On one occasion, the Republican charged the commissioners appointed to supervise the building of the new State House in Springfield, with misuse of the public funds.  The commissioners made an apparently straightforward defense of their expenditures.  The Republican doubted the statement and reiterated the charge in scurrilous language.  Then the aggrieved commissioners, accompanied by their equally exasperated friends, descended upon the office of the Republican to take summary vengeance.  It so happened that Douglas was at the moment comfortably ensconced in the editorial sanctum.  He could hardly do otherwise than assist in the defense; indeed, it is more than likely that he had provoked the assault.  In the disgraceful brawl that followed, the attacking party was beaten off with heavy losses.  Sheriff Elkins, who seems to have been acting in an unofficial capacity as a friend of the commissioners, was stabbed, though not fatally, by one of the Weber brothers.[75]

From such unedifying episodes in the career of a rising politician, public attention was diverted by the excitement of a State election.  Since the abortive attempts to commit the Democratic party to the convention system in 1835, party opinion had grown more favorable to the innovation.  Rumors that the Whigs were about to unite upon a State ticket doubtless hastened the conversion of many Democrats.[76] When the legislature met for a special session in July, the leading spirits in the reform movement held frequent consultations, the outcome of which was a call for a Democratic State convention in December.  Every county was invited to send delegates.  A State committee of fifteen was appointed, and each county was urged to form a similar committee.  Another committee was also created—­the Committee of Thirty—­to prepare an address to the voters.  Fifth on this latter committee was the name of S.A.  Douglas of Sangamon.[77] The machinery of the party was thus created out of hand by a group of unauthorized leaders.  They awaited the reaction of the insoluble elements in the party, with some anxiety.

The new organization had no more vigilant defender than Douglas.  From his coign of vantage in the Land Office, he watched the trend of opinion within the party, not forgetting to observe at the same time the movements of the Whigs.  There were certain phrases in the “Address to the Democratic Republicans of Illinois” which may have been coined in his mint.  The statement that “the Democratic Republicans of Illinois propose to bring theirs [their candidates] forward by the full and consentaneous voice of every member of their political association,” has a familiar, full-mouthed quality.[78] The Democrats of Sangamon called upon him to defend the caucus at a mass-meeting; and when they had heard his eloquent exposition of the new System, they resolved with great gravity that it offered “the only safe and proper way of securing union and victory."[79] There is something amusing in the confident air of this political expert aged twenty-four; yet there is no disputing the fact that his words carried weight with men of far wider experience than his own.