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Stephen A. Douglas by Allen Johnson

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The Toombs bill passed the Senate over the impotent Republican
opposition; but in the House it encountered a hostile majority which
would not so much as consider a proposition emanating from Democratic
sources.[585] Douglas charged the Republicans with the deliberate wish
and intent to keep the Kansas issue alive. "All these gentlemen want,"
he declared, "is to get up murder and bloodshed in Kansas for
political effect. They do not mean that there shall be peace until
after the presidential election.... Their capital for the presidential
election is blood. We may as well talk plainly. An angel from Heaven
could not write a bill to restore peace in Kansas that would be
acceptable to the Abolition Republican party previous to the
presidential election."[586]

"Bleeding Kansas" was, indeed, a most effective campaign cry. Before
Congress adjourned, the Republicans had found other campaign material
in the majority report of the Kansas investigating committee. The
Democrats issued the minority report as a counter-blast, and also
circulated three hundred thousand copies of Douglas's 12th of March
report, which was held to be campaign material of the first order.
Douglas himself paid for one-third of these out of his own
pocket.[587] No one could accuse him of sulking in his tent. Whatever
personal pique he may have felt at losing the nomination, he was
thoroughly loyal to his party. He gave unsparingly of his time and
strength to the cause of Democracy, speaking most effectively in the
doubtful States. And when Pennsylvania became the pivotal State, as
election day drew near, Douglas gave liberally to the campaign fund
which his friend Forney was collecting to carry the State for
Buchanan.[588]

Illinois, too, was now reckoned as a doubtful State. Douglas had
forced the issues clearly to the fore by pressing the nomination of
Richardson for governor.[589] Next to himself, there was no man in the
State so closely identified with Kansas-Nebraska legislation. The
anti-Nebraska forces accepted the gage of battle by nominating
Bissell, a conspicuous figure among those Democrats who could not
sanction the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Only the nomination of
a Know-Nothing candidate complicated the issues which were thus drawn.
Shortly before the October State elections, Douglas saw that he had
committed a tactical blunder. Richardson was doomed to defeat. "Would
it not be well," wrote Douglas to James W. Sheahan, who had come from
Washington to edit the Chicago _Times_, "to prepare the minds of your
readers for losing the State elections on the 14th of October?
Buchanan's friends expect to lose it then, but carry the State by
20,000 in November. We may have to fight against wind and tide after
the 14th. Hence our friends ought to be prepared for the worst. We
must carry Illinois at all hazards and in any event."[590]

This forecast proved to be correct. Richardson, with all that he
represented, went down to defeat. In November Buchanan carried the
State by a narrow margin, the total Democratic vote falling far behind
the combined vote for Fremont and Fillmore.[591] The political
complexion of Illinois had changed. It behooved the senior senator to
take notice.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 536: Section 23, United States Statutes at Large, X, p.
285.]

[Footnote 537: See remarks of Douglas, _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess.,
App., pp. 360-361.]

[Footnote 538: Howard Report, pp. 108-109.]

[Footnote 539: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 360-361.]

[Footnote 540: Spring, Kansas, pp. 39-41.]

[Footnote 541: _Ibid._, pp. 43-49; Rhodes, History of the United
States, II, pp. 81-82.]

[Footnote 542: Spring, Kansas, pp. 53-56.]

[Footnote 543: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 99.]

[Footnote 544: _Ibid._, p. 100.]

[Footnote 545: _Ibid._, p. 101.]

[Footnote 546: Spring, Kansas, Chapter V; Rhodes, II, pp. 102-103.]

[Footnote 547: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 103.]

[Footnote 548: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 286.]

[Footnote 549: Senate Reports, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 34.]

[Footnote 550: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 639.]

[Footnote 551: Senate Report, No. 34, p. 4.]

[Footnote 552: _Ibid._, p. 7.]

[Footnote 553: Senate Report, No. 34, pp. 7-9.]

[Footnote 554: _Ibid._, p. 23.]

[Footnote 555: Senate Report, No. 34, p. 34.]

[Footnote 556: _Ibid._, p. 39.]

[Footnote 557: Senate Report, No. 34, p. 40.]

[Footnote 558: _Ibid._, pp. 39-40.]

[Footnote 559: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 693.]

[Footnote 560: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 657.]

[Footnote 561: _Ibid._, App., pp. 280 ff.]

[Footnote 562: New York _Independent_, May 1, 1856; quoted by Rhodes
II, p. 128.]

[Footnote 563: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App. p. 544.]

[Footnote 564: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 531.]

[Footnote 565: _Ibid._, p. 545.]

[Footnote 566: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 547.]

[Footnote 567: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 148.]

[Footnote 568: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1305.]

[Footnote 569: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 103-106;
154-166.]

[Footnote 570: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1439.]

[Footnote 571: _Ibid._, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 22.]

[Footnote 572: _Ibid._, p. 119.]

[Footnote 573: _Ibid._, p. 119.]

[Footnote 574: Senate Report, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 198.]

[Footnote 575: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 795.]

[Footnote 576: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 194-195.]

[Footnote 577: Senate Bill, No. 172, Section 3.]

[Footnote 578: Senate Bill, No. 356, Section 13.]

[Footnote 579: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 779.]

[Footnote 580: Speech at Alton, Illinois, 1858.]

[Footnote 581: Political Debates between Lincoln and Douglas, pp. 161
ff.]

[Footnote 582: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 22.]

[Footnote 583: _Ibid._, App., p. 127. Toombs also stated that the
submission clause had been put in his bill in the first place by
accident, and that it had been stricken from the bill at his
suggestion.]

[Footnote 584: The submission of State constitutions to a popular vote
had not then become a general practice.]

[Footnote 585: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 195.]

[Footnote 586: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 844.]

[Footnote 587: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 21.]

[Footnote 588: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 443.]

[Footnote 589: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, p. 650.]

[Footnote 590: MS. Letter, Douglas to Sheahan, October 6, 1856.]

[Footnote 591: _Tribune Almanac_, 1857. The vote was as follows:

Buchanan 105,348
Fremont 96,189
Fillmore 37,444
]




BOOK III

THE IMPENDING CRISIS




CHAPTER XIV

THE PERSONAL EQUATION


Vast changes had passed over Illinois since Douglas set foot on its
soil, a penniless boy with his fortune to make. The frontier had been
pushed back far beyond the northern boundary of the State; the Indians
had disappeared; and the great military tract had been occupied by a
thrifty, enterprising people of the same stock from which Douglas
sprang. In 1833, the center of political gravity lay far south of the
geographical center of the State; by 1856, the northern counties had
already established a political equipoise. The great city on Lake
Michigan, a lusty young giant, was yearly becoming more conscious of
its commercial and political possibilities. Douglas had natural
affinities with Chicago. It was thoroughly American, thoroughly
typical of that restless, aggressive spirit which had sent him, and
many another New Englander, into the great interior basin of the
continent. There was no other city which appealed so strongly to his
native instincts. From the first he had been impressed by its
commercial potentialities. He had staked his own fortunes upon its
invincible prosperity by investing in real estate, and within a few
years he had reaped the reward of his faith in unseen values. His
holdings both in the city and in Cook County advanced in value by
leaps and bounds, so that in the year 1856, he sold approximately one
hundred acres for $90,000. With his wonted prodigality, born of superb
confidence in future gains, he also deeded ten acres of his valuable
"Grove Property" to the trustees of Chicago University.[592] Yet with
a far keener sense of honor than many of his contemporaries exhibited,
he refused to speculate in land in the new States and Territories,
with whose political beginnings he would be associated as chairman of
the Committee on Territories. He was resolved early in his career "to
avoid public suspicion of private interest in his political
conduct."[593]

The gift to Chicago University was no doubt inspired in part at least
by local pride; yet it was not the first nor the only instance of the
donor's interest in educational matters. No one had taken greater
interest in the bequest of James Smithson to the United States. At
first, no doubt, Douglas labored under a common misapprehension
regarding this foundation, fancying that it would contribute directly
to the advancement and diffusion of the applied sciences; but his
support was not less hearty when he grasped the policy formulated by
the first secretary of the institution. He was the author of that
provision in the act establishing the Smithsonian Institution, which
called for the presentation of one copy of every copyrighted book,
map, and musical composition, to the Institution and to the
Congressional Library.[594] He became a member of the board of regents
and retained the office until his death.

