeal with startling +disregard of party affiliations. Three thousand New England +clergymen sent a petition protesting against it "in the name of +Almighty God." The clergy of New York denounced it. The ministers +of Chicago and the Northwest sent to Douglas a remonstrance with +a request that he present it, which he did. He was deeply hurt +by the angry protests from the moral guides of the people. He +denounced the preachers for their ignorant meddling in political +affairs, and declared with great warmth that they had desecrated +the pulpit and prostituted the sacred desk to the miserable and +corrupting influence of party politics. He afterwards said in +bitter jest, "on my return home I traveled from Boston to Chicago +in the light of fires in which my own effigies were burning." + +Congress adjourned early in August, but he lingered in the East and +not until late in the month did he return to meet his constituents. +The intensity of popular indignation at the North was a disagreeable +surprise to him. In Chicago the sentiment was openly and overwhelmingly +against him. It was dangerous, now that he had fought his way up +to the head of his party and seemed assured of the coveted nomination, +to permit himself to be discredited at home. + +Four years before he had conquered the hostile city by a speech, +and he resolved again to subdue its insurgent spirit. Meetings of +disgusted Democrats and indignant Whigs had been held to denounce +him. He had been burned in effigy on the streets. He had been +charged with loitering in the East afraid to meet the people whom +he had betrayed. The changes were rung on the fact that his middle +name was that of the traitor, Benedict Arnold. When he entered the +city the flags on building and vessels were hanging mournfully at +half-mast. At sunset the bells were tolled solemnly. It was truly +a funereal reception. Arrangements were made for him to address +the people on the night of September 1st in vindication of himself. +The meeting was held in the large open space in front of North +Market Hall. The crowd was enormous and ominously sullen. The +roofs, windows and balconies of all adjacent buildings were occupied. +There was not a cheer, except from a little band of friends in +front of him, as at nearly eight o'clock he rose to speak. + +The memorable scene which followed illustrates how small is the +interval that separates the most advanced civilization from the +grossest barbarism. He began his speech, but was soon interrupted +by a storm of hisses and groans, growing louder and louder until it +seemed that the whole enormous throng was pouring out its execration +in a mingled hiss and groan. He waited with defiant calmness for the +storm to subside and again attempted to speak. He told them with +manifest vexation that he had returned home to address his constituents +and defend his course and that he intended to be heard. Again he +was interrupted by the overwhelming hiss, mingled with groans and +coarse insults. His friends fiercely threatened to resent the +outrage, but he prudently restrained them. He then began to shout +defiance and rebukes at the mob. His combative temper was stirred. +He shook his head and brandished his fists at the jeering crowd. +His friends importuned him to desist, but he pushed them aside and +again and again returned to the attack with stentorian tones and +vehement gestures, striving to outvoice the wild tumult and compel +an audience. + +But they were as resolute as he and persistently drowned his +shouting. This continued nearly three hours. At half-past ten, +baffled, mortified and angry, he withdrew. One admiring biographer +declares that he yelled to the mob as a parting valediction, +"Abolitionists of Chicago, it is now Sunday morning. I will go to +church while you go to the devil in your own way." The irrepressible +conflict was approaching the muscular stage of its development, +when the aroused passions of the people must find some other vent +than words, when the game of politics could no longer be safely +played with the strongest emotions of a deeply moral race. + +It was not possible to treat the matter lightly. Evidently a tide +of fanatical passion had set against him, not only in the old North, +but in the new Northwest, the field of his undisputed mastery. +It was necessary to bestir himself in earnest and turn back this +rising flood which threatened to engulf him just as he came in sight +of his goal. The symptoms were decidedly bad. The elections thus +far held indicated a surprising revolt against his new Democratic +gospel of popular sovereignty. As the autumn advanced the omens +grew worse. New Hampshire and Connecticut had already manifested +their disapproval. Iowa, hitherto staunchly Democratic, was +carried by the Whigs. The later New England elections showed the +most amazing Democratic defection. Pennsylvania elected to Congress +twenty-one pronounced opponents of popular sovereignty and slavery +extension. Ohio and Indiana had both cast their votes for Pierce. +But at this election Ohio rejected the revised Democratic platform +by 75,00 and Indiana by 13,000. + +After his rebuff in Chicago he plunged into the Illinois campaign, +which was fought on the Kansas-Nebraska issue. In the northern +part of the State his receptions were chilly and his audiences +unfriendly, sometime indulging in boisterous demonstrations +of hostility. "Burning effigies, effigies suspended by robes, +banners with all the vulgar mottoes and inscriptions that passion +and prejudice could suggest, were displayed at various points. +Whenever he attempted to speak, the noisy demonstrations which had +proved so successful in Chicago were repeated." + +But as he moved southward the people became more cordial. The great +center of political activity was Springfield, where the State Fair, +lasting through the first week of October, attracted thousands of +people, and the politicians assembled to make speeches and plan +campaigns. He spoke on October 3rd at the State House. The most +important matter pending was the choice of the legislature which +should elect a Senator to succeed his colleague Shields, who was +a candidate for reelection. The opposition was a heterogeneous +compound of Whigs, anti-Nebraska Democrats and all other political +elements opposed to the revised Democratic creed. The leading +candidates of this fusion party for Senator were Lyman Trumbull, +a Democrat opposed to the new program of slavery extension, and +Abraham Lincoln, the recognized leader of the Whig party of the +State. It was expected that Lincoln would answer Douglas on the +following day. + +This political tourney held in the little Western Capital was +in many ways a rather notable event. The great question of human +slavery had now definitely passed from the region of mere moral +disquisition into that of active statesmanship. It had become the +decisive practical problem of the time, the attempt to solve which +was revolutionizing party politics and sweeping away the political +philosophy of the past. The opinions of men on this question +were determining their associations and directing their conduct, +regardless of minor matters, which are now forgotten. The South +was united for the support and extension of slavery. The North +was tending to unity in the resolve to prevent its further spread. +Already the new generation of Southern statesmen were plotting to +divide the Union and were bent on extending the slave holding States +across the continent, believing that when the separation occurred, +California would join the Southern Confederation and thus give +them a Republic extending from ocean to ocean and controlling the +mouth of the Mississippi. + +The first step in this plan had already been taken by opening to +slavery the Territory of Kansas, which then contained a large part +of Colorado. The remaining task of pushing their western border +on to the Pacific seemed comparatively easy. Already treason was +festering in the heart of the South, but Douglas, now the most +powerful ally of these plotting traitors, was entirely devoted to +the Union. He neither felt nor thought deeply on any question. The +symptoms of coming revolution were merely disclosures of political +strategy to him. The South held out the bait of the Presidency, +and he led its battle. In his attachment to the Union and his +subordination of both morals and statecraft to its preservation as +the supreme end, he was a faithful echo of the great statesmen of +the preceding age. But a generation of statesmen had appeared in +the North with a large and growing following who were reluctantly +reaching the conclusion that the primary rights of man were even +more sacred than the Union. Political expediency was not their +ultimate test of right. + +Lincoln, though yet comparatively obscure, was destined soon to become +the leader of this new school of ethical statesmen, as distinguished +from the old school of political temporizers and opportunists +to which Douglas belonged. Lincoln, as Douglas well knew, was a +man of finer intellectual gifts than any of the great senatorial +triumvirate whom he had successfully met. His moral feelings were +tuned to as high a key as Sumner's. He had a firmer grasp of the +central truths of the new politico-moral creed than Chase. He +had more tact and sagacity than Seward. He had more patience with +temporary error, more serene faith in the health and sanity of human +nature than any of the three. He was a greater master of the art +of popular oratory than any of them. Above all he had the power, +dangerous to Douglas, of seizing the most ingenious and artfully +concealed sophism and good naturedly dragging it to the light. +Endowed with the most exuberant flow of genial humor, he was yet +sternly earnest in his belief in the inviolable sanctity of moral +right. During his recent years he had read much and thought deeply. +He had mastered a style rarely equaled in clearness, simplicity +and power. Without the prejudices and entanglements of a past +political career, he entered the arena in the ripeness of his +slow-maturing powers. Not only his temperament and intellect but +his experience and training admirably fitted him for the high task +which he was destined to perform. + +When Douglas opened his speech at the State House, he unconsciously +lent new importance to Lincoln by announcing that he understood +that he was to answer him, and requesting him to come forward and +arrange terms for the debate. But Lincoln was not present and he +plunged into his argument, defending the Kansas-Nebraska bill, his +own course and that of his party. Lincoln spoke the next day and +among his most eager listeners was Douglas, who occupied a seat in +front and was generously invited to reply. The speech, four hours +long, was an agreeable surprise to Lincoln's friends, a startling +revelation to Douglas and an astonishing event to the crowd, who +recognized in the awkward country lawyer a dangerous antagonist for +the great Senator, the incomparable master of the art of political +debate. He realized that this obscure adversary had clutched him +with a power never felt in his great struggles with the giants +of the Senate. He indicated his sense of the importance of the +contest by devoting two hours to a reply. The chief interest of +this meeting now is in the new prominence which it gave to Lincoln. +The long duel lasted intermittently through four years, and finally +gave Lincoln such fame that he was chose over Seward and Chase to +lead the anti-slavery forces which they had roused from lethargy +and organized into unity. + +The Illinois campaign continued with great spirit and Douglas had +the mortification of seeing what he regarded as a wave of fanaticism +engulf the State. The anti-Nebraska fusion carried the legislature, +defeated Shields and, after a brief contest between Trumball, the +anti-Nebraska Democrat, and Lincoln, the anti-slavery Whig, elected +the former Senator. + + + + + +Chapter VIII. Decline of Popular Sovereignty. + + + + +Congress had confessed its incompetency to deal with the Kansas +problem and referred it to the decision of rude squatters on +the frontier. They dealt with this grave congressional question +in characteristic fashion. An Emigrant Aid Society, organized in +Massachusetts, was among the means adopted by the North to colonize +the Territory and mold its institutions. The adventurous frontiersmen +of western Missouri were chiefly relied on by the South to shape +the new State. The Emigrant Society founded the town of Lawrence +and established there a formidable anti-slavery colony. The Missouri +squatters organized a "Self-Defensive Association" and attempted +to drive out the Northern settlers. Elections were held by the +colonists from the North and their Missouri neighbors in which the +Missourians outnumbered their rivals and captured the territorial +government. The Northern colonists organized a State and attempted +to run it. Irregular warfare was maintained between the Lawrence +squatters and the invading Missourians to determine which faction +was entitled to exercise the sovereignty delegated by Congress. + +The House passed a bill to admit Kansas with the Constitution +adopted at Topeka by the Northern settlers in their abortive effort +to organize a State. It failed in the Senate and a few days later +the Federal troops dispersed the usurping State legislature. The +Governor seeing that all civil authority was ended, negotiate a +truce between the warring factions, resigned and hastened away from +the scene of the disastrous experiment of Squatter Sovereignty. + +The meeting of Congress on December 3rd, 1855, marked another stage +in the great struggle. So completely were the parties disorganized +that it was found impossible to classify this Congress. From +December 3rd to February 2nd the House was unable even to organize +itself. On December 31st the President sent in his message. He +disposed of the overshadowing problem in a few brief words and +devoted the message to ephemeral matters long since as completely +forgotten as himself. Although civil war had been raging in Kansas +for many months and the carnival of crime was still in progress +on that frontier, he gravely assured Congress that it was a matter +of congratulation that the Republic was tranquilly advancing in a +career of prosperity and peace. He told them that the people of +the Territory were clothed with the power of self-government and +that he had not felt justified in interfering with their exercise +of that right. But on January 24th he sent another message announcing +in general terms the disappointment of his hopes and recommending +an enabling act for the admission of Kansas as a State. + +The Senate consisted of thirty-four Democrats, twelve Whigs and +thirteen Republicans. Douglas was the recognized leader of the +majority, without whose presence they were unwilling to take any +decisive action. But he was detained by sickness and did not take +his seat until February 11th. + +On the 12th of March he presented to the Senate a most elaborate +report from his Committee, together with a bill to authorize the +people of Kansas to organize a State whenever they should number +93,420. + +It is impossible to read this report, which was prepared by himself, +without admiring his subtle art and consummate skill. He argued +away the power of Congress to impose restrictions on new States +applying for their admission, other than that the Constitution be +republican in form, and insisted that the people of the Territories +must be left perfectly free to form their own institutions and were +entitled to admission as matter of right. He traced the trouble +to the pernicious activity of the Emigrant Aid Company, which had +attempted to force New England institutions and customs upon the +Territory. He accused this Company of systematic colonization +and drew a moving picture of the march of these political colonists +across Missouri, pouring out their denunciations of slavery, +exhibiting their hostility to the institutions of that State, until +at last the people in alarm resolved on defense. He admitted that +there might be some cause for regret over the occasional errors +and excesses of the Missourians; but it must not be forgotten that +they were defending their internal prosperity and domestic security +against the invasion of New England fanatics, who were bringing +in their grain "the horrors of servile insurrection and intestine +war." + +The attempt to organize a State government at Topeka he condemned +as a seditious movement, designed to overthrow the territorial +government and the authority of the United States. He justified +the law referring the question of slavery to the inhabitants, and +traced its failure to the intemperate passions of those who had +precipitated this mad contest for mastery. + +Collamer of Vermont presented the minority report, condemning the +violence of the friends of slavery, deploring the fearful results +of the experiment of Squatter Sovereignty and urging speedy admission +of the State. It condemned the provision of the law referring +the question of slavery to the inhabitants and traced the entire +trouble to that blunder. + +Sumner at once denounced the report of the majority, intimated +his purpose of properly setting the brand of falsehood upon it in +a subsequent speech, and told them to "begin their game with loaded +dice." + +Douglas angrily challenged him to deny a single fact in the report +and said he was ready to overwhelm him with proof. "We are ready +to meet the issue," he said, "and there will be no dodging. We +intend to meet it boldly; to require submission to the laws and +to the constituted authorities; to reduce to subjection those who +resist them, and to punish rebellion and treason. I am glad that +a defiant spirit is exhibited here; we accept the issue." + +Two days later Trumbull spoke in unsparing criticism of the report of +the Committee. It happened that Douglas was absent when he began. +Word was carried to him and he hurried to the Senate. When Trumbull +closed and the usual motion to adjourn was made, he protested +against it and denounced the discourtesy of discussing the report +during his absence. He was vexed especially by his colleague's +exasperating statement that was a "life-long Democrat and was +representing the Democracy of Illinois in the Senate." He assured +them that Trumbull was without party standing in that state, and +proposed that they sign a joint resignation, thus submitting their +quarrel to the people. But there was a deeper wound than this which +still rankled, and he turned from his colleague to pour out his +wrath on Sumner for the publication of the "Appeal of the Independent +Democrats," and the old quarrel between them was rehearsed anew +with increasing bitterness on both sides. + +On the 20th he spoke for two hours and a half in defense of his +report. Charges of fraud, violence or illegal voting, he said, +were made in but seven of the eighteen election districts into +which Kansas was divided, although ample provisions had been made +for the presentation of protests to the Governor. A large majority +of both branches of the legislature were elected by these eleven +districts where no complaints were made. At least a quorum must +have been legally elected. The minority report charged that on +the day of the territorial election, "large bodies of armed men +from the State of Missouri appeared at the polls in most of the +districts, and by most violent and tumultuous carriage and demeanor, +over-awed the defenseless inhabitants and by their own votes, elected +a large majority of the members of both houses of said Assembly." + +But the report contained not a word about the eleven uncontested +districts affected by this invasion. In the eleven uncontested +districts the judges made their returns in due form and, no +protests nor charges of fraud or illegal voting being presented, +the Governor granted certificates of election as a matter of course. +The minority stated that in many districts protest had not been +made because the inhabitants, discouraged and intimidated by the +Missouri invaders, had let the matter pass. Yet at Lawrence and +Leavenworth, the chief centers of the alleged Missouri violence +the people were not intimidated from contesting the election, what +reason was there to suppose that elsewhere, remote from the scene +of trouble, they were so completely conquered that they dared not +protest against their wrongs and petition for redress of their +grievances? + +The thirty-three judges appointed by the Government to conduct +the election in the eleven districts, all swore that the returns +contained a true statement of the votes polled by the lawful voters. +The Governor, two weeks after giving certificates of election, +issued his proclamation commanding the members to assemble on the +2d of July. He recognized the legitimacy of the legislature in +his message, invoking the Divine blessing on it and recommending +the passage of important laws. But he afterward quarreled with +the legislature. He then sought to repudiate it and impeach its +validity by charging that it had been elected by Missouri invaders. +The only evidence before the Committee tending to show irregularities +in the election was the hearsay statement of the Governor, which +flatly contradicted his solemn official declarations. The legislature +itself had investigated the elections of all members against whom +contests were filed and its legitimacy was finally and conclusively +established. The malcontents having failed to capture the +legislature, encouraged by Governor Reeder (who had meanwhile been +relieved from office), instituted their rebellious Topeka movement +and, in defiance of the law, attempted to organize a State. + +The movement was revolutionary and intended to subvert the existing +Government. Only two laws enacted by the territorial legislature +were complained of as unjust,--that relating to elections and that +relating to slaves. The social, domestic and pecuniary relations +of the people had adjusted themselves to this body of laws which +Congress was asked to annul; and these friends of the negro who had +organized a rebellious State government in his behalf, had adopted +a Constitution which forever excluded him from the State. The +entire trouble in Kansas, he continued, rose not from any vice +inherent in the law, but from abuses of the rights given by it to +the people. The law simply permitted them to form their domestic +institutions in their own way. If that great principle had been +permitted free operation, there would have been no violence or +trouble in Kansas. The good order reigning in Nebraska, where the +law was fairly tried, was sufficient proof of its wisdom. + +The opponents of this great principle had insisted on moulding the +State of Kansas from without. Having failed to induce Congress +to interfere in the internal affairs of the Territory, they then +sought to accomplish their purpose by means of a society organized +in Washington and charted in Massachusetts, with several millions +of capital. They had deliberately attempted to discredit the +Kansas-Nebraska bill and its supporters, in order to influence the +approaching presidential election. The whole responsibility for +the disturbance in Kansas rested upon the Massachusetts Emigrant +Aid Company and its affiliated societies. The people of Missouri +never contemplated the invasion of conquest of the Territory. If +they had imitated the example set by New England, they had done +it on the principle of self-defense, and had always been ready +to abandon their counter-movement as soon as the managers of the +New England invasion ceased their efforts to shape the domestic +institutions of the Territory by an unwarranted scheme of foreign +interference. When the cardinal principle of self-government +should be recognized as binding on all, there would be an end of +the slavery controversy, and the occupation of political agitators, +whose hopes of position and promotion depended upon their capacity +to disturb the country, would be gone. + +The debate lingered along indecisively through the Spring weeks and +the Senators poured out their mutual recriminations with increasing +bitterness. Personal relations among them were seriously strained. +Both parties were conscious that their constituents shared their +passions and applauded their acrimony. + +On the 19th and 20th of May, Sumner delivered his philippic on "The +Crime Against Kansas." The title of the speech was a gratuitous +insult to the power which had held sway in American politics for +fifty years and learned to enjoy that sense of superiority and +sacredness which characterized the hierarchy in the middle ages. +The assaults on brother Senators were brutal. Senator Butler of +South Carolina, a polite, formal gentleman of the old school, was +recognized as the social and intellectual head of the Southern +aristocracy. Douglas, though forever excluded from its inner +circles, was an efficient and useful ally. + +These senatorial leaders of the slavery crusade in Kansas were the +victims of Sumner's bitter invective. He referred to them as the +Don Quixote and Sancho Panza of slavery and, as if to prove that +this comparison was not a mere momentary inspiration of playful +humor but the elaboration of malignant hate, he developed the +parallel to its minute details. He described Douglas in his speech +defending his report as "piling one mass of elaborate error on +another mass and constraining himself to unfamiliar decencies of +speech." But he drew hope from the reflection that the Illinois +Senator "is but mortal man; against him is immortal principle. +With finite power he wrestles with the Infinite and he must fall. +Against him are stronger battalions than any marshaled by mortal +arm, the inborn, ineradicable, invincible sentiments of the human +heart; against him is Nature with all her subtle forces; against +him is God. Let him try to subdue these." He compared the Kansas +troubles to the barbarous warfare of the Scottish Highlands when +blackmail was levied and robberies committed by marauders "acting +under the inspiration of the Douglas of other days," and compared +Douglas' recent speech to "the efforts of a distinguished logician +to prove that Napoleon Bonaparte never existed." + +Douglas answered with extreme bitterness. He declared that Sumner's +speech had been got up like a Yankee bedquilt by sewing all the old +scraps and patches together. He pronounced his classic quotations +obscene and indecent. + +"Is it his object," he asked, "to provoke some of us to kick +him as we would a dog in the street? * * * * * The Senator from +Massachusetts," he declared, "had his speech written, printed, +committed to memory, and practiced every night before the glass, +with a negro boy to hold the candle and watch the gestures." He +charged Sumner with perjury in taking the senatorial oath to his +personal grievance and complained that he had been burned and hung +in effigy under the advice of Sumner and his brother agitators +because of his unswerving devotion to the Constitution. + +"I wish," he said, "the Senate to bear in mind that in the many +controversies in which I have been engaged since I have been a member +of this body, I never had one in which I was not first assailed. I +have always stood on the defensive. You arrange it on the opposite +side of the house to set your hounds after me and then complain +when I cuff them over the head and send them back yelping. I never +made an attack on any Senator; I have only repelled attacks." He +warned Sumner that Butler, who was absent during the speech, would +return to speak and act for himself. + +Sumner briefly replied, defending himself against the charge +of disloyalty to the Constitution in his unwillingness to support +its fugitive slave clause, by quoting Jackson's famous dictum that +each man swears to support the Constitution as he understands it. +He then turned on Douglas with bitter scorn. He rebuked him for +his coarse personalities unbecoming a Senator and a gentleman. + +"Let him remember," he said, "that the bowie-knife and bludgeon +are not the proper emblems of senatorial debate. Let him remember +that the swagger of Bob Acres and the ferocity of the Malay cannot +add dignity to this body. * * * * I will not go into the details +which have flowed out so naturally from his tongue. I only brand +them to his face as false. I say also to that Senator, and I wish +him to bear it in mind, that no person with the upright form of +man can be allowed--" He hesitated in doubt whether to proceed. + +"Say it," exclaimed Douglas. + +"I will say it," replied Sumner. "No person