He referred to this without approving of it. For Calhoun had
conceded the lack of power in the Federal government to interfere with
the freedom of the press; but he contended that the states as sovereign
powers could prevent the distribution of such literature within their
borders. Everywhere it seemed to me the slavery question divided reason
and thinking against themselves and brought great minds into absurdity.
Douglas wanted the slavery agitation to cease, but on the other hand he
did not wish to interfere with the freedom of speech and of the press.
Mrs. Clayton now recalled Harriet Martineau's visit to America of some
eight years before. She had read _Society in America_ and _Retrospect of
Western Travel_. Did I know that Miss Martineau had stopped in Chicago
and had described Chicago as it was then?
Douglas returned to the subject of the Abolitionists apropos of this,
because Miss Martineau had made herself much disliked by siding with
them. He began to talk of Horace Greeley who had helped the humbug Whigs
into power in 1840 by his publication, _The Log Cabin_. It was now
merged in the weekly _Tribune_, in which all sorts of vagaries were
exploited: Fourierism, spiritualism, opposition to divorce and the
theater, total abstinence, abolitionism, opposition to the annexation of
Texas.
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