enator from Illinois [Douglas] than I
had.... Sir, it has been with reluctance and sorrow that I have
been obliged to pluck down my idol from his place on high, and to
refuse to him any more support or confidence as a member of the
party. I have done so, I trust, upon no light or unworthy ground.
I have not done so alone. The causes that have operated on me have
operated on the Democratic party of the United States, and have
operated an effect which the whole future life of the Senator will
be utterly unable to obliterate. It is impossible that confidence
thus lost can be restored. On what ground has that confidence been
forfeited, and why is it that we now refuse him our support and
fellowship? I have stated our reasons to-day. I have appealed to
the record. I have not followed him back in the false issue or the
feigned traverse that he makes in relation to matters that are not
now in contest between him and the Democratic party. The question
is not what we all said or believed in 1850 or in 1856. How idle
was it to search ancient precedents and accumulate old quotations
from what Senators may have at different times said in relation to
their principles and views. The precise point, the direct
arraignment, the plain and explicit allegation made against the
Senator from Illinois is not touched by him in all of his speech.

[Sidenote] Benjamin, Senate Speech, May 22, 1860. Pamphlet.

We accuse him for this, to wit: that having bargained with us upon
a point upon which we were at issue, that it should be considered
a judicial point; that he would abide the decision; that he would
act under the decision, and consider it a doctrine of the party;
that having said that to us here in the Senate, he went home, and
under the stress of a local election, his knees gave way; his
whole person trembled. His adversary stood upon principle and was
beaten; and lo! he is the candidate of a mighty party for the
Presidency of the United States. The Senator from Illinois
faltered. He got the prize for which he faltered; but lo! the
grand prize of his ambition to-day slips from his grasp because of
his faltering in his former contest, and his success in the
canvass for the Senate, purchased for an ignoble price, has cost
him the loss of the Presidency of the United States.

[Sidenote] 1858.

The Sena