(From an ATL where a constitutional amendment was adopted before the ACW providing for popular election of the president and a run-off election if no candidate got more than 50% of the vote in the first round. Going into the 1860 run-off are Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas--John Bell and John Bredkinridge having been eliminated in the first round.)
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AN APPEAL TO THE VOTERS OF THE SOUTH
Citizens of the South--
In two weeks, your suffrages will help to determine the First Magistrate of this Republic. You have the choice between Abe Lincoln, the rail-splitting son of Kentucky, and Steve Douglas, the hair-splitting son of Vermont.
What doctrine is Mr. Douglas most famous for? That of "squatter sovereignty": that is, of the right of the people of each territory--no matter how few they be in numbers--to determine the institutions of that territory. The partizans of Mr. Breckinridge have already explained to you how useless this doctrine is for the spread of African slavery, given the North's advantages in numbers--something the late events in Kansas have made clear enough. Mr. Douglas's Nebraska Act was from the very beginning a swindle of the South, and one which never fooled wise Southerners like John Bell and Sam Houston. It helped to re-open the slavery agitation--to bring about a rash of Personal Liberty laws at the North--but not to convert a single inch of territorial soil to the Southern social system.
So if it is not African Slavery, what is the "domestic institution" Mr. Douglas is trying to allow any handful of settlers (Americans or foreigners) to impose upon the common territories, bought with the blood and treasure of Southron and Yankee alike?
IT IS NONE OTHER THAN MORMON POLYGAMY!
Mr. Douglas's late denunciations of Brigham Young are for electioneering purposes only, and should fool nobody. Mr. Douglas's ties with the Mormons are long standing. As Illinois Secretary of State he helped issue the charter for Joe Smith's City of Nauvoo. As Senator, Mr. Douglas himself acknowledged that "popular sovereignty" would have no effect at all on the extension of slavery into the territories. So why did he exert so much effort for a principle with so little practical effect? Because he realized it *would* have a practical effect, though not one he was willing to speak of--to allow the Mormons to openly proclaim their "domestic institution" of "plural marriages" in "Deseret" (as they style "their" territory).
REMEMBER SEPTEMBER 11TH!
Does Mr. Douglas think that Southerners will forget the Mormon massacre of Southern Christians ("Gentiles," as the Mormons call them) at Mountain Meadows only three years ago? This was the legitimate fruit of his foolish doctrine of "squatter sovereignty." Mr. Douglas provided the *theory*--Brigham Young and his bloody henchmen the *practice!*
WOULD YOU WANT YOUR DAUGHTER IN A MORMON HAREM? [1]
Mr. Douglas would have you believe that Mr. Lincoln will have your daughters marrying negroes. It should hardly be necessary to refute such nonsense. As Mr. Lincoln himself declared during their celebrated 1858 debates "But Judge Douglas is especially horrified at the thought of the mixing blood by the white and black races: agreed for once--a thousand times agreed. There are white men enough to marry all the white women, and black men enough to marry all the black women; and so let them be married. On this point we fully agreed with the Judge; and when he shall show that his policy is better adapted to prevent amalgamation than ours we shall drop ours, and adopt his."
No, if your daughters are in any danger, it is of being seduced or *forced* into a Mormon harem--in Utah, where they will be "legally" added to the already enormous list of Brigham Young's wives, and forced to breed still more children for him. There is only one way to stop this outrage: acknowledge--as Republicans do and the misnamed "Democracy" of to-day do not--the authority of the General Government over institutions in the common territories!
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Karl, [2]
Very good pamphlet.
Just a couple of problems:
(a) At the North we are taking the position that Pop. Sov. *will* lead to the spread of slavery and should be resisted for that reason, and at the South we are saying it will *not* lead to the spread of slavery and should be resisted for *that* reason.
This contradiction may be a bit embarrassing if pointed out--likewise the sneering at "foreigners" being included in Pop. Sov., which could hurt us with immigrant voters at the North, should they ever learn of it. So we should be sure to preserve "plausible deniability" (as you style it) by making this an "unofficial" pamphlet, allegedly written by some of our "independent" supporters at the South.
(b) It may be that some day we will want to admit Utah as a State if we think we can get its electoral votes--or we may wish for its help if we have trouble with the South after getting elected. Could you *discreetly* send an envoy to Brigham Young explaining that we don't mean any of this nonsense about the Mormons, and that it is all done for vote-catching purposes?
Burn this note--A.L.
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[1] Acknowledgement is hereby made of the suggestion at
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.history.what-if/msg/fd6bfb2977d24bdf
[2] Schurz, of course.