[Misssouri Republican, St. Louis, November 11, 1858]

The poor devils of politicians who have to account for the utter defeat of the Black Republican party in Illinois, after their most earnest protestations that they would completely annihilate Douglas, have our commiseration. They are most prodigal of excuses and pretexts for their overthrow, none of them touching the right key, which was simply the disgust of the people with their pretensions and their utter disregard of all principle. Thus the latest excuse-one which is advanced by the Democrat-is about the most ridiculous. It is pretended, that the apportionment of representation in the Legislature was the cause of the defeat, but those who allege this excuse know nothing of the history of the Apportionment Law. That law was passed in 1852, when the Black Republicans had scarcely an existence, and then it was supposed to be a pretty fair law. The Black Republican party ought not to complain of it, for it was the means of returning members to the Legislature who elected Lyman Trumbull to the Senate, the managers for the latter contriving to swindle Mr. Lincoln out of the place to which, for several reasons, it was supposed he had a better claim than Mr. Trumbull. So it was, however-Trumbull went before the Legislature as a Democrat, and in process of time he was transformed into a flaming Black Republican, and in the late canvass consoled Lincoln, as far as he was able, for the cheat put upon him, by making speeches in his behalf.

This apportionment was not thought to be so bad a thing then, inasmuch as the party which now calls itself Black Republican profited by it. At the session of the Legislature in 1856, a new apportionment bill was passed, new districts created, and a change made in the representation of various counties. The bill passed late in the session—it was sent to the Governor (Bissell) and by him approved-that approval was entered upon the journals-very soon afterwards a Message was received from the Governor, recalling the bill, and when he got possession of it he expunged his approval from the bill. This was done after some of the democratic members had gone home, and they were prevented from passing it, notwithstanding the Executive veto. The Supreme Court afterwards sustained the action of the Governor, but the facts stated show that if a new apportionment was not made in 1857, it was the fault of the Black Republican party, and not of the Democracy. They have been beaten under the old apportionment, in a fair standup fight, and

they ought to be ashamed of themselves to want to take advantage of their own act of stupidity.

[Whig, Quincy, Ill., November 6, 1858]
THE RESULT

Another influence of a powerful character has been brought to bear against us in this election. The railroad interest of the State-the railroad proprietors, managers, employees, &c.,-has been concentrated upon the Douglas ticket. Through this means, thousands of men have been brought into the State, and scattered out through the doubtful districts. The Central Railroad Company have been peculiarly active in this business. They have favors to ask from this Legislature. They can afford to give every member of that body $10,000 to $20,000 each, if by so doing they can obtain a release from the payment into the State treasury of 7 per cent of their gross earnings. It will not at all surprise us to see such an attempt made this winter. These railroad men have not taken such an active part in this contest for nothing.

[Boston Daily Advertiser, November 6, 1858]

THE ELECTION IN ILLINOIS.-It seems to be conceded at Chicago that Mr. Douglas has secured his reelection to the Senate. The campaign in that State, in which the whole interest has been absorbed by the discussion before the people of the question whether Mr. Douglas or Mr. Lincoln should be a Senator, is an anomaly in our politics. The election of senator in all the States, must be made by the legislature; and it is not usual to anticipate the action of that body in the popular canvass. The friends of rival aspirants for senatorial honors have thought it time enough to begin to press their claims after the legislature had been elected, and have not undertaken to do so sooner. But in Illinois, this season, there were reasons for a different mode of proceeding..

It would be unfortunate for the social and industrial interests of the States, if this mode of electing legislators, solely or chiefly from regard to their votes for U. S. senator, were to become general. The cunning of politicians has always engrafted upon the Constitution the excrescence of national conventions for the nomination of presidential candidates, whereby the province of the electoral colleges chosen in the several States under the forms of the Constitution is reduced to the automatic function of recording the foregone conclusions of the conventions. We

should not like to see legislatures generally reduced to the same poverty of dignity and duty.

That the victory of Senator Douglas in Illinois is a more poignant rebuke to the President than the success of the republicans would have been, cannot be denied. Many of the federal office-holders it is stated, voted the republican ticket, no doubt well informed that by so doing they should best please the master whom they so obsequiously serve. If Mr. Lincoln had succeeded, we should have heard a great deal of this, and should have been told that the defeat of Mr. Douglas was an administration victory, obtained nominally by the republicans, but really by the aid of administration votes. We are glad that this miserable pretext is lost to the president and his apologists. Blind as he seems to be all the symptoms of public opinion-deaf to the voices of the people we can rejoice that something has happened which may possibly lead him to "stop and think" what he is doing, where he is going and where he is carrying the country.

