Stephen A. Douglas: A Study in American Politics Part 12

[Footnote 260: Garrison, Westward Extension, p. 284.]

[Footnote 261: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for November 13, 1848.]

[Footnote 262: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 263: See Douglas's Speech of December 23, 1851.]

[Footnote 264: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for December 11, 1848.]

[Footnote 265: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 21.]

[Footnote 266: Hunt, Genesis of California's First Const.i.tution, in Johns Hopkins University Studies, XIII, pp. 16, 30.]

[Footnote 267: Polk, MS. Diary, Entries for December 11, 12, 13, 14, 1848.]

[Footnote 268: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 46-49.]

[Footnote 269: See the pet.i.tion of the people of New Mexico, _Ibid._, p. 33.]

[Footnote 270: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 190-192.]

[Footnote 271: _Ibid._, pp. 192-193.]

[Footnote 272: _Ibid._, p. 196; particularly the incisive reply of Westcott.]

[Footnote 273: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 193.]

[Footnote 274: _Ibid._, p. 196.]

[Footnote 275: _Ibid._, p. 194.]

[Footnote 276: _Ibid._, p. 262.]

[Footnote 277: _Ibid._, p. 381.]

[Footnote 278: _Ibid._, pp. 435, 551, 553.]

[Footnote 279: Von Holst, Const.i.tutional History of the United States, III, p. 418.]

[Footnote 280: Calhoun, Works, VI, pp. 290-303.]

[Footnote 281: Von Holst, Const. History, III, pp. 422-423.]

[Footnote 282: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 208.]

[Footnote 283: _Ibid._, p. 314.]

[Footnote 284: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 394.]

[Footnote 285: _Ibid._, p. 561.]

[Footnote 286: _Ibid._, App., pp. 253 ff. The debate summarized by Von Holst, III, pp. 444-451.]

[Footnote 287: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., App., pp. 275-276.]

[Footnote 288: _Ibid._, pp. 595, 665.]

[Footnote 289: _Ibid._, p. 668.]

[Footnote 290: Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 277.]

[Footnote 291: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 685.]

[Footnote 292: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 691-692.]

[Footnote 293: _Ibid._, pp. 635-637; p. 693.]

BOOK II

THE DOCTRINE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY

CHAPTER VIII

SENATOR AND CONSt.i.tUENCY

When Douglas took his seat in Congress for the first time, an unknown man in unfamiliar surroundings, he found as his near neighbor, one David S. Reid, a young lawyer from North Carolina, who was of his own age, of his own party, and like him, serving a first term. An acquaintance sprang up between these young Democrats, which, in spite of their widely different antecedents, deepened into intimacy. It was a friendship that would have meant much to Douglas, even if it had not led to an interesting romance. Intercourse with this able young Southerner[294] opened the eyes of this Western Yankee to the finer aspects of Southern social life, and taught him the quality of that Southern aristocracy, which, when all has been said, was the truest aristocracy that America has seen. And when Reid entertained his friends and relatives in Washington, Douglas learned also to know the charm of Southern women.

Among the most attractive of these visitors was Reid's cousin, Miss Martha Denny Martin, daughter of Colonel Robert Martin of Rockingham County, North Carolina. Rumor has it that Douglas speedily fell captive to the graces of this young woman. She was not only charming in manner and fair of face, but keen-witted and intelligent. In spite of the gay badinage with which she treated this young Westerner, she revealed a depth and positiveness of character, to which indeed her fine, broad forehead bore witness on first acquaintance. In the give and take of small talk she more than held her own, and occasionally discomfited her admirer by sallies which were tipped with wit and reached their mark unerringly.[295] Did she know that just such treatment--strange paradox--won, while it at times wounded, the heart of the unromantic Westerner?

Colonel Robert Martin was a typical, western North Carolina planter.