With his New England training Douglas believed profoundly in the
dignity of labor; not even his Southern associations lessened his
genuine admiration for the magnificent industrial achievements of the
Northern mechanic and craftsman. He shared, too, the conviction of his
Northern constituents, that the inventiveness, resourcefulness, and
bold initiative of the American workman was the outcome of free
institutions, which permitted and encouraged free and bold thinking.
The American laborer was not brought up to believe it "a crime to
think in opposition to the consecrated errors of olden times."[595] It
was impossible for a man so thinking to look with favor upon the
slave-labor system of the South. He might tolerate the presence of
slavery in the South; but in his heart of hearts he could not desire
its indefinite extension.

Douglas belonged to his section, too, in his attitude toward the
disposition of the public domain. He was one of the first to advocate
free grants of the public lands to homesteaders. His bill to grant one
hundred and sixty acres to actual settlers who should cultivate them
for four years, was the first of many similar projects in the early
fifties.[596] Southern statesmen thought this the best "bid" yet made
for votes: it was further evidence of Northern demagogism. The South,
indeed, had little direct interest in the peopling of the Western
prairies by independent yeomen, native or foreign. Just here Douglas
parted company with his Southern associates. He believed that the
future of the great West depended upon this wise and beneficial use of
the national domain. Neither could he agree with Eastern statesmen who
deplored the gratuitous distribution of lands, which by sale would
yield large revenues. His often-repeated reply was the quintessence
of Western statesmanship. The pioneer who went into the wilderness, to
wrestle with all manner of hardships, was a true wealth-producer. As
he cleared his land and tilled the soil, he not only himself became a
tax-payer, but he increased the value of adjoining lands and added to
the sum total of the national resources.[597]

Douglas gave his ungrudging support to grants of land in aid of
railroads and canals. He would not regard such grants, however, as
mere donations, but rather as wise provisions for increasing the value
of government lands. "The government of the United States is a great
land owner; she has vast bodies of land which she has had in market
for thirty or forty years; and experience proves that she cannot sell
them.... The difficulty in the way of the sale does not arise from the
fact that the lands are not fertile and susceptible to cultivation,
but that they are distant from market, and in many cases destitute of
timber."[598] Therefore he gave his voice and vote for nearly all land
grant bills, designed to aid the construction of railroads and canals
that would bring these public lands into the market; but he insisted
that everything should be done by individual enterprise if possible.
He shared the hostility of the West toward large grants of land to
private corporations.[599] What could not be done by individual
enterprise, should be done by the States; and only that should be
undertaken by the Federal government which could be done in no other
way.

As the representative of a constituency which was profoundly
interested in the navigation of the great interior waterways of the
continent, Douglas was a vigorous advocate of internal improvements,
so far as his Democratic conscience would allow him to construe the
Constitution in favor of such undertakings by the Federal government.
Like his constituents, he was not always logical in his deductions
from constitutional provisions. The Constitution, he believed, would
not permit an appropriation of government money for the construction
of the ship canal around the Falls of the St. Mary's; but as
landowner, the Federal government might donate lands for that
purpose.[600] He was also constrained to vote for appropriations for
the improvement of river channels and of harbors on the lakes and on
the ocean, because these were works of a distinctly national
character; but he deplored the mode by which these appropriations were
made.[601]

Just when the Nebraska issue came to the fore, he was maturing a
scheme by which a fair, consistent, and continuous policy of internal
improvements could be initiated, in place of the political bargaining
which had hitherto determined the location of government operations.
Two days before he presented his famous Nebraska report, Douglas
addressed a letter to Governor Matteson of Illinois in which he
developed this new policy.[602] He believed that the whole question
would be thoroughly aired in the session just begun.[603] Instead of
making internal improvements a matter of politics, and of wasteful
jobbery, he would take advantage of the constitutional provision
which permits a State to lay tonnage duties by the consent of
Congress. If Congress would pass a law permitting the imposition of
tonnage duties according to a uniform rule, then each town and city
might be authorized to undertake the improvement of its own harbor,
and to tax its own commerce for the prosecution of the work. Under
such a system the dangers of misuse and improper diversion of funds
would be reduced to a minimum. The system would be self-regulative.
Negligence, or extravagance, with the necessary imposition of higher
duties, would punish a port by driving shipping elsewhere.