with the upright form +of man can be allowed, without violation of all decency, to switch +out from his tongue the perpetual stench of offensive personality. +Sir, that is not a proper weapon of debate, at least on this floor. +The noisome, squat and nameless animal to which I now refer is +not a proper model for an American Senator. Will the Senator from +Illinois take notice?" + +"I will," answered Douglas, "and therefore will not imitate you in +that capacity, recognizing the force of the illustration." + +"Again," replied Sumner, "the Senator has switched his tongue and +again he fills the Senate with its offensive odor." + +Two days after the speech, Preston H. Brooks, a relative of +Butler, who represented a district of South Carolina in the House, +entered the Senate Chamber after adjournment and, finding Sumner in +his seat writing, approached him and struck him down with a heavy +cane. There was a brief struggle in which Sumner was stunned and +severely injured. + +When the assault occurred Douglas was in the reception room adjoining +the Senate Chamber conversing with friends. A messenger ran in +shouting that someone was beating Mr. Sumner. He rose intending to +interfere in the fray, but, recalling their unpleasant relations, +returned to his seat. When the violence was ended he went to the +Chamber to see the result. Sumner, dazed, bruised and bleeding, had +been helped to his feet and was leaning against a chair. Douglas +cast a momentary glance at the victim of this brutal and cowardly +outrage, then passed on without comment. + +On the day before the assault, the Missouri ruffians had sacked the +town of Lawrence. On the day following, John Brown's Pottawotamie +adventure occurred. A crisis was at hand imperiously demanding +more effective action on the part of Congress. The country was +aroused, alarmed and horrified. The Conventions were to be held +in June and it was necessary that the Democrats bestir themselves +and make some disposition of the harassing problem of Kansas. +The existing condition in the hag-ridden Territory was directly +chargeable to a measure whose authorship Douglas had boasted. There +was danger that the tragic failure of his masterpiece of state-craft +would wreck his party and load his own name with odium which even +his rugged vitality could not throw off. Such uncontrollable +passion had been stirred by his pending bill that it seemed prudent +to quietly drop it. + +On the 24th of June, Toombs introduced a bill providing for the +taking of a census, the holding of an election of delegates to a +Constitutional Convention, and the orderly organization of a State. +It was referred to Douglas' Committee, which promptly reported +back an amended bill so infinitely better than the measures thus +far attempted that it seemed comparatively just. It provided for +the appointment of commissioners to prepare lists of all citizens +over twenty-one years old resident in the Territory since the 4th +of July, who were to vote at the election; also for the holding of +a Convention, the drafting of a Constitution and the admission of +the State. + +There were three objections to the bill. The commissioners were +to be appointed by President Pierce. The 4th of July, from which +residence must date, was a time at which great numbers of Northern +settlers would be absent from the Territory on account of the +turbulence and disorder which had rendered life there not only +uncomfortable but unsafe. Moreover, no express provision was made +for submitting the Constitution to a vote. However, it was regarded +as a concession to the demands of an aroused public, clothed with +the power of promptly and authoritatively expressing its disapproval. + +But there were those in the Senate who feared the gift-bearing +Greeks and thought it well, now that the majority had shown some +regard for public opinion, to insist upon an explicit declaration +of their purpose to submit the slavery question to the people of +the Territory fairly and without juggling tricks. On the 2d of +July, Trumbull offered an amendment declaring it to be the true +intent and meaning of the bill organizing the Territory of Kansas +to confer upon the inhabitants "full power at any time, through its +territorial legislature, to exclude slavery from said Territory or +to recognize and regulate it therein." + +This amendment seemed with utmost fairness to declare the meaning +of that law precisely as Douglas expounded it. But the South had +already taken the advanced ground that, as the Constitution of the +United States expressly established slavery, it was not within the +power of Congress or its creature, the territorial legislature, +to abolish it. This was not the creed of the Northern Democracy, +which had embraced the popular sovereignty doctrine of Douglas +and Cass. To abandon that doctrine was to alienate the Northern +Democrats and lose the presidential election. To carry it out in +good faith was to surrender Kansas and the remaining Territories to +anti-slavery institutions; for it was already evident that popular +sovereignty meant free States. It was at no time a part of +the serious political philosophy of the South, but the ingenious +invention of the Northern leaders to hold their following. The +South had permitted is Northern allies to give currency to the +doctrine, but the more sagacious saw that it was a failure and +were preparing, when the election was over, to cast it aside and +announce the true Southern dogma, that no sovereignty except that +of a State could forbid slavery anywhere in the Union. + +Already the Dred Scott case was pending in the Supreme Court +and had been once argued; but the decision was reserved until the +elections were over and the new President inaugurated. Well informed +Southern statesmen did not doubt that this ultra doctrine of their +party would receive the authoritative sanction of that tribunal +and the temporary scaffolding of popular sovereignty would then be +summarily kicked aside. They could not afford to adopt Trumbull's +declaration of power in the Territory to abolish slavery, for they +secretly expected to establish that it had no such power. They +could not afford to frankly declare against it while still courting +the Northern Democrats. Benjamin, who was an accomplished lawyer, +and with the lawyer's instincts depended more on constitutional +defenses than on wavering popular majorities, moved to add the +words "subject only to the Constitution of the United States." Now +that the Constitution had become the bulwark of slavery, there was +nervous dread that Congress and the people might forget that it +was the supreme law to which all legislation was subject. Douglas +earnestly objected to Trumbull's amendment. He protested against +it as wholly unnecessary. He also voted against it as did the +great majority of the Senators. + +The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 33 to 12; but the House +declined to consider it, and on the 3d passed an act to admit Kansas +under the Topeka Constitution. No compromise of differences so +radical was possible. Douglas remarked truly to his biographer +that "it was evident during all the proceedings that the Republicans +were as anxious to keep the Kansas question open as the Democrats +were to close it, in view of the approaching presidential election." + + + + + +Chapter IX. The Conventions of 1856. + + + + +Douglas was now at the zenith of his success, master of all his +resources, the most admired, dreaded and powerful man in American +public life. History must inexorably condemn much of his most brilliant +and successful work, but the very emphasis of its condemnation is +an involuntary tribute to the matchless efficiency of the man. At +this period he was the most masterful and commanding personage of +purely civil character that has "strutted his hour upon the stage" +of American politics. The cabinet maker's apprentice, the village +schoolmaster, the Western lawyer, had, by sheer force, established +his right to this position of real master of his country. A weak +President was cringing at his feet. He had overcome the brilliant +and powerful opposition in the Senate. The aristocratic South, +which instinctively dreaded and despised a plebeian, was paying +him temporary homage. + +He was barely 43 years old. So strenuous and effective had +been his youth that people hesitated to set bounds to his future +possibilities. So strongly had his overmastering force impressed +the popular imagination that the sobriquet, "Little Giant," suggested +by his small stature and enormous energy, had become household +words. He had come to Washington fifteen years before, a crude, +coarse, blustering youth, as described by the accomplished Adams +whose social ideals were borrowed from the courts of Europe. But +he had readily adjusted himself to his new environment and taken on +the polish of the Capital. Though never rich, he made money with +ease and spent it with princely munificence. He was not only the +political dictator but the social lion of Washington. He lived in +splendid style, in harmony with his exalted station, entertained +generously and responded freely to the numerous invitations of +friends and admirers. "His ready wit, his fine memory, made him +a favorite. * * * * He delighted in pleasant company. Unused to +what is called etiquette, he soon adapted himself to its rules and +took rank in the dazzling society of the Capital. * * * To see +him threading the glittering crowds with a pleasant smile or kind +word for everybody one would have taken him for a trained courtier." + +Tradition, backed by General McClellan, says he was a heavy drinker, +though not a drunkard, and some of his finest speeches at this +period of his life appear to have been delivered after unrestrained +carousals that would have prostrated ordinary men. + +Ever since 1852, when his youth and indiscretion had defeated +his presidential aspirations, he had been waiting impatiently for +the Convention of 1856. During the past four years he had been +conspicuously "riding in the whirlwind and directing the storm" +of politics. He had perhaps intensified the hostile prejudices of +the New England Puritans; but they were austere moralists, rather +than progressive politicians. He had certainly alienated many +friends in the Northwest, which was slowly withdrawing from its old +alliance with the South, and falling into sympathy with the stern +and uncompromising East. But, while he regretted the necessity +of giving offense to any section of the country or any body of the +people, he had deliberately chosen what he deemed the less of two +political evils,--the alienation of the Puritans of New England and +the Northwest rather than a breach with the salve holding baronage +of the South, which had established a prescriptive right to control +the Presidency. And yet the fact could not be blinked that all +his services and sacrifices to the South had failed to give him +its confidence and the enthusiastic loyalty that springs from it. +It viewed him with mingled emotions of admiration and fear. It +desired to retain his service but was unwilling to trust him with +power. It could not forget that in his zeal for its service that +he had trifled with the North and suspected that, if self-interest +prompted, he might break faith with the section which he now served +with such ardor. + +The South, a decided minority in population, had long held its sway +by artful appeals to the selfish ambition of Northern politicians. +Although the undisputed command of the Democracy was in its hands and +the burning question of the time was that of slavery, no Southern +man had in late years been permitted to enter the field as a candidate +for the Presidency. The Southern leaders inexorably insisted on +giving the nomination to Northern men. There were at this time +three candidates from the North; Pierce, how would have joyfully +submitted to any terms and pledged himself to any service for another +four years of office; Buchanan, the great lawyer and distinguished +statesman, who had just returned from the English mission; and +Douglas, the giant of the Senate, the recognized head and practical +dictator of his party. + +In point of ability and energy there was no comparison between +Douglas and either of his competitors. Pierce had laboriously +earned for himself the lasting contempt of the world. Buchanan +was an eminently respectable, dignified old gentleman of great +professional attainments and diplomatic experience, an admirable +Ambassador, a good Secretary of State, who might even have adorned +the Supreme Bench, but whose vacillating will and temporizing +character hopelessly unfitted him for the arduous duties of the +Presidency in the great crises that ensued. Had the positive, +combative and masterful Douglas been nominated at this time it may +be safely said that the most momentous chapter of American history +would have been widely different from what it is. + +The Convention met at Cincinnati on the 2d of June and continued in +session for five days. The platform was adopted without dissent, +declaring the firm purpose of the party to "resist all attempts at +renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery +question," and "recognizing and adopting the principle contained +in the organic law establishing the Territories of Nebraska and +Kansas as embodying the only sound and safe solution of the slavery +question." + +Buchanan's candidacy was engineered with rare skill. He was +fortunate in having been absent from the country, representing his +Government at the Court of St. James, during the three preceding +years crowded with great and stirring events, while Pierce and +Douglas had been skirmishing for the advantage, each seeking to +outbid the other in eager competition for Southern favor. The South +was deeply indebted to Douglas; but fear is strong than gratitude. +It was well satisfied with Pierce, but hesitated to nominate him lest +he might be overwhelmed with a storm of just contempt. Without an +element of positive strength, Buchanan was a formidable candidate. +On the first ballot he had 135 votes, Pierce 122, Douglas 33, and +Cass 5. Pierce lost steadily for 14 ballots while Buchanan and +Douglas gained. Pierce's name was then withdrawn. On the next +ballot Buchanan had 168 and Douglas 118 votes. Douglas then sent +a dispatch to Richardson, his manager, to withdraw his name and +make the nomination of Buchanan unanimous. + +On June 17th the first Republican National Convention was held at +Philadelphia. It was not yet a united and well organized party. +It made little pretense of agreeing in anything but unyielding +opposition to slavery-propagandism and the fixed resolve to curb +the intolerable arrogance of the slave power. It was made up of +those who were opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, +to the further extension of slavery, and to the refusal to admit +Kansas as a free State. It consisted of Whigs, Free-spoilers, +Know-nothings and Democrats, who were inclined to apologize for +their temporary association under the name of this mushroom upstart +and were not willing to have it forgotten that their essential +political creeds were unchanged. They were Republicans for a time +until their own parties reformed or gathered strength for more +effective work. + +Yet, imperfect as was the organic unity of the party, it contained +a large part of the best political ability of the country. The real +leaders, who had evolved it from the incoherent chaos of earlier +years, impressed their energetic characters upon the organization, +and prescribed for it such formula of faith as it yet had, were +Seward and Chase. To one of them the nomination was clearly due. +Seward preferred to wait four years. It was not deemed prudent to +nominate Chase. On the first formal ballot John C. Fremont was +nominated. For the office of Vice-President Abraham Lincoln received +110 votes, but was fortunately defeated. The platform declared it +to be "the right and duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories +those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery," condemned +in scathing terms the conduct of affairs in Kansas and demanded +its immediate admission under the Topeka Constitution. + +An exciting campaign followed. Rallies, parades, fireworks +and theatrical displays were lavishly provided by the sanguine +Republicans. Their orators filled the land with eloquent denunciation +of the Pierce Administration and the Buchanan platform. Much as +it outwardly resembled the log cabin and hard cider campaign of +1840, it was wholly different in character. The Republicans were +in serious earnest. They had well defined, though discordant +opinions and convictions. But before the end of the contest it +was clear that they had blundered in nominating the picturesque +"pathfinder." + +Douglas was not inactive during the campaign, being deeply interested, +not only in the election of Buchanan, but in restoring Democratic +supremacy in Illinois. He sold a hundred acres of land on the western +limit of Chicago for a hundred thousand dollars and contributed with +great liberality to the campaign fund, not only of his own State, +but also of Pennsylvania. The Democrats won both States, which, +with the entire vote of the South, elected Buchanan. + +Millard Fillmore, a rather ghostly reminiscence of other days, +had been nominated by the American and Whig parties and carried +Maryland. The combined vote of Fremont and Fillmore exceeded that +of Buchanan by nearly half a million. The Democrats were evidently +approaching a crisis, and harmony, never so imperatively needed as +now, was never so hopelessly unattainable. + + + + + +Chapter X. Popular Sovereignty in the Supreme Court. + + + + +The anger of the world was rising against American slavery. It was +confessedly a shocking anomaly in our system of universal freedom +and democratic equality. The people of the slave States were +inflexibly resolved to maintain and extend it in defiance of the +rising sentiment of the age. For many years they had succeeded +in holding their ground and stifling the anti-slavery agitation. +They had vigilantly kept control of the Government. During sixty +of the first sixty-eight years the presidential chair had been occupied +by Southern men or their dependents. The Senate had uniformly, +and the House usually, been under their sway. The Supreme Court +had also been composed of Southern men. Now that slavery was forced +to fight for its life, the South with increased energy sought the +active support of all the departments of Government. Pierce was its +humble servant. The efficient and imperious Douglas was serving it +in the Senate, and Cass was an eager rival. The Northern Democracy +followed their lead. A majority of the Supreme Court were zealous +advocates of slavery. It was unfortunate for the South, and for +Douglas, that the champions of Southern rights on the bench and +their advocates in Congress could not have understood each other in +advance. They were seeking to plant slavery on a safe foundation +and gird it round with impregnable defenses. Douglas had promulgated +the doctrine of squatter sovereignty with which the South was not +satisfied. It was possible for the Court to devise a safer remedy +for the threatened dangers. + +In 1834, there was an army surgeon named Dr. Emmerson living in +Missouri who owned a slave named Dred Scott. He was transferred +to Fort Snelling in the Territory of Wisconsin and took his slave +with him, but in 1838 he returned with him to his former home. He +then sold Scott to a man named Sanford, who resided in New York, but +kept his slaves in Missouri. In 1854 the slave brought an action +in the United States Circuit Court of Missouri to recover his +freedom, on the ground that he had been voluntarily taken into the +Territory of Wisconsin, where, by the act of Congress known as the +Missouri Compromise, slavery was prohibited. His case rested upon +the rule that slavery, being the creature of positive municipal +law, had no legal existence beyond the limits of the sovereignty +creating or recognizing it. The law of Missouri establishing slavery +was of no efficacy in Wisconsin. Hence, it was urged, when Dred +was taken to that Territory, the relation of master and slave ended +and he became a free man. + +Upon its merit the case presented but one question: Was slavery +forbidden in Wisconsin? There rose, however, a preliminary question +of great importance. To give the Federal Court jurisdiction it was +necessary to show that the plaintiff and defendant were citizens of +different States. Scott alleged that he was a citizen of Missouri +and Sanford a citizen of New York. The answer denied the jurisdiction +of the Court for the reason that Scott was not a citizen of any +State, being a negro slave, and hence not entitled to maintain his +action. The Circuit Court overruled this plea, but held Scott to +be still a slave, notwithstanding his sojourn in Wisconsin, and +awarded him to Sandford. The case was taken to the Supreme Court +and there argued by lawyers of great ability and learning. The +Court found unusual difficulties in it, held it under advisement +during the exciting summer of 1856, and directed a re-argument at +the December term. On March 6th, 1857, two days after the inauguration +of Buchanan, the Judges delivered their memorable opinions. + +At this time the Court consisted of five Southern Democrats, two +Northern Democrats, one Whig and one Republican. Chief Justice +Taney wrote the opinion of the Court, and did it in a manner likely +to preserve his name from early oblivion. Judges McLean and Curtis +filed dissenting opinions. + +The Court, after holding that Scott could not maintain his action +for want of citizenship, decided among other things that: "Whatever +the General Government acquires it acquires for the benefit of the +people of the several States who created it. It is their trustee, +acting for them and charged with the duty of promoting the interests +of the whole people of the Union. * * * * The right of property in +a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution. +The right to traffic in it, like an ordinary article of merchandise +and property, is guaranteed to the citizens of the United States. +* * * * The Government * * * is pledged to protect it in all future +time. * * * * The act of Congress which prohibits a citizen from +holding and owning property of this kind in the territory of the +United States north of the line mentioned (36 degrees 30 minutes) +is not warranted by the Constitution and is therefore void. * * * +* * If Congress cannot do this it will be admitted that it could +not authorize a territorial legislature to do it." + +Thousands of copies of the opinion of Judge Taney were printed and +distributed among the people by the Democrats who, at first, were +so elated over the blow dealt to the Republican fanatics that they +overlooked the fact that the decision was even more fatal to the +favorite doctrine of the Northern wing of their own party. + +The dissenting opinions were printed in enormous numbers by Republican +committees and distributed among the anti-slavery people of the +Northern and Middle States. Far from settling the controversy, +the powerful conflicting opinions confirmed the already inveterate +prejudices and disclosed with scientific clearness the fact, long +dimly felt, that there existed two fundamentally different and +irreconcilably hostile theories of government among the people +which must sooner or later grapple for the mastery. Naturally among +Northern Democrats the first emotion on hearing of the decision was +exultation over the disastrous reverse suffered by the Republicans, +whose whole political creed seemed annihilated. They had declared +in sounding phrase that it was the duty of Congress to wipe from the +Territories those twin relics of barbarism, slavery and polygamy; +and promptly the Supreme Court had decided that Congress had +no such power. But it soon grew uncomfortably clear to them that +while the decision upset the favorite dogma of the Republicans, it +was utterly inconsistent with the doctrine of popular sovereignty, +the fundamental tenet of Northern Democratic faith. The decision +was not only a victory of the Democrats over the Republicans, but +a complete victory of the Southern slave-holding Democracy over +that of the free North. + +To Douglas the situation in which this left his party was disastrous. +Restlessly active and efficient as he had been in the practical +management of political affairs, his distinctive achievement had +been the powerful advocacy of the doctrine of popular sovereignty, +of which, if not the original author, he was at least the chief +sponsor. With this doctrine his fame as a statesman was indissolubly +linked. On its success the unity of the Northern wing of his party +depended; on which hung his hopes of victory. + +Two days before the opinion was announced President Buchanan in +his inaugural address reminded the people that the great question +which had agitated them so long would soon be settled by the +Supreme court and bespoke general acquiescence in its decision. +This unhappy allusion gave rise to the unpleasant suspicion that +the relation between the new President and the Supreme Court in +their common service of the South was unduly intimate. + +Had Douglas been great enough to sink the politician in the +statesman, he would now have broken with the Southern wing of his +party, which had contemptuously repudiated his entire system of +political doctrines; he would have rejected the new dogma imposed +upon his party by the Southern dictators and led the assault upon +this new creed, which was not only fatal to himself as a National +statesman, but could not fail ultimately to prove fatal to his party +and involve his country in the horrors of civil war. His squatter +sovereignty was pitiful enough. But this new doctrine, announced +by the Supreme Court, and approved by the President and his +party, stripped the settlers in the Territories of all semblance +of sovereignty and planted slavery among them by the self-acting +energy of the Constitution, in utter disregard of their wishes. +On the most important question then pending his party had reached +a conclusion which he believed to be utterly wrong. But it was +his opinion that moral ideas had no place in politics. He could +not break with the powerful party which he had led so long. He +could not unqualifiedly endorse the new doctrine without stultifying +himself. He attempted the impossible task of reconciling the new +creed with that which he had preached in the past. + +The United States Grand Jury at Springfield invited him to address +the people of that city on the questions of the time. He spoke on +the 12th of June, 1857, to a large and enthusiastic audience. He +assured the people that he cordially accepted the decision and that +it was in perfect harmony with his favorite doctrine of squatter +sovereignty. The master's right to his slave in the Territories +he admitted was guaranteed by the Constitution and neither Congress +nor the legislature could interfere with it; yet practically this +right was worthless unless sustained, protected and enforced by +appropriate police regulations and local legislation prescribing +adequate remedies for its violation. These regulations and remedies +must depend entirely upon the will and wishes of the people +of the Territory, as they could only be prescribed by the local +legislature. Hence, the great principle of popular sovereignty +and self-government was sustained and firmly established by the +authority of the decision. + +Perhaps, as pointed out by a recent historian, it would have +been wiser for Douglas to have planted himself on the sound legal +proposition that the only question decided by the Court was that +it had no jurisdiction of the cause and that everything in the +opinion beyond this was mere obiter dicta determining nothing. +But it was no easy matter for a politician in 1857 to explain to a +popular audience that a small fraction of the opinion of the highest +Court was binding, while the remainder was merely the private +opinion of the Judges on a matter not before them. Had Douglas been +defending his opinions before a bench of trained jurists he might +have safely rested his case on this sound but technical rule. He +afterwards did so justify his opinions in the Senate. An experience +politician determined to carry a popular election in a dangerous +crisis might well hesitate to attempt so doubtful an experiment. +History would have less temptation to call him a demagogue had he +pursued that course. But we may well doubt whether, considered