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Senator Browning's Remarks On Douglas

Senator Browning's Remarks On Douglas image
Parent Issue
Day
26
Month
July
Year
1861
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The follovviiig is the most material portion ot' the lemarks of Senator Browning, the successor of Mr. Douglas, the Sonate of the United States, on the ocoasioti of the announcouient of his death iu that body : I For the tirst time in the world's history, the iistouiiding spectacle liad been ' exhibited of a government plotting j against its own lift, conspiiing to its own overthrow. Por the first time in our nation's history, rebol hands were raised in hostility against our country's flag, to rend its stripes and pluck lts bright stars from their field of glory. We had then but recently passed through a fierj politieal contest, in which Senator Douglas had been the chosen and almost adored standard bearcr of a ! great and renowned party, which was laboring to elévate him to a position equal in dignitv, honor, and power, to anv on carth. "Politica! partios have seldoïn been more bitterly liuBtile than that which marshaled its hnsts under his leadership, and that which followed the fortunes of our ('hief Magistrste. The ob ject of the Seuator's most intense cherished desire, and .to the attainment of which hu had devoted his euergies and his unflagging industry - an object compatible with the purest and loftiest patriotism, and worthy of the most exalted am bition- had eluded his grasp, and was in possession of his great and distiuguished rival. ïhe party which he, no doubt consci entiously, believed to be adverse to the best and truest interests of the country, the men who represented that party, and with wliom he had maintained a life-long conflict, ahvays caruest. and sometimos bitter, were installed in power, wliilat his own friends were scattereii and dispersed. Whatever the cases of hostility, whether his fanlt or ours. or whether the necessary and inevitable concoraitant of politicai antagonisms between even just and good men, without fault on the part of anybody, the fact is nevertheless so, that the politicai alienation between him and tliose who represented and wielded the power of the goverumeut was complete. Uu the other hand, many of the distinguished men of the nation, who in fonner times stood by him in the same party organization, and labored indifati gably for liis advHiicement and promotion, had embarked in an enterprise which had lor it otiject not the over throw of a party only, but. tho dismembermeia of the Union, and the utt3r domolition of the government. His party amnities and his loyalty no longrr ful ly and completoly hariiionized. He had to break with many of the most trusted and most distiiiguished of his fonner friends, and fraternize with bil fiercest politicai foes, or he had to renounce hm allegi:.nce to the constitution he had sworn to muintain, and prostitute his powers in plotting its overthrow. Let us do hun justice. Wliat his interiüil conflict.-i may have been, we can not know; what our own would bu thus circumstanced. we dare not say ; but we do kbow that whatever the struggle in his own breast may have been, it was brief. We do know that the patriot triumphed over the partisan, and that he threw the entire weight of his great in fluence on the side of his country in the hour oi hergreatest nced. We do know that the indigui'y done in Charleston harbor to the stars ai.d stripes, at once the emblem of the power and beneficenee of the government and the venerated memento o! the sufl'erings and tho sacrifices, the valor, virtue, wisdom, and patnotisin, ot our illustnous sires; that the atrocious assault by the banded cohorts of treason upon a woak,worn, and enfoebled garrison of loyal and incorruptible American soldiere, in the faithtul and gallant dis charge of the liighudt and holient duties, awakened all tlic cnthugiastn. the tion, and patriotisni of his ardent nature, and enlisted all iiis energies uneonditionally, in the service of his endangered country. He do know that the patriot acliieved a great but easy coiRiuesit over the partisan, and that he hearuly, warmly, and with a zeal befitting the nionientous cause in which he was engaged, uuited with those who had heretofore not ouly opposed but denounced hini, in a strutrgle to uphold the Union, sustam the coustitution, and vindícate the claim of the national gnvernment to the obcdiunoe of all its citizens; and who should be foremost, most self-sacrifiüing, and efficiënt iu the holy cause of the great ïtepublie, rich in cherished memovies of the past, ubounding Ib blessiings j for the present, and radiant with hope for j the luture, was the only rivalry between ! Lita and tliem. It was a noble and exalted rivalry, worthy of a great cause and great niinds, and fitted to shcd lustre j upon the most eminent statesman and patriots. Would that he could havo lived to continue thegenerous strife uutil this most wicked and causeless revolt was everywhere subdued, and the footprint of a traitor no longer desecrated AmericaD soil ïhere was something, Mr. President, heroic in the prouiptitude, fearlessnesF, and decisión with whicli he rent asuuder the Btroug personal and party ties, and dashed from him the fetters which had once boi.nd him to thoso who were now conspirators, when longer fraternity with them was disloyalty to the government, and sometLiiig almost sublime in the terrible euergy with which he denounced the tressen, and launehed his imprecations at the traitors who wure warring upon the Ufe of the great and good govermnent under whose fosteiinj; care he had made himself what he was ; bad stru'gled laboriuusly, but successfully, up the rugged steep, and taken his place in a conspicuous niche of the temple of faino. In times of pcncc Senator Douglas was an intense pnrtisan. Indeed it was j natural lio sliould bc so. Indeed, he coulu not haebeen otlierwise. Espouse what cause lie would, it was a necessity of his (ihysieai and mental organization that hc should do it witli all his might. - Doubtlcss 1 ie always believed his zeal and ■ his pavty preferences to be in the line of his duty, and tbcy certainly were in just Bubordination to hisfealty as a citizen He fouglit the battle of life bravely. but tho conflict is over; and now that its turmoil is nded, hereposes quietly be neath tho green eod of bis adopted State. In the full vigor of his mental and physieal energies, and just at the tiuie wben his servioes would seem to have been most necdcd in the great cause of human rights, he has been cut down by tbie üat of that frráloip bich nevVr eres. That he had extraordinarv cndowments, no one will duny ; and whatever ootitrariety of opinión may exist as to the influence of his politiciil policy and raeasures upon the destiny of the nation the verdict of posterity, the judgment of, history, will be that ba weut down with his patriotism unsoduoed, and with no stain upon his loyalty. Henceforth his name is indissolubly connected with his country's liistory - Many will esteern the pages which chronicle his deeds as amoiig the briglitest in our anuals. All the just and good will bend rnverently over the records of his closing care er.

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Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus