and where's your
Monroe Doctrine? It vanishes into air. Study it out; you will see all
these Whigs and all these motley groups joining the Whigs, pulling
together by a sort of momentum started by the old crowd which sided with
England against America in the Revolution. They are the same crowd that
tried to break down the American system when they were banded together
as Federalists. They tried secession at Hartford, when they didn't like
the War of 1812; then they held up their hands in horror when South
Carolina threatened to secede over the tariff. They called on God to
avenge the Mexican War; then they grabbed this slavery matter to give
them a moral push into power. They elected a President, but were afraid
to formulate a platform. All the while they had played with England,
skulking and running and fawning upon England, when our vital interests
were at stake, and siding with England on the canal and on Oregon. They
are better than other men! They are more holy! They are pure, just,
broad! They love God! They are the only Christians! There is only one
evil and that is slavery! But there are many gods, of which banks and
tariffs are not the least; yet I notice that they do not give away
Texas and California, those unholy fruits of a wicked war for which you
fought, my friend. They like the gold and the wheat. And in order to
ride into power they put forward old Taylor, and blow hot and cold with
him and Millard Fillmore."

The great organ-like voice of Douglas poured forth a steady stream of
talk as we sat together under the wonderful stars of a clear sky, with
the soft breeze from the Gulf blowing around us. Dorothy had fallen
asleep. I got up and looked at her, and finding her resting peacefully I
returned to my chair. It was now near midnight. We could hear the rattle
of cabs on the cobblestones, the cries of strange voices in Spanish; and
we saw the lights in the harbor, the lights in the Prado, over the city
which was still feasting and playing. Then Douglas confided to me that
he was going to be a candidate for President in this next campaign of
1852.

The prospects were very good, he thought. If he could get two or three
western states to speak out in his favor he would win. He wondered if I
could not go to Iowa for him. He hoped to have the leading politicians
of Illinois as delegates at Baltimore. He wished me to be a delegate,
not that I was a leading politician, but I counted for as much since I
was an