as +a problem of practical politics, he was not wise in depending on +his ingenious sophistry, rather than on this sound legal proposition. + +Two weeks after his speech Lincoln addressed the people of Springfield +in reply, pointing out the fallacy of Douglas' chief argument. But +Lincoln was still an obscure lawyer; Douglas was the omnipotent +Senator whose ipse dixit was final and carried conviction to the +uncritical multitude. + + + + + +Chapter XI. Popular Sovereignty in Congress. + + + + +While the Supreme Court was dedicating the Territories to slavery +and Douglas was preaching local nullification, anarchy continued +its delirious dance in Kansas. Guerilla warfare continued to vex +the Territory as with unconscious humor the settlers illustrated +the doctrine of popular sovereignty in practical operation. + +On January 12th, 1857, the legislature met at Lecompton. On the +same day the pro-slavery party held a convention in which it was +decided that it was useless to continue the struggle. But the +more active and determined leaders were not so easily discouraged +and decided with the aid of the Administration to force a pro-slavery +Constitution upon the people and drag the young Commonwealth into +the Union as a slave State. By the middle of February a bill +passed the legislature providing for the holding of a Constitutional +Convention. It made no provision for submitting the Constitution +to a vote. Governor Geary vetoed it. The bill was at once passed +over the veto. The election of delegates to the Convention was +set for the 15th of June. + +Among the earliest acts of the new President was the appointment +of Ex-Senator Robert J. Walker of Mississippi as Governor of the +Territory. Before going to his post of duty, Walker visited Douglas +at Chicago for counsel and showed him his inaugural address, in +which he declared that any Constitution adopted must be submitted +to a vote of the resident citizens of the Territory. Douglas +heartily approved this and with all sincerity wished the new Governor +God-speed in his perilous enterprise. Walker arrived late in May. +In the name of the President he promised that the election of +delegates to the Convention should be free from fraud and violence +and that the Constitution should be fairly submitted to a vote. +Buchanan assured him that on the question of submitting the +Constitution to the bona fide resident settlers he was willing to +stand or fall. + +When the election was held the Republicans, who numbered at least +two-thirds of the voters of the Territory, committed the blunder +of refusing to vote. It was within their power to control the +Convention and dictate the Constitution. But their bitter experience +had produced utter distrust of the Federal Government and silent +rebellion against it. They had organized themselves into a band of +rebels bent on maintaining their free State. The election resulted +in the choice of a majority of rabid pro-slavery delegates. + +The Convention which met on October 19th produced a unique +Constitution, declaring that the right of property was before and +higher than any constitutional sanction, that the right of the +owner of a slave to such slave and his increase was the same and +as inviolable as the right of the owner of any property whatever, +and provided that it could not be amended before 1865, and then +could not interfere with slavery. With exquisite ingenuity it was +decided to call an election on December 21st and let the people +vote on the question whether they were "for the Constitution with +slavery," or "for the Constitution with no slavery." No vote +against the Constitution was permitted. To make assurance doubly +sure, it was provided that, if "the Constitution with no slavery" +carried, slavery should not exist in the State except that the right +of property in slaves then in the Territory should in no measure +be interfered with. + +Walker denounced it as a fraud. Buchanan in his feeble way intended +at fist to support him. But the Southern hotspurs, who understood +the vacillating old man, threatened secession and general ruin +unless he adopted their program. He yielded and threw the whole +influence of his office for the admission of the State with this +Constitution. + +But this was too much for the patient Northern Democrats. Murmurs +of criticism, swelling to shouts of denunciation, were heard in +the North without much regard to politics. Douglas, who was in +Chicago when the news arrived of the attempted swindle, immediately +denounced it and promised his strenuous opposition. The situation +of Kansas was tragical. But that of Douglas was still more so. He +had staked his standing as a statesman upon the establishment of +the right of the settlers to mould their own institutions and had +successfully urged the election of Buchanan on the solemn pledge that +the principle of popular sovereignty would be faithfully applied. +He had reached the parting of the ways. At the last election Michigan +had defeated Cass for his political sins and elected the radical +Chandler in his place. Would Illinois' patience last forever? Was +it certain that the cool, deep-plotting Lincoln would not succeed +in overthrowing his power if he accepted the program of his party? +He must stand for reelection next year and Illinois sentiment +could not be trifled with now. The rebellion of Northern Democrats +against Southern policies was not limited to Michigan. If he would +be President, he must retain his Northern Democratic support. He +would gladly have the South, but he must have Illinois. + +Already history has rendered a divided verdict upon this period +of his life. He heartily abhorred the Kansas fraud and would +really have liked to see the people given a fair chance to make a +government for themselves. He believed in fair play and despised +sharp practice and pettifogging tricks. He had the sincere faith +in popular wisdom and virtue characteristic of the West. His +cherished doctrine had been embodied in a ghastly abortion. His +pledge to the people had been shamelessly broken. While the course +of honor happened to be that of prudence, Douglas was not incapable +of choosing it from pure and unselfish patriotism. + +The people of Kansas, outraged by the proceedings of the Convention, +in large numbers petitioned the Governor to call a special session +of the legislature to remedy the wrong. He summoned it to meet +December 7th and it at once ordered the whole Constitution submitted +to the people on January 4th. The election ordered by the Convention +was held on December 21st. The free-State people declined to vote. +"The Constitution with slavery" carried by a vote of 6,143 to 589. +On January 4th the pro-slavery men took part in the election of +State officers, but refused to vote on the Constitution, holding +that the legislature had no power to submit it. More than ten +thousand votes were cast against the Constitution and another set +of officers for an imaginary state selected. + +The Constitution was sent to Buchanan to be submitted to Congress. +This was the beginning of Douglas' official relation to the affair. + +Congress met on the 5th of December. When Douglas reached Washington +he called on the President to discuss the program for the winter. +He told him that it would never do to send the Constitution to Congress +for approval. It violated the plighted faith of the President and +his party. His advice was that it be summarily rejected. Buchanan +must submit it and recommend its approval. Douglas told him he +would denounce it in the Senate. The President, excited and alarmed, +rose from his seat and said, with great solemnity: + +"Mr. Douglas, I desire you to remember that no Democrat ever yet +differed from an Administration of his own choice without being +crushed;" then he bade him beware of the fate of certain noted +insurgents in the old Jackson-VanBuren days. + +"Mr. President," replied Douglas, "I wish you to remember that +General Jackson is dead." + +On the 8th of December Buchanan transmitted his first message to +Congress, which satisfied the world that he had abandoned such faint +convictions as he had theretofore had and surrendered unconditionally +to the South. He confessed that he had formerly pledged himself +that the Constitution should be submitted to a vote of the people. +But he said he had reached the conclusion that the only question +upon which it was important to take the popular judgement was that +of slavery. This question could not be more clearly or distinctly +submitted than it would be under the ordinance of the Convention on +December 21st. Should the Constitution without slavery be adopted, +it, of course guarded the right of property in all slaves then in +the Territory; but that was only common justice. + +It was a great day in Washington. As a leading statesman declared, +"the Administration had staked their all upon sustaining the Kansas +Constitution, * * * * but Douglas was against it, decidedly, but +not extravagantly." It was felt that a great storm was brewing, +but of so uncertain and mysterious a character that no one knew what +to expect. Douglas, who had theretofore scoffed at moral ideas in +politics, had turned stern moralist, though still protesting his +old cynical indifference, and was declaring inexpiable war on those +whose champion he had been on a hundred hard fought fields. And +strange to say, the allies with whom he was now to join hands, were +Seward and Hale, perhaps even Chase and Sumner. + +When the message was read on the 8th, he moved that 15,000 extra +copies of it be printed for the use of the Senate and announced his +intention to attack that part of it relating to Kansas. The next +day when he rose to speak the galleries were thronged with an +eager multitude. He congratulated the country that the President +had not endorsed the Constitution or recommended its approval, but +had only expressed his own satisfaction with it. He patronizingly +apologized for Buchanan's error in supposing that the Kansas-Nebraska +act provided only for the submission of the slavery question to a +vote, recalling the fact that, at the time that act was passed he +was representing the country with great wisdom and distinction at +a foreign court and had never given the matter serious thought. + +They had, in fact, repealed the Missouri Compromise and justified +it everywhere on the ground that the people of the Territories had +the right to form all their institutions according to their will. +The President's later doctrine was in error, radical, fundamental, +subversive of the platform on which he was elected. His suggestion +that the Convention, throughout the territorial legislature, had the +implied sanction of Congress, was without foundation. The Toombs +bill expressly authorizing the calling of a Convention had recently +passed the Senate, but was defeated in the House, clearly indicating +that Congress disapproved it. The legislature could not give consent +for Congress which it had itself refused. The Administration of +Jackson solemnly decided in the case of Arkansas that a Territory +had no right to hold a Constitutional Convention until Congress +passed an act authorizing it. The Lecompton Convention differed +from the Topeka Convention only in this; that the latter was called +in opposition to the will of the legislature, while the former was +sanctioned by it. But that body was utterly without authority in +the matter until Congress empowered it to act. + +When the delegates to this Convention were elected everyone supposed +that their work would be submitted to a vote. The President and +his Cabinet so understood it. Governor Walker so understood it +and pledged his own word and that of the President that it would +be submitted. A form of submission had been devised such that all +men might come forward freely and vote for the Constitution and no +man was permitted to vote against it. This resembled the French +election when the First Consul sent the soldiers to the polls telling +them to vote just as they pleased; but adding, "if you vote for +Napoleon all is well; if you vote against him you will be shot." +The objection to submitting the Constitution to a vote was that it +would be voted down. + +"Sir," he said, "my honor is pledged; and before it shall be tarnished +I will take whatever consequences personal to myself may come; but +never ask me to do an act which the President in his message has +said is a forfeiture of faith, a violation of honor. * * * I will +go as far as any of you to save the party. I have as much heart in +the great cause that binds us together as any man living. I will +sacrifice anything short of principle and honor for the peace of +the party; but if the party will not stand by its principles, its +faith, its pledges, I will stand there and abide whatever consequences +may result from the position. * * * It is none of my business +which way the slavery clause is decided. I care not whether it is +voted up or voted down." + +He urged the wisdom of passing a fair enabling act authorizing the +people to hold a Constitutional Convention and providing for the +submission of its work to the people and the orderly admission +of the State. "But if this Constitution is to be forced down our +throats," he continued, "in violation of the fundamental principles +of free government, under a mode of submission that is a mockery +and an insult, I will resist it to the last. I have no fear of +any party associations being severed; * * * but if it must be, if +I cannot act with you and preserve my faith and honor, I will stand +on the great principle of popular sovereignty which declares the +right of all people to be left perfectly free to form and regulate +their institutions in their own way." + +This remarkable speech was recognized by all who heard it as +marking an epoch, not merely in the life of the orator, but in the +evolution of party politics at a time when parties were bending +in death grapple and them most portentous civil war in history +was looming in the distance. The speech was a clean, powerful, +dispassionate argument delivered with an air of dignity and fortitude +that greatly mollified the hearts of his old enemies. + +Bigler of Pennsylvania, rising to defend the President, reminded +the Senate that only a short year ago Douglas had voted for the +Toombs bill, which provided for the holding of a Constitutional +Convention without submitting its work to the people. Douglas +protested that he did not so understand the bill and challenged +Bigler for evidence that a single Senator so understood it. A +remarkable dialogue followed. Bigler, who was a Democrat and a +humble admirer of Douglas, said: + +"I was present when that subject was discussed by Senators before +the bill was introduced, and the question whether the Constitution +when formed should be submitted to a vote of the people. It was +held by those most intelligent on the subject that * * * it would +be better that there should be no (such) provision in the Toombs +bill; and it was my understanding * * * that the Convention would +make a Constitution and send it here without submitting it to the +popular vote." + +Douglas inquired, angrily, whether he meant to insinuate that he had +been present at any such conference. Bigler hesitated and sought +to avoid the disclosure of the proceedings at their secret caucus, +but Douglas impetuously released him from all secrecy and challenged +him, if he knew, to declare, that, directly or indirectly, publicly or +privately, anywhere on the face of the earth, he was ever present +at such a consultation when it was called to his attention and +he agreed to approve a Constitution without submitting it to the +people. + +Bigler, who had an uneasy suspicion that he was improperly disclosing +party secrets, could not decline the challenge, and replied that he +remembered very well that the question was discussed at a conference +held at Douglas' own house. "It was then urged," he said, "by +Toombs, that there should be no provision for the submission of the +Constitution to the people." He did not remember whether Douglas +took part in the discussion, but his own understanding of the +sense of the caucus was that the Convention should have the right +to make a Constitution and send it directly to Congress for approval. + +Douglas protested that he was innocent of any such conspiracy. He +confessed that his attention was called to the fact that no provision +was made in the Toombs bill for the submission of the Constitution, +but his understanding was that, powers not delegated being reserved, +it would, of course, be submitted. Bigler reminded him that, while +he had taken this for granted in the case of Kansas, he had about +the same time drafted a bill for the admission of Minnesota in +which he took care to provide in express terms that the Constitution +must be submitted. If he then thought general principles of law +secured the submission of the Kansas Constitution without providing +for it in the enabling act, why this care to expressly provide for +it in the Minnesota act? + +He was now swimming amid perilous breakers. He had thrown down +the gage of battle to his party. In the twinkling of an eye he was +transformed from recognized chief to a rebel; but he was isolated +and unsupported. He could not consort with Republicans. The +rankling wounds of the by-gone years could not heal so suddenly. +Moreover, he did not want their society. He intended to remain +a Democrat and hoped to force upon his party such policies that +Illinois and the Northwest would be solidly at his back. With the +Democratic States of the North standing firmly with him he could +still dictate terms to the South, which would have to choose between +Northern Democrats and Northern Republicans. + + + + + +Chapter XII. The Lecompton Constitution. + + + + +On February 2nd Buchanan sent to Congress his message, transmitting +the Lecompton Constitution and urging its approval. As apology +for his change of front and excuse for a like change in others he +drew a dark picture of the disturbed condition of affairs in the +Territory, portraying the Topeka free State enterprise as a vast +insurrectionary movement. He told Congress that it was impossible +to submit the whole instrument to a vote because the free State +faction, who were the majority, would vote against any Constitution, +however perfect, except their own. He commended the entire regularity +of the Lecompton Convention and the fairness with which the slavery +question had been submitted to a vote and urged immediate admission. + +When the motion to print and refer to the Committee on Territories +was made, Trumbull denounced the message with great energy and +at some length. He asked sneeringly what had become of the once +celebrated principle of popular sovereignty? The people of Kansas +were denied the right of voting on their Constitution at all and the +Dred Scott decision had settled that at no stage had the people of +a Territory power to interfere with slavery. The whole doctrine, +he declared, had been absolutely repudiated. + +The message having been referred to the Committee on Territories +after six days' debate, on the 18th of February a bill was reported +by a majority of the Committee for the admission of Kansas into +the Union under the Lecompton Constitution and Douglas presented +a minority report protesting against it. For two weeks he was +confined to his room by sickness, but, as the day for the vote was +near, notice was given that he would speak on the 22nd of March. + +On that day the Senate met at the early hour of ten. Already the +galleries were crowded. Long before noon the passages leading to +the Chamber were thronged with men and women vainly seeking admission. +In a moment of graceful gallantry the Senators admitted the ladies +to the floor. Through long hours of debate the crowd waited. The +Senate adjourned until seven o'clock, at which time Douglas was to +speak. The visitors who were lucky enough to have gained admission +waited with patient good humor for the return of the Senators, who +at last began to force their way back into the Chamber through the +dense throngs. + +A little before seven the short figure of Douglas was observed at +the door and he was greeted with loud applause from the galleries. +The session resumed and he rose to speak. Cheered as he was by +the sympathy and admiration of the visitors, it was to him a stern +enough hour when he must finally break with his powerful party and +battle with his utmost strength against its cherished program. He +must attack, not Buchanan, but the organized Democracy, now more +powerfully entrenched than ever before. It controlled the President +and the Supreme Court and had bent them to its will in this precise +quarrel. The Senate was Democratic nearly two to one, and but +two of the majority followed him in his revolt. In the House the +Democrats had a majority of twenty-five. + +Foreseeing the personal consequences of his act, he opened his speech +with an elaborate review of his course in Congress in relation to +slavery in the Territories, showing that from the beginning he had +favored leaving the whole question fairly to the inhabitants. He +stood on the principle of the Compromise of 1850 as approved and +interpreted by the legislature of Illinois in 1851. That body had +declared that the people of a Territory had a right to form such +government as they chose. But was the Lecompton Constitution the +act and deed of the people of Kansas? Did it embody their will? +If not, Congress had no right to impose it on them. Where was the +evidence that it did embody their will? By a fraudulent vote on +December 12th it was adopted by 5,500 majority. By a fair vote on +January 4th it was defeated by 10,000 majority. The election on +December 21st was ordered by the Lecompton Convention, deriving its +authority from the territorial legislature. The legislature itself +ordered the election on January 4th. Granting the argument that +the organic act was in effect an enabling act, then the territorial +legislature had power to authorize the Lecompton Convention and +also to order it work submitted to a vote. The legislature either +had the full power of Congress over the subject or it had none. + +But, it was claimed, the Constitution would have been voted down +if submitted. What right had Congress to force it upon the people? +It was a mockery to call it an embodiment of their will and a crime +to attempt to enforce it. If it ever became the Constitution of +Kansas it would be the act of Congress that made it so and not the +decision of the people. That it could be changed thereafter was no +apology for this outrage. It was as much a violation of fundamental +principle, a violation of popular sovereignty, to force a Constitution +on an unwilling people for a day as for a year or for a longer +time. + +If a few thousand Free Soilers had fabricated a Constitution +in this fashion, prohibiting slavery forever, would the gentlemen +from the South have submitted to the outrage? They were asked to +admit Kansas with a State government brought into existence not +only by fraudulent voting but forged returns sustained by perjury. + +He paused to comment on certain diatribes in the Washington Union +which had denounced him as a renegade, traitor and deserter, and +read from its columns an article presenting the extreme claims +of the South, arguing that all laws and Constitutions of the free +States forbidding slavery were violations of the Federal Constitution, +and that the emancipation of slaves in the Northern States was +a gross outrage on the rights of property. But this article, he +said, was in harmony with the Lecompton Constitution, which declared +the right of property in a slave to be higher than Constitutions. +This meant that the Constitutions of the free States forbidding +slavery were in conflict with the Constitution of the United States +and of no validity. Hence slavery had right to exist in all the +States. But this was not the authentic Democratic faith, which +left the whole question to the option of the several States. If +each one took care of its own affairs, minded its own business +and let its neighbors alone, there would be peace in the country. +Seward had proclaimed a higher law which forbade slavery everywhere. +this instrument and the Administration paper proclaimed a higher +law which established it in all the States. It was time to quit +this folly and yield obedience to the Constitution and laws of the +land. + +It was the most arrant presumption for the Administration to attempt +to make this a party measure. By what right did these accidental +and temporary holders of office prescribe party politics? There had +been no Convention, not even a caucus, since this question arose. +The party was not committed. The President had no right to tell a +Senator his duty and command his allegiance. He had no power to +prescribe tests. A Senator's first duty was to his State. "If +the will of my State is one way and the will of the President is +the other, am I to be told that I must obey the Executive and betray +my State, or else be branded as a traitor to the party and hunted +down by all the newspapers that share the patronage of the Government? +And every man who holds a petty office in any part of my State to +have the question put to him, 'Are you Douglas' enemy? If not, +your head comes off.'" + +What despotism on earth could equal this? The obedience of Senators +was demanded on this question only. On all else they were free. +The President was evidently guided by the old adage that a man needs +no friends when he knows he is right and only want his friends to +stand by him when he is wrong. + +The President regretted that the Constitution was not submitted +to the people, although he knew that if it had been submitted +it would have been rejected. Hence, he regretted that it had not +been rejected. Would he regret that it had not been submitted and +rejected if he did not think it was wrong? And yet, he demanded +their assistance in forcing it on an unwilling people and threatened +vengeance on all who refused. + +"For my part," he continued, * * * "come what may, I intend to vote, +speak and act according to my own sense of duty, so long as I hold +a seat in this Chamber. * * * I have no professions to make of +my fidelity. I have no vindication to make of my course. Let it +speak for itself. * * * I intend to perform my duty in accordance +with my own convictions. Neither the frowns of power nor the +influence of patronage will change my action, nor drive me from my +principles. I stand firmly and immovably upon those great principles +of self-government and State sovereignty upon which the campaign +was fought and won. I stand by the time honored principles of the +Democratic party, illustrated by Jefferson and Jackson, those principles +of State rights, of State sovereignty, of strict construction, upon +which the great Democratic party has ever stood. I will stand by +the Constitution of the United States with all its compromises and +perform all my obligations under it. I will stand by the American +Union as it exists under the Constitution. If standing firmly by +my principles I shall be driven into private life, it is a fate +that has no terrors for me. * * * If the alternative be private +life or servile obedience to the Executive will, I am prepared to +retire. Official position has no charm for me when deprived of +that freedom of thought and action which becomes a gentleman and +a Senator." + +When he closed, Toombs rose to reply. The speech was offensively +bitter and personal, in one memorable passage of which he announced +that the slave States would take care of themselves and were prepared +to bid defiance to the North and to the world. Green of Missouri +answered in coarser strain, both intimating that Douglas had been +guilty of deliberate perfidy in his change of front. + +On the 23rd the vote was taken and the bill passed, 33 being for +it and 25 against it. + +The Administration now declared war on him. The patronage +was unsparingly used against his friends and it was better for an +applicant for Federal appointment to be accused of any crime than +suspected of friendship with Douglas. This separation from his +party touched his feelings more deeply than any other event of his +life, and we find surprising evidence of his being shaken by deep +emotions that seem out of harmony with his robust and unsentimental +nature. But when we remember that all his life had been spent +in the activities of politics, that his thoughts, sentiments and +passions had all been political for twenty years, that the Democratic +platform was at once his creed and his philosophy, we can understand +something of the choking emotion that threatened to overpower him +as he announced that he was thenceforth a rebel and a heretic. +After December 9th, the Administration press attacked him bitterly +and he found himself everywhere proclaimed a traitor and deserter. +He told the Senate that he knew the knife would be put to the throats +of his followers. The Administration Senators assailed him. But +he was equal to all emergencies and his new position as the recognized +leader of the anti-Lecompton revolt gave him the enthusiastic +applause of the Northwest. + +On March 23rd the bill went to the House. A motion was made to +refer it to a special committee. A contest over this motion arose, +lasted all night, and degenerated into a general brawl, in which +a Member from Pennsylvania knocked down a South Carolina Member, +and many others were engaged in fisticuffs. At last a reference +was agreed to. + +On April 1st, while the House had the bill under consideration, +Montgomery of Pennsylvania offered a substitute which had been +offered by Crittenden in the Senate and there rejected, providing +that the Constitution should be submitted to a vote, and, if adopted, +the President should at once proclaim the admission of the State; +if rejected, the inhabitants should hold a new Constitutional +Convention. This substitute passed the House but was rejected by +the Senate. A conference Committee was appointed, which reported +the notorious English bill, providing that a generous grant of land +should be offered to Kansas, and the people at a special election +vote to accept it. If they so voted, they were to be admitted +as a State with the Lecompton Constitution. If they rejected the +grant, they could not be admitted until they numbered 93,000, which +meant indefinite postponement. The bill was merely an offer of a +bribe to the people to accept a Constitution which they abhorred. +Its form was such that men who still believe it well to maintain +the guise of decency could vote for it on the pretence that it was +a land grant. + +Douglas, who had now tried the thorny path of rebellion, faltered. +He was tempted to support the bill and seek reconciliation, but +decided to vote against it. It passed the Senate by a majority of +nine and the House by a majority of eight. In the following August +the proposition was submitted and rejected so decisively that the +maddest fanatic must have seen that all hope of making Kansas a +slave State was gone forever. + + + + + +Chapter XIII. The Illinois Campaign. + + + + +Congress adjourned on June 16th and Douglas, after spending a few +days in New York, returned to Chicago. Meanwhile the people of +Illinois had awakened to great political activity. On April 21st +the regular Democratic Convention was held at Springfield and +without opposition passed a resolution endorsing his candidacy for +re-election. On June 9th the "Administration Democracy," consisting +of the Federal office holders and those democrats who condemned +his anti-Lecompton battle, held a Convention at Springfield, the +purpose of which was to divide the party and insure his defeat. On +the 17th the Republicans held their Convention at Springfield and +chose Lincoln as their candidate for United States Senator. + +The nomination of Lincoln was not an accident. He was prepared to +accept it in a speech that should serve as the text of his campaign +and was destined to great fame in after years. Against the resolve of +his friends he announced the dangerous doctrine that the Government +could not endure permanently half slave and half free. "A house +divided against itself cannot stand." He did not expect the Union +to be dissolved or the house to fall, but that it would cease to be +divided. "Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further +spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in +the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its +advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful +in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South." + +The repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the establishment of +squatter sovereignty was a great step towards the nationalization of +slavery. This was followed by the Dred Scott decision forbidding +Congress to interfere with it in the Territories. All the +legislation of Congress had carefully reserved a place for this +expected decision. Douglas had hinted it in the Senate long before +it was announced. Pierce and Buchanan had proclaimed it before the +Judges. "We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations +are the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed +timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten +out at different times and different place, and by different +workmen,--Stephen, Franklin, Roger and James, for instance,--and +when we see these timbers all joined together and see they exactly +make the frame of a house or mill, all the tenons and mortises +exactly fitting, * * * * * we find it impossible not to believe +that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood one +another from the beginning and all worked upon a common plan or +draft drawn up before the first blow was struck." + +He repelled the suggestion made in some quarters that the Republicans +ought to cease their fight on Douglas and rally to his support in +his contest with the slavery propagandists. He reminded them that +the very essence of Republican faith was hostility to slavery, while +Douglas frankly declared that he did not care whether it was voted +up or voted down. The cause must be entrusted to those whose hearts +were in the work and who did care for the result. + +On the 9th of July Douglas returned to Chicago and received +a royal welcome. A special train loaded with prominent citizens +was dispatched to meet him. On his arrival he was greeted with +tumultuous applause. He addressed the vast multitude from the +balcony of the Tremont House. Thirty thousand people are said +to have gathered to hear him. He was profoundly pleased by this +splendid ovation so strikingly in contrast with the reception +four years before, when his neighbors refused even to hear him in +defense of his course. Among the distinguished visitors on the +speakers' stand sat Lincoln. + +After thanking his audience for the enthusiastic reception, he plunged +into the subject then uppermost in the public mind by rehearsing +his relation to the whole Kansas problem. He reminded them of his +early and consistent devotion to popular sovereignty, which had +been so utterly outraged by the Lecompton Constitution. He assured +his hearers, however, that his opposition to that Constitution arose +from no sentimental morality and bore no relation to the ethics of +slavery. He insisted, not that it be good or just, but that it be +submitted to a vote of the settlers. + +He then addressed himself to Lincoln's Springfield speech. He +attacked his extreme doctrines with characteristic adroitness. +Lincoln's speech was of doubtful prudence as a campaign argument. +It really foreboded civil war or a peaceful dissolution of the +Union. While this alternative was, perhaps, inevitable, political +expediency forbade its avowal. Douglas declared the necessary +result of his philosophy to be a war of sections, a war of the North +against the South, of the free States against the slave States, +to be continued relentlessly until the one or the other should +be subdued and all should either become free States or all become +slave States. But this was not the true theory of the American +Union. The States differed widely in soil, climate, resources, +tastes and habits. Their laws and institutions were utterly unlike. +New Hampshire's laws were unfit for South Carolina; those of New +York were not suited to the Pacific Coast. Uniformity in local +and domestic affairs would be destructive of State rights, State +sovereignty and personal liberty. Uniformity was the parent +of despotism the world over. The only way of attaining Lincoln's +proposed uniformity would be to abolish State legislatures, blot +out State sovereignty and merge the States into one consolidated +empire. But diversity, dissimilarity, variety in all their local and +domestic institutions was the great safeguard of their liberties. +He insisted on reverently bowing to the Supreme Court as the +authoritative expounder of the Constitution, rather than appealing +from it to a tumultuous town meeting where constitutional questions +arose. The Federal Government was founded on the white basis. +It was made by white men, for the benefits of white men, to be +administered by white men in such manner as they should determine. +Let each State decide for itself how it would treat the negroes +and let its neighbors alone. + +"The issues between Mr. Lincoln and myself," he said, "are made +up, * * * *. He goes for uniformity in our domestic institutions, +for a war of sections, until one or the other shall be subdued. I +go for * * * the right of the people to decide for themselves. On +the other hand Mr. Lincoln goes for a warfare on the Supreme Court. +* * * * I yield obedience to the decisions of that Court. * * * +* I am opposed to negro equality. I repeat that this nation is a +white people, * * * * a people that have established this Government +for themselves and their posterity. * * * * I am opposed to taking +any step that recognizes the negro man * * * as the equal of the +white man. I am opposed to giving him a voice in the administration +of the Government." + +The reception was recognized by the politicians of both parties +as a great success. It was a brilliant opening of the senatorial +campaign. The Republicans were anxious to counteract it. On the +following evening Lincoln spoke at the same place. He had a large +and enthusiastic audience. But he was not an impromptu orator at +all comparable to Douglas. While his carefully prepared Springfield +speech was decidedly better than Douglas' dashing address in +Chicago, his unprepared speech was by no means equal to it. The +marked disparity between the two speeches must have intensified +the suspicion among Lincoln's friends that he was no match for his +rival on the stump. + +On the 16th of July Douglas again spoke to a vast multitude at +Bloomington. He made an artful appeal for the Whig vote by a well +turned compliment to "Kentucky's great and gallant statesman, John +J. Crittenden," who proposed to refer the whole question back to +the people of Kansas and thus "showed himself a worthy successor +of the immortal Clay." The Republicans had "endorsed the great +principle of the Kansas-Nebraska bill," they had "come to the +Douglas platform in supporting the Crittenden-Montgomery bill." The +compromise of 1850 embodied the principle that every people ought +to have the privilege of forming and regulating their own institutions +to suit themselves. Each State had that right and no reason existed +why it should not be extended to the Territories. The Illinois +House of Representatives by an almost unanimous vote had asserted +that the principle embodied in the measures of 1850 was the +birth-right of free men, the gift of heaven, a principle vindicated +by our Revolutionary fathers, that no limitation should ever be placed +upon it either in the organization of a territorial government or +the admission of a State into the Union. In conformity with that +principle he had brought in the Kansas-Nebraska bill, for which +Lincoln and his friends were seeking his defeat. + +"I have known Lincoln well," he said, "for a quarter of a century. +I have known him as you all know him, a kind-hearted, amiable +gentleman, a right good fellow, a worthy citizen, of eminent ability +as a lawyer, and, I have no doubt, sufficient ability to make a +good Senator." + +He examined Lincoln's "house divided-against-itself" philosophy, +pointing out that the house had been divided for nearly seventy +years and still stood. + +"How is Lincoln, if elected Senator, going to carry out that principle +which he says is essential to the existence of this Union; that +slavery must be abolished in all the States, or must be established +in all? * * * * He invites, by his proposition, a war between +Illinois and Kentucky, a war between the free States and the slave +States, a war between the North and the South, for the purpose of +either exterminating slavery in every Southern State, or planting +it in every Northern State. * * * * * What man in Illinois would +not lose the last drop if his heart's blood before he would submit +to the institution of slavery being forced upon us by the other +States against our will? * * * What Southern man would not shed +the last drop of his heart's blood to prevent Illinois or any other +Northern State from interfering to abolish slavery in his State? * +* * * I am opposed to organizing a sectional party which appeals to +Northern pride and Northern passion and prejudice against Southern +institutions, thus stirring up ill feeling and hot blood between +brethren of the same Republic. * * * * How is he to carry out his +principles when he gets to the Senate? Does he intend to introduce +a bill to abolish slavery in Kentucky? Does he intend to introduce +a bill to interfere with slavery in Virginia? How is he to accomplish +what he professes must be done to save the Union? + +"There would be but one way to carry out his ideas. That would be +to establish a consolidated empire as destructive to the liberties +of the people and the rights of the citizen as that of Austria +or Russia or any other despotism that rests upon the necks of the +people * * * *. Who among you expects to live or have his children +live until slavery shall be established in Illinois or abolished in +South Carolina? * * * * There is but one possible way in which +slavery can be abolished and that is by leaving a State * * * +* perfectly free to form and regulate its institutions in its own +way. That was the principle upon which this Republic was founded. +* * * * Under its operation slavery disappeared from New Hampshire, +from Rhode Island, from Connecticut, from New York, from New Jersey, +from Pennsylvania, from six of the twelve original slave holding +States; and this gradual emancipation went on so long as we in the +free states minded our own business and left our neighbors alone, +* * * * so long as the free States were content with managing their +own affairs and leaving the South perfectly free to do as they +pleased. But the moment the North said, 'We are powerful enough to +control you of the South,' * * * * that moment the South combined +to resist the attack and thus sectional parties were formed and +gradual emancipation ceased in all the Northern slave holding States +* * *. + +"Lincoln makes another issue, * * * * a crusade against the Supreme +Court of the United Sates because of its decision in the Dred Scott +case. * * * * I have no crusade to preach against that august +body. * * * * I receive the decision of the Judges of that Court +when pronounced as the final adjudication upon all questions within +their jurisdiction. * * * * Unless we respect and bow in deference +to the final decisions of the highest judicial tribunal in our +country, we are driven at once to anarchy, to violence, to mob law, +and there is no security left for our property or our own civil +rights. * * * * Are we to appeal from the Supreme Court to a country +meeting like this? * * * Does Mr. Lincoln intend to appeal from +the decision of the Supreme Court to a Republican caucus or a town +meeting? * * * He tells you that he is opposed to the decision in +the Dred Scott case. Well, suppose he is; what is he going to do +about it? I never got beat in a law suit in my life that I was not +opposed to the decision. * * * * This Government is divided into +three separate and distinct branches. * * * * Each one is supreme +within the circle of its own powers. The functions of Congress are +to enact the statutes, the province of the Court is to pronounce +upon their validity, and the duty of the Executive is to carry the +decision into effect." + +Yet, he said, Lincoln wants to be elected Senator in order to +reverse the Dred Scott decision by passing another unconstitutional +statute. He can not get rid of the Judges now on the bench until +they die. He must first elect a Republican President by Northern +votes bound by pledges to appoint none but Republicans to the bench. +He must then persuade the Judges to die. The President must pledge +his new Judges in advance to decide this slavery question according +to the wishes of his party, regardless of the Constitution. What +confidence would the people have in a Court thus constituted?--a +Court composed of partisan Judges, appointed on political grounds, +catechized in advance and pledged in regard to a decision before +the argument and without reference to the state of facts? Would +such a Court command the respect of the country? Without regard +to the Dred Scott decision slavery will go just where the people +want it and not one inch further. + +"I tell you, my friends, it is impossible under our institutions to +force slavery on an unwilling people. If this principle of popular +sovereignty * * * be fairly carried out by letting the people decide +the question for themselves by a fair vote at a fair election and +with honest returns, slavery will never exist one day or one hour +in any Territory against the unfriendly legislation of an unfriendly +people. I care not how the Dred Scott decision may have settled the +abstract question so far as the practical results are concerned. * +* * If the people of the Territory want slavery they will encourage +it by passing affirmatory laws and the necessary police regulations, +patrol laws and slave code; if they do not want it they will +withhold that legislation and by withholding it slavery is a dead +as if prohibited by a constitutional provision. * * * * * They +could pass such local laws as would drive slavery out in one day +or one hour, if they were opposed to it; and therefore, so far as +the question of slavery in the Territory is concerned, so far as +the principle of popular sovereignty is concerned in its practical +operation, it matters not how the Dred Scott case may be decided. +* * * * * Whether slavery shall exist or shall not exist in any +State or Territory will depend on whether the people are for or +against it; and which ever way they shall decide it will be entirely +satisfactory to me." + +The Dred Scott case, he continued, decides that negroes are +not citizens. But Lincoln insists on conferring on them all the +privileges, rights and immunities of citizens. "I believe this +Government of ours was founded on the white basis. I believe +it was established for white men, of the benefit of white men and +their posterity in all time to come. I do not believe that it +was the design or intention of the signers of the Declaration of +Independence or the framers of the Constitution to include negroes +as citizens. * * * The position Lincoln has taken on this question +not only presents him as claiming for them the right to vote, but +their right under the divine law and the Declaration of Independence +to be elected to office, to become members of the legislature, to +go to Congress, to become Governors or United States Senators, or +Judges of the Supreme Court. * * * He would permit them to marry, +would he not? And if he gives them that right I suppose he will +let them marry whom they please, provided they marry their equals. +If the divine law declares that the white man is the equal of the +negro woman, that they are on a perfect equality, I suppose he admits +the right of the negro woman to marry the white man. * * * I do +not believe that the signers of the Declaration had any reference +to negroes when they used the expression that all men were created +equal. * * * They were speaking only of the white race. * * * +Every one of the thirteen colonies was a slave-holding constituency. +Did they intend * * * to declare that their own slaves were on an +equality with them? What are the negroes' rights and privileges? +That is a question which each State and Territory must decide for +itself. We have decided that question. We have said that in this +State the negro shall not be a slave but that he shall enjoy no +political rights; that negro equality shall not exist. * * * For +my own part, I do not consider the negro any kin to me nor to any +other white man; but I would still carry my humanity and philanthropy +to the extent of giving him every privilege and every immunity that +he could enjoy consistent with our own good." + +Maine allows the negro to vote on an equality with the white man. +New York permits him to vote, provided he owns $250 worth of +property. In Kentucky they deny the negro all political and civil +rights. Each is a sovereign State and has a right to do as it +pleases. Let us mind our own business and not interfere with them. +Lincoln is not going into Kentucky, but will plant his batteries +on this side of the Ohio and throw his bomb shells--his Abolition +documents--over the River and will carry on the political warfare +and get up strife between the North and South until he elects a +sectional President, reduces the South to the condition of dependent +colonies, raises the negro to an equality and forces the South to +submit to the doctrine that a house divided against itself cannot +stand; that the Union divided into half slave States and half free +cannot endure; that they must be all free or all slave; and that, +as we in the North are in the majority, we will not permit them to +be all slave and therefore they in the South must consent to the +States being all free. + +"These are my views and these are the principles to which I have +devoted all my energies since 1850, when I acted side by side +with the immortal Clay and the god-like Webster in that memorable +struggle in which the Whigs and the Democrats united upon a common +platform of patriotism and the Constitution. * * * And when +I stood beside the death-bed of Mr. Clay and heard him refer with +feelings and emotions of the deepest solicitude to the welfare of +the country, and saw that he looked upon the principle embodied in +the great Compromise of 1850, the principle of the Nebraska bill, +the doctrine of leaving each State and Territory free to decide +its institutions for itself, as the only means by which the peace +of the country could be preserved and the Union perpetuated. I +pledged him on that death-bed of his that so long as I lived my +energy should be devoted to the vindication of that principle and +of his fame as connected with it. I gave the same pledge to the +great expounder of the Constitution, he who has been called the +god-like Webster. I looked up to Clay and him as a son would to a +father, and I call upon the people of Illinois and the people of +the whole Union to bear testimony that never since the sod has been +laid upon the graves of these eminent statesmen have I failed on +any occasion to vindicate the principle with which the last great +crowning acts of their lives were identified. * * * And now my +life and energy are devoted to this work as the means of preserving +this Union. * * * It can be maintained by preserving the sovereignty +of the States, the right of each State and each Territory to settle +its domestic concerns for itself and the duty of each to refrain +from interfering with the other in any of its local or domestic +institutions. Let that be done, and the Union will be perpetuated. +Let that be done, and this Republic which began with thirteen +States and which now numbers thirty-two, which when it began only +extended from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, but now reaches to +the Pacific, may yet expand north and south until it covers the +whole continent and becomes one vast, ocean-bound Confederacy. * +* * * Let us maintain the great principles of popular sovereignty, +of State rights and of the Federal Union as the Constitution has +made it, and this Republic will endure forever." + +On the following day he spoke at Springfield, repeating his +Bloomington speech with slight abridgment. + +In the evening, Lincoln, who had attended Douglas' Bloomington meeting +and accompanied him to Springfield, spoke to a large audience. He +twitted him for his noisy, spectacular campaign, "the thunderings +of cannon, the marching and music, the fizzle-gigs and fireworks. * * * + +"Does Judge Douglas," he asked, "when he says that several of the +past years of his life have been devoted to the question of popular +sovereignty and that all the remainder of his life shall be devoted +to it, mean to say that he has been devoting his life to securing +to the people of the territories the right to exclude slavery? * +* * He and every one knows that the decision of the Supreme Court, +which he approves and makes a special ground of attack upon me for +disapproving, forbids the people of a Territory to exclude slavery. +This covers the whole ground from the settlement of a Territory +till it reaches the degree of maturity entitling it to form a State +Constitution. So far as all that ground is concerned, the Judge +is not sustaining popular sovereignty, but absolutely opposing it. +He sustains the decision which declares that the popular will of +the Territory has no constitutional power to exclude slavery during +their territorial existence. This being so, the period of time +from the first settlement of the Territory till it reaches the point +of forming a State Constitution is not the thing that the Judge is +fighting for; but, on the contrary, he is fighting for the thing +that annihilates and crushes out that same popular sovereignty. * +* * He is contending for the right of the people, when they come to +make a State Constitution, to make it for themselves and precisely +as best suits themselves. That is quixotic. Nobody is opposing or +has opposed the right of the people when they form a Constitution +to form it for themselves. This being so, what is he going to spend +his life for? Is he going to spend it in maintaining a principle +that nobody on earth opposes? Does he expect to stand up in +majestic dignity and go through this apothesis and become a god +in maintaining a principle that neither man nor mouse in all God's +creation opposes? * * * What is there in the opposition of Judge +Douglas to the Lecompton Constitution that entitles him to be +considered the only opponent to it, * * * the very quintessence +of that opposition? * * * + +He in the Senate and his class of men there formed the number of +about twenty. It took one hundred and twenty to defeat the measure. +There were six Americans and ninety-four Republicans. Why is it +that twenty should be entitled to all the credit for doing that +work and the hundred to none? Does he place his superior claim +to credit on the ground that he has performed a good act that was +never expected of him? Perhaps he places himself somewhat on the +ground of the parable of the lost sheep which went astray upon the +mountains, and when the owner of the hundred sheep found the one +that was lost, there was more rejoicing over the one sheep that was +lost and had been found than over the ninety-and-nine in the fold." + +In opposing the Dred Scott decision, he said, he was sustained by +the authority of Mr. Jefferson, who denounced the doctrine that the +Judges were the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions +as dangerous and tending to oligarchic despotism and insisted +that, while they were as honest as other men, they were not more +so, having the common passion for party, for power and the privilege +of their crops, and ought not to be trusted with the dangerous power +of deciding the great questions of State. The Supreme Court once +decided that the national back was constitutional. The Democratic +party revolted against the decision. Jackson himself asserted +that he would not hold a national back to be constitutional, even +though the Court had decided it to be so. The declaration that +Congress had not power to establish a bank was contained in every +Democratic platform since that time, in defiance of the solemn +ruling of the Court. In fact, they had reduced the decision to an +absolute nullity. And still Douglas boasted in the very speeches +in which he denounced others for opposing the Dred Scott decision +that he stood on the Cincinnati platform which repudiated and +condemned the old bank decision. He was for Supreme Court decisions +when he liked them and against them when he did not like them. +Would he not graciously allow the Republicans to do with the Dred +Scott decision what they did with the bank decision? + +Springfield