The Jacksonville Sentinel. 'Ten Thousand People at Jacksonville to Hear Douglas' in 'The Jacksonville Sentinel' . Jacksonville, IL: J. R. Bailey, 1858. [format: newspaper], [genre: article]. Permission: Public domain
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=js091058b.html

September 10, 1858.

The ‘Little Giant’ of the North-West to be Sustained! Immense Outpouring of the People.

The great reception meeting at this place on Monday last was a proud day for the Democracy of Morgan, and for our distinguished senator, Hon. S. A. Douglas. Since the commencement of Mr. Douglas' brilliant political career, he has had a strong hold upon the affections and sympathies of the people of old Morgan. He took his first political step in their midst, and those who nurtured him in his early struggles feel a pride in his present position as the greatest living statesman of this great nation. The great struggle for the maintenance of popular rights, in which he triumphed during the last session of congress, has added greatly to this pride in his success and commanding genius, and sympathy for his bold and gallant defense of the right of a people to decide upon their own institutions. It is not strange, then, that the people of Moran and the surrounding counties, should turn out by thousands to welcome to his old home; the nation's favorite statesman.

Senator Douglas, acompanied by his beautiful and accomplished wife, who met him at Springfield, on her way to St. Louis, and escorted by the Springfield Democratic Club, came down on the morning train. On his arrival at the depot he was greeted by the firing of cannon and the cheers of an immense crowd. He was met by the committee of reception and conveyed in procession to the Dunlap House, escorted by Capt. Parsons' Rifles, the Rescue Fire company and a long procession. In entering upon the square, the procession passed under a festooned arch of evergreens stretched across Beardstown street, having above it stretched canvas bearing on one side the inscription, "Welcome to Douglas, the Great Defender of the People's Rights," and on the other, "All honor to Douglas and Harris, the true friends of the Union."

Towards noon the delegations from the country commenced pouring into the city from all directions, in almost interminable lines of procession with flags, banners, mottoes &c, until we began to think the place would scarcely hold the crowd; and the republicans doubtless began to imagine that the people were truly all for Douglas. The county delegations having united, passed down States Street. Mr. Douglas witnessed the procession from the verandah of the Dunlap House, and as it passed, the occupants of each wagon saluted him with heart-felt cheers of welcome to his old home. In the Concord delegation were thirty-two ladies on horseback, each with a small flag in which was lettered the name of Douglas.

The Bethel delegation was also accompanied by two wagons, with long procession beds, filled with young ladies bearing in their midst a beautiful banner having a lithographic likeness of senator Douglas in the centre, surrounded by thirty-two linked wreaths of cedar, representing the thirty-two states, each wreath adorned with pink rosetts, and above the likeness the word "Union" in letters of cedar wreath, the whole circled and ornamented with pink and blue ribbon. This handsome banner, the work of Miss Thompson, of Bethel, was subsequently presented by the Bethel ladies to Mrs. Douglas, in whose name the Judge responded in a neat and appropriate manner. When the part of the procession occupied by the ladies passed the Hotel, three rousing cheers were given for the Concord and Bethel girls. The Lynnville Douglas club, with its handsome banner, was also loudly cheered. Without specially noting the time, we should judge that the almost endless string of procession occupied about an hour in passing the hotel. The fine brass bands from Springfield and Winchester discoursed enlivening music, and with the volunteer Rifles and Rescue Fire company, each of which with their handsome new uniforms really made a fine appearance, aided much to the demonstration. Among other decorations in the procession we noticed a life size representation of Senator Douglas, got up by our fellow townsman, Matthew Ainsworth. The crowd has been variously estimated at from ten to fifteen thousand.

The speaker's stand was erected on the east side of the Court House, and immediately over it, extending the entire length of the building, a canvas was stretched bearing in large letters, the inscription, "Old Morgan for the Union and Down on Negro Equality." About one o'clock Mr. Douglas was conveyed to the square, and the people, including several hundred ladies immediately occupied the seats and square. The meeting was organized by the announcement made by Mr. Epler, of the following officers: For President,

Vice Presidents — Harvey Route, A. C. Rowland, Acquilla Becraft, Dr. J. V. D. Gaddis, Henry Stryker, sen., Wm. T. Givens, Robert Seymore, Samuel Woods, Charles G. Smith, I. R. Bennet, W. L. Craven, Abel Brown, Willis Stockton, Dr. C. H. Knight, Capt. John Smith, Bernard Thompson, sen. Samuel Thompson, James Gordon, Joseph B. Edwards, Ed. Wyatt, Dr. B. Gillett, Hon. Jno. Henry, Jno. Sample, Rev. Peter Cartwright.

