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Brummitt, Dan B.

"The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 17"

That is what we have to do. How can we best do it?
There are those who denounce us openly to their own friends, and yet
whisper us softly that Senator Douglas is the aptest instrument there is
with which to effect that object. They wish us to _infer_ all, from the
fact that he now has a little quarrel with the present head of the
dynasty, and that he has regularly voted with us on a single point, upon
which he and we have never differed. They remind us that he is a great
man, and that the largest of us are very small ones. Let this be
granted. But "a living dog is better than a dead lion." Judge Douglas,
if not a dead lion, for this work is at least a caged and toothless one.
How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care anything about
it. His avowed mission is impressing the "public heart" to _care nothing
about it_. A leading Douglas Democratic newspaper thinks Douglas's
superior talent will be needed to resist the revival of the African
slave-trade. Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is
approaching? He has not said so.


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