was Lincoln's home. He knew his audience and met it +with confidence. He now felt that he was Douglas' equal in the +field in which he had hitherto eclipsed all rivals. + +But it was evident that the current was running with Douglas. +The great reception at Chicago had been a glorious opening. His +journeys through the State were triumphal processions. Special +trains, splendidly decorated, were at his service. Military +escorts received him with the firing of cannon and the loud music +of bands. He commanded and marshaled with the skill of a great +artist all the pomp and circumstance of victory. He owned much +property in Chicago, which with the growth of the city had greatly +increased in value. He mortgaged this for campaign funds, borrowing +eighty thousand dollars, a debt that harassed him to the grave. +Wealthy friends contributed freely and the campaign was run regardless +of expense. + +Yet with all these advantages the contest was evidently a hard one. +Two years before, the combined Republicans and Whigs of the State +outnumbered the Democrats by nearly thirty thousand. The Whig party +was breaking up. It was a serious question of practical politics +whether they would drift to the Democrats or the Republicans. +Illinois comprised two utterly distinct communities. The northern +part of the State was settled by people from New England and the +Northwest. The Southern part was settled from Kentucky and the other +Southern States. The growth of Chicago and the rapid development +of the northern counties had made the State extremely doubtful +even for Douglas. To any other man his task was hopeless. In the +north the anti-slavery sentiment was strong, even to fanaticism, +and many of his own supporters prayed fervently for the arrival +of the day when slavery would be blotted from existence. In the +south, though slavery was prohibited by law, it was cherished in +the hearts of the people who remembered with warm affection the +old homesteads in Kentucky and Tennessee. + +Lincoln had, with more frankness than discretion announced his views +on the great question. It was supremely important to compel Douglas +to explicitly declare himself, to hold him down to the dangerous +issue and force him to speak plainly. Each had the disadvantage +of pleasing one section of the State at the cost of offending the +other section. But Douglas was further embarrassed by the necessity +of avoiding offense to the slave holding States of the South. He +was a candidate not only for the Senate, but also for the Presidency. + + + + + +Chapter XIV. The Debates with Lincoln. + + + + +Chicago, Ill., July 24, 1858. "Hon. S. A. Douglas: + +"My dear Sir:--Will it be agreeable to you to make an arrangement +for you and myself to divide time and address the same audiences the +present canvass? Mr. Judd, who will hand you this, is authorized +to receive your answer; and, if agreeable to you, to enter into +the terms of such an arrangement. + +"Your obedient servant, + +"A. Lincoln." + +This is the note received by Douglas a week after his return from +Springfield. On the same day he returned the following answer: + +"Chicago, Ill., July 24, 1858. "Hon. A. Lincoln: + +"Dear Sir:--Your note of this date * * * was handed me by Mr. Judd. * +* * I went to Springfield last week for the purpose of conferring +with the Democratic State Central Committee upon the mode of conducting the +canvass, and with them * * * made a list of appointments covering +the entire period until late in October. The people of the +several localities have been notified of the times and places of +the meetings. * * * I cannot refrain from expressing my surprise, +if it was your original intention to invite such an arrangement, +that you should have waited until after I had made my appointments, +in as much as we were both here in Chicago together for several +days after my arrival, and again at Bloomington, Atlanta, Lincoln +and Springfield, where it was well known I went for the purpose +of consulting with the State Central Committee and agreeing upon +the plan of campaign. * * * I will, in order to accommodate you, +as far as it is in my power to do so, take the responsibility of +making an arrangement with you for a discussion between us at one +prominent point in each congressional district in the State, except +the Second and Sixth, where we have both spoken and in each of +which you had the concluding speech. If agreeable to you, I will +indicate the following places as the most suitable in the several +congressional districts at which we should speak, to wit: Freeport, +Ottawa, Galesburg, Quincy, Alton, Jonesboro and Charleston. * * * + +"Very respectfully, your most obedient servant, + +"S. A. Douglas." + +Lincoln replied: + +"Springfield, July 29, 1858. + +"Hon. S. A. Douglas: + +Dear Sir:--Yours of the 24th in relation to an arrangement to divide +time and address the same audiences, is received; and, in apology +for not sooner replying, allow me to say that, when I sat by you at +dinner yesterday, I was not aware that you had answered my note, +nor, certainly, that my own note had been presented to you. An +hour after, I saw a copy of your answer in the Chicago Times, and +reaching home I found the original awaiting me. * * * As to your +surprise that I did not sooner make the proposal to divide time +with you, I can only say, I made it as soon as I resolved to make +it. I did not know but that such a proposal would come from you; +I waited respectfully to see. * * * I agree to an arrangement +for us to speak at the seven places you have named and at your own +times, provided you name the times at once, so that I, as well as +you, can have to myself the time not covered by the arrangement. +As to the other details, I wish perfect reciprocity, and no more. +I wish as much time as you and that conclusions shall alternate. +That is all. + +"Your obedient servant, + +"A. Lincoln." + +On the next day Douglas wrote: + +"Bement, Piatt Co., Ill., July 30, 1858. + +"Dear Sir:--Your letter, dated yesterday, accepting my proposition +for a joint discussion at one prominent point in each congressional +district * * * was received this morning. The times and places +designated are as follows: + +Ottawa, La Salle County ......... August 21, 1858. +Freeport, Stephenson County ..... August 27, 1858. +Jonesboro, Union County ...... September 15, 1858. +Charleston, Coles County ..... September 18, 1858. +Galesburgh, Knox County ......... October 7, 1858. +Quincy, Adams County ........... October 13, 1858. +Alton, Madison County .......... October 15, 1858. + +"I agree to your suggestion that we shall alternately open and close +the discussion. I will speak at Ottawa one hour, you can reply, +occupying an hour and a half, and I will then follow for half an +hour. At Freeport, you shall open the discussion and speak one hour; +I will follow for an hour and a half, and you can then reply for +half an hour. We will alternate in like manner in each successive +place. + +"Very respectfully, your obedient servant, + +"S. A. Douglas." + +To which Lincoln replied: + +"Springfield, July 31, 1858. + +"Hon. S. A. Douglas: + +"Dear Sir:--Yours of yesterday, naming places, time and terms for +joint discussions, between us, was received this morning. Although +by the terms as you propose, you take four openings and closes +to my three, I accede, and thus close the arrangement. * * * + +"Your obedient servant, + +"A. Lincoln." + +Now that Lincoln has become idealized and is safely classed +with the great men of all ages, his modest challenge seems like +a condescension of the immortal President to his rival. It then +seemed an act of temerity bordering on madness. Lincoln's friends +thought it rash. Douglas' friends had no hope that his adversary +would be so easily delivered into his hands. + +Yet Lincoln was not a despised antagonist. He was the most prominent +Republican in Illinois. But Douglas was the recognized head of a +great national party, the giant of the Senate, the most resourceful +American statesman then living. Through years of desperate battling +he had successfully repelled the assaults of Seward, Sumner and +Chase. He had more recently encountered with equal ease all the +Southern Senators. It seemed a simple task to meet this humble +Western lawyer and make his friends ashamed of their senatorial +candidate. Douglas did not share the pleasant illusion of his +friends. Before leaving Washington, when he heard that Lincoln +was nominated, he said to Forney: + +"I shall have my hands full. He is a strong man of his party,--full +of wit, facts, dates,--and the best stump speaker, with his droll +ways and dry jokes, in the West. He is as honest as his is shrewd; +and if I beat him my victory will be hardly won." + +Lincoln was burning with jealousy. He believed himself to be +Douglas' full equal in mental endowment. Fortune, he thought, with +a tinge of bitterness, had dealt with them most unequally, clothing +his rival with the glory of a world-renowned statesman, and leaving +him to waste his powers on the obscure quarrels of litigious clients +in a small town. He yearned for the opportunity to measure himself +with the great Senator on a conspicuous stage. + +This series of debates was a rare piece of strategy on Lincoln's +part. Douglas had so long been wrapped in his senatorial toga +that his greatness had become exaggerated to the popular mind of +Illinois; while Lincoln had been a plain, modest lawyer, moving +among the people in the daily round of routine life. The dogmatic +statement of the great Senator carried more weight than the +profoundest argument of the clearest demonstration of the country +lawyer. But these debates brought them to a common level. They +measured their intellectual strength in the presence of the people, +with all official trappings laid aside; and while no one could well +be disappointed in Douglas' strength, the whole country was amazed +at the unexpected power of Lincoln. + +There were disadvantages to Douglas in this mode of combat. He +must sacrifice the glamour of senatorial dignity and enter the arena +on equal footing with his antagonist. He was a brilliant debater. +"In the whole field of American politics no man has equaled him +in the expedients and strategy of debate. * * * He was tireless, +ubiquitous, unseizable. It would have been as easy to hold +a globule of mercury under the finger's tip as to fasten him to a +point he desired to evade. * * * In spirit he was alert, combative, +aggressive; in manner patronizing and arrogant by turns." But +he had to meet in argument a man of imperturbably temper, who had +thought deeply on the great questions of the time, who by unerring +instinct could lay his finger on every flaw in his chain of +reasoning, could rise to heights of eloquence beyond the reach of +his unimaginative mind and pour out streams of quaint humor that +must have filled him with despair. + +So great was the interest of the people in this extraordinary contest +that it was found impossible to hold the meetings in halls. They +were held during the warm autumn days in the open air, where the +crowds, numbering from five to twenty thousand, struggled to get +within range of the speakers' voices. + +It would be difficult to conceive a more picturesque contest than +that now waged by these politicians as they strove for the mastery, +and the enormous crowds of friends and sympathizers listened with +intense interest to the weighty arguments, or shouted applause when +their favorite scored a point. The audiences, consisting largely +of farmers, who had made long journeys in wagons and lived in tents +or camped out in the open air while awaiting the great event, were +in stern earnest, despite their holiday appearance, and listened +with thoughtful faces and troubled hearts as the grave theme was +discussed which had distracted the country for years. + +And the orators, who were unconsciously playing a great role on +the historic stage, were surely among the most interesting products +of modern times. Lincoln's lank, ungainly figure, nearly six and +a half feet tall, clad in loose fitting clothes, contrasted oddly +with the short, stout figure of Douglas, barely five feet in height, +trimly and rather sprucely dressed. The sad, calm face o Lincoln, +his humble and unheroic bearing, were in marked contrast with the +finely chiseled, powerful, defiant face and magnificent Napoleonic +head surmounting the short, thick neck of Douglas, who strode with +kingly air before he admiring throngs. The manner of Douglas was +so masterful and strong that a wavering audience must have been +swept away by it. His finely modulated voice reached with ease to +the utmost limits of the crowds as he thundered out his decisive +arguments or condescended to compliment his aspiring rival; while +Lincoln manifestly labored to so pitch his unmusical voice that the +distant listeners could hear, and was never betrayed into a single +gracious compliment to the distinguished Senator whose seat he +aspired to fill. And the contestants, however great their posthumous +fame, were as yet merely ambitious politicians, supremely interested +in winning the splendid prize. To Lincoln the possibility of a +seat in the Senate was stimulus enough. Douglas was in mid career, +assured of the Presidency in the near future, but compelled at all +hazards to hold the ground already won. His commanding eminence +attracted universal attention to the contest. He must not only +win, but bear himself throughout with the air of an assured conqueror. + +With all their disparity of rank and fame, they were not badly +matched, and all the substantial advantages of the situation lay +with Lincoln. The greatness of Douglas' fame excited sympathy for +his rival. Success in the contest would give power and prestige to +Lincoln, and even defeat would not be humiliating. Douglas could +not expect much glory even from victory. Though he crushed his +opponent in argument, he must still measure himself with the Douglas +of the Senate and not fall below his own standard. In his contest +for the Senate, he must remember the Presidency and shape his +arguments for a larger audience than that addressed by Lincoln. + +During the period of the debates both were actively engaged in the +State campaign, addressing one or two audiences daily, so arranging +their routes as to meet at the appointed times and places. On +August 21st, in presence of a vast multitude, Douglas opened the +first debate at Ottawa. + +"Prior to 1854," he said, "this country was divided into two great +political parties, known as the Whig and Democratic parties. Both +were national and patriotic. * * * Whig principles had no boundary +sectional line, * * * but applied and were proclaimed wherever the +Constitution ruled or the American flag waved over American soil. +So it was, and so it is, with the great Democratic party, which +from the days of Jefferson to this period has proven itself to be +the historic party of this Nation. * * * The Whig party and the +Democratic party jointly adopted the Compromise measures of 1850 +as the basis of a proper and just solution of this slavery question +in all its forms. Clay was the great leader, with Webster on his +right and Cass on his left, and sustained by the patriots in the +Whig and Democratic ranks. * * * * In 1851 the Whig party and the +Democratic party united in Illinois in approving the principles of +the Compromise measures of 1850. * * * In 1852 the Whig party in +Convention at Baltimore declared the Compromise measures of 1850 +a suitable adjustment of that question. * * * * The Democratic +Convention assembled in Baltimore the same year and adopted the +Compromise measures of 1850 as the basis of Democratic action. * +* * They both stood on the same platform with regard to the slavery +question. That platform was the right of the people of each State +and Territory to decide their local and domestic institutions for +themselves, subject only to the Federal Constitution. + +"In 1854 I introduced into the Senate a bill to organize the +Territories of Kansas and Nebraska on that principle which had +been adopted in the Compromise measures of 1850, and indorsed by +the Whig party and the Democratic party in National Convention in +1852. * * * Thus you see that up to 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska +bill was brought into Congress for the purpose of carrying out the +principles which both parties up to that time had indorsed and +approved, there was no division of opinion in this country in regard +to that principle, except the opposition of the Abolitionists. In +the House of Representatives of Illinois upon a resolution asserting +that principle every Whig and every Democrat voted in the affirmative." + +In 1854 Lincoln, the leader of the Whigs, and Trumbull, one of +the Democratic chiefs, entered into an arrangement to dissolve the +old Whig and Democratic parties and to unite the members of both +into the Abolition party under the name and guise of a Republican +party. The terms were that Lincoln should have Shield's place in +the Senate, then about to become vacant, and that Trumbull should +have Douglas' seat when his term expired. Lincoln went to work to +Abolitionize the old Whig party, pretending that he was as good a +Whig as ever, and Trumbull began preaching Abolitionism in milder +and lighter form, hoping to Abolitionize the Democratic party. +The party met at Springfield in October, 1854, and proclaimed its +platform. This document christened the coalition the Republican +party. It pledged the party to bring the administration of the +Government back to the control of first principles; to restore +Kansas and Nebraska to the position of free Territories; to repeal +the Fugitive Slave Law; to restrict slavery to those States in +which it existed; to prohibit the admission of any more slave States +into the Union; to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia; to +exclude it from all the Territories and resist the acquirement of +more unless it should be prohibited therein. He asked Lincoln to +answer whether he stood pledged to each article in that creed and +would carry it out. + +"I ask Abraham Lincoln to answer these questions in order that +when I trot him down to lower Egypt (Southern Illinois) I may put +the same questions to him. My principles are the same everywhere. +I can proclaim them alike in the North and the South, the East +and the West. My principles will apply wherever the Constitution +prevails and the American flag waves. I desire to know whether +Mr. Lincoln's principles will bear transplanting from Ottawa +to Jonesboro. I put these questions to him to-day distinctly and +ask an answer. I have a right to an answer, for I quote from the +platform of the Republican party, made by himself and others at the +time that party was formed and bargain made by Lincoln to dissolve +and kill the old Whig party and transfer its members, bound hand +and foot to the Abolition party. * * * I mean nothing personally +disrespectful or unkind to Lincoln. I have known him for nearly +twenty-five years. There were many points of sympathy between us +when we first got acquainted. We were both comparatively boys and +both struggling with poverty in a strange land. I was a school +teacher in the town of Winchester, and he a flourishing grocery +keeper in the town of Salem. * * * I made as good a school teacher +as I could and, when a cabinet maker, I made a good bedstead and +tables, although my old boss said I succeeded better with bureaus +and secretaries than anything else. * * * Lincoln was then just +as good at telling an anecdote as now. He could beat any of the +boys wrestling or running a foot race, in pitching quoits or tossing +a copper, could ruin more liquor than all the boys of the town +together, and the dignity and impartiality with which he presided +at a horse race or a fist fight excited the admiration and won the +praise of everybody." + +After Lincoln and Trumbull had formed their combination to +Abolitionize the old parties and put themselves into the Senate, he +said, Trumbull broke faith by demanding Shield's place for himself +when it fell vacant and leaving Lincoln to fight for Douglas' seat +two years later. Trumbull was stumping the State for Lincoln in +order to quiet him. Lincoln was opposed to the Dred Scott decision +and would not submit to it because it deprived the negro of the +rights and privileges of citizenship. + +"Do you desire," he asked, "to * * * allow the free negroes to flow +in and cover your prairies with black settlements? Do you desire +to turn this beautiful State into a free negro colony, in order that +when Missouri abolishes slavery she can send one hundred thousand +emancipated slaves into Illinois to become citizens and voters +on an equality with yourselves? * * * Mr. Lincoln, following the +example and lead of all the little Abolition orators who go around +and lecture in the basements of schools and churches, reads from +the Declaration of Independence that all men were created equal, +and then asks, 'How can you deprive the negro of that equality +which God and the Declaration of Independence awards him?'" * * * + +"Now I do not believe that the Almighty ever intended the negro to +be the equal of the white man. If he did he has been a long time +demonstrating the fact. For thousands of years the negro has been +a race upon the earth and during all that time, in all latitudes +and climates, wherever he has wandered or been taken, he has been +inferior to the race which he there met. He belongs to an inferior +race and must always occupy an inferior position. The question, +what rights and privileges shall be conferred on the negro, is +one which each State and Territory must decide for itself. This +doctrine of Mr. Lincoln, of uniformity among the institutions +of the different States, is a new doctrine, never dreamed of by +Washington, Madison or the founders of this Government. Mr. Lincoln +and the Republican party set themselves up as wiser than these men +who made this Government which has flourished for seventy years +under the principle of popular sovereignty, recognizing the right +of each state to do as it pleased. Under that principle we have +grown from a nation of three or four millions to a nation of about +thirty millions of people; we have crossed the Allegheny Mountains +and filled up the whole Northwest, turning the prairie into a garden +and building up churches and schools, thus spreading civilization +and Christianity where before there was nothing but savage barbarism. + +"Under that principle we have become, from a feeble nation, the +most powerful on the face of the earth; and if we only adhere to +that principle, we can go forward increasing in territory, in power, +in strength and in glory, until the Republic of America shall be the +North Star that shall guide the friends of freedom throughout the +civilized world. * * * I believe that this new doctrine preached +by Mr. Lincoln and his party will dissolve the Union if it succeeds. +They are trying to array all the Northern States in one body against +the South, to excite a sectional war between the free States and +the slave States, in order that the one or the other may be driven +to the wall." + +When the applause subsided, Lincoln rose to reply. Addressing +himself first to the personal matters contained in Douglas' speech, he +denied the charge of a secret bargain between himself and Trumbull +dividing the two seats in the Senate between them. "All I have +to say upon that subject is, that I think no man--not even Judge +Douglas--can prove it, because it is not true." He denied utterly +that he had anything to do with the Republican platform drafted by +the party leaders in 1854, having refused to meet with the committee +or take any part in the organization. + +"I have no means," he said, " of totally disproving such charges +as this. I cannot prove a negative; but have a right to say that, +when he makes an affirmative charge, he must offer some proof of +its truth. Douglas' argument about 'perfect social and political +equality with the negro' is but a specious and fantastic arrangement +of words by which a man can prove a horse chestnut to be a chestnut +horse. I will say here, while upon the subject, that I have no +purpose directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution +of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no +lawful right to do so. I have no purpose to introduce political +and social equality between the white and black races. There is +a physical difference between the two, which in my judgement will +forever forbid their living together upon a footing of perfect +equality; and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must +be a difference, I am in favor of the race to which I belong having +the superior position. I agree with Judge Douglas that the negro +is not my equal in many respects--certainly not in color--perhaps +not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat +the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand +earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas and +the equal of every living man. * * * + +"In the history of our Government this institution of slavery +has always been an apple of discord and an element of division in +the house. I have a right to say that in regard to this question +the Union is a house divided against itself. The public mind +did formerly rest in the belief that slavery was in the course of +ultimate extinction. But lately Douglas and those acting with him +have placed it on a new basis which looks to the perpetuity and +nationalization of slavery. * * * * I believe we shall not have +peace upon the question until the opponents of slavery arrest the +further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest +in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or, +on the other hand, that its advocates will push it forward until +it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, +North as well as South. + +"Now, I believe if we could arrest the spread and place it where +Washington and Jefferson and Madison paced it, it would be in the +course of ultimate extinction and the public mind would, as for +eighty years past, believe that it was in the course of ultimate +extinction. The crisis would be passed and the institution might +be let alone for a hundred years, if it should live so long, in the +States where it exists; yet it would be going out of existence in +the way best for both the black and the white races. * * * Popular +sovereignty as now applied to the question of slavery, does allow +the people of a Territory to have slavery if they want it, but +does not allow them not to have it if they do not want it. * * * +As I understand the Dred Scott decision, if any one man wants slaves +all the rest have no way of keeping that one man from holding them. * * * + +"The Nebraska bill contains this clause: 'It being the true intent +and meaning of this bill not to legislate slavery into any Territory +or STATE.' I have always been puzzled to know what business the +word State had in that connection. Judge Douglas knows. He put +it there. * * * What was it placed there for? After seeing the +Dred Scott decision, which holds that the people cannot exclude +slavery from a Territory, if another Dred Scott decision shall come +holding that they cannot exclude it from a State, we shall discover +that when the word was originally put there it was in view of +something that was to come in due time, we shall see that it was +the other half of something. + +"I ask the attention of the people here assembled to the course that +Judge Douglas is pursuing every day as bearing upon this question +of making slavery national. In the first place what is necessary +to make slavery national? Not war. There is no danger that the +people of Kentucky will shoulder their muskets, and, with a young +nigger stuck on every bayonet, march into Illinois and force them +upon us. There is no danger of our going over there and making +war upon them. Then what is necessary for the nationalization of +slavery? It is simply the next Dred Scott decision. It is merely +for the Supreme Court to decide that no State under the Constitution +can exclude it, just as they have already decided that Congress +nor the territorial legislature can do it. When that is decided +and acquiesced in the whole thing is done. * * * Let us consider +what Judge Douglas is doing every day to that end. What influence +is he exerting on public sentiment? With public sentiment nothing +can fail; without it nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who +moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or +pronounces decisions. He