Mr. B. F. Bristow then proceeded to welcome senator Douglas to his old home in the following eloquent and appropriate

Honored and Respected Sir:
Permit me, in behalf of your fellow citizens of "old Morgan," to bid you welcome. Yes, welcome, thrice welcome! is the swelling emotion, which now, with gushing fullness, throbs and beats in ten thousand hearts. Our happiness in meeting you here to-day, differs in some respects, from that with which you have been greeted by your fellow citizens in other sections of our country. We receive you as "old friends," to the cherished home of you younger days. We receive you as one of our children; one whose brilliant political careers in life, dates its starting point in Jacksonville. You came among us, sir, in the position of the yankee school master; and you have been the architect of you own fortunes. In you, sir, we recognize a happy illustration of the glorious equality of our beloved institutions. You have made your way in life by self exertion; unaided by exclusive privileges or by the trappings of wealth and power. Under the constitution and laws, you have been permitted to develop your great faculties unobstructed by legal impediments. We have watched you rapid rise and progress with feelings of thrilling interest. From the time you represented our country in the State legislature, up to the present moment, we have been constant witnesses of your conflicts and your triumphs; — And we are proud, to-day, in recognizing in you, sir, the embodiment of a principle which is as undying as liberty itself. A principle which is wholly American. A principle with which you have become so intimately identified, as to constitute a part of your being. A principle recognizing man's right to self-government. A principle based upon a patriotism which is as broad as our glorious Union. Not hemmed in by state or geographical lines, nor regulated and based by local politics. A principle that knows no North no South, no East or West, but only knows them as one country, one and inseparable. In you conflicts in battling for this undying principle, calumny and detraction have in vain emptied all of their vials upon your head. So fierce and so malignant have been the attacks of your enemies, that many of your devoted friends have frequently quaked with fear. But, sir, surrounded as you have been by the noise of Kansas shriekers, and the thunders of Lecompton hirelings, you have advanced undaunted amidst them all.

And now how changed? Consternation and dismay fill the ranks of your enemies. You have outlived envy and malice, and we rejoice, to-day, that your life has been spared to prove to the world that your ambition was no more than a holy aspiration to make your country the greatest, the most powerful, and the freest on earth.

In the name of your fellow citizens of old Morgan, I again bid you a hearty welcome.

At the conclusion of the reception address, Mr. Bristow introduced Senator Douglas to the meeting.

Mr. Douglas commenced his remarks by stating that the sentiments expressed in the reception address just delivered, awakened in his breast the deepest and warmest emotions; it brought to his memory old reminiscences and old friendships of other days, when he first entered upon the career of public life. The people of Morgan and Cass elected him to his first seat in the legislature. Those old associations had recently been forcibly recalled to his mind, from meetings at Springfield, his old friends and former political opponent for congress, John T. Stuart. They had been opposed to each other in those good old times of Whigery and Democracy, when the great parties of the country differed only on questions of expediency and policy under the constitutions; when the doctrines of each could be proclaimed in the south as well as the north — from Maine to Louisiana; when, differing as they did on questions of policy, they were united in opposing abolitionism. Mr. Stuart had remarked that, although Douglas and himself had differed in those old times on the question of bank, tariff, &c., they stood up on the same plank as regarded the slavery question. The issues of bank and tariff were become obsolete, but the slavery question had become the leading and only great issue before the country. He saw no reason why he should now desert that old Whig plank, in reference to the slavery question, because he found Judge Douglas and his former opponents upon the questions of bank and tariff standing upon it with him. He would unite with Judge Douglas in opposing the dangerous incroachments of abolition sentiment, as he did in those old Whig and Democratic times. He would not step off of that old Whig plank if he found very Democrat in the Union occupying it with him. These were the sentiments of his old political opponent, John T. Stuart. Neither will I, said Mr. Douglas, leave that old national plank, although I find every whig in the country standing with me upon it..

