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Northern popularity, only now to become the victim of a foul and malign conspiracy, organized specially for his destruction, by individuals anxious above all things to enfeeble him for the presidential struggle of 1860.

The triumph of Mr. Douglas over his numerous adversaries was complete, as all who listened to the stormy debates which then occurred, or who have read them in the Congressional Globe since, will have no hesitation in admitting. Mr. Crittenden and Mr. Bell, from the South, spoke with great power and effect also; but these gentlemen did not come to the rescue in the contest quite early enough to achieve as much as they might have attained had they spoken in the beginning of the session, as many of their admiring friends, including myself, urged them both to do. It is within my own private knowledge, that General Houston, of Texas, had prepared some excellent and manly resolutions, declarative of his views in opposition to the Lecompton fraud, and had drawn up the heads of a speech which he intended to deliver in support thereof, when the instructions from the Legisla ture of Texas reached him, and paralyzed his energies for the session.

The subsequent proceedings in Congress are yet fresh in the memories of us all-the transformation of the Lecompton Bill, which had pretty well done its work of mischief already, into what was afterward known as the English Bill; the passage of this latter, in part by Southern votes, with a clause submitting the question of the Lecompton Constitution anew, on certain terms and conditions, to the people of Kansas, followed by a scene of public rejoicing at the White House over what appeared

to be deemed by those assembled as a magnificent Southern victory, when, in truth, it only opened to the people of Kansas an opportunity of voting down themselves the Constitution which, in an evil hour, an unpaternal president and his abettors had essayed to force upon them.

And now the conflict, so easy to be repressed, if a wise and honest statemanship had been put in exercise, was renewed under auspices eminently perilous to the country. Can any sober and unprejudiced mind, on considering these details, agree still with Mr. Seward in that noted declaration of his which has been so often referred to in these volumes, and which will now be given in a somewhat fuller manner? These are his words:

"These antagonistic systems are continually coming into closer contact, and collision results.

"Shall I tell you what this collision means? They who think it is accidental, unnecessary, the work of interested or fanatical agitators, and therefore ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slaveholding nation or entirely a free-labor nation. Either the cotton and rice fields of South Carolina, and the sugar plantations of Louisiana, will ultimately be tilled by free labor, and Charleston and New Orleans become marts for legitimate merchandise alone, or else the rye-fields and wheat-fields of Massachusetts and New York must again be surrendered by their farmers to slave culture and to the production of slaves, and Boston and New York become once more markets for trade in the bodies and souls of men. It is the failure to

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apprehend this great truth that induces so many unsuccessful attempts at final compromise between the slave and free states; and it is the existence of this great fact that renders all such pretended compromises, when made, vain and ephemeral."

CHAPTER XIII.

Conspiracy of certain Senators to defeat the "Little Giant of the West" in his supposed presidential Aspirations.—Signal Triumph of this Gentleman as a Debater over all Opposition.-Opening of the senatorial Contest between Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln, of Illinois.-Extraordinary Efforts of Mr. Buchanan and other Individuals of the Democratic Party to effect Mr. Douglas's Defeat and secure the Election of his Opponent.-Eventual Triumph of Mr. Douglas, who returns to the Senate to undergo Ostracism at the Hands of senatorial Democrats in Caucus under the direction of Mr. Buchanan.-Deep Injury done to the Southern Cause by the unjust Course pursued toward Mr. Douglas, which caused many of this Gentleman's political Supporters in the North to grow lukewarm in the support of Southern Rights.-Special Causes which now operated to produce sectional Excitement.-Indecent and ruffianly Assault upon Mr. Sumner.-Dred Scott Decision.-The South indiscreetly exultant over it, and the North indignant.-Attempt by certain Persons in the South to bring about the reopening of the African Slave-trade.-Important judicial Contest in Ohio touching the validity of the Fugitive Slave Law. -Ossawatomie Brown upon a Rampage in the Bosom of Virginia as a radical, political, and moral Reformer, ready to shed Occans of Blood in defense of universal Freedom. Interesting Debate in the United States Senate on this Subject. -Impolitic Execution of Brown, by which he was unnecessarily made a Martyr.

All

THE excited struggle in Congress was now over. impartial men acknowledged that "the Little Giant of the West," as he was now popularly entitled, had prostrated all who had opposed the great eternal truths which he had labored to establish in the fierce and obstinately contested battles of principle which had been going on in

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the Senate. All who had presumed to measure strength with him in this body had been covered with disgrace, and Mr. Buchanan, who, it was well known, had now conceived a hatred for this fearless champion of intervention and popular sovereignty, proportionate to the humiliating consciousness which he could not but feel of baffled management and counteracted trickery, prepared, as a solace for his wounded pride, to aid, as far as he might be able, in having Mr. Douglas defeated in the approaching contest for senatorial honors in Illinois; in which contest all the true friends of popular freedom, and all the sympathizers with harassed and persecuted merit, were in feeling enlisted on the side of one who had thus far shown himself so far superior, both in moral and intellectual power, to all who had ventured into combat with him. It is a fact which has not heretofore awakened the consideration which is due to such conduct, that Mr. Buchanan and those of the Democratic party who concurred with him in feeling, made the most strenuous, but, for the most part, covert and illicit efforts to secure the defeat of Mr. Douglas for re-election to the national Senate in Illinois. If Douglas could be now beaten (these men argued), the national Senate would be henceforth enfranchised from the potential influence which he had been for several years exerting in furtherance of doctrines which were altogether repugnant to the theory that the power of the government might be properly used for the propagation of African slavery, and for the purpose of extending its domain even into regions not especially adapted to it. On the other hand, there were, and for reasons not wholly dissimilar, persons in public life of exorbitant ambition, of capacities wholly