LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS AT OTTAWA.
[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]
CHICAGO, August 27, 1858.
After Mr. Douglas spoke at Peoria on the 8th, he proceeded to Lacon, where, on the next day, he made the discovery that all the Presidents, naming them in order from Washington to Buchanan, had endorsed the principles of the Dred Scott Decision by refusing to grant passports to negroes to travel in foreign countries. After which, he reposed his wearied virtue for one day, to prepare for the extreme of mendacity, which he reached on Saturday at Ottawa. There, most aptly, he illustrated the Latin proverb— “Andas omnia perpeti, ruat per retitum nefas”1 — and there he strode so deeply into the mire of falsification that extrication is impossible. But more of this further on.
At Lewiston, in Fulton county, on the 17th, Mr. Lincoln held one of his largest meetings and spoke for two hours and a half. At this place he tore from Douglas the mantle of Henry Clay, under which the senator had been strutting and hoping to hide the wickedness of his pretenses. Mr. Lincoln read largely from Clay’s writings and speeches, wherein he contends for the ultimate emancipation of the slave, and said that he would claim no support from the old line Whigs unless he could show that he stood upon the ground occupied by that great statesman. He further said that he believed Mr. Douglas was the only man of prominence before the country who had never declared, to friend or enemy, whether he believed slavery to be right or wrong. His speeches, to be sure, leave the hearer to infer that he did not desire slavery to be introduced into Illinois, but he indicates that no moral consideration would prevail with him against the exercise of slave-ownership, provided there was more money in working a negro that in working a horse. It was in this speech that Mr. Lincoln uttered an eloquent and impressive apostrophe into the Declaration of Independence, which ranks him at once among the foremost orators of the land. I give you a brief extract from the correspondent of the Press and Tribune:
“These communities, the thirteen colonies, by their representatives in old Independence Hall, said to the whole world of men; ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’” This was their majestic interpretation of the economy of the Universe. This was their lofty, and wise, and noble understanding of the justice of the Creator to His creatures. Applause. Yes, gentlemen, to all His creatures, to the whole great family of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the Devine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on, and degraded, and imbruted by its fellows. They grasped not only the whole race of man then living, but they reached forward and seized upon the farthest posterity. They erected a beacon to guide their children and their children's children, and the countless myriads who should inhabit the earth in other ages. Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to breed tyrants, and so they established these great self-evident truths, that when in the distant future some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none but rich men, or none but white men, were entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers began—so that truth, and justice, and mercy, and all the humane and Christian virtues might not be extinguished from the land; so that no man would hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great principles on which the temple of liberty was being built. Loud cheers.
“Now, my countrymen (Mr. Lincoln continued with great
earnestness,) if you have been taught doctrines conflicting with the great
landmarks of the Declaration of Independence; if you have listened to
suggestions which would take away from its grandeur, and mutilate the fair
symmetry of its proportions; if you have been inclined to believe that all men
are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated by our
charter of liberty, let me entreat you to come back. Return to the fountain
whose waters spring close by the blood of the Revolution. Think nothing of me—take
no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever—but come back to the
truths that are in the Declaration of Independence. You may do anything with me
you choose, if you will but heed these sacred principles. You may not only
defeat me for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. While
pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I do claim to be actuated
in this contest by something higher than an anxiety for office. I charge you to
drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any man's success. It is
nothing; I am nothing; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that
immortal emblem of Humanity—the Declaration of American Independence.”
Reports from various localities indicate that the Fillmore Americans and Old Lane Whigs are coming to the support of Mr. Lincoln, to put down the agitator and demagogue, who, on the other hand, is appealing to them for their votes. It is not to be disguised that Mr. Douglas has the [illegible] faith of the masses of the democratic party; whether it be abiding is another question. Once he had the ear of the federal administration; now he has lost it, and it is the object of unceasing opposition from that quarter. Then he could rally his lieges and hold them because he had rewards to bestow; now his promises are beggarly and unproductive. Thrift no longer follows fawning upon him. The Buchanan men do not warm towards him yet, and they are not likely to although it is said a joint and special commission has gone to Washington to plead with the unrelenting Executive.
