THE CHICAGO ELECTION.

CHICAGO, March 7th, 1860.

FRIEND DOUGLASS: MY DEAR SIR:—Since
witnessing, as I have done for the last ten
days, the almost superhuman efforts of the
Slavery party to carry the charter election of
Chicago for Mayor, and other municipal offi
cers, the devices resorted to in the way of
importing large gangs of Irishmen from the
surrounding towns, and from a distance—the
incitations of free whiskey to goad these
wretched men on to madness and folly, to vote
down the 'Black Republican' legal voters of
Chicago—their imprecations, hootings, howl
ings and yellings, like so many devils in the
streets and alleys, by day and by night, and
which, by the way, did more in six days pre
vious to the election to manufacture Repub
lican votes, than the advocacy of the cause by
the Republicans themselves; but, as the glo
rious result has this morning proved, were all
to no purpose,—I say, after having witnessed
all these things, I am more than ever convinced
of the 'irrepressible' power of Freedom, and
the inherent weakness of Slavery. Not less
am I convinced of another important truth,
upon which I would urge every prudent and
well-informed colored man to act;—it is this,
though a man may himself be deprived of the
exercise of his vote, yet he may exert an in
fluence vastly superior to that of his own in
dividual vote. I say this, because I know—a
person who, by judicious and careful manage
ment, influenced some eight or nine votes dur
ing ten days previous to the election. This
was done by prudent management and ernest
labor.

The result of this election has stricken a
death blow to Stephen Douglas, the
arch enemy of the colored man. We, of Illi
nois, know this man well, as we have heard
him again and again talk, both publicly and
privately. He has repeated the old story so
often, until he had worked himself up to the
belief that he could glide into the Presiden
tial chair on the 'Negro Question'—Niggar

Question, as he refinedly calls it—and hence,
he never makes a speech, or conducts a polit
ical conversation, without descending to that
subject, never failing to array 'Negro
Equality' in all its most hideous deformity.
He has had the most implicit faith in the use
of principles, 'Popular Sovereignty'
and 'Negro Equality.' Should this great
man's labors for the destruction of 'Negro
Equality,' and the elevation of 'Popular Sovereignty,' be rewarded at Charleston, by
being thrown overboard, as a reward for his
cringing and dirt-eating services, it would be
a fit event for a commemorative demonstration
by at least the colored people of Illinois.

Yours in haste,

H. O. WAGONER.