makes statutes possible or impossible +to be executed. * * * + +"Judge Douglas is a man of vast influence. Consider the attitude +he occupies at the head of a large party. This man sticks to +a decision which forbids the people of a Territory from excluding +slavery, and he does so not because it is right in itself, but +because it has been decided by the Court; and, being decided by +the Court, he is, and you are, bound to take it in your political +action as law. * * * You will bear in mind that thus committing +himself unreservedly to this decision commits him to the next one +just as firmly as to this. The next decision, as much as this, +will be a 'Thus saith the Lord.' It is nothing that I point out to +him that his great prototype, General Jackson, did not believe in +the binding force of decisions. It is nothing to him that Jefferson +did not so believe. He claims now to stand on the Cincinnati +platform which affirms that Congress cannot charter a national +bank, in the teeth of that old standing decision that Congress can +charter a bank. And I remind him of another piece of history on +the question of respect for judicial decisions belonging to a time +when the large party to which Judge Douglas belongs were displeased +with a decision of the Supreme Court of Illinois, because they had +decided that a Governor could not remove a Secretary of State. I +know that he will not deny that he was then in favor of overslaughing +that decision by the mode of adding five new Judges, so as to vote +down the four older ones. Not only so, but it ended in the Judge's +sitting down on that very bench as one of the five new Judges to +break down the four old ones. + +"Now, when the Judge tells me that men appointed conditionally to +sit as members of a Court will have to catechized beforehand upon +some subject, I say, 'You know, Judge; you have tried it.' When +he says a Court of this kind will lose the confidence of all men, +will be prostituted and disgraced by such a proceeding, I say, 'You +know best, Judge; you have been through the mill.' But I cannot +shake Judge Douglas' teeth loose from the Dred Scott decision. Like +some obstinate animal that will hang on, when he has once got his +teeth fixed, you may cut off a leg, or you may tear away an arm, +still he will not relax his hold. He hangs to the last to the +Dred Scott decision. These things show there is a purpose strong +as death and eternity for which he adheres to this decision and for +which he will adhere to all other decisions of the same Court. * +* * When he invites any people willing to have slavery to establish +it, he is blowing out the moral lights around us. When he says he +cares not whether slavery is voted down or voted up--that is the +sacred right of self-government--he is, in my judgement, penetrating +the human soul and eradicating the light of reason and +the love of liberty. * * * + +"And now I will only say that when, by all these means and appliances, +he shall succeed in bringing public sentiment to an exact accordance +with his own; when these vast assemblages shall echo back all +these sentiments; when they shall come to repeat his views and to +avow his principles and to say all that he says on these mighty +questions, then it needs only the formality of a second Dred Scott +decision, which he endorses in advance, to make slavery alike lawful +in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South." + +Douglas, in his brief reply, reminded the audience that Lincoln +had not frankly answered the question put in his opening speech; +whether he approved of each article of the Republican resolutions +adopted in Springfield in October, 1854. Lincoln's only answer had +been that he was not present and had nothing to do with drafting +the resolutions. "But this denial is a miserable quibble to avoid +the main issue, which is that this Republican platform declares in +favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. His +reply to all these questions is 'I was not on the Committee at the +time; I was up in Tazewell County trying a case.' I put to him +the question whether, if the people of the Territory, when they had +sufficient population to make a State, should form their Constitution +recognizing slavery, he would vote for or against its admission? +He is a candidate for the United States Senate and it is possible +that, if he should be elected, he would have to vote directly on +that question. He dodges it also under the cover that he was not +on the Committee. * * * He knows I will trot him down to Egypt. +I intend to make him answer there. * * * The Convention to which +I have been alluding pledges itself to exclude slavery from all the +Territories. * * * I want to know whether he approves that provision. +* * * I want to know whether he will resist the acquirement of any +more territory, unless slavery therein shall be prohibited. These +are practical questions, based upon the fundamental principles of +the black Republican party; and I want to know whether he is the +first, last and only choice of a party with whom he does not agree +in principle. + +"He does not deny but that that principle was unanimously adopted +by the Republican party; and now I want to know whether that party +is unanimously in favor of a man who does not adopt that creed and +agree with them in their principles; I want to know whether the +man who does not agree with them and who is afraid to avow his +differences is the first, last and only choice of the party. * +* * The party stands pledged that they will never support Lincoln +until he has pledged himself to that platform; but he cannot devise +his answer. He has not made up his mind whether he will or not. +* * * I have not brought a charge of moral turpitude against +him. When he brings one against me, instead of disproving it +I will say that it is a lie and let him prove it if he can. * * * + +"Mr. Lincoln has not character enough for integrity and truth merely +on his own ipse dixit to arraign President Buchanan, President +Pierce and nine Judges of the Supreme Court, not one of whom would +be complimented by being put on an equality with him. There is +an unpardonable presumption in any man putting himself up before +thousands of people and pretending that his ipse dixit, without +proof, without fact and without truth, is enough to bring down and +destroy the purest and best of living men. * * * The word 'State' +as well as 'Territory' was put into the Nebraska bill to knock in +the head this Abolition doctrine that there will be no more slave +States even if the people want them. * * * The people of Missouri +formed a Constitution as a slave State and asked admission into the +Union; but the Free Soil party of the North, being in a majority, +refused to admit her because she had slavery as one of her +institutions. Hence, the first slavery agitation arouse upon a +State and not upon a Territory. * * * The whole Abolition agitation +arose on that doctrine of prohibiting a State from coming in with +slavery or not as it pleased, and that same doctrine is here in +this Republican platform of 1854." + +The peculiar difficult of meeting Douglas in argument before a +popular audience is here exhibited in its most perfect form. The +persuasive force of his last proposition lay in a most ingenious +play on the words "State" and "Territory." Although the people +of Missouri had formed a State Constitution, they did not become +a State until Congress approved it and formally admitted them. +During the entire period of dispute they continued a Territory. +Douglas' argument assumes that they became a State on forming a +Constitution. + + + + + +Chapter XV. The Debates with Lincoln Continued. + + + + +The second debate was held at Freeport on August 27th. Lincoln +opened his speech with a series of answers to the questions asked +at Ottawa. + +"I do not," he said, * * * "stand in favor of the unconditional +repeal of the Fugitive Slave law. * * * + +"I do not * * * stand pledged against the admission of +any more slave States into the Union. * * * * + +"I do not stand pledged against the admission of a new State. * +* * with such a Constitutions as the people * * * may see +fit to make. * * * + +"I do not stand pledged to the abolition of slavery in +the District of Columbia. * * * + +"I'm impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief in the right +and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United +States Territories. * * * + +"I am not opposed to the honest acquisition of territory. * * * I +would or would not oppose such acquisition accordingly as I might +think such acquisition would or would not aggravate the slavery +question among ourselves." + +The questions asked and answered were, whether he was PLEDGED to +any of these things. He was willing, however, to state what he +really thought of them. + +"I do not hesitate to say that * * * under the Constitution of the +United States the people of the Southern States are entitled to +a Congressional Fugitive Slave Law. * * * The existing Fugitive +Slave Law should have been so framed as to be free from some of the +objections that pertain to it without lessening its efficiency. * +* * * In regard to the admission of any more slave States into the +Union, I state to you frankly that I would be exceedingly sorry +ever to be put in a position of having to pass upon that question. +I should be exceedingly glad to know that there would never be +another slave State admitted into the Union; but I must add that, +if slavery be kept out of the Territories during their territorial +existence, * * * * and then the people shall * * * adopt a slave +Constitution, * * * I see no alternative but to admit them into +the Union. * * * I should not be in favor of abolishing slavery in +the District of Columbia, unless upon the condition that abolition +should be gradual; that it should be on the vote of a majority +of the qualified voters of the District; and that compensation be +made to unwilling owners. * * * What I am saying here I suppose I +say to a vast audience as strongly tending to Abolitionism as any +audience in the State of Illinois, and I believe I am saying that +which, if it would be offensive to any persons and render them +enemies to myself, would be offensive to persons in this audience." +He then asked Douglas four questions: + +1st. "If the people of Kansas shall * * * adopt a State Constitution +and ask admission * * * * before they have the requisite number of +inhabitants under the English bill, * * * will you vote to admit +them? + +2nd. "Can the people of a * * * Territory in any lawful way, +against the wish of any citizen, * * * exclude slavery from its +limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution? + +3rd. "If the Supreme Court * * * * shall decide that States cannot +exclude slavery from their limits, are you in favor of acquiescing +in, adopting and following such decision as a rule of political +action? + +4th. "Are you in favor of acquiring additional territory in +disregard of how such action may affect the Nation on the slavery +question? + +When the Nebraska bill was introduced, he continued, it was declared +the intent and meaning of the act not to legislate slavery into +any State or Territory or to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the +people perfectly free to regulate their own domestic institutions +in their own way. Chase of Ohio introduced an amendment expressly +declaring that the people of a Territory should have the power to +exclude slavery if they saw fit. Douglas and those who agreed with +him, voted it down. A little later the Supreme Court decided that +a territorial legislature had no right to exclude slavery. + +"For men who did intend that the people of the Territory should +have the right to exclude slavery * * * * the voting down of Chase's +amendment is wholly inexplicable. It is a puzzle, a riddle. But +* * * with men who did look forward to such a decision * * * * +the voting down of that amendment would be perfectly rational and +intelligible. It would keep Congress from coming into collision +with the decision when it was made. * * * If there was an intention +or expectation that such a decision was to follow, it would not be +very desirable for the Democratic Supreme Court to decide one way +when the party in Congress had decided the other. Hence it would +be very rational for men expecting such a decision to keep the niche +in that law clear for it. * * * It looks to me as though here was +the reason why Chase's amendment was voted down. * * * If it was +done for a different reason, * * * he knows what that reason was and +can tell us what it was. * * * It will be vastly more satisfactory +to the country for him to give some other intelligible, plausible +reason why it was voted down than to stand upon his dignity and +call people liars." + +Cass, it was said, on behalf of the Democrats in the Senate, proposed +to Chase that he so change his amendment as to provide that the +people of a Territory should have power either to introduce or exclude +slavery, and they would accept it. Chase, having conscientious +scruples on the question of slavery, declined to do this and his +amendment was voted down. But it was quite possible for them to +have accepted Chase's amendment, forbidden by the Senate rule, but +an amendment to the amended bill, which was permitted. + +Douglas, in his reply, with admirable readiness, addressed himself +to Lincoln's four questions. "In reference to Kansas," he said, +"it is my opinion that, as she has population enough to constitute +a slave State, she has people enough for a free State. * * * The +next question is, 'Can the people of a Territory * * * exclude +slavery prior to the formation of a State Constitution?' * * * In +my opinion they can. * * * It matters not in what way the Supreme +Court may hereafter decide as to the abstract question whether +slavery may or may not go into a Territory under the Constitution, +the people have the lawful means to introduce it or exclude it as +they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an +hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations. +Those police regulations can only be established by the local +legislature; and if the people are opposed to slavery they will elect +representatives to that body who will, by unfriendly legislation, +effectually prevent the introduction of it into their midst. If +on the contrary they are for it, their legislation will favor its +extension. Hence, no matter what the decision of the Supreme Court +may be on that abstract question, still the right of the people to +make a slave Territory or a free Territory, is perfect and complete +under the Nebraska bill." + +This bill provided that the legislative power of the Territory +should extend to all rightful subjects of legislation. It made +no exception as to slavery, but gave full power to introduce or +exclude it. What more could Chase's amendment do? Chase offered +it for the purpose of having it rejected. He expected it to be +capital for small politicians, and he was not mistaken. He was +amazed that Lincoln should ask his third question. He had denounced +in the Senate an article in the Washington Union claiming that any +provision in the laws or Constitutions of the free States excluding +slavery was in conflict with the Constitution of the United States. +Senator Toombs, on behalf of the South, had utterly repudiated the +doctrine. The question cast an imputation upon the Supreme Court. +Such a decision was not possible. It would be an act of moral +treason that no man on the bench could ever descend to. + +"As to Lincoln's fourth question," he said: "I answer, that whenever +it becomes necessary in our growth and progress to acquire more +territory, I am in favor of it without reference to the question +of slavery; and when we have acquired it I would leave the people +free to do as they please, either to make it slave or free territory as +they preferred. * * * I tell you, increase, multiply and expand +is the law of this Nation's existence. * * * Just as fast as +our interests and our destiny require additional territory in the +North, in the South or on the islands of the ocean, I am for it; +and, when we acquire it, will leave the people * * * free to do as +they please on the question of slavery and every other question." + +At all the Republican Congressional Conventions held in Illinois +in 1854, the resolutions adopted declared that the continued +aggressions of slavery were destructive of the best rights of a +free people and must be resisted by the united political action of +all good men; Kansas and Nebraska must be made free Territories, +the Fugitive Slave Law repealed, slavery restricted to the States +in which it then existed, no more slave States admitted, slavery +excluded from the Territories and no more Territories acquired unless +slavery therein were prohibited; and no man must be supported for +office unless positively pledged to support these principles. + +"Yet Lincoln denies that he stands on this platform and declares +that he would not like to be placed in a position where he would +have to vote for these things. * * * I do not think there is much +danger of his being placed in such a position. * * * I propose, +out of mere kindness, to relieve him from any such necessity." + +When the legislature elected in 1854 came to choose between Lincoln +and Trumbull for Senator, before a ballot was taken, Lovejoy, the +Abolitionist introduced resolutions declaring that slavery must be +excluded from all the territory then owned or thereafter acquired +by the United States; that no more slave States should be admitted +and that the Fugitive Slave Law should be unconditionally repealed. +On the following day every man who had voted for these resolutions, +with two exceptions, voted for Lincoln. Members so voting were +all pledged to vote for no man who was not pledged to support their +platform. "Either Lincoln was committed to these propositions, or +your members violated their faith. Take either horn of the dilemma +you choose. There is no dodging the question; I want Lincoln's +answer. He is altogether undecided on these grave questions and +does not know what to think or do. If elected Senator he will have +to decide. Do not put him in a position that would embarrass him +so much. He does not know whether he would vote for the admission +of more slave States, yet he has declared his belief that this +Union cannot endure with slave States in it. I do not think that +the people of Illinois desire a man to represent them who would like +to be put to the test on the performance of a high constitutional +duty. + +"I will retire in shame from the Senate of the United States when +I am not willing to be put to the test in the performance of my duty. +I have been put to severe tests. I have stood by my principles +in fair weather and foul, in the sunshine and in the rain. I have +defended the great principles of self-government here among you +when Northern sentiment ran in a torrent against me, and I have +defended that same great principle when Southern sentiment came +down like an avalanche upon me. I was not afraid of any test they +put me to. I knew my principles were right; I knew my principles were +sound; I knew that the people would see in the end hat I had done +right and I knew that the God of heaven would smile upon +me if I was faithful in the performance of my duty. * * * + +At the time the Nebraska bill was introduced, Lincoln says there +was a conspiracy between the Judges of the Supreme Court, President +Pierce, President Buchanan and myself, that bill and the decision +of the court to break down the barriers and establish slavery +all over the Union. * * * + +"Mr. Buchanan was at that time in England and did not return for +a year or more after. That fact proves the charge to be false as +against him. * * * The Dred Scott case was not then before the +Supreme Court at all; * * * * and the Judges in all probability knew +nothing of it. * * * * As to President Pierce, his high character +as a man of integrity and honor is enough to vindicate him from +such a charge; and as to myself I pronounce the charge an infamous +lie whenever and wherever made and by whomsoever made." + +Lincoln closed the debate. As to the discrepancy between the +various Republican resolutions adopted in local conventions in 1854 +and the views stated in his opening speech, he said that at the +beginning of the Nebraska agitation a new era in American politics +began. + +"In our opposition to that measure we did not agree with one another +in everything. * * * * These meetings which the Judge has alluded +to and the resolutions he has read from were local. * * * We at +last met together in 1856 from all parts of the State and agreed +upon a common platform. * * * We agreed then upon a platform for +the party throughout the entire State and now we are all bound to +that platform. * * * If any one expects that I will do anything not +signified by our Republican platform and my answers here to-day, I +will tell you very frankly that person will be deceived. I do not +ask for the vote of anyone who supposes that I have secret purposes +or pledges that I dare not speak out. * * * Douglas says if I +should vote for the admission of a slave State I would be voting +for the dissolution of the Union, because I hold that the Union +cannot permanently exist half slave and half free. * * * It does +not at all follow that the admission of a single slave State will +permanently fix the character and establish this as a universal +slave Nation." + +In March, 1856, Douglas, speaking in the Senate upon an article +published, apparently by authority, in the Washington Union, +the organ of the Administration, charged a conspiracy between the +President, his cabinet and the Lecompton Convention to establish the +proposition that all State laws and Constitutions, which prohibited +the citizens of one State from settling in another with their +slave property, were violations of the Constitution of the United +States. He declared that a fatal blow was being struck at the +sovereignty of the States. Charges of conspiracy were not entirely +unheard of when the one was made at Springfield so sharply condemned +by Douglas. + +"But his eye is farther South now than it was last March. His +hope then rested on the idea of visiting the great black Republican +party and making it the tail of his new kite. He was then +expected from day to day to turn Republican and place himself at +the head of our organization. He has found that these despised +black Republicans estimate him, by a standard which he has taught +them, none to well. Hence he is crawling back into the old camp +and you will find him eventually installed in full fellowship among +those whom he was then battling and with whom he still pretends to +be at such fearful variance." + +There is an interesting and well authenticated tradition, perhaps +too strongly established to be questioned, that Lincoln's second +interrogatory was designed as a snare for Douglas and that he was +forced by it to proclaim his unfortunate doctrine of unfriendly +legislation, which gave such deep offense to the South. It is related +on the highest authority that on the night before the Freeport +debate, "Lincoln was catching a few hours' rest at a railroad center +named Mendota, to which place the converging trains brought, after +midnight, a number of excited Republican leaders on their way to +attend the great meeting at the neighboring town of Freeport. * +* * * Lincoln's bedroom was invaded by an improvised caucus, and +the ominous question was once more brought under consideration. +The whole drift of advice ran against putting the interrogatory +(number two) to Douglas, but Lincoln persisted in his determination +to force him to answer it. Finally his friends in a chorus cried: +'If you do, you can never be Senator.' + +"'Gentlemen,' replied Lincoln, 'I am killing larger game. If +Douglas answers, he can never be President, and the battle of 1860 +is worth a hundred of this.'" + +Whatever may be the truth as to the Mendota conference, it is unjust +to Douglas to say that he was surprised by the question, or that +his answer was a mere extemporized feat of ingenuity to meet an +embarrassing exigency. Long before this and on many occasions he +had announced his opinion that the people of a Territory could by +unfriendly legislation, in defiance of the Constitution, the Supreme +Court and Congress, effectually prevent slavery among themselves. +It was one of his most deliberately formed, openly avowed and widely +known opinions. It is incredible that Lincoln and his advisors +were in doubt how he would answer the question. Whatever may be +our view of the soundness of his doctrine, it is not just to the +ablest debater and foremost statesman of the time to say that he +was taken by surprise and driven into a corner by a question which, +as he was taken by surprise and driven into a corner by a question +which, as he said then, he had answered a hundred times from every +stump in Illinois. + +The third debate was held at Jonesboro, near the southern boundary +of the State, on September 15th. + +Douglas, in his opening speech, stated anew his now familiar +argument that the Republican party was sectional, threatening to +disrupt the Union by its slavery agitation, while the Democratic +party was national, with a wholesome creed, alike applicable in +all latitudes. Lincoln and Trumbull had conspired to abolitinize +the old parties and secure seats in the Senate. Lincoln's doctrine +of the house divided against itself was examined and the implied +threat emphasized that Southern institutions must be overthrown +and a dead level of uniformity reached in order that the Government +should stand. The finality of the Dred Scott decision and the +exclusion of negroes from the Declaration of Independence were +insisted on. Much of the speech was devoted to the local and +transient questions of Illinois politics. + +Lincoln, replying to the charge that the slavery agitation was the +result of the aggressive attitude of Northern Abolitionists, again +insisted that the propagandists of slavery were the aggressors, +having attempted to change it from a local and declining institution +and spread it through all the Territories, removing it "from the +basis on which the fathers left it to the basis of its perpetuation +and nationalization." The agitation began with the repeal of the +Missouri Compromise. + +"Who," he asked, "did that? Why, when we had peace under the +Missouri Compromise, could you not have left it alone?" + +He quoted Douglas' speech in the Senate on June 9th, 1856, in which +he had declared that "whether the people could exclude slavery +prior to the formation of a Constitution or not, was a question to +be decided by the Supreme Court. * * * * When he says, after the +Supreme Court has decided the question, that the people may yet +exclude slavery by any means whatever, he does virtually say that +it is not a question for the Supreme Court. * * * the proposition +that slavery cannot enter a new country without police regulations +is historically false. * * * Slavery was originally planted upon +this continent without these police regulations. * * * How came +the Dred Scott decision to be made? It was made upon the case +of a negro being taken and actually held in slavery in Minnesota +Territory, claiming his freedom because the act of Congress prohibited +his being so held there. Will the Judge pretend that Dred Scott +was not held there without police regulations? * * * * This shows +that there is vigor enough in slavery to plant itself in a new +country, even against unfriendly legislation. It takes not only +law, but the enforcement of the law, to keep it out. This is the +history of this country upon the subject. * * * The first thing +a Senator does is swear to support the Constitution of the United +States. Suppose a Senator believes, as Douglas does, that the +Constitution guarantees the right to hold slaves in a Territory. +How can he clear his oath unless he supports such legislation as is +necessary to enable the people to enjoy their property? Can you, +if you swear to support the Constitution, and believe that the +Constitution establishes a right, clear your oath without giving +it support? * * * * There can be nothing in the words, 'support +the Constitution,' if you may run counter to it by refusing to +support it. * * * * And what I say here will hod with still more +force against the Judge's doctrine of unfriendly legislation. * * +* Is not Congress itself bound to give legislative support to any +right that is established in the United States Constitution? A +Member of Congress swears to support the Constitution * * * and +if he sees a right established by that Constitution which needs +specific legislative protection, can he clear his oath without +giving that protection. * * * If I acknowledge * * * that this +(Dred Scott) decision properly construes the Constitution, I cannot +conceive that I would be less than a perjured man if I should +refuse in Congress to give such protection to that property as in +its nature is needed." + +He then stated his fifth interrogatory: If slave-holding citizens +of the United States Territory should need and demand congressional +legislation for the protection of their slave property in such +Territory, would you as a Member of Congress, vote for or against +such legislation? + +Douglas in his reply took up Lincoln's rather evasive answer to +his second interrogatory submitted at Ottawa. "Lincoln," he said, +"would be exceedingly sorry to be put in a position where he would +have to vote on the question of the admission of slave States. Why +is he a candidate for the Senate if he would be sorry to be put in +that position? * * * * If Congress keeps out slavery by law while +it is a Territory and then the people should have a fair chance +and should adopt slavery, he supposes he would have to admit the +State. Suppose Congress should not keep slavery out during their +territorial existence, then how would he vote when the people +applied for admission with a slave Constitution? That he does not +answer; and that is the condition of every Territory we have now +got. His answer only applies to a given case which he knows does +not exist in any Territory. But Mr. Lincoln does not want to be +held responsible for the black Republican doctrine of no more slave +States. Why are men running for Congress in the northern Distracts +and taking that Abolition platform for their guide when Mr. Lincoln +does not want to be held to it down here in Egypt? His party in +the northern part of the State hold to that Abolition platform, +and if they do not in the south, they present the extra-ordinary +spectacle of 'a house divided against itself' and hence 'cannot +stand.'" + +In answer to Lincoln's last question, he said: "It is a fundamental +article of the Democratic creed that there should be non-interference +or non-intervention of Congress with slavery in the States or +Territories. The Democratic party have always stood by that great +principle and I stand on that platform now. * * * * Lincoln himself +will not answer this question. * * * It is true * * * (he admits) +that under the decision of the Supreme Court, it is the duty of a +man to vote for a slave code in the Territories. If he believed +in that decision he would be a perjured man if he did not give the +vote. I want to know whether he is not bound to a decision which +is contrary to his opinions just as much as to one in accordance +with his opinions? * * * Is every man in this land allowed to resist +decisions he does not like and only support those which meet his +approval? * * * * It is the fundamental principle of the judiciary +that its decisions are final. * * * * My doctrine is that, even +taking Mr. Lincoln's view that the decision recognizes the right of +a man to carry his slaves into the Territories, yet after he gets +them there he needs affirmative law to make that right of any value. +The same doctrine applies to all other kinds of property. + +"Suppose one of your merchants should move to Kansas and open +a liquor store; he has a right to take groceries or liquor there; +but the circumstances under which they shall be sold and all the +remedies must be prescribed by local legislation; and if that is +unfriendly it will drive him out just as effectually as if there +was a constitutional provision against the sale of liquor. Hence, +I assert, that under the Dred Scott decision you cannot maintain +slavery a day in a Territory where there is an unwilling people +and unfriendly legislation. If the people want slavery they will +have it, and if they do not want it you cannot force it upon them." + +Neither Lincoln nor Douglas could as yet fairly and fearlessly +grapple with the great problem. Lincoln's virtual rejection and +defiance of the decision of the Supreme Court suggests not reform +but revolution. These dark hints that the decisions of the highest +tribunal should not be accepted or obeyed, that they were binding +only on those who believed in them, portended nothing less than +war. Slavery being an established institution, recognized by the +Constitution and regulated by law, had the right to exist. Lincoln +and his party abhorred it and resented the injustice of the law. +Obeying the dominant instinct of the race, the scrupulously observed +the form of the law while waging war upon it. On the other hand +it is impossible to find either legal or philosophical foundation +for Douglas' arguments. Slavery had been adjudged lawful in all +the Territories. The proposition gravely argued by him, that the +people could lawfully exclude a thing from a place where it had a +lawful right to be, was monstrous. He sternly rebuked Lincoln for +his irreverence in refusing to cordially accept the Dred Scott +decision and in the next breath, with shocking inconsistency, dissolved +its entire force in the menstruum of unfriendly legislation. The +decision was utterly repugnant to the people of the State. The +both viewed it as a political rather than a philosophic problem. +Both rejected it and the consequences flowing from it. Lincoln +quibbled when asked to accept it as a rule governing his political +conduct. Douglas, by a cunning device, sought to destroy its force +as a rule of private right. Lincoln insisted on the essential +dishonesty of the juggling trick by which Douglas got rid of the +adjudicated law. Douglas insisted on the anarchic spirit with +which Lincoln bade defiance to it. + +It would be tedious to follow the debates through in detail. +Necessarily the later arguments were mainly a repetition of those +made in the earlier speeches. Thee was a marked falling off in +the good temper and mutual courtesy of the combatants in the later +stages of the contest. The abiding question to which the argument +constantly recurred was that of negro slavery, as to which Lincoln +was darkly oracular and Douglas was resolutely evasive. Lincoln +again and again pressed Douglas to say whether he regarded slavery +as wrong. Douglas persistently declined the question on the pleat +that it was one wholly foreign to national politics. Each State +had a right to decide for itself; and that right had been delegated +to the Territories by the Compromise act of 1850 and again by the +Kansas-Nebraska act of 1854. + +"I look forward," he said, "to a time when each State shall be allowed +to do as it pleases. If it chooses to keep slavery forever, it is +not my business, but its own; if it chooses to abolish slavery, it +is its own business, not mine. I care more for the great principle +of self-government, the right of the people to rule, then I do for +all the negroes in Christendom. I would not endanger the perpetuity +of this Union, I would not blot out the great inalienable rights +of the white man, for all the negroes that ever existed." + +Lincoln persistently pressed his argument: "When Douglas says he +don't care whether slaver is voted up or voted down, he can thus +argue logically if he don't see anything wrong in it; but he cannot +say so logically if he admits that slavery is wrong. He cannot say +that the would as soon see a wrong voted up as voted down. When +he says that slave property and horse and hog property are alike +to be allowed to go into the Territories upon the principle of +equality, he is reasoning truly if there is no difference between +them and property; but if the one is property held rightfully and +the other is wrong, then there is no equality between the right and +the wrong. * * * That is the real issue. That is the issue that +will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge +Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle +between these two principles that have stood face to face from +the beginning of time and will ever continue to struggle. The one +is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of +kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops. It +is the same spirit that says, 'you work and toil and earn bread, +and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether from +the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own +nation and live by the fruit of their labor or from one race of men +as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical +principle." + +In the Quincy debate, and again in the last debate at Alton, Douglas, +with great skill, took up the attack made upon him by the Buchanan +Administration because of his alleged heresies on the Kansas +question. The Washington Union in an editorial had condemned his +Freeport declaration that the people could by their unfriendly +attitude exclude slavery from a Territory. It argued that his plan +was to exclude it by means of his device of popular sovereignty and +declared that he was not a sound Democrat and had not been since +1850. He quoted from Buchanan's letter accepting the nomination, +in which he warmly applauded those "principles as ancient as free +government itself * * * in accordance with which * * * * the people +of a Territory, like those of a State, shall decide for themselves +whether slavery shall or shall not exist within their limits." + +He also quoted in vindication of the soundness of his Democracy +a speech of Jefferson Davis declaring that, if the inhabitants of +a Territory should refuse to enact laws to protect and encourage +slavery, the insecurity would be so great that the owner could not +hold his slaves. + +"Therefore," said Davis, "though the right would remain, the remedy +being withheld, it would follow that the owner would be practically +debarred from taking slave property into a Territory when the sense +of its inhabitants was opposed to its introduction." + +These latter arguments were addressed to the Administration +Democrats, who, however, proved a quite unimportant factor in the +campaign. They were an utter negation politically. Were it an +academic problem, much could be said in their defense. In a time +of stormy passion, they were passionless. In a time of fanatical +convictions and intolerant opinions, they were coldly neutral, +appealing with impotent pride to the traditions and precedents of +the past. + +The election was held on the 2nd of November. The Republicans +elected their State ticket by a popularity of nearly 4,000, but +lost the legislature. When that body met Douglas was again chose +Senator. + + + + + +Chapter XVI. The South Rejects Popular Sovereignty. + + + + +Although victorious in the greatest battle of his life the position +of Douglas was not easy. The people of Illinois were evidently no +longer in sympathy with him. The Buchanan Administration and the +Southern extremists had openly declared war on him for his cool +indifference to the special interests of the South, his carelessness +whether slavery was voted up or voted down in the Territories, and +his hostility to their plans for planting it in Kansas. He was +preparing for his last struggle for the Presidency. Having won +this doubtful victory at home, he decided to make a tour of the +South in the hope of stimulating its waning enthusiasm. In order +to hold the Senatorship it had been necessary to please Illinois, +even though the South were alienated. In order to win the Presidency +he now resolved to satisfy the South, even though he offended +Illinois. Moreover, being at war with the Administration, he +hoped to return to Washington with the prestige of a re-election +and a great Southern ovation. He intended to force Buchanan and +his Cabinet to sue for peace. He was political strategist enough +to understand the importance of a bold front and an imposing display +of power at the outset of his next campaign. + +He took boat at St. Louis for New Orleans and enjoyed the leisurely +autumn trip down the River. He spoke at Memphis on November +29th, and at New Orleans on December 6th. He sailed to Havana and +thence to New York, where he received a royal welcome. On reaching +Philadelphia he was formally welcomed at Independence Hall. He +then went to Baltimore and spoke in Monument Square on the evening +of January 5th, returning to Washington next day. On the 10th he +resumed his seat in the Senate. + +He had told the people of Illinois that, in spite of the Constitution, +the Supreme Court, the President and Congress, it was within the +power of the inhabitants of a Territory to prohibit slavery by their +unfriendly attitude. This doctrine was utterly abhorrent to the +South, which now rested its entire case on the judicial interpretation +of the Constitution and regarded all attempts to evade the full +force of the Dred Scott decision as little less than treason. The +net result of the struggles of a decade had been the establishment +of a principle that the Constitution carried slavery with it wherever +it went. To lightly treat the Constitution as a thing that could +be quietly defied and annulled by the squatters, was to strip their +great victory of all value and snatch from them the fruit of their +labors. Had this doctrine of local nullification been sound, it +was not to be expected that it would be received with enthusiasm +or even with patience by men whose dearest hopes it must obviously +defeat and whose subtle art and long protracted labors it utterly +thwarted. But that daring sophism which attacked the very foundation +of all legal authority, did violence to every sound principle of +philosophy, and was utterly subversive of the peculiar and cherished +doctrines of the South, should have been resorted to by Douglas to +avoid defeat in Illinois, was viewed as a shameless outrage. It +was believed that he had sacrificed their sacred cause in order to +avoid a local reverse; that his seat in the Senate was dearer to +him than their most valued interests. + +It was probable that in his eagerness to win the Illinois campaign +he had not considered seriously the irreconcilable repugnance of +his distinctive dogma to the compact body of Southern political +philosophy. It was now necessary to present it to the South in +such dress that it might, if possible, gain acceptance, at least +that it might not shock the deepest prejudices of that section. + +In addressing his Southern audiences he attempted to take the +sting out of his obnoxious doctrine by showing that it was entirely +harmless. The people of the Territories, he said, doubtless had +the practical power, in spite of the Constitution, statutes and +decisions, to exclude slavery by their unfriendly attitude toward +it. But what would determine their attitude? Clearly their selfish +interests. If slavery would be profitable, their attitude would be +friendly and it would take root and flourish under the protection of +the law. If by reason of soil or climate it would be unprofitable, +their attitude would be unfriendly and neither laws nor Constitutions +could successfully foster it. But it could not injure the South +to exclude slavery from regions where it could only be maintained +at a loss. It was not a question of ethics, but purely of physical +geography. Where soil and climate rendered it profitable, it would +spring up in precisely the same way as pine trees or maize. + +But it was clear to his keen eye that these feats of ingenuity +were taken at their real worth. While the people treated him with +gracious courtesy, they prudently reserved their judgement. They +paid generous honor to the great leader whom they would gladly use +but dared not trust. He had chosen to hold Illinois and had lost +the South. + +While he was vainly trying to woo back the alienated South, +a significant event occurred in Washington. When the Senate was +organized during his absence, he was removed from the chairmanship +of the Committee on Territories, which he had held since his first +election. This was done by the Democratic caucus and indicated a +deeper resentment than he had suspected. The Puritans of Illinois +had once risen in insurrection against him. The Cavaliers of the +South were now sternly protesting against his easy political morals. + +For six weeks he preserved almost complete silence. His situation +was anomalous. The quarrel with the Administration was implacable. +A few months before, the Republicans were inclined to court him; +but the desperate battle with Lincoln had made it clear that his +quarrel with them was on perennial questions of principle. Solitary +and out of touch with all parties, he was yet recognized as the +chief of the Northern Democrats and a formidable candidate for the +Presidency. + +While diplomatically awaiting developments, he was suddenly drawn into +an important debate. On February 23rd Senator Brown of Mississippi +discussed with great plainness his attitude on the slavery question. +With ill concealed contempt for men whose opinions shaped themselves +to suit the demands of political strategy he said: + +"I at least am no spoilsman. I would rather settle one sound +principle in a presidential contest than secure all the patronage +of all the Presidents who have ever been elected to or retired +from the office. * * * The Constitution never gave us rights and +denied us the means of protecting and defending those rights. The +Supreme Court has decided that we have a right to carry our slaves +into the Territories and, necessarily, to have them protected after +we get there. * * * I neither want to cheat nor to be cheated in +the great contest that is to come off in 1860. * * * I think I +understand the position of the Senator from Illinois and I dissent +from it. * * * He thinks that a territorial legislature may, by +non-action or unfriendly action, rightfully exclude slavery. I +do not think so. * * * * The Senator from Illinois thinks the +territorial legislature has the right, by non-action or by unfriendly +action to exclude us with our slaves. * * * We have a right of +protection for our slave property in the Territories. The Constitution +as expounded by the Supreme Court awards it. We demand it, and we +mean to have it." + +Douglas at once answered. He said that his obnoxious doctrine +only meant that the territorial legislature by the exercise of the +taxing power and other functions within the limits of the Constitution +could adopt unfriendly legislation which would practically drive +slavery out. The real demand of the South was for a congressional +slave code for the Territories. But no Northern man, whether Democrat +or Republican, would ever vote for such a code. The inhabitants +would protect slavery if they wanted it, if the climate were +such that they could not cultivate the soil without it. It was a +question of climate, of production, of self-interest, and not of +constitutional law. The slave owner had no higher rights than the +owner of liquor or inferior cattle, which the territorial legislature +could exclude. Under the doctrine of the Kansas-Nebraska act the +Territories had the right to pass such laws as they pleased, subject +only to the Constitution. + +If their laws conflicted with that it was the business, not of +Congress, but of the Courts to decide their nullity. When Buchanan +accepted the nomination in 1856, he declared that the people of +a Territory, like those of a State, should decide for themselves +whether slavery should exist within its limits. He could not have +carried half the Democratic vote in any free State if the people had +not so understood him. "I intend to use language," he continued, +"which can be repeated in Chicago as well as in New Orleans, in +Charleston as well as in Boston. * * * No political creed is sound +or safe which cannot be proclaimed in the same sense wherever the +American Flag waves over American soil. If the North and the South +cannot come to a common ground on the slavery question the sooner +we know it the better. * * * I tell you, gentlemen of the South, +in all candor, I do not believe a Democratic candidate can ever carry +one Democratic State of the North on the platform that it is the +duty of the Federal Government to force the people of a Territory +to have slavery when they do not want it." + +Davis, the leader of the Southern Democracy, answered him. He +reminded the Senate that Congress had no power to exclude slavery +from a Territory and the legislature had no power except that +given it by Congress. Hence it could not possibly have the power +to exclude it. Douglas could not claim more than this unless he +could illustrate the philosophical problem of getting more out of +a tub than it contained. Congress, having no power to prohibit +slavery, was bound to see that it was fully enjoyed. + +"I agree with my colleague," he continued, "that we are not, with +our eyes open, to be cheated, and that we have no more respect for +that man who seeks to evade the performance of a constitutional +duty than for one who openly wars upon constitutional rights." + +Mason, of Virginia, insisted that the Constitution construed by the +Supreme Court denied Congress the power to exclude slavery form a +Territory. Douglas admitted that the legislature derived all its +power from Congress. Hence, he must admit that it had no power to +interfere with slavery. + +Green, of Missouri, the new chairman of the Committee on Territories, +next attacked him. Slaves, he declared, were property, as decided +by the Supreme Court. The Territories of Kansas and Nebraska could +not, by either direct or indirect legislation, prohibit or abolish +slavery; and if they should undertake to do either it would be the +duty of Congress to interpose. The legislature had no more power, +by direct or indirect means to prohibit the introduction of slaves +than the introduction of horses or mules, and it was a dishonest +subterfuge to say that it could be done. + +"What is meant by unfriendly legislation? I had thought that rights +of person and property were beyond the power of legislation. * * +* There never was a legislative body in existence on the face of +the globe that could justly take any right of person or property +from a citizen without rendering a just compensation." He reminded +the Senators that in 1857 Douglas had urged the interposition +of Congress in Utah affairs, even to the extent of repealing the +organic act, thus recognizing that Territories were mere dependencies +of the Federal Government. Why this tenderness about Kansas? A +Territory had no power except what was conferred by Congress. +Douglas said that all legislative power not inconsistent with the +Constitution, was conferred. But if the power to destroy any kind +of property was conferred, it would be consistent with the Constitution +and the grant would be void. If all power not inconsistent with +the Constitution was conferred by the organic act, then the power +to call the Lecompton Convention and draft a Constitution was conferred. +"All the power the Territory has is derived from Congress and can +be resumed at pleasure. The creature can never be equal to its +creator." + +Douglas said, that if the people of a Territory wanted slavery they +would protect it. But suppose the majority did not want it? The +Constitution still declared slaves to be property and forbade +the majority to take away the property in a slave from a single +individual. If they had no right to take it away, what right +had they by unfriendly legislation to render it valueless? If a +Territory persistently attempted to destroy a species of property +protected by the Constitution, ought not Congress to intervene for +the protection of the citizens? + +Douglas replied to these deadly attacks. He reminded them that when +they repealed the Missouri Compromise they had agreed to leave all +these questions to the people of the Territories and the decision of +the Supreme Court. This was the true Democratic doctrine. Davis +and Mason had both said that no man holding his views could receive +the support of the South for the Presidency. Yet this was the +doctrine of Cass when candidate for President, but the whole South +gave him their votes. When did this change of creed occur? + +Davis answered briefly, regretting that Douglas had not denied or +explained any of his Illinois speeches, and said he was now satisfied +that he was as full of heresy as he once was of the true theory of +popular sovereignty. He declared that this doctrine was "offensive +to every idea of conservatism and sound government; a thing offensive +to every idea of the supremacy of the laws of the United States," +and announced plainly that the South would not support him for +President. He persistently pressed him to say whether he meant to +abide by the Dred Scott decision. + +The Court, answered Douglas, had decided that neither Congress nor +the territorial legislature could prohibit the settler from bringing +his slaves to a Territory. "In other words, the right of transit +is clear, the right of entry is clear. * * * You have the same +right to hold them as other property, subject to such local laws as +the legislature may constitutionally enact. If those laws render +it impracticable to HOLD your property, whether it be your horse +or your slave, why, it is your misfortune." + +He had reached the brink of the abyss. The South was preparing +for treason and rebellion. Its mood was altogether too tragic to +be even amused by his philosophic refinements. It rejected them now, +not with contempt, but with horror. The North, too, was in stern +mood. Its abhorrence of slavery had intensified with constant +agitation. It was grimly earnest in its resolve to resist all further +extension of it and resented the indifference of the statesman who +did not care whether the burning crime of the ages was voted up or +voted down. + +Douglas, who regarded the ethics of this question with indifference +and who supremely desired to conciliate the South without alienating +the North, blundered in plunging into this debate. The Southern +Senators were unanswerably right. Since the Dred Scott decision +his position was so clearly untenable that to insist upon it amid +conditions so threatening seemed to them the most intolerable +trifling. The Republicans looked on as pleased spectators while +the battle raged between Northern and Southern Democrats and the +party was hopelessly torn asunder. It was clear the part of prudence +to restrain his impulsive pugnacity for the remaining weeks of +the session. But when challenged to defend himself his impatient +eagerness to speak was uncontrollable. + + + + + +Chapter XVII. Seeking Reconciliation. + + + + +After the adjournment he devoted himself to a new and unfamiliar +task. He prepared an article for Harper's Magazine on the slavery +question and its relation to party politics, in which he defended +his position, explained his philosophy and sought to throw light +on this confused subject. The article made some stir at the time. +It contained nothing, however, which he had not already said much +better in his speeches. He was not a man of literary culture or +habits. His thought was brightest and his eloquence highest when +the battle was raging. + +The article had the good fortune to provoke a rather elaborate +anonymous reply from Jeremiah S. Black, Buchanan's Attorney-general. +Black was a profound lawyer and better writer than Douglas. While +he would have been no match for him in senatorial debate or on the +stump, he completely eclipsed him as a literary controversialist. +Moreover, Black was standing on firm ground, simply insisting +that his party accept the decision of the Supreme Court as law and +conform its conduct to it without evasion or pettifoggery; while +Douglas was striving to stand in mid-air, nullifying the decision +by clever tricks and condemning as anarchists the Republicans, who +frankly confessed their hostility to it. He gravely argued that +Congress could grant to a territorial legislature power which the +Constitution denied to itself. Black's answer was crushing and +showed conclusively that there was no basis in either law or logic +for those peculiar doctrines in which Douglas differed from his +party. Black judiciously avoided all discussion of the ethics +of the question, confining himself to an examination of the legal +basis of Douglas' special creed, proving clearly that it had been +utterly swept away. + +On the night of October 16th occurred John Brown's mad exploit at +Harper's Ferry. Congress opened on December 5th. On the 12th of +January Douglas' heretical opinions on the right of the people to +exclude slavery