Saturday, the 21st, was the day of the first discussion between Lincoln and Douglas. It was held at Ottawa, a city of about 9,000 inhabitants, on the line of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad and the Illinois canal, and the junction of the Fox and Illinois rivers. I arrived late the night before at Ottawa, and was accommodated with a sofa at the hotel. The city was already even full. Saturday was a pleasant, but warm day, and Ottawa was deluged in dust. By wagon, by rail, by canal, the people poured in, till Ottawa was one mass of active life. Men, women and children, old and young, the dwellers on the broad prairies, had turned their backs upon the plough, and had come to listen to these champions of the two parties. Military companies were out; martial music sounded, and salutes of artillery thundered in the air. [Eager] marshals in partisan sashes rode furiously about the streets. Peddlers were crying their wares at the corners, and excited groups of politicians were canvassing and quarrelling everywhere. And still they came, the crowd swelling constantly in its proportions and growing more eager and more hungry, perhaps more thirsty. Though every precaution was taken against this latter evil. About noon the rival processions were formed, and paraded the streets amid the cheers of the people. Mr. Lincoln was met at the depot by an immense crowd, who escorted him to the residence of the mayor, with banners flying and mottoes waving their unfaltering attachment to him and to his cause. The Douglas turnout, though plentifully interspersed with the Hibernian element, was less noisy, and thus matters were arranged for the after-dinner demonstration in the Court House square, where the stand was erected, and where, under the blazing sun unprotected by shade trees, and unprovided with seats, the audience was expected to congregate and listen to the champions.
Two men presenting wider contrasts could hardly be found as the representatives of the two great parties. Everybody knows Douglas, a short, thickset, burly man, with large round head, heavy hair, dark complexion, and fierce bull-dog bark. Strong in his own real power, and skilled by a thousand conflicts in all the strategy of a hand-to-hand or a general fight. Of towering ambition, restless in his determined desire for notoriety, proud, defiant, arrogant, audacious, unscrupulous, “Little Dug” ascended the platform and looked out imprudently and carelessly on the immense throng which surged and struggled before him. A native of Vermont, reared on a soil where no slave ever stood, trained to hard manual labor and schooled in early hardships, he came to Illinois a teacher, and from one post to another had risen to his present eminence. Forgetful of the ancestral hatred of slavery to which he was the heir, he had come to be a holder of slaves and to owe much of his fame to his continued subservience to southern influence.
The other—Lincoln—is a native of Kentucky, and of poor white parentage; and from his cradle has felt the blighting influence of the dark and cruel shadow which rendered labor dishonorable, and kept the poor in poverty, while it advanced the rich in their possessions. Reared in poverty and the humblest aspirations, he left his native state, crossed the line into Illinois, and began his career of honorable toil. At first a laborer, splitting rails for a living—deficient in education, and applying himself even to the rudiments of knowledge—he, too, felt the expanding power of his American manhood, and began to achieve the greatness to which he has succeeded, With great difficulty struggling through the tedious formularies of legal lore, he was admitted to the bar and rapidly made his way to the front ranks of his profession. Honored by the people with office, he is still the same honest and reliable man. He volunteers in the Black Hawk war, and does the state good service in its sorest need. In every relation of his life, socially and to the state, Mr. Lincoln has been always the pure and honest man. In physique he is the opposite to Douglas. Built on the Kentucky type, he is very tall, slender and angular, awkward even, in gate and attitude. His face is sharp, large-featured and unprepossessing. His eyes are deep set, under heavy brows; his forehead is high and retreating, and his hair is dark and heavy. In repose, I must confess that “Long Abe’s” appearance is not comely. But stir him up, and the fire of his genius plays on every feature. His eye glows and sparkles, every lineament, now so ill-formed, grows brilliant and expressive, and you have before you a man of rare power and of strong magnetic influence. He takes the people every time, and there is no getting away from his sturdy good sense, his unaffected sincerity, and the unceasing play of his good humor, which accompanies his close logic and smoothes the way to conviction. Listening to him on Saturday, calmly and unprejudiced, I was convinced that he has no superior as a stump speaker. He is clear, concise and logical; his language is eloquent and at perfect command. He is altogether a more fluent speaker than Douglas, and in all the arts of debate fully his equal. The Republicans of Illinois have chosen a champion worthy of their heartiest support and fully equipped for the conflict with the great “squatter Sovereign.”
