Douglas referred to a certain Robert Owen who had thought out a
panacea for poverty, who had founded an ideal community at New Harmony,
Indiana, which had proven to be not ideal and had failed. Then there was
a certain James Russell Lowell who was writing abolition poems and
articles for the Pennsylvania _Freeman_ and for the _Anti-Slavery
Standard_. Douglas classed all these agitators and dreamers together in
his usual satirical way. The ponderable move of national interests would
crush their squeaks. Here he made one of the most humorous
classifications, separating Democrats and nation builders from the
ragged and motley hordes of Fourierists, Spiritualists, Abolitionists,
loco-focoes, barn-burners, anti-Masonics, Know-nothings, and Whigs. He
was inclined to think that the infidel belonged with these hybrid
breeds. Though he did not speak of God and had never joined any church,
something of a matter-of-fact Deism was subsumed in his practical
attitude. The Democratic party stood alone against these disorderly
elements. Nationalism and the rule of the people were his lodestars. He
was the son of Jackson in the principle of no disunion, and he was the
son of Jefferson in the principle of popular sovereignty.
The talk turned to Mr. Polk. As he was a resident of Nashville, Mrs.
Clayton, on that ground as well as for political agreement, was heartily
devoted to him.
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