Mr. Douglas reviewed the history of the slavery question from 1850. When we acquired the territories of New Mexico, Utah and California, a storm of agitation was got up by the abolitionists, who, with the freesoilers, attempted to fasten the Wilmot proviso upon the territories, prohibiting the introduction of slavery. — This effort aroused a feeling of resistance on the part of the South, and the question threatened a dissolution of the government. In this emergency Mr. Clay left the quite scenes to which he had retired from public life; entered congress and proposed the compromise measure of 1850, leaving the question of slavery to be decided by the people of the territories. In that contest, said Mr. Douglas, I fought side by side with Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster for the establishment of that great principle. All who participated in carrying those measures, whigs and democrats, acknowledged the gallant old chieftain, Mr. Clay, as the leader. These measures met with bitter opposition from the abolitionists. When he (Mr. Douglas) returned home to Chicago the City Council had passed an act setting the fugitive slave law at defiance. He was then the only man in Chicago who publicly raised his voice against this act of the city of Chicago. He requested a hearing, and upon his explanation of the law the city Council had the good sense to rescind their act. The adjustment measures of 1850 were endorsed by the national conventions of both parties in the canvass of 1852; but in 1854, when Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were in their graves, the effort was made to dissolve both the Democratic and Whig parties, and build up the present republican party, with the abolition element predominant, from the ruins of both. In this State Mr. Lyman Trumbull undertook to abolitionize the democratic party, and Mr. Abraham Lincoln undertook to abolitionize the whig party, and as recruits were obtained from either, Mr. Lovejoy was ready to receive them into the abolition camp. — To effect this Mr. Lincoln made strong appeals to the political prejudices of his old whig friends. They had been beaten again and again by the democrats. — Mr. Lincoln went among them, pretending to be as good a whig as ever and asked them if they would not, just as a matter of form, unite with the abolitionists and give the democrats one good licking. They assented to this arrangement for the sake of once beating the democrats, without understanding that the movement committed them, to an indorsement of the abolition creed, and that Lincoln would never lead them back tot their old platform. A compact was entered into between the abolitionists on the one hand and Lincoln and Trumbull on the other, by which if the new organization succeeded in carrying the legislature, Mr. Lincoln was to be elected to the U.S. Senate in place of the gallant Shields, Mr. Trumbull was to be elected to congress in his own district and subsequently to Douglas' place in the senate, and the abolitionists were to have the legislative offices. In pursuance of this arrangement, Trumbull was elected to congress, the abolitionists got the legislative offices, but when the election of senator came off Trumbull controlled the votes of two renegade democrats and would not let them vote for Lincoln, thus finally cheating Lincoln out of the office and securing it for himself, in open violation of his agreement. This corrupt bargain and sale, Mr. Douglas proved by quoting from a speech of the present republican candidate for congress, James Matheny, the intimate friend of Mr. Lincoln.

Mr. Douglas referred to the Lovejoy resolutions which he had read at Ottawa, voted upon by the legislature that elected Trubmull. Those resolutions constituted the platform upon which the republican senator was to be elected. Every republican who voted for these resolutions voted the next day for Lincoln for the U. S. Senate. Mr. Lincoln had opened this present canvass, by a speech before the republican state convention at Springfield, in which he had clearly and deliberately defined his position on the slavery issue. Mr. Douglas read the positions of Lincoln's speech, as published by Lincoln himself, in reference to the slavery question, in which he declared that this government could not remain half slave and half free, that it will be all one thing or all the other, &c. He commented at length upon this position of Mr. Lincoln, showing that his evident purpose was to carry on the agitation begun by the abolitionists; that the ultra abolitionists cordially indorsed the propositions of Lincoln's Springfield speech. Lincoln had been too honest for his own good in expressing his real sentiments at Springfield and Chicago. He had been endeavoring to repair this error by reading old speeches delivered by him in 1854 to show that he was not an abolitionist. But, said Mr. Douglas, these speeches are the same made by Lincoln in '54 to deceive the old whigs, when he was leading them into the abolition camp.

Mr. Lincoln had charged against him, president Pierce, president Buchanan and the members of the Supreme Court, a conspiracy in getting up the Dred Scott case. Mr. Douglas showed the absurdity of such a charge, by referring to the fact that Mr. Buchanan was in England during the pendency of the matter, and that the Dred Scott case was got up by the republicans themselves; that the defendant on the case, the owner of Dred Scott, was Dr. Chaffe, a republican member of congress from Massachusetts, and that is was in the hands of the republicans from beginning to end.