By previous arrangement, Mr. Douglas was to open in a speech of one hour, Mr. Lincoln was to respond in a speech of an hour and a half, and Mr. Douglas was to conclude in another half hour. The square was filled with people, and when the cannon and the music had been quieted, Mr. Douglas commenced. He began by referring to the attitude of the Whig and Democratic parties prior to the spring of 1854, claiming that up to that time they stood on the same platform with regard to the Slavery question. He said that in the session of 1853-4 he introduced the Kansas bill, in accordance with the principles of the compromise of 1850, and endorsed by the Wig and Democratic National Conventions of 1852. In 1854, after the passage of this bill, he said that Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Trumbull entered into a league to deliver up, bound hand and foot to the Abolitionists, the old Whigs and the old Democrats—in consideration whereof, Mr. Lincoln was to have Shield’s place, and Mr. Trumbull was to have his own. (A screw subsequently became loose, and the programme of substitution was changed.) In pursuance of this plan, the parties met at Springfield in 1854, to perfect arrangements. There they, Mr. Lincoln included, passed a certain series of abominable resolutions, one of which he would read, and to which Mr. Lincoln, and his party were [committed]. He then proceeded to discuss Mr. Lincoln’s position in regard to negro equality, to the evident satisfaction of the Hibernian body guard, who were made to believe that Mr. Lincoln was aching to place the African in high places of the land, and to fold him to his arms in a fraternal embrace. Recurring them to his doctrine of popular sovereignty, he lauded it as the great element of our growth and prosperity, and closed with a spread-eagle eulogium upon the democratic party. Mr. Douglas was often interrupted with light applause, but, on the hole, it was not a very enthusiastic demonstration.
Then the tall form of “Long Abe” loomed above the heads on the stage, the signal for a fanatic expression of applause. Mr. Lincoln replied seriatim to Mr. Douglas’s charges, denying the conspiracy with Trumbull entirely, stating that at that time he was opposed to the formation of a new party, and that he had no hand in the preparation of the Springfield resolutions. On the subject of negro equality, he read from a speech of his in 1854, and which he said Mr. Douglas heard, and on that record he was prepared to stand.
Mr. Lincoln closed, and Douglas came forward, evidently under much excitement. He took advantage of his last half hour, and rose to such a pitch of arrogance and audacity as is seldom witnessed. With brazen front and lungs of iron, with a recklessness peculiarly his own, he launched forth a bold and defiant speech, which his retainers applauded to the echo. The charges of his first speech he re-affirmed with an unblushing effrontery, denounced Trumbull and Lincoln in unstinted terms, passed the lie around the circle, shook his long locks, grew red in the face, stentorian in voice, declared that Buchanan was a most excellent man, and scouted at the idea of Mr. Lincoln’s having any reputation for veracity. When he concluded, he was followed to his quarters by part of the crowd. The rest gathered about the stand, cheering Lincoln, and when he descended, he was seized by his enthusiastic friends, and in spite of his struggles, borne in triumph to the hotel, on the shoulders of half a dozen men, at once a novel exhibition of the freedom of western politics and the exuberance of western feeling.