But for the interposition of the slavery issue, which no one would
have more gladly banished from Congress, Douglas would have
unquestionably pushed some such reform into the foreground. His heart
was bound up in the material progress of the country. He could never
understand why men should allow an issue like slavery to stand in the
way of prudential and provident legislation for the expansion of the
Republic. He laid claim to no expert knowledge in other matters: he
frankly confessed his ignorance of the mysteries of tariff schedules.
"I have learned enough about the tariff," said he with a sly thrust at
his colleagues, who prided themselves on their wisdom, "to know that I
know scarcely anything about it at all; and a man makes considerable
progress on a question of this kind when he ascertains that
fact."[604] Still, he grasped an elementary principle that had escaped
many a protectionist, that "a tariff involves two conflicting
principles which are eternally at war with each other. Every tariff
involves the principles of protection and of oppression, the
principles of benefits and of burdens.... The great difficulty is, so
to adjust these conflicting principles of benefits and burdens as to
make one compensate for the other in the end, and give equal benefits
and equal burdens to every class of the community."[605]

Douglas was wiser, too, than the children of light, when he insisted
that works of art should be admitted free of duty. "I wish we could
get a model of every work of art, a cast of every piece of ancient
statuary, a copy of every valuable painting and rare book, so that our
artists might pursue their studies and exercise their skill at home,
and that our literary men might not be exiled in the pursuits which
bless mankind."[606]

Still, the prime interests of this hardy son of the West were
political. How could they have been otherwise in his environment?
There is no evidence of literary refinement in his public utterances;
no trace of the culture which comes from intimate association with the
classics; no suggestion of inspiration quaffed in communion with
imaginative and poetic souls. An amusing recognition of these
limitations is vouched for by a friend, who erased a line of poetry
from a manuscript copy of a public address by Douglas. Taken to task
for his presumption, he defended himself by the indisputable
assertion, that Douglas was never known to have quoted a line of
poetry in his life.[607] Yet the unimaginative Douglas anticipated the
era of aerial navigation now just dawning. On one occasion, he urged
upon the Senate a memorial from an aeronaut, who desired the aid of
the government in experiments which he was conducting with dirigible
balloons. When the Senate, in a mirthful mood, proposed to refer the
petition to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Douglas protested that
the subject should be treated seriously.[608]

While Douglas was thus steadily growing into complete accord with the
New England elements in his section--save on one vital point,--he fell
captive to the beauty and grace of one whose associations were with
men and women south of Mason and Dixon's line. Adele Cutts was the
daughter of Mr. J. Madison Cutts of Washington, who belonged to an old
Maryland family. She was the great-niece of Dolly Madison, whom she
much resembled in charm of manner. When Douglas first made her
acquaintance, she was the belle of Washington society,--in the days
when the capital still boasted of a genuine aristocracy of gentleness,
grace, and talent. There are no conflicting testimonies as to her
beauty. Women spoke of her as "beautiful as a pearl;" to men she
seemed "a most lovely and queenly apparition."[609] Both men and women
found her sunny-tempered, generous, warm-hearted, and sincere. What
could there have been in the serious-minded, dark-visaged "Little
Giant" to win the hand of this mistress of many hearts? Perhaps she
saw "Othello's visage in his mind"; perhaps she yielded to the
imperious will which would accept no refusal; at all events, Adele
Cutts chose this plain little man of middle-age in preference to men
of wealth and title.[610] It proved to be in every respect a happy
marriage.[611] He cherished her with all the warmth of his manly
affection; she became the devoted partner of all his toils. His two
boys found in her a true mother; and there was not a household in
Washington where home-life was graced with tenderer mutual
affection.[612]

Across this picture of domestic felicity, there fell but a single,
fugitive shadow. Adele Cutts was an adherent of the Roman Church; and
at a time when Native Americanism was running riot with the sense of
even intelligent men, such ecclesiastical connections were made the
subject of some odious comment. Although Douglas permitted his boys to
be educated in the Catholic faith, and profoundly respected the
religious instincts of his tender-hearted wife, he never entered into
the Roman communion, nor in fact identified himself with any
church.[613] Much of his relentless criticism of Native Americanism
can be traced to his abhorrence of religious intolerance in any form.

This alliance meant much to Douglas. Since the death of his first
wife, he had grown careless in his dress and bearing, too little
regardful of conventionalities. He had sought by preference the
society of men, and had lost those external marks of good-breeding
which companionship with gentlewomen had given him. Insensibly he had
fallen a prey to a certain harshness and bitterness of temper, which
was foreign to his nature; and he had become reckless, so men said,
because of defeated ambition. But now yielding to the warmth of tender
domesticity, the true nature of the man asserted itself.[614] He grew,
perhaps not less ambitious, but more sensible of the obligations which
leadership imposed.