He belonged to that stalwart line of Martins whose most famous representative was Alexander, of Revolutionary days, six times Governor of the State. On the banks of the upper Dan, Colonel Martin possessed a goodly plantation of about eight hundred acres, upon which negro slaves cultivated cotton and such of the cereals as were needed for home consumption.[296] Like other planters, he had felt the compet.i.tion of the virgin lands opened up to cotton culture in the gulf plains of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; and like his fellow planters, he had invested in these Western lands, on the Pearl River in Mississippi. This Pearl River plantation was worked by about one hundred and fifty negroes and was devoted to the raising of cotton.

When Douglas accepted Reid's invitation to visit North Carolina, the scene of the romance begun on the Potomac shifted to the banks of the Dan. Southern hospitality became more than a conventional phrase on Douglas's lips. He enjoyed a social privilege which grew rarer as North and South fell apart. Intercourse like this broke down many of those prejudices unconsciously cherished by Northerners. Slavery in the concrete, on a North Carolina plantation, with a kindly master like Colonel Martin,[297] bore none of the marks of a direful tyranny.

Whatever may have been his mental reservations as to slavery as a system of labor, Douglas could not fail to feel the injustice of the taunts hurled against his Southern friends by the Abolitionist press.

As he saw the South, the master was not a monster of cruelty, nor the slave a victim of malevolent violence.

The romance on the banks of the Dan flowed far more clearly and smoothly toward its goal than the waters of that turbid stream. On April 7, 1847, Miss Martin became the wife of the Honorable Stephen Arnold Douglas, who had just become Senator from the State of Illinois. It was in every way a fateful alliance. Next to his Illinois environment, no external circ.u.mstance more directly shaped his career than his marriage to the daughter of a North Carolina planter. The subtle influences of a home and a wife dominated by Southern culture, were now to work upon him. Constant intercourse with Southern men and women emanc.i.p.ated him from the narrowness of his hereditary environment.[298] He was bound to acquire an insight into the nature of Southern life; he was compelled to comprehend, by the most tender and intimate of human relationships, the meaning and responsibility of a social order reared upon slave labor.

A year had hardly pa.s.sed when the death of Colonel Martin left Mrs.

Douglas in possession of all his property in North Carolina. It had been his desire to put his Pearl River plantation, the most valuable of his holdings, in the hands of his son-in-law. But Douglas had refused to accept the charge, not wishing to hold negroes. Indeed, he had frankly told Colonel Martin that the family already held more slaves than was profitable.[299] In his will, therefore, Colonel Martin was constrained to leave his Mississippi plantation and slaves to Mrs. Douglas and her children. It was characteristic of the man and of his cla.s.s, that his concern for his dependents followed him to the grave. A codicil to his will provided, that if Mrs. Douglas should have no children, the negroes together with their increase were to be sent to Liberia, or to some other colony in Africa. By means of the net proceeds of the last crop, they would be able to reach Africa and have a surplus to aid them in beginning planting. "I trust in Providence," wrote this kindly master, "she will have children and if so I wish these negroes to belong to them, as nearly every head of the family have expressed to me a desire to belong to you and your children rather than go to Africa; and to set them free where they are, would entail on them a greater curse, far greater in my opinion, as well as in that of the intelligent among themselves, than to have a humane master whose duty it would be to see they were properly protected ... and properly provided for in sickness as well as in health."[300]

The legacy of Colonel Martin gave a handle to Douglas's enemies. It was easy to believe that he had fallen heir to slave property. That the terms of the bequest were imperfectly known, did not deter the opposition press from malevolent insinuations which stung Douglas to the quick. It was fatal to his political career to allow them to go unchallenged. In the midsummer of 1850, while Congress was wrestling with the measures of compromise, Douglas wrote to his friend, the editor of the Illinois _State Register_," It is true that my wife does own about 150 negroes in Mississippi on a cotton plantation. My father-in-law in his lifetime offered them to me and I refused to accept them. _This fact is stated in his will_, but I do not wish it brought before the public as the public have no business with my private affairs, and besides anybody would see that the information must have come from me. My wife has no negroes except those in Mississippi. We have other property in North Carolina, but no negroes.