If the
first course aroused the fury of the Abolitionists, the second course
found no favor with the Free Soilers, and ambitious Whigs, drawing upon
abolitionism and free soilism for food, for northern mercantilism and
for a larger slavery of both blacks and whites.
I had now lived so long in America, seen so much of the country, read so
extensively of politics and history, that I was able to follow the
questions involved in this crisis. All the while I had the benefit of
Douglas' association, who talked to me intimately of his own plans and
of persons and issues, as they arose. There were calls upon him now to
resign the Senatorship; but he had no intention of doing so. His
fighting blood was aroused. He was hardened to contests and to
misunderstanding and abuse. He had been berated for coarseness and
charged with the half-culture of the West. His sagacity had been
caricatured as cunning; his presence of mind taken for vulgar audacity;
he was held up as a half-educated debater, filled with a miserable
self-sufficiency. He was attacked as a demagogue. The East held itself
aloof from him in unctuous self-righteousness, because of his stand in
the Mexican War. His fight for Oregon had aligned against him the
friends of England in America. Yet men were in power because of him. A
Whig had been elected President upon a war record of a fight for Texas.
Pages:
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279