No one could gainsay his leadership. He was indisputably the most
influential man in his party; and this leadership was not bought by
obsequiousness to party opinion, nor by the shadowy arts of the
machine politician alone. True, he was a spoilsman, like all of his
contemporaries. He was not above using the spoils of office to reward
faithful followers. Reprehensible as the system was, and is, there is
perhaps a redeeming feature in this aspect of American politics. The
ignorant foreigner was reconciled to government because it was made to
appear to him as a personal benefactor. Due credit must be given to
those leaders like Douglas, who fired the hearts of Irishmen and
Germans with loyalty to the Union through the medium of party.[615]

The hold of Douglas upon his following, however, cannot be explained
by sordid appeals to their self-interest. He commanded the unbought
service of thousands. In the early days of his career, he had found
loyal friends, who labored unremittingly for his advancement, without
hope of pecuniary reward or of any return but personal gratitude; and
throughout his career he drew upon this vast fund of personal loyalty.
His capacity for warm friendships was unlimited. He made men,
particularly young men, feel that it was an inestimable boon to be
permitted to labor with him "for the cause." Far away in Asia Minor,
with his mind teeming with a thousand strange sensations, he can yet
think of a friend at the antipodes who nurses a grievance against him;
and forthwith he sits down and writes five pages of generous,
affectionate remonstrance.[616] In the thick of an important campaign,
when countless demands are made upon his time, he finds a moment to
lay his hand upon the shoulder of a young German ward-politician with
the hearty word, "I count very much on your help in this
election."[617] If this was the art of a politician, it was art
reduced to artlessness.

Not least among the qualities which made Douglas a great, persuasive,
popular leader, was his quite extraordinary memory for names and
faces, and his unaffected interest in the personal life of those whom
he called his friends. "He gave to every one of those humble and
practically nameless followers the impression, the feeling, that he
was the frank, personal friend of each one of them."[618] Doubtless he
was well aware that there is no subtler form of flattery, than to call
individuals by name who believe themselves to be forgotten pawns in a
great game; and he may well have cultivated the profitable habit.
Still, the fact remains, that it was an innate temperamental quality
which made him frank and ingenuous in his intercourse with all sorts
and conditions of men.

Those who judged the man by the senator, often failed to understand
his temperament. He was known as a hard hitter in parliamentary
encounters. He never failed to give a Roland for an Oliver. In the
heat of debate, he was often guilty of harsh, bitter invective. His
manner betrayed a lack of fineness and good-breeding. But his
resentment vanished with the spoken word. He repented the barbed
shaft, the moment it quitted his bow. He would invite to his table the
very men with whom he had been in acrimonious controversy, and perhaps
renew the controversy next day. Greeley testified to this absence of
resentment. On a certain occasion, after the New York _Tribune_ had
attacked Douglas savagely, a mutual acquaintance asked Douglas if he
objected to meeting the redoubtable Greeley. "Not at all," was the
good-natured reply, "I always pay that class of political debts as I
go along, so as to have no trouble with them in social intercourse and
to leave none for my executors to settle."[619]

In the round of social functions which Senator and Mrs. Douglas
enjoyed, there was little time for quiet thought and reflection. Men
who met him night after night at receptions and dinners, marvelled at
the punctuality with which he returned to the routine work of the
Senate next morning. Yet there was not a member of the Senate who had
a readier command of facts germane to the discussions of the hour. His
memory was a willing slave which never failed to do the bidding of
master intellect. Some of his ablest and most effective speeches were
made without preparation and with only a few pencilled notes at hand.
Truly Nature had been lavish in her gifts to him.

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President Obama teams up with one of Marvel's greatest heroes, reports Alison Flood
Articles published by guardian.co.uk Books

Murder One closing so did we commit this crime?

Barack Obama is teaming up with Spider-Man in a new comic from Marvel, which will see the future president exchanging a fist-bump with Peter Parker's alter ego.

The five-page story takes place in Washington DC on inauguration day, when one of Spidey's oldest enemies, the Chameleon, attempts to stop Obama's swearing-in ceremony. Fortunately, Peter Parker is covering the event as a photographer, and jumps in to save the day.