from the Territories were called in question. The +Southern Senators pressed upon him the fact that he had agreed to +abide by the decision of the Supreme Court on the disputed question, +and, now that the South had been sustained by the decision, he had +virtually repudiated it by his Illinois speeches. No man holding +such opinions, they declared, was a sound Democrat or could possibly +receive the vote of a Southern State at the Charleston Convention. +They justified their action in removing him from his chairmanship +of the Committee on Territories by a rehearsal of his heretical +opinions and announced their purpose to oppose his presidential +aspirations. He defended himself against this irregular attack +with great ability and courage, maintaining the soundness of his +Democracy and imputing heresy to his accusers, who were seeking +to debauch the ancient Democratic faith by infusing into it their +late-invented doctrines. At last, wearied by the irregular debate, +he sarcastically proposed that, as his health was poor, they all +make their attacks upon him and present their charges; when they +were through he would "fire at the lump" and vindicate every word +he had said. + +A few days later he offered a resolution to instruct the Judiciary +Committee to prepare a bill to suppress and punish conspiracies in +one State to invade or otherwise molest the people or property of +another, and addressed the Senate upon it. He expressed his firm +and deliberate conviction that the John Brown raid at Harper's +Ferry was the natural, logical, inevitable result of the doctrines +and teachings of the Republican party as explained and the enforced in +speeches of its leaders in and out of Congress. He said that when +he returned home in 1858 for the purpose of canvassing Illinois with +a view to reelection, he had to meet this issue of the irrepressible +conflict. Lincoln had already proclaimed the existence of inexpiable +hostility between free States and slave States. Later, Seward had +announced it in his Rochester speech. It was evidently the creed +of his party. The Harper's Ferry outrage was a natural and logical +consequence of these pernicious doctrines. John Brown was simply +practicing their philosophy at Harper's Ferry. The causes that +produced this invasion were still in active operation. These +teachers of rebellion were disseminating their deadly principles. +Let Congress pass appropriate laws and make such example of the +leaders of these conspiracies as to strike terror into the hearts +of the others and there would be an end of this crusade. + +With all his courage in meeting recent attacks, it was plain +that his only hope of the Presidency lay in the prospect of his +reconciliation with the Southern leaders. They needed his help +to prevent the Radicals, Seward, Chase and Lincoln, from carrying +the next election. He needed their help to compass the nomination. +He decided without lowering his standard to win them back by the +mere efficiency of his service. But the Southern leaders were not +in search of a Northern master. They wanted servants in the high +places of Government not less humble than the blacks who tilled +their plantations. They instinctively knew that he was not and +could not be such a servant. Rather than support him they would +see Seward elected. He at least frankly avowed his hostility. If +they elected Douglas and he declined to obey, their position would +be awkward. If a sectional Republican were elected, they could +secede and set up an independent Government. + +On the 7th of May Davis spoke in support of a series of radical +resolutions introduced by him on February 2nd, declaring that +neither Congress nor a territorial legislature had power to impair +the Constitutional right of any citizen of the United States to +take his slave property into the common Territories and there hold +it; that it was the duty of Congress to protect this right; and +that the inhabitants had no power either by direct legislation or +by their unfriendly attitude to exclude slavery until they formed +a State Constitution. He spoke with great force in support of them. +He ascribe the authorship of the pernicious heresy of squatter +sovereignty to Cass, and threw doubt on the soundness of Douglas' +Democracy by a long recital of what he regarded as unsound and +heretical opinions and votes. He showed the complete failure of +his distinctive policy in Kansas and the authoritative rejection +of his principles by the Supreme Court. While the speech was +courteous and dignified in manner, apparently delivered to elucidate +the subject rather than to injure Douglas, it portrayed the wreck +of his statesmanship and exposed the unsoundness of his Democracy +with dangerous clearness while his candidacy was in the hands of +the National Convention. + +A week later he replied. Already the Charleston Convention, and +with it his candidacy, had virtually gone to pieces because of +Southern hostility to him and his principles. Davis was the head +o the Southern junta, and the debate in the Senate was known to +express in cold phrase, the passions that had rent the Convention +and threatened to disrupt the party. + +As Douglas, anxious but unfaltering, rose to speak, there was +a hush in the crowded Chamber. After a sneering allusion to his +controversy with Black, he announced his purpose to defend himself +against the attack made by Davis. The speech occupied two days +in its delivery and was a unique and artistic piece of senatorial +politics. It was addressed less to the Senate than to the adjourned +Charleston Convention. He exhaustively proved the soundness +of Democracy and repelled the charge of heresy by rehearsing the +history of Democratic Conventions and platforms since 1848, quoting +the declarations of the party and its leaders in Convention, on +the platform and through the press. + +Cass, he said, the author of the now deadly doctrine of popular +sovereignty, was nominated in 1848. The Compromise of 1850 +embodied that principle. The Kansas-Nebraska struggle was settled +by expressly adopting it. The Cincinnati platform, on which all +Democrats had stood for four years, distinctly affirmed it. The +Charleston Convention, within a few days, had reaffirmed it. His +own speeches showed that he had adhered to it constantly from the +beginning of his career. The change was not in him but in the +Southern wing of the party. He protested that he did not desire +the nomination and only permitted his name to be used that he might +be vindicated against the presumptuous efforts of a little coterie +to cast doubt upon his Democracy and their attempt to proscribe +him as a heretic might be rebuked. + +The most hostile critic must feel some sympathy for him in his +new and indefensible position. His now heretical opinions had +but recently borne the authentic stamp of Democracy. His party, +following its real sentiments and the judicial interpretation of +the Constitution, had silently abandoned its old creed to which he +still clung with tenacity and ardor. + +Davis, answering, asked him the blunt question, whether, if elected +President, he would sign a bill to protect slave property in States, +Territories, or the District of Columbia. He declined to answer +suggesting the impropriety of declaring in advance what he would +do if elected. + +Congress adjourned on June 25th. + + + + + +Chapter XVIII. A Noontide Eclipse. + + + + +While events in Washington in the spring of 1860 were full of +historic interest, greater and more memorable events were occurring +in Charleston. The Democratic Convention met in that city on April +23rd, which brought to the surface a state of feeling at the South +that had long been suspected but not certainly known. + +There was but one prominent candidate in the field. Douglas was +incomparably the most eminent Democratic statesman of the time. +According to the settled custom of the party, the South, which +did not ask the Presidency itself, should have supported him. But +the Southern delegates had resolved that in no event should he be +nominated on any platform. + +He had a clear majority of the Convention. But the Democrats, +though still wearing a common badge, now constituted two distinct +and antagonistic parties, held together not so much by common +beliefs as by habits, traditions and sentimental attachment to an +old and venerable name. The Northern Democrats were wholly estranged +from those of the South. The two sections of the party quarreled +about the platform; yet the Southerners cared little about that +matter if they could name the candidate. They did not demand a +Southern man, for he could not be elected. They wanted a "Northern +man with Southern principles," like Pierce or Buchanan. Of all +living men the dexterous and domineering Douglas least suited their +demands. He was probably the only man who could have carried a +large enough Northern vote to be elected. But they could not forget +that his popularity at the North was, in part, the result of his +great battle against the South which had caused their disastrous +defeat. + +The Northern delegates insisted on merely approving the Cincinnati +platform, while the Southern delegates, who hoped to render Douglas' +candidacy impossible, insisted on radical pro-slavery declarations +and a denial of all right of the people of a Territory to prevent +the holding of slaves. After a fierce struggle the Northern platform +was adopted by a small majority. Immediately the delegates from +Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, +Arkansas and three-fourths of that from Georgia refused to abide +by it and withdrew. + +The seceders organized another Convention, adopted the radical +platform which had been rejected and adjourned to meet at Richmond +on the 11th of June. + +The regular Convention, meanwhile, found itself unable to do anything. +The settled rule required a vote of two-thirds of all the delegates +to select a candidate. The chairman ruled that in order to be +nominated Douglas must have two-thirds of all the delegates elected, +notwithstanding the secession. This required 202 votes. He had +but 152 and the other 50 were not to be had. On May 3rd, after +57 ballots, the Convention adjourned to meet at Baltimore on June +18th. Davis, Toombs and the other leaders of the Southern junta +in Congress issued an address approving the course of the seceders +at Charleston, advising them to take no action at Richmond, but +to await the result of the Baltimore Convention and expressing the +conviction that, if fair concessions were not made to the South, +other delegations would join them. + +They accordingly came to Baltimore and demanded their seats in that +Convention. But some of the States had elected new delegations +which claimed them. For days confusion prevailed. Douglas sent two +messages suggesting that his candidacy be dropped. But there were +suppressed by his friends, who inexorably demanded his nomination. +Five more States withdrew and the chairman resigned and joined +the seceders. The Convention reorganized itself and proceeded to +ballot. Douglas received all but thirteen votes; less, however, +than the required two-thirds of all the delegates elected. But a +resolution was passed declaring him nominated on the ground that +he had received the votes of two-thirds of all delegates present. +Senator Fitzpatrick of Alabama was nominated for Vice-President +and the Convention adjourned. He declined and the Committee placed +Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia in his place. + +The seceders, joined by the recent recruits, held their Convention +in Baltimore on the 28th of June and nominated John C. Breckenridge +of Kentucky for President and Joseph Lane of Oregon for Vice-President. + +This did not bring about a new condition, but revealed one which +had existed for many years. The South was technically right in it +demand that the Convention declare itself explicitly in favor of +the honest and faithful maintenance of its constitutional rights +in the Territories. These rights had been vehemently denied by +the Republicans, but triumphantly established on a solid basis by +the decision of the Supreme Court. Douglas had quibbled over the +decision and explained it away until it seemed doubtful whether it +in fact settled anything. The platform adopted by his supporters +in the Convention recited the differences of opinion among Democrats +as to the exact limits of the powers of the territorial legislature +and those of Congress and referred the question again to the Court +with a pledge to abide by its decision. They seemed to forget that +the whole question had already been decided in the most sweeping +terms in favor of the extreme Southern demands. It is not impossible +that, had the South consented tot his vague and disingenuous platform +and vigorously supported Douglas, he might have been elected. But +"the South was implacable towards him and deliberately resolved to +accept defeat rather than secure a victory under his lead." + +The Republicans, meanwhile, had held their memorable Convention +at Chicago, where, on May 18th, Lincoln had been nominated. When +the news arrived in Washington, it made a great stir. The Republican +Senators and Members gathered around Douglas to hear his judgement +of the new statesman who had risen in the West. + +"Gentlemen," he said, " you have nominated a very able and a very +honest man." + +On the adjournment of Congress, disregarding the decorous custom +of seventy years, he entered the campaign, making speeches in his +own behalf. He knew from the outset that with only a fraction of +his party at his back, his chances of election were slight. But he +fought on fiercely, partly from temperament and partly from conviction +that he ought, if possible, to prevent Lincoln's election. Besides, +there was a shadowy possibility of an election by the House of +Representatives. At times his old Democratic enthusiasm returned. +He told one audience that had his party given him undivided support +he would have carried every State in the Union against Lincoln, +except two. + +He was sincerely alarmed for the safety of the Union in case of +Lincoln's election, which he believed probable. He urged upon the +South the duty of submitting to the result whatever it might be. +At Norfolk, Virginia, he was asked whether, if Lincoln was elected, +the Southern States would be justified in seceding from the Union? + +To this he said, "I answer emphatically, No! The election of a man +to the Presidency * * * in conformity with the Constitution * * * +would not justify any attempt at dissolving this glorious Confederacy." + +He further told them that if Lincoln were elected he would aid him +to the extent of his power in maintaining the supremacy of the laws +against all resistance to them from whatever quarter, and that it +would be the President's duty to treat all attempts to break up +the Union as Jackson treated the nullifiers in 1832. His candidacy +was obviously hopeless. He exerted himself to avert the coming +storm. Lincoln received one million eight hundred and sixty-seven +thousand votes, Douglas one million two hundred and ninety-one +thousand, and Brekenridge eight hundred and fifty thousand. Of the +three hundred and three electoral votes Douglas received but twelve. +Lincoln had an electoral majority over all opposing candidates. + +On the 13th of November, South Carolina called a Convention to consider +the dangers incident to her position in the Federal Union which, +on December 20th, unanimously adopted an ordinance of secession. +Three weeks later Mississippi declared herself out of the Union +and was promptly followed by Florida, Alabama and Georgia. By the +20th of May eleven States had seceded. The President looked on it +as a lawsuit between the States and exhausted his very respectable +legal learning and ingenuity in proving that he had no power +to raise his hand in defense of the country. It may be that the +lawyer, with his quiddits and quillets, had survived the man. It +may be that he had so long breathed the atmosphere of treason in +the Cabinet counsels that he was tinctured with the widely prevalent +pestilence. It is much more likely that the timorous old man, +finding his term of office ending amid universal ruin, his friends +and masters rushing into mad rebellion against his Government, +weakly adopted that famous sentiment of the French King: "It will +outlast my time." + +Congress met on the third of December. In his message the President +charged the entire trouble to the aggressive anti-slavery activity +of the North, which had at last driven the South to open rebellion. +He protested that he was powerless to act and referred the whole +matter to Congress. Three of the Cabinet were serving the enemy +and many seats in the House and Senate were held by unblushing +traitors. The forts in Charleston harbor were besieged by South +Carolina. The Government at first dared not and later could not +relieve them. + +Congress, if not as completely palsied as the President, was +without remedy for the fearful evils of the time. Besides its +quota of positive traitors, many of its members were infected with +the mild, moonshiny political philosophy which had been currently +in Washington for a quarter of a century. Many were about to retire +to private life, and, like Buchanan, thought the Government would +outlast their time. A famous Senate Committee of Thirteen, and a +corresponding House Committee of Thirty-three, were appointed to +consider the state of the Nation; both of which toiled much and +accomplished nothing. + +The Committee of Thirteen reported late in December that it was +unable to agree, and on January 3rd Douglas addressed the Senate +upon this report. He reviewed at great length the history of +slavery legislation and drew from it all the conclusion that the +trouble had arisen from unwarrantable interference in the local +affairs of the Territories, and that, had popular sovereignty been +given a chance it would have solved the problem long since and +would do it yet if fairly tried. He ascribed the trouble to the +pernicious agitation of the Republicans, and recalled Lincoln's +most radical anti-slavery utterances in the famous campaign of 1858. +He assured the people of the South that Lincoln would be powerless +to hurt them if they remained in the Union, for there would be +a majority against him in both the Houses of Congress. He denied +utterly the right of South Carolina to secede and repudiate its +constitutional duties, and insisted on the right of the Federal +Government to enforce the law in all of the States. Yet, while +there was a ray of hope, war must not be resorted to. + +"In my opinion," he continued, "war is disunion, certain, inevitable, +and irrevocable. * * * We have reached a point where disunion is +inevitable unless some compromise, founded upon mutual concession, +can be made. I prefer compromise to war. I prefer concession to +a dissolution of the Union." + +He asked the Republicans to consent to the reestablishment of the +Missouri Compromise line, which he had swept away six years before +amid their earnest protestations. He also proposed to establish +popular sovereignty by constitutional amendment, such sovereignty +to begin when a Territory had 50,000 inhabitants, and, by another +amendment, to prohibit future acquisition of territory without +a concurrent vote of two-thirds of each House of Congress. His +purpose, he said, was not to settle the slavery question, but to +expel slavery agitation from the arena of Federal politics forever. + +This was his last important speech in the Senate. It was delivered +under circumstances of awful solemnity. He seemed not deeply +impressed with the gravity of the situation and was still interested +in it chiefly as a party problem. He did not expect the baptism +of blood that followed, but cheerfully looked forward to compromise +and reconciliation. The Northern Democrats might yet rescue +the country by mediating a truce between radical Republicans and +radical Southern Democrats. In the present state of affairs who, +but himself, the chief of these neutrals, could lead this great +movement? His mental habits were those of the politician. He saw +all event primarily in their relation to party tactics. Now that +the earth began to rock beneath his feet, he suspected that it +was only a theatrical earthquake and prepared to seize upon every +advantage that might be gathered out of the confusion. He could not +comprehend the deep and unappeasable passions that rent the Nation. +The grim earnestness of his fellow-countrymen was as inconceivable +to him as the demoniac enthusiasm of the great Apostle was to +the scoffing Athenians who heard him on the Hill of Mars. But, +as the great tragedy deepened and darkened, he quit his political +speculations and began to think, not of the success of his party, +but of the possibility of saving the Union from imminent wreck. + +He returned to Illinois and addressed the legislature, urging +energetic support of the war, and on May 1st was welcomed back to +Chicago by an immense assembly of all parties. He was escorted +to the great hall in which Lincoln had been nominated and there +addressed the people. He spoke not as a politician but as a generous +patriot. He denounced in unmeasured terms the Southern conspiracy +which had resulted in secession and now had ripened into open and +bloody rebellion. He saw the treason of the South no longer as a +mere element in an interesting political game, but as the blackest +of human crimes and an awful menace to the life of the Republic. + +"There are only two sides to the question," he said. "Every man must +be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals +in this war; only patriots or traitors. * * * It is a sad task to +discuss questions so fearful as civil war; but sad as it is, bloody +and disastrous as I expect it will be, I express it as my conviction +before God that it is the duty of every American citizen to rally +around the flag of his country." + +Not long after his return home he was stricken with serious sickness. +The disease was not of such a character that it was expected to +prove fatal, but the highest medical skill and most tender nursing +were unavailing. The truth was, although unsuspected, that his +vital energies were completely exhausted by the enormous labors +and deep agitations of the past ten years. He had just passed his +48th birthday but was already gray and prematurely old. He had +dwelt amid the tempest for twenty years and had felt more of severe +strain than most men who had seen the Psalmist's three score years +and ten. When told that his end was near, and asked what message +he would send to his boys: + +"Tell them," he said, "to obey the laws and support the Constitution +of the United States." + +On the morning of June 3rd he died. His remains lie buried in +Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan, a spot fitly chosen as the +last resting place of this most ceaselessly active and inexhaustibly +resourceful of American statesmen. + +History has not been kind to Douglas. The farther we recede from +events the more trivial seem the temporary circumstances which +influence them and the clearer appear the changeless principles +which ought to mold men's conduct. But to the eager, impetuous man +of action, the temporary circumstances are apt to be of overmastering +force. He was a practical man of action, whose course was generally +guided by the accidental circumstances of the hour, rather than +by fixed principles. His education was defective. He entered the +great arena with little of either mental or moral culture. Yet, +severely as we now judge him, he did not fall below the prevailing +standard of political morals. His real sin was that he did not +rise above the ethics of the times; that he remained deaf as an +adder to the voices of the great reformers who sought to regenerate +the age, and who were compelled to grapple with him in deadly struggle +before they could gain footing on the stage. The time was out of +joint and he felt no vocation to set it right. While his ethics +has fared hard, his mental gifts have been over-estimated. The +availability of all his resources, his overwhelming energy and marvelous +efficiency among men of intellect, gave rise to the impression +which still survives that he was a man of original genius. But of +all his numerous speeches, heard or read by millions, not a sentence +had enough vitality to survive even one generation. Though for +ten years of stormy agitation he was the most commanding figure in +our public life and wielded power of which Presidents and Cabinets +stood in awe, the things for which he is chiefly remembered are +his unfortunate doctrine of popular sovereignty and the resistless +power with which he defended his most dubious relation to the +question of slavery. + +His powerful influence upon the overshadowing question of the times, +his restless activity in shaping the course of great political +events, fast drifting into darkest tragedy, have obscured his work +in less conspicuous fields. While it does not come within the +scope of this work to do more than portray his relation to the +great national tragedy which was slowly evolving during the entire +period of his political life, it should not be forgotten that his +activity covered the whole field of legislation and that no man +responded more generously or efficiently to the countless demands +upon time and energy which so greatly burden the American statesman. + +It is pleasant to find a Lieutenant General of the United States army +in his old age and retirement recalling a visit in his boyhood to +Washington, to seek redress of some West Point grievance, and how +the only man he could find who had the leisure enough to effectively +interview the Secretary of War on his behalf was Douglas. + +It is sufficient for our purposes to say that for thirteen years +he had practical control of all legislation affecting the Western +Territories, that he drafted the bills establishing territorial +governments for Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, New Mexico and +Washington and prepared the acts for the admission of Wisconsin, +California, Minnesota and Oregon. He secured for his State an +enormous grant of public land, which resulted in the building of +the Illinois Central Railroad. He warmly advocated the building +of a railway to the Pacific. He consistently favored the most +liberal appropriations for internal improvements, and, with that +provincial patriotism and jealousy of Old World interference which +was fashionable fifty years ago, vigorously opposed the Clayton-Bulwer +treaty as a practical annulment of the Monroe doctrine. + +It is not to be set down in his list of sins that he failed to +bridge over the widening chasm between the North and the South; +but it must be charged to him as a mental defect that he hopelessly +failed to comprehend the significance of the great movements which +he seemed to lead, that in the keenness of his interest in the +evolutions of political strategy he failed to discern the symptoms +of coming revolution. + +When the storm that had been brewing before his eyes for ten years +broke upon the country it took him by surprise. The ardor of his +temperament, the eagerness of his ambition, make his conduct at +times painfully resemble that of the selfish demagogue. But the +range of his vision was small. He erred less from corruption of +the heart than from deficiency of the mind. But what statesman of +note during those strange and portentous years preceding the war +could safely expose his speech and conduct to the searchlight of +criticism? The wisest walked in darkness and stumbled often. It +was not the fate of Douglas to see the mists amid which he had +groped swept away by the hurricane of war. + +What he would have done had his life been protracted ten year +longer, is subject of interesting speculation. By temperament and +habit he belonged to the preceding generation and it is difficult +to conceive him working in harmony with the fiery and unyielding +Puritans who succeeded. He loved the Union heartily and hated +secession. He would have supported Lincoln in the great crisis. +In the regenerated America, which rose from the fiery baptisms of +the war, with its new ideal, its new hopes, its new convictions +and deeper earnestness, he would probably have found himself sadly +out of place. The epoch of history to which he belonged was closed. +Young as he was, he had outlived his historic era and there is a +dramatic fitness in the ending of his career at this time. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Life of Stephen A. Douglas, by Gardner + |