Mr. Douglas referred to the fact, that at Ottowa he had asked Mr. Lincoln, among other questions, whether he was opposed to the admission of any more slave states. Mr. Lincoln had replied as follows:
"In regard to those questions of whether I am pledged to the non-admission of any more slave states in the Union, I state to you freely, frankly, that I should be exceedingly sorry to be ever put in the position of having to pass upon that question. I should be exceedingly glad to know that there never would be another slave State admitted into this Union, but I must add, in regard to this, that if slavery shall be kept out of the Territory [by prohibition,] during the Territorial existence of any one given Territory, and then the people should, having a fair chance and clear field when they come to adopt a Constitution, if they should do the extraordinary thing of adopting a slave Constitution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of the institution among them I see no alternative if we own the country but we must admit them into the Union."

In his answer to my question, said Mr. Douglas, Mr. Lincoln says that he "should be exceedingly sorry to be every put in the position of having to pass upon that question;" that if slavery shall be kept out of a territory during the Territorial existence, and the people, uninfluenced by the actual presence of the institution among them, should adopt a slave constitution, he sees no alternative but to admit them. But he leaves the people to infer that if slavery has not been kept out by prohibition during the Territorial existence; if the people adopt a slave Constitution influenced by the actual presence of the institution among them, he will vote against admitting them into the Union.

Mr. Douglas said that he would now notice certain speeches made by Mr. Trumbull; charging him with attempting to deprive the people of Kansas of the power to vote on their constitution. — Trumbull, in a speech at Chicago, had charged him with striking from the Toombs bill a clause submitting the constitution to the people. The discovery that there never was such a clause in the Toombs bill exposed Mr. Trumbull's falsehood. At Alton Trumbull renewed the charge, but shifted his ground from one falsehood to another, by charging that he (Douglas) had added a section, which he quoted, directly prohibiting the people from voting on their constitution. In answer to these charges, Mr. Douglas said that, even admitting that he had stricken out of the Toombs bill a clause requiring the submission of the constitution, there would not be just ground for charging him with attempting to prevent the submission of the constitution by the convention; that prior to that time, no enabling act had ever contained a clause requiring a submission of the constitution that every constitution voted upon by the people had been thus submitted by the convention without any requirement in the congressional enabling act; that such an act would involve all the old class of American statesmen, who had passed enabling acts without embodying a clause requiring the constitution to be submitted; that the convention had the power to submit their work without authority in the enabling act, and everybody supposed (even Mr. Trumbull himself, as shown by his speech on the Toombs bill,) that the constitution would be submitted as a matter of course. But the charge that he had stricken from the Toombs bill a clause requiring the constitution to be submitted to the people, was false. There never was such a clause in the bill. In regard to the second charge, of his having added a clause directly preventing a vote on the constitution, the people perhaps would be surprised to learn that the very clause which Trumbull charged him with inserting in the bill was stricken out on his (Douglas') motinon, and another clause inserted in lieu thereof, which directly empowered the convention to order an election whenever they saw proper. Mr. Douglas read from the congressional Globe, his motion to strike out the clause quoted by Trumbull, (which was as follows: "And until the complete execution of this act, no other election shall be held in said Territory," and insert he following, which was in the bill when it passed:
"And to avoid all conflicts in the complete execution of this act, all other elections in said Territory are hereby postponed until such time as said Convention shall appoint."

This clause was inserted to avoid a clash between the regular Territorial election and any election that might be ordered by the Convention. Instead of prohibiting any election except the election of delegates, until the state was admitted, as Trumbull charged, it provided that other elections, including the election on the constitution, might be appointed by the convention at its pleasure. And Mr. Douglas proved by the published debate upon the question, that Mr. Trumbull so understood the matter at the time, and was now knowingly mutilating the public record in order to deceive the people. Trumbull's motive was to create a division. If Douglas occupied his time in unmasking these falsehoods, the public attention would be diverted from the main issue — Lincoln's abolition platform — and if the charges were not answered, somebody might be induced to believe them true. Mr. Douglas then proceeded to give Trumbull a complete skinning. He didn't leave a grease spot of him.

The latter part of Mr. Douglas' speech was highly eloquent and impressive. He appealed with much fervor to old line whigs to rally on the national platform against slavery agitation. (Capt. Henry, an old line Whig, here mounted a seat and declared that he fully indorsed the sentiments just expressed by Mr. Douglas. This created an immense sensation and deafening cheers.) He referred to his course in the last congress, and avowed his determination to abide by the great principle for which he had been hailing. His thrilling peroration excited the wildest enthusiasm, and he closed after speaking three hours, amid the deafening cheers of the immense multitude. It is impossible in this synopsis, to convey a just impression of Mr. Douglas' speech. To be appreciated it should have been heard.