"Ya hear that, Chameleon? The president-elect here just appointed me ... secretary of shuttin' you up," Spider-Man says as he thwacks the Chameleon in the face. "I hope this doesn't ruin the inauguration for you," he tells Obama, as the Chameleon is led away by security officials. "Honestly, I'm more upset by the Chameleon's shockingly deficient understanding of the electoral process," Obama replies.

Spidey then cedes the limelight to Obama. "This is your day, after all, and I know it wouldn't look good to be seen palling around with me," he says, in a nod to Sarah Palin's comment that the then presidential candidate had been "palling around with terrorists".

The story, written by Zeb Wells and illustrated by Todd Nauck and Frank D'Armata, will appear as a bonus feature in Amazing Spider-Man 583, which goes on sale on 14 January.

"When we heard that president-elect Obama is a collector of Spider-Man comics, we knew that these two historic figures had to meet in our comics' Marvel Universe," said Marvel's editor-in-chief Joe Quesada. "A Spider-Man fan moving into the Oval Office is an event that must be commemorated in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man."

In October, graphic novel biographies of Obama and his then rival John McCain were published by IDW. April will see Michelle Obama appearing in the Female Force comic book series.

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Poetry Workshop creature features

For many years my local corner shop displayed a large sign in its window telling local residents to "use us or lose us!" It always looked a rather toothless threat to me. After all, if I didn't use them, what difference would it make to me if they weren't there? And surely a corner shop, one that had been there for years, would have enough customers to survive without recourse to such apocalyptic warning? But it didn't and was soon converted into flats.

This community shop was destroyed not so much by the pressures of the supermarkets or people's commuting patterns, but simply by customer apathy. It's something to think about as crime writers and readers across the world mourn the imminent passing of Maxim Jakubowski's celebrated Charing Cross Road bookshop in London, Murder One.

Apathy is a strange word to connect to a bookstore that thrives on passion. It's noticeable when you walk through the door, when you speak to the friendly, knowledgeable staff, when you look at the shelves and see the vast range of titles on offer. This isn't your regular kind of bookstore: the first time I visited spent a whole lunch break looking up and down, from floor to ceiling from table to table; it was an hour that changed my perception of both crime writing and of bookselling.

Murder One was – and for a few weeks will remain – a shop that took crime seriously. Not in the sense that it intellectualised it, or made unsubstantiated claims for its importance, but in the way that it treated crime writing with the respect it was due. With a genre that has so many off-shoots, branches and sub-genres, it took a shop of Murder One's calibre to show just how diverse, interesting and mentally stimulating crime could be – far more than the guilty pleasure I had, until then, considered it.

Thanks to judicious recommendations, enticing table displays and hours of foraging among the stacks, I discovered writers that I would never have picked up, let alone read. You could always get the latest blockbuster, but delve a little deeper and you'd find books that were not stocked anywhere else, novels that, like the perfect crime, were hidden from public view. The Martin Beck novels by Sjöwall & Wahlöö – probably my favourite sequence of novels in any genre – were introduced to me via Murder One, as were Kem Nunn, Sue Grafton, and Henning Mankell. It's also the staff of Murder One who piqued my interest in the inimitable Fred Vargas, and I can't thank them enough for the introduction.

Inclusive and without snobbery, Murder One amply demonstrated that the best bookshops are places not just of commerce, but of community; places that make feel you belong. It's the kind of store that bibliophiles dream about: well-stocked, well-staffed and shabby enough to lose days browsing within. It's just unfortunate that such shops don't have enough paying customers to keep them afloat, or that these customers visit all too infrequently – something of which I'm certainly guilty.

These kinds of shops are facing a long, bloody battle – and one which, without significant reinforcements, they are likely to lose. As we hear of the travesty of another brilliant independent going down, we'll mourn the loss, wring our hands and damn Amazon and the supermarkets and Waterstone's. Yet perhaps the most important detail we'll probably keep under wraps: the last time we actually spent any money there.

Murder One closing its doors for the final time is undoubtedly a .38 shell for independent bookshops, but whether it's body blow or a warning shot all depends upon us, the consumers. No one, no matter how iconic or established, can exist on fond memories alone: just ask Woolworths. Use these shops now, because it doesn't take a master sleuth to deduce what will happen if we don't.

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