In other respects, we should regret the defeat of Mr. Lincoln, (who has proved himself a sound and able man by his speeches during the campaign) were it not for another consideration of no ordinary weight. We think it may now be regarded as settled that the democratic party will be thoroughly reorganized upon the Douglas and Forney basis in anticipation of the presidential campaign of 1860. The democratic party is always wise enough to learn a new lesson whenever its old doctrines are worn out. The South must understand perfectly, well by the recent results in Pennsylvania and Illinois, that its only hope of preventing an overwhelming victory of the republicans, in 1860, lies in adopting the Douglas creed. Some of the Southern leaders of the party have already hastened to do this. Many of the Northern members of the party are ready to do it, as soon as they find they can safely speak out their sentiments.

In the next presidential election, therefore, we cannot expect that the republicans will find in Pennsylvania-again to be the great battlefield-the cordial allies who assisted in opposing the administration at the late election. On the contrary, these anti-Lecompton democrats will occupy the chief places in marshalling the democratic forces for the struggle. But we do not despair of the result. On the contrary, the election in Illinois has taught us in ample season, that the republicans can make good fight even against the mitigated form of democracy which

Mr. Douglas professes. These two intervening years must be spent in strengthening our position.

It is well that the probable complexion of the next presidential struggle is exposed to view thus early. If the time were shorter, we might expect to see the nation inveigled by false pretenses into the support of Douglas for president, to be cheated anew after the inauguration as it was successively by Pierce and Buchanan. There is time enough for the people to comprehend the true state of things. Mr. Douglas is an able political tactician; but the republicans must be more than ordinarily clumsy in conducting the operations on their side, if they allow him to so manage affairs as to become the next president. [Louisville Democrat, November 23, 1858]

FROM ABROAD

Correspondence of the Louisville Democrat
Letter from Illinois

CHICAGO, Nov. 18, 1858

As the great, though little, Douglas was stopping at the Tremont House, (a hotel, by the way, where may be found all the luxuries of oriental life,) only a few persons had the supreme honor of joining hands with the "favorite son," and your worthy correspondent among the number. He appeared in good health, (not your worthy correspondent,) quietly smoking a weed, and occasionally indulging in a chat with any and every one who chose to converse. Perhaps you have never seen him-well S. A. Douglas is a man standing five feet two or three, with a head big enough for six feet two, and a forehead prominent and intellectual enough for any man of any nation. His hair, which was once brown, is thin and gray; his eye cool and gray; his nose not prominent, but striking; his mouth large and firm. His whole face is round, and seems too large even for such broad shoulders as support it.

Small as he is, you would choose him out of a crowd, for a splendid model of intellectual cultivation. He is only small in body-his head is a miracle of mind. But I am digressing, and becoming tiresome. After listening to the disconnected sentences from a few loquacious, petty politicians the great event of the evening was heralded with a hundred guns; a thousand torches lit the streets; a million jets of light made the city more like day than night, and all the available male population of this Western New York, promenaded the streets, engrossed with the all-absorbing question "Shall Stephen be the next President?"

M.

CHAPTER XIV

CRITICISM OF STUMP METHODS

[Washington (D. C.) Union, September 15, 1858]

MR. LINCOLN AND MR. DOUGLAS-MR. DOUGLAS AND MR. LINCOLN

We take it for granted, so far as the democratic party are concerned, that they utterly abhor and detest the puerile and treasonable doctrines of Mr. Lincoln, who is now canvassing the State of Illinois. They hold no opinions in common with him. They regard all his political associates, North, Middle, and South, as political incendiaries, wholly unworthy of public confidence, and himself as one of the most reckless and unprincipled of them all. Mr. Lincoln belongs to that class of politicians who have, for twenty-five years, sought to array one section of the Union against the other. He has recently proclaimed in the Illinois canvass that free and slave labor are incompatible elements in the same government. We like to call things by their right names. Mr. Lincoln, is, then, either a shallow empiric, an ignorant pretender, or a political knave. We know nothing of his age and little of his life. He has been out of Illinois, and, we doubt not, has had the advantage occasionally of an association with men of liberality and intelligence. If he is not a knave, then he is a very weak, and therefore, as a politician, a very dangerous man.

We are, then, utterly opposed to the election of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas, to Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln. We deny that the democratic party are called upon to take the one or the other. It is said that, if Douglas should fail of an election, Lincoln would be successful. That may or may not be so. It is not a question for the democracy to consider.

[New York Herald, October 13, 1858]

EXHAUSTED TO THE DREGS.-The controversy in Illinois between Douglas and Lincoln, on Kansas, the Kansas-Nebraska bill, Lecompton,