Douglas and Buchanan

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DOUGLAS AND BUCHANAN.—

The President is as cute an old gentleman as ever pulled wires in political intrigues. He means, if his life is spared, to retain his chair of office until 1864, and hence his first object was to get rid of his formidable opponent, Senator Douglas.¹ So the irritable Senator was provoked by the President telling him that he appointed his father-in-law, Mr. Cutts,² to an office, not because he was Douglas's relative, but for his own sake. We have no doubt that Douglas fumed and fretted over this mortifying insult (which Buchanan³ took care to have blazoned all over the Union by the press) until at last he resolved to break down if he could control the President over the Democratic party. In this he might yet succeed, were he re-elected to the Senate; hence the persistent daily warfare of the Washington Union, the President's organ, against Douglas. In order to render the Senator's re-election hopeless, the crafty inhabitant of the White House turned Douglas's small friends out of office, to show the waiters on Providence that they had nothing to expect from the rebel. On the other hand, he isolated Douglas's greater and more powerful friends, by sending Col. Richardson⁴ to Nebraska as Governor, and giving Gov. Wright⁵ of Indiana the mission to Berlin. Thus Douglas was left to conduct single handed his contest for the Senatorship, with the Republicans against him in front, and the Administration assailing him in the rear. Now, when perchance it is too late, the fiery Douglas sees how he has been outwitted by his cooler foe; and hence Richardson has resigned the Governorship of Nebraska, and is going to help his friend and chieftain in stumping Illinois. We much doubt, however, whether the prolonged absence of Richardson, who was the Senator's right hand man, from the scene of the contest, has not damaged Douglas's chances of re-election irretrievably.

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