I said, near the commencement of this letter, that Mr. Douglas waded very deeply into the mire of mendacity at Ottawa. The full vindication of this charge, and the proof of his singular madness, is furnished in the Chicago Press and Tribune of this morning, to whose excellent phonographic report of the Ottawa meeting. I have been indebted for the completion of the brief notes which I took at the time. I can do no better than give you the proof, in the words of the journal to which I refer. “At the meeting in Ottawa, on Saturday, the senator read a series of radical resolutions, which he assured his hearers were passed by a Republican State Convention in 1854, at Springfield; that the constituted the platform of the party at that day, and that they represented the views of his distinguished competitor, who, he said, took part in the proceedings of which the resolutions were a share. The resolutions were frauds and forgeries from first to last. No such series was ever presented to, hence never adopted by, any State Republican Convention in Illinois! And in making the assertion Mr. Douglas knee that he basely, maliciously and willfully LIED. He not only lied circumstantially and wickedly; but be spent the first part of his speech in elaborating the lie with which he set out, and the entire latter part, in giving the lie application and effect. The resolutions which he read were adopted by one house meeting at Aurora, in Kane county, with which Mr. Lincoln had nothing to do, which he was not near, which he possibly never heard of except though the public prints.”
There the senator stands, branded and convicted of a deliberate fraud, gibbeted before the public. I confess I was prepared for this exhibition. I knew that Douglas’s life as a politician was one great [illegible] vocation, that he had experienced incessant “changes of heart,” and that his position in [illegible] campaign was only a trap and a lure to another and falser position in the next. But I could hardly expect that he would coolly stand up and read a printed resolution as genuine, where he must have known that he was deliberately submitting a false and fraudulent record. Yet, he it is that goes over the states saying “you lie,” and infamous liar,” to Trumbull and Lincoln. This exposure of the Press and Tribune takes the very heart and core out of Douglas’s Ottawa speech. It to the very bone, and leaves only a hollow and baseless frame behind, “were words, “mouthfuls of spoken wind,” a figure with swollen features, and windmill arms beating the air, with violent but [imbecile] gesticulation. The very audacity of this charge gave Douglas this seeming advantage; that it put Lincoln on the explanatory and defensive, in regard to a series of resolutions which, whether passed at a one horse meeting in Kane county” or at Springfield, he could know nothing about it, as he had no hand in making them, and it is asking too much, to require a politician to have at his tongue’s end all the resolutions of four year old conventions. Lincoln will overhaul Douglas for this cheat, at Freeport, on Friday, when they meet again. The senator’s friends came home in jubilant spirits on Saturday, but they are crest fallen to-day, and doubtful of the implicit faith they have heretofore reposed in him. Douglas is unchanged. Perhaps the wise men of the East, that counseled the Republicans of Illinois to sustain him, are still regretful that their arrangements were not carried out.
After the Ottawa meeting was concluded on Saturday, Hon. Owen Lovejoy addressed the Republicans in the evening. Thrusting aside the assaults in his own party, he dashed headlong at the enemy and carried the war into the democratic party. “from grave to gay, from lively to severe,” he proceeded boldly and eloquently to arraign that party at the popular bar, and to convict it of its errors, crimes and inconsistencies. It was a great speech, and finished up admirably the performances of the day. There was then a torchlight procession. By the moonlight thousands wended their way home, and quiet began to reign in Ottawa.
Senator Trumbull is on the stump in the central and southern part of the state. He speaks at Alton on Wednesday, and at Springfield on Saturday. Douglas speaks at Galena on Wednesday and meets Lincoln at Freeport of Friday.
Douglas is in a quandary in regard to popular sovereignty and Dred Scott. At some places he tells his audiences that the decision is not binding where it conflicts with his specific. His reporter for he carries one about with him—omits this part of the performance from the bills.
1 This was in italicized and hard to make out,
but I believe I got it right as when I put in into Google Translate I got the translation
as: “You go through everything, rush
through the net of evil”
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