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Hot Work in Illinois.
The canvass, which commenced with spirit, indeed, but in good temper, at Chicago, has at length come to be personal and disagreeable between DOUGLAS on the one hand, and Messrs. LINCOLN and TRUMBULL on the other.
In a recent speech, at Beardstown, DOUGLAS referred to a charge made against him by LINCOLN as "an infamous lie." The charge was that DOUGLAS had corruptly conspired with the Judges of the Supreme Court, and with Presidents PIERCE and BUCHANAN, to subvert the constitutional power of the States, and establish Slavery over the land. So much for DOUGLAS vs. LINCOLN.
The Hon. LYMAN TRUMBULL, DOUGLAS' colleague in the Senate, having returned to Illinois from an Eastern tour, has made a speech in Chicago, in which the following passages occur:
"New, fellow-citizens, I make the distinct charge that there was a preconcerted arrangement and plot entered into by the very men who now claim credit for opposing the Constitution formed and put in force without giving the people an opportunity to oppose it. This, my friends, is a serious charge, butt I charge it, to-night, that the very men who traverse the country under banners proclaiming Popular Sovereignty, by design concocted a bill on purpose to force a Constitution upon that people." Mr. T. goes on to allude to TOOMBS' Kansas bill, and in reply to a question from a Douglas man present, he said:
"You want to satisfy yourself that he was in the plot to force a Constitution upon that people! I will satisfy you [cries of 'Good, good,' lift him again,' and cheers,] and to the man who does deny it, I will cram the lie down his throat till he shall cry enough. [Tremendous cheers.]"
DOUGLAS'S response to this direct and damaging accusation, is quite free from ambiguity.
"There is the language of your other Senator, arriving in the city of Chicago, in my absence, without any provocation, making a charge as infamous as that in language as vulgar as that. He had had no provocation from me. In all the speeches, I have made this year, I have not alluded to him, by name or otherwise. I have not assailed him in any way, and yet he comes forward and makes a charge, corrupt in itself, and threatens that if any man denies it, he is going to 'cram the lie down his throat.' [Laughter, and by a voice, 'He will have a good time.'] It strikes me it would have been fully as brave and manly for Mr. TRUMBULL to have said that to my face. [Cries of 'That is so.'] For when this charge was once made in a much milder form, in the Senate of the United States, I did brand it as a lie, in the presence of Mr. TRUMBULL [cries of 'Good,' and applause]- and Mr. TRUMBULL sat and heard it thus branded, without daring to say that it was true. [Cry of 'Good,' and applause] I tell you he knew it to be false when he uttered it at Chicago-[applause, and by a voice, 'Give him fits,'] and yet he says that he is going to cram the lie-[applause and laughter] down his throat until he should cry enough. [Laughter] The miserable craven-hearted wretch, [applause;] he would rather have both ears cut off than to use that language in my presence, where I could call him to account. [Loud applause.]"
These envemoned personalities show the character of the struggle, and how absurd was the hope indulged in some quarters of uniting the Republicans with the supporters of the Little Giant.
