Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1859 — Douglas Defines. [ARTICLE]

Douglas Defines.

Washington, June 23. The friends of Judge Douglas here are in possession of the following letter explaining his position on the subject of the Presidency, of whi h they have permitted a copy to be taken for publication: “Washington, June 23. “Dear Sir: I have just received your letter inquiring whether my friends are at liberty to present my name to the Charleston Convention for the Presidential nomination. Before this question can be finally determined, it will be necessary to understand distinctly on what issue :he canvass is to be conducted. If, as I have full faith they will, the Democratic party shall determine in the Presidential election of 1860 to adhere to the principles embodied in the compromise measures of 1850, ratified by the people in the election of 1852, re-affirmed in the Kansas Nebraska act ot 1854, incorporated into the Cincinnati Platform in 1856, as expounded by Mr. Buchanan in his letter accepting the nomination, and approved -by the people in his election—in that event,' my friends will be at liberty to present my name to the Convention, if they see prop r to do so. “If, on the contrary, it shall become the policy of the Democratic party, which I cannot anticipate, to repudiate these, their time honored principles, on which we achieved so m my patriotic triumphs, and in lieu of those the Convention shall interpolate into the creed of the party such new issues as the revival of the African slave trade, or a Congressional slave code for the territories, or I the doctrine of the Constitution of the United [ States, either prohibits or establishes slavery lin the Territories beyond the power of the people legally to control it as other property, it is due to candor to say that in such an event I could not accept the nomination if tendered to me. Trusting that this answerwill be sufficiently explicit, I am, verv respectfully, your friend